People with too much money and time

[MeMyselfAndI]

Russian businessman buys $21,000 vuvuzela

An Austrian goldsmith has sold a plastic vuvuzela studded with white gold and diamonds to a Russian businessman, Times LIVE reported on Thursday.

The Linz-based goldsmith, Klemens Pointer, told the Austrian public broadcaster ORF that the Russian planned to give the horn to his South African business partner for the World Cup final on July 11.

He also said that the vuvuzela, worth $21,000, is just as loud as cheaper versions.

The noise-making one-meter vuvuzela horns have become a symbol of the World Cup in South Africa.

MOSCOW, July 1 (RIA Novosti)
http://en.rian.ru/world/20100701/159654924.html









$21,000 in the trash, just like that. While average pension for regular elderly citizens is $200 per month; and average salary for regular worker, maybe $600, if you are lucky and live in the high income areas liek Moscow, Saint Petersburg, or the oil-rich Tyumen.

[Greendruid]

http://en.rian.ru/world/20100701/159654924.html

$21,000 in the trash, just like that. While average pension for regular elderly citizens is $200 per month; and average salary for regular worker, maybe $600, if you are lucky and live in the high income areas liek Moscow, Saint Petersburg, or the oil-rich Tyumen.

The earnings gap between rich and poor in Russia sounds frightening.

[MeMyselfAndI]

The earnings gap between rich and poor in Russia sounds frightening.

Because it is. Not just rich and poor, but even, as I said, regions. Did you know, life expectancy for men in Moscow is 74 years compared to 56 throughout Western Siberia (62 average in the country). Because in Western Siberia - mines, all over. And those mines explode or get buried all the time. Men die there all the time. Some human rights groups say, 1 in 4 children there is growing up without a father! Plus, there is a shortage of medical personnel in Siberia, not just Western, but all of it, the rural areas. People there go to monks, witches, shamans, and 'healers' for medical advice, because there is, literally, noone else to go to. One village I visited, some woman who, according to her, was once a nurse in a medical batalion in the army, was accepting births, extracting teeth, and even performing surgery on people, with decades old, written off equipment she got probably in a back-door sale in a city hospital! And people go to her, because there is noone else.

My God... I do not know where this country is heading right now.

[Michael]

Because it is. Not just rich and poor, but even, as I said, regions. Did you know, life expectancy for men in Moscow is 74 years compared to 56 throughout Western Siberia (62 average in the country). Because in Western Siberia - mines, all over. And those mines explode or get buried all the time. Men die there all the time. Some human rights groups say, 1 in 4 children there is growing up without a father! Plus, there is a shortage of medical personnel in Siberia, not just Western, but all of it, the rural areas. People there go to monks, witches, shamans, and 'healers' for medical advice, because there is, literally, noone else to go to. One village I visited, some woman who, according to her, was once a nurse in a medical batalion in the army, was accepting births, extracting teeth, and even performing surgery on people, with decades old, written off equipment she got probably in a back-door sale in a city hospital! And people go to her, because there is noone else.

My God... I do not know where this country is heading right now.
This describes most of the Western countries in the 19th century, with some people and some regions being very nice and prosperous while most of the country was struggling with endemic levels of corruption and inefficient or ancient methods, plus endless brutality in mines and railway constructions (barbers serving as impromtu dentists and doctors was a fairly common thing in the US 'Old West' in the 19th century).

[Americano]

I've always admired The Duchess of Windsor Wallis Simpson's statement; 'A woman can't be too rich or too thin'.

[Michael]

My God... I do not know where this country is heading right now.

The gap between rich and poor is increasing just as much in the USA as in Russia right now.

The direction that both are heading does look like fascism is the end state. Not pretty.

[MeMyselfAndI]

The gap between rich and poor is increasing just as much in the USA as in Russia right now.

The direction that both are heading does look like fascism is the end state. Not pretty.

Its true, compare yourself:

Nazi SS
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7b/Bundesarchiv_Bild_102-00009%2C_Kradsch%C3%BCtzen_der_SS-Leibstandarte.jpg

Russia OMON
http://77rus.smugmug.com/Military/Defender-of-the-Fatherland-Day/IMG22/792772472_nxdtQ-O.jpg

Hitler Youth
http://laccenglish103.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/hilter_youth_mind_contol.jpg

Putin's "Nashi"
http://www.russiablog.org/NashiRallyRussianFlagsSunset.JPG
http://i.usatoday.net/news/_photos/2007/07/18/russia-topper.jpg

It is kind of striking, isn't it... Scary. Putin, he wants to be a furer, a tsar, a supreme leader.

[Michael]

It is kind of striking, isn't it... Scary. Putin, he wants to be a furer, a tsar, a supreme leader.

No more so than any other leader seeks such honors...

Here's a photo of Moscow parade from 1985 - same game. The Nazis weren't the only ones who loved big military parade specatcles. ;)
http://visualrian.com/storage/PreviewWM/3105/52/310552.jpg
http://media-2.web.britannica.com/eb-media/23/4823-050-9598ADCB.jpg

[MeMyselfAndI]

Are you sre its from 1985? (The first photo, I mean, because you can see the White, Blue, Red Tricolor, Russia only adopted that flag after 1991...)

[Michael]

Are you sre its from 1985? (The first photo, I mean, because you can see the White, Blue, Red Tricolor, Russia only adopted that flag after 1991...)

Sorry, 2nd photo is 1985. First one got mixed in.

[MeMyselfAndI]

Sorry, 2nd photo is 1985. First one got mixed in.

Well, anyway, true, about that. But, those are military parades. The Nashi though... they have a militia wing, called 'Shock Brigades'. Now, normally all they do is attack those opposed to Putin, beat people up, threaten. I do believe they have killed a few people, but, it has never been proven.

However, the real scary part is, they are being trained as an armed force. They are armed, the government gives them AKs, sniper rifles, even grenade launchers, whatever; and they are traied, by Specnaz officers, on GRU, FSB/KGB, or OMON/paramilitary police bases. This is a fighting force of maybe 150,000. It is loyal only to Putin, personally. At their oath, they swear to sacrifice their lives for Putin, if necessary.

That is who, if there is a 'color revolution' attempt in Russia, that is who will be thrown out into the streets, these young boys and girls, to fight and kill for Putin. There cannot be what happened in Ukraine, here. Or Kyrgyzstan will look happy and civilized compared to what you'd see on the streets of Moscow.

[evanescence]

Celeb Buys Son $360,000 Maybach for 16th Birthday (http://www.usmagazine.com/celebritynews/news/diddy-buys-son-maybach-for-16th-birthday-2010251?page=2)