Russia is Drowning
No, I did not get my headlines confused. I know that Pakistan is not a part of Russia.
Since the start of the year, 3,472 people have drowned in Russia, including 1,600 in July, according to the Emergency Situations Ministry. Why is this? It's because Russia is in the middle of the hottest summer in 130 years, and the worst drought of the last 50. And naturally, this has caused... major wildfires which have swept across the country, burning about 700 square miles and leading to widespread air quality problems.
So why all the drowning?
Turns out that the way Russians deal with incredible heat and lack of rain is getting drunk. Really drunk. And then jumping into ponds, lakes, city pools and rivers, particularly the Moscow River. Pretty much anything they can jump into, preferably while still holding onto the bottle of vodka. And then they drown.
Messed up.
But lets review just why the situation is so bad (and it makes the response to Katrina look like it was organized by ze Germans).
When the fires started, both the President of Russia and mayor of Moscow were on vacation. Neither wanted to come back. When Medvedev did come back, he promptly left for Georgia to celebrate attacking the former satellite republic two years ago. Nice guy Medvedev.
In the meantime, shawow-dictator Putin claimed he would handle the fires. Which he did by piloting one of the fire-fighting planes himself for a few days. Way to delegate... Much as I don't like Obama, I can't see him doing something that reckless and stupid. Then again, I can't see him ever getting his perfectly manicured hands dirty. The thing is though, a lot of the problem really can be laid on Putin, because back in 2007 he passed a bill which was supported by the oligarchs which more or less disbanded the national forest service and left the protection and management of the forests up to understaffed local agencies, and... Russian logging companies. Shockingly, the result was not so much "management of the forests" but "cut and run, muahahahaha muahahaha."
Russia is so royally screwed up, I just feel terrible for the thousands loosing homes and lives because of a greedy and corrupt regime. And no - this is not capitalism at work, this is the end result of a corrupted abuse of power.
Since the start of the year, 3,472 people have drowned in Russia, including 1,600 in July, according to the Emergency Situations Ministry. Why is this? It's because Russia is in the middle of the hottest summer in 130 years, and the worst drought of the last 50. And naturally, this has caused... major wildfires which have swept across the country, burning about 700 square miles and leading to widespread air quality problems.
So why all the drowning?
Turns out that the way Russians deal with incredible heat and lack of rain is getting drunk. Really drunk. And then jumping into ponds, lakes, city pools and rivers, particularly the Moscow River. Pretty much anything they can jump into, preferably while still holding onto the bottle of vodka. And then they drown.
Messed up.
But lets review just why the situation is so bad (and it makes the response to Katrina look like it was organized by ze Germans).
When the fires started, both the President of Russia and mayor of Moscow were on vacation. Neither wanted to come back. When Medvedev did come back, he promptly left for Georgia to celebrate attacking the former satellite republic two years ago. Nice guy Medvedev.
In the meantime, shawow-dictator Putin claimed he would handle the fires. Which he did by piloting one of the fire-fighting planes himself for a few days. Way to delegate... Much as I don't like Obama, I can't see him doing something that reckless and stupid. Then again, I can't see him ever getting his perfectly manicured hands dirty. The thing is though, a lot of the problem really can be laid on Putin, because back in 2007 he passed a bill which was supported by the oligarchs which more or less disbanded the national forest service and left the protection and management of the forests up to understaffed local agencies, and... Russian logging companies. Shockingly, the result was not so much "management of the forests" but "cut and run, muahahahaha muahahaha."
Russia is so royally screwed up, I just feel terrible for the thousands loosing homes and lives because of a greedy and corrupt regime. And no - this is not capitalism at work, this is the end result of a corrupted abuse of power.
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