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siberie_inde_goulag |
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CARNET
DE ROUTE
N°
10/58 |
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" SIBERIE - INDIA: along the footsteps of the gulags
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18 to 25 June 2006 / MAGADAN-IAGADNOE-SUSUMAN, RUSSIA.
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“ The extreme north ”
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Imagine with your eyes firmly shut a city that looks like a cream cake. Now open your eyes again and you see an abandoned city. Where are we?
In a street filled with Japanes traffic we look around, on one side, shops filled with sony and other electronics, on the other side tanning salons with a steady stream of girls entering and coming out. We cross the street and as we pass along the side w
alk come across a group of homeless who are fighting for their property of communal garbage cans.
This city was built under Berzine, first in wood and then in concrete. It also resembles an island out of time, far away from everything, like the image from the Soljenetsyne book “The Goulag Archipelago". As the next city over is 1957 kilometers away, o
nly the airplane travel sustains it as ship and road travel are heavily dependant on the climatic conditions.
It is also the extreme between wealth and poverty. Between gold merchants and civil servants whose salaries differ hundredfold.
The enormous Lexus V10 with tinted windows drive in the wrong direction and cross the white traffic lines, while the Uaz state ambulances give way. And then this crazy new mayor with his cathedral with gold-plated domes which has tried to remain in power
for 6 years while balancing political scandals and public disapproval. It is also this cathedral that we remember when we walk along the dying beach and when we see cars in between garbage, council flats and abandones houses. All of this within a 500 me
ter distance.
The council flats degrade continuously because of personal problems and misunderstandings between the tenants. Even an access ramp or a common staircase are problems that cannot be solved. In the winter, these dirt roads must turn into heaps of mud. In c
ertain parts of the city, if we didn’t see the satellite dishes, we would think we were in the 1960s.
On top of that, it is cold here, during summer the temperatures vary between 10 and 15 degrees. During winter it is -30 degrees, nothing far from normal: “the winter last 12 months and the rest is summer” according to Siberian jokes.
On the other hand, this region has the highest proportion of well-qualified and educated persons, at least 5 years post high school education. This land for political imprisonment has become the hub of intellectuals and intelligence in the extreme east R
ussia. For example, Tatiana, 29 years old, 10 years of schooling after highschool, assistant to a director, earns 2500 dollars a month. The roles here are often reversed, women have taken over positions usually held by men and the men stay home. Even tho
ugh Dacha doesn’t like this separation it is her who wears the trousers in the household: “where we go on holiday, it is me who decides”, in other words it is ‘me’ that keeps this couple alive.
And so we go on television to do an interview. After we chat with a woman who says she saw us on television. She adds: “ my mother changed your money in Sousouman” (800 km from here). The region is 440000 square kilomters for 11000 inhabitants. It is hug
e and empty. For this reason, foreigners attract the attention in the same 1000km.
Guillaume finally ask a young couple: “Do you know Macdonalds?”. It takes a while before they answer, then finally: “what? We don’t understand.It is a strange answer to hear, but also nice, because it also helps us understand why we are here.
Guillaume and Cyril by internet
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L'expédition
Paris-Kaboul. Dernières infos sur l'Afghanistan avec Le Point
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: Association Taklamakan n° 0691044600 chemin de borne, villemertin
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