Replying to LO27806 --
Ray asked this:
> And you might also say that the motivated Russian population continues to
> work for little to no money at all. Why?
Well, it has been their lot since after the Golden Horde destroyed the
glowing Kievan civilization, bringing down in about 1250 what was the
largest house of god in Europe. The centralized, authoritarian,
give-me-your-sweat-and-we'll-be-happy Tartars were actually fairly open
and accepting of diversity. Hell, they had to be given the extent of their
conquests. But a fateful fie was cast; or at least something began to gel.
The Russian people have so many centuries of eking it out. The 350 years
of Romanovs saw a tiny percentage of population quite literally own the
rest, the Souls of which Gogol writes so creepily.
When I was in Russia, there were such warm-hearted, well-meaning,
motivated souls who wanted to open the first drug rehab center for
teenagers in the district. Their reaction was fascinating when I pictured
for them a typical American fund-raiser picnic where a CEO might flip
burgers along with doctors and lawyers and candlestick makers. They were
incredulous; there's no parallel in their culture. Good? Bad? Don't know.
Just fact.
Enter a small apartment and sit down to the spread to end all spreads:
breads, fishes, pirozhki, on and on. I have heard it often enough to
report it again here that Russians are in many ways similar to Americans
in the expansiveness of heart. Yeah, yeah, I know I'm generalizing. But I
hope you get a flavor nonetheless. There IS something about them....We
also do a lot of work for no money. And we continue. the outpourings after
the murders in NY, Washington and PA are the tip of the iceberg.
Best regards to you, Ray,
Barry
-- Barry Mallis The Organizational Trainer 110 Arch St., #27 Keene, NH 03431-2167 USA voice: 603 352-5289 FAX: 603 357-2157 cell: 603 313-3636 email: theorgtrainer@earthlink.netLearning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <Richard@Karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>
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