DVDs with titles such as “Strong men in leather” and “Bali: initiation into adulthood”, and the whole collection of adult toys greeted firefighters who put out a blaze at School 1561 on Novoyasenevsky Prospekt, to the south of Moscow. And it soon emerged that all the provoking stuff was found in the principal’s secret office – a “relaxation room” which staff say he alone had access to. The staff had little to say about the shocking find, with Yury Zavalsky, 59, the teacher at the heart of the scandal, unavailable for comment...

What a nice new peace of dirty underwear! How do you like the smell of it, my dear world? It smells even juicier than Mr. Pletnev's case. What a shameful country I live in, don't I?

Recently The Moscow News dedicated the whole article to the statement that more than one in four Russians feels more shame than pride in their country according to some recent survey. Almost one in three Russians – 29 per cent – frequently feel ashamed of Russia, Moscow News says. And 64 per cent admit they feel no pride in their motherland.

The main reason for the shameful situation according to The Moscow News' research is the low level of the quality of living and the government's lack of concern for the people. The second reason is failure in sport, although it would make blush only 6 per cent.

“The gap between the first and the second position shows how serious and painful the situation is for the public,” said in her interview to The Moscow News Yekaterina Sedykh, the project director with the Public Opinion Foundation. “People are fully ashamed,” she added.

What a reassuring results, what a promising statistics! All is not lost with Russians until they keep learning to be ashamed of their ugly motherland.

It would be really sad to disappoint The Moscow News and the Public Opinion Foundation, but there are different figures - the figures of the author of this article. His communicative circle include about one hundred people whom he more or less regularly mix with on the daily basis. He can name hardly one of this number who is vitally dependent upon the present political regime in Russia. And he can name only one who is desperately ashamed of Russia. How the other 99 per cent take the views of the one ashamed? As paranoic.

There's already a good name for such 1 per cent cases - "russophobia". Any phobia is a mental or psychic disease, distress or incapacity. Mental diseases can also be curable and incurable. For example, "La Russophobe" is an incurable mental disease. It literally spits poison around while delivering its virtual speeches. Can such agonizing attacks help Russia to change? Can altogether any aggression - physical or mental - be of any help in any sphere of life? Can such "human rights defenders" have any motivation but destruction?

There are some things one does not choose and can not change with one's own efforts. For example, you don't choose your parents as well as your physical body with all its diseases - present and upcoming, curable and incurable. Should I be ashamed of my body if it catches cold, or flu, or diarrhea, or cancer? Isn't being ashamed a silly approach here?

Political regimes are quite curable diseases nowdays, because they change relatively often. Today you suffer from one regime, tomorrow you'll suffer from another one. Can I change the present political regime in Russia right now? "Oh, yeah, man, just give me two barkers and I'll get Putin shot down! I'll string all pedophiles up the trees along the streets of Moscow city!"

Stupid strategy. It reminds the "Strategy 31" - the strategy 'Hey, the world! Look at me, I'm here! I'm so eagerly and pathetically active! Why don't you give me some cash that I could turn my shamefull motherland turtle?"

I care about politics, but I never givee to it all my heart. I care about sport, but it's not crucial for my general mood. I care about Mr. Pletnev, Mr. Zavalsky and others alike. I care about Russian engineers that died in Indonesia from cheap fake alcohol some days ago. I care about policemen who beat old female participants of peaceful demonstrations, who torture teenagers in bloody cameras... But what can I do to all of them? Should I go and kill'em all? Forgive me, my world, but I won't waste my life doing that. I try finding the root of any vice inside myself.

I'd better try finding the roots of all these evils inside myself, because the only thing I can really change with my own efforts is myself. And although even this I can not change at a twinkle, at least I can start with something. For example, with finding the ways to change. The first way for me is daily learning, the second one is occasional writing. I consider myself being well aware of the diseases my motherland is suffering from, but it makes neither me nor the people I know and love to be ashamed of our motherland.

I can confess to you, my dear world, that I'm not ashamed of Russia, even if it makes the whole world to be ashamed of me.

P. S. I'm not paid by Kremlin for this article.

Source:
      The Moscow News

Max Yakuba