Perhaps something good will come of this Russian Oligarch Front. I understand that they’ve jumped whole-hog into the art market. Maybe they’ll oblige the larger culture and take Hirst and Koons off the radar by housing these two “bad boys” in some far-off dacha.

Taki, you mean to tell me that Russian Oligarchs in Gstaad are worse than Corn-Fed Texans, Inbred Brahmins or Pampered Hollywood Poodles there?  This I’d like to see but the snow’s better in the out-of-bounds cirques of the Wasatch.

I knew something seemed a tad hasty about all the chest-pounding in the West as they hammered the Berlin Wall to bits.

Is it ok to call you Mr T

Never did I read someone with such an incredible command of subject, language and juxtaposition...you have me screaming with laughter any time ...I am very thankful for that. Living on the east side of Shengen, you need every drop. If you ever come to the Bohemian land, drop me a line.

Then of course there was Michael Kennedy-Smith.

If my son suddenly became Prince John-Taki Schoenburg-Hartenstein, I’d be awfully pissed off.

If the Daughter of Michigan Rep. John Dingell married the Son of F-Troop Star, Ken Berry,she’ be Mrs. Dingell-Berry.

Taki, the sincerest form of flattery is immitation.

(with all due respect, of course.)

@Dirk Sabin

You’re right.  The skiing in Utah at Snowbird in Little Cottonwood Canyon was the best I’ve ever experienced.  A foot of fluffy powder fell every night, and the next morning the mountain was resplendent in bright sunshine.  You could float in the Cirques on a pillow of powder for most of the morning, until the snow began to pack from traffic.  Divine!  The shortcoming:  The village was in the gruesome modern vernacular and had little charm.  And worse yet, the bars were more virgin than the snow.  There were none, in this teetotaling region of Brigham Young.  Strictly “BYU.” Taki just cancelled his reservations!

Fatimah Bhutto (25) raising the red flag as “aunty Bhutto” is busy making pacts with more than one devil at a time:

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-bhutto14nov14,0,2482408.story

Ah, for those good old days of fat Russian hookers with unshaved armpits -Taki

Unshaved armpits, say isn’t this where Madonna got a start?

As for names, I dont think people shoiuld change them for our parents name us for good reason even though they know not why.

re “Ah, for those good old days of fat Russian hookers with unshaved armpits.”

What?  I thought Boris Berezovsky was still very much alive.

@ K Konkola, “What exactly is is that makes the Russians different from wealthy Westerners?”

The Novorusskies are an especially loathsome subspecies, but the average Russian doesn’t worship wealth.  If I were alone and in crisis in St Petersburg (or even more so anywhere in Siberia; Siberians are wonderful), I’d trust an average Russian stranger to help me more than I’d trust most wealthy Americans, and I’d trust a wealthy English stranger only to send me politely to my doom.

Mr. Taki-
As a reluctant resident of Moscow, I have one unfortunate piece of news for you-- if you think that Russian oligarchs are bad, it might be hard to swallow that they are actually the cream of society by comparison with ordinary Russians!

Bruce, if you call yourself a “reluctant” resident of Moscow, then I’m guessing that you haven’t befriended many ordinary Russians.  And as befriending ordinary Russians is very easy, the problem is probably in you, not them.

Get out of Moscow, take a long train ride through Siberia and take an ample capacity for vodka and conversation with you, and leave behind your grievances about the discomforts of living in Russia, and you might begin to see them differently.  But if you think the oligarchs and Novorusskies are the “cream” of Russia, then you’ll be incapable of appreciating the extraordinary magnanimity, generosity, chivalry, warmth and intellectual brilliance of what you snobbishly call “ordinary Russians.” Not to mention their good manners, which might be another difference between you and them.

John Ball,
I grew up in Finland, and from my experiences I would recommed you to be a bit cautious.  In Scandinavian countries people are extremely concerned about what foreigners think about them.  As a result, they behave toward foreign travellers in such a way that the outsider is left with the best possible impression about the country—i.e., a foreigner always gets a snow job.  What you see as a foreign traveller thus may not be what the people really are.  Living in the country for a long time soon reveals that not everything that glitters is gold.

The really interesting thing would be the details:  what exactly is it that makes the Russian Nouveau Rich so different from the West?

Wealth. I am unable to comprehend the concept of wealth when it is based on fiat.

However, if I were a fool, I might be inclined to rob a bank and steal nothing.

I so do not belong on this beautiful planet of crazy people with their play money and inane wars of empowerment and empire.

Taki,

Or may I call you Oprah?

Consider what you wrote.

“If Benazir represented democracy, I am Oprah Winfrey.”

Perhaps Benazir was in fact recognizing, and governing according to the desires of the majority of her constituents.  Who are in fact virtually all Muslims, after all.

Don’t fall into the same incoherence as George and our Neocon friends, now!  Don’t ascribe some mystical significance to the word “democracy” (which may be hard for you, seeing as you’re Greek & all) but all the word means is “governance by the majority.” A democratic Pakistan can do whatever the hell the majority of its citizens wants. 

To include defining rape as adultery. 

Just because that doesn’t accord with the social mores of early 21st century Middle America, 5th Century Periclean Athens, or the ethics held by the majorities at your or George Bush’s country clubs, doesn’t make it in any way undemocratic.

Tough luck, that, eh?  I’ll be addressing you as Miss Winphrey from hereon out, by the way.

I like you Taki. correct. what’s in a name?
In my opinion YOU are top drawer, and not
at all (seriously) tacky. You’ve stuck with
taki. GOOD & in your case great.

But what about when in Rome? I dropped my
ethnic last name precisely Because my dad is
(sadly) dead to me. And always will be No ifs
ands or buttocks’es about it.

However the torah command/suggestion to hold one’s
parents reverentially as policy at least is good.

And i still do. If I didn’t use a different name
to be honest - publically, how could I accomplish
both, sir. Are you going to slurr me for that?

Pistols, at dawn? If I’m not there, start without
me? I kid. I’m not even aussi or probably not even
j’ish. Funny. What’s in a name? I’m a mutt.

Dogs run free ... why not we -or- taki? i kid. it’s
the humor gene.

_________________

Glad to see someone else pining for the good old days. I especially miss the Fifties of my youth, when the Big Bopper was singing, Ike was on the golf course, the Commies were in the Kremlin, Pius XII was Pope, and ah yes, the paras were in Algiers.

K Konkola wrote:

“John Ball,
I grew up in Finland, and from my experiences I would recommed you to be a bit cautious...Living in the country for a long time soon reveals that not everything that glitters is gold.”

Yes and that is exactly why the scales fell from my eyes after I escaped from Russian to Finland in year 2000.  In the long run, I found the Finns to be more cynical and less generous than the Russians.

If, when I was a wanted-man by the FSB/KGB in Russia in year 2000 - IF at that time I had remained in Russia, then I could have found some Russian friends to give me sanctuary.  But the Finns treated me, well, like the worst kind of English would do, sending me politely to my doom in the coldest way of “purely White people.”

I learned a lot from that.  I learned to trust a good Russian - even if he might be a bit Asiatic - before I trust any purely “White” person in the West, any day.

If I ever had to entrust my life to any stranger, I’d trust a Russian long, LONG before I would trust a Finn, or any other Scandinavian, or a Kraut, OR an Englishman!

Heh, now I’m thinking that maybe I SHOULD convert to the Russian Orthodox Church, who (and whose members) have been more charitable to me than any Western Catholics or Protestants have ever been.
Hmmmmm......

Gstaad?

I hear it’s full of Greeks.

It is a common practice in many spanish speaking countries to assume the last name of both father and mother’s (maiden) last name. T

“If I were alone and in crisis in St Petersburg ..., I’d trust an average Russian stranger to help me more than I’d trust most wealthy Americans....”

When were you last in St. Petersburg? Where you ever outside the hotel, on the street, out at night? I assume you speak Russian, because securing help in English would be virtually impossible. English won’t be of any use when filing the police report either. I’ve traveled the world, and I can say with certainty that St. Petersburg, while beautiful, is by far the most physically threatening place I have ever been. and its the only place I’ve ever been where literally everyone expects a tip for rendering even the smallest assistance. Ask if it is raining and their hand is out.

@ Stephen B:

“When were you last in St. Petersburg?”

February 6-8, 2000.

“Where you ever outside the hotel, on the street, out at night?”

All of the above.  I had escaped from detention by the FSB (successors of the KGB), and couldn’t get into a hotel because they had confiscated my visa. 
I was out on the street, late at night. 
I was given sanctuary by two Russians - both strangers to me - who lived in St Petersburg, one of whom happened to be the daughter of a man with whom I’d had a fistfight with several months before.
That’s Russian magnaminity for you!

And you wrote, “I can say with certainty that St. Petersburg, while beautiful, is by far the most physically threatening place I have ever been. and its the only place I’ve ever been where literally everyone expects a tip for rendering even the smallest assistance.”

What are ya, cheap or just miserably mean-spirited?  If you didn’t have enough money to tip much (or even a few kopeks), then you should have just told them you’re broke and they would have understood.  But if it didn’t hurt your pocket to give just a few pennies, why the hell NOT give little tips for “the smallest assistance?” Some of those people might have been deadly poor or homeless who were too proud to beg for money without giving SOME service! 

I remember a time in Moscow when a youngish man with an amputated leg asked me for some money because he was wounded in Afghanistan.  (He thought I was Russian.) I told him I was American and then gave him 50 Rubles, and told him it was because I was thinking of homeless American vets of Viet Nam who are just like him, betrayed and abandoned by their governments in the same ways.  He said he’d buy some vodka with it (a litre of decent vodka would be around 20 Rubles, with 30 left over for him to eat for a few days), and he’d drink a toast to me and to America.  I said, “thanks, and I’ll drink to YOU too, tonight!”

50 Rubles, in Russia in 1999, was like 50 dollars.  But I could afford giving that
honourable veteran 50 Rubles, around 3 US dollars.  For no service at all. 
So why the hell couldn’t you offer just one ruble, or a few kopeks, a few pennies, to those Russians who at least did SOME “smallest assistance” for you?  At least they were trying to EARN their money!

THOSE Russians are among the most honourable ones, and you should have respected them more.  The kinds of Russians you OUGHT to be complaining about are the billionaire kleptocrats like Berezovsky in London, and the creeps Taki has written about.

But please don’t bitch about the DECENT, honourable kinds of Russians who were just asking for a few pennies, for honourable work, no matter how “small.”