I went out this morning to buy a new hair-dryer. The first one I bought (used from a leaving volunteer) had melted from the inside out during my recent gig as a counselor at as a girl's empowerment camp. We were a lot of girls and we needed dry hair! The campground where we stayed was built for summer use and so our autumn descent on the premises created some challenges-mostly towards being warm enough. And so the hair dryers were necessary for anyone planning to shower. Overuse and age in combination with the inexplicably strong electrical current that seems to spew from some outlets here in Moldova, was simply too much for my little machine.
I didn't bring a hair-dryer to Peace Corps for two reasons. Number one was the electrical current and adapter issue and number two I was hoping to "not need" this modern day tool for "beauty"-you know, in my village/hut/milking cows life. And since I now DO need one, I had to shop. The store where I decided to purchase my glorious heat machine was across the street from the Balti Primaria (mayor's office and where the city officials work). There was a large gathering outside of the building, at least 100 people, and a man standing on a box speaking into a megaphone in Russian something about utilities, payments, and otherwise I am not sure. I'm pretty sure these were my other sitemate Ross's neighbors.
Ross lives in an apartment building as do Laela and I. However, unlike us, Ross's heat hasn't been turned on yet. He is quite literally freezing in his apartment. He got a space heater for the meantime but what was frustrating him more than the cold is the reason why the heat had not been turned on and further, that he couldn't find out the real reason. Finally last night, his landlord who lives in a village outside of the city, came to investigate and told Ross there would be a gathering the following day at the mayor's office to get some answers.
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Moldova is a former Soviet Republic. A lot of the infrastructure here was built during that time. The current Republic is the poorest country in all of Europe and there hasn't been much work done to improve this dinosaur of a system. Let's look at how this problem is affecting Ross and his neighbors: the apartment buildings we all live in are known as "Soviet Bloc Apartments". Unlike in the States or other countries with more recent development, these apartments are linked to one main heating system. This means that no one apartment has any control over their own heat. There is a governing body (who I have no idea) who decides when to turn on the heat (after so many days of the temperature being below so many degrees-the actual I again have not a clue and can't seem to find one answer), how high it should be, and when it will be turned off. The tenant simply receives the bill. Now we can see where the obvious problems with this system are. Let's look at some of the issues that come to mind:
Conditioning
Number one, this is no longer a communist nation yet this system of controlling utilities is completely communist with a big ugly twist; you have to pay for it. So imagine now you have a babushka (grandmother) living in the same apartment since she was a teenager (fifty years ago). For the large majority of her life she never paid these bills because it was "taken care of" by the government. Times change and now she is responsible for this bill. Does she pay it? Does that register with her after a lifetime of a different way of acting...of thinking. Because even if she doesn't pay, the heat stays on.
Opportunists
Does the single mother whose husband is in another country driving a truck or building infrastructure for richer nations even have the money to cover this bill? If she does, if her husband is sending back what amounts to a lot of money in Moldova, does she? Because even if she doesn't, the heat stays on.
Fatalists
Similar to the issue of conditioning, a predominant thought in Russia has long been fatalist. Whether this way of thinking came to Moldova with the communist regime or if it just became stronger I am not sure (but wanting and willing to look into), but if one has the thought that it doesn't matter what they do, they cannot effect the whole, will they take responsibility for their own lives let alone for the lives of others? Because even if they don't, the heat stays on.
Poverty
Unlike in the US or other more developed nations, there are people living on very little right next door to someone who is doing quite well. Their apartments have been passed down through generations and since this whole architecture was put together at a time where everyone was "equal", there were no class divisions. No rich people/poor people buildings. It was ALL government housing. And so now, after twenty years of free markets, you literally have some people in the building who can and do pay their heating bills and some who simply cannot. The money is just not there. So then who pays?
What Ross thinks happened in his building was that there were far too many people with passed-due heat debts. And so it wasn't turned on. Perhaps it is a way to communicate to the people in his building that they HAD to pay their bills, no more letting it slip. No more handouts. Is this tough love? Perhaps for some, but torture for others. What about those with no debt like Ross? How fair is that for him? And so the cyclical questioning of "where do old ways hamper us and how can we possibly afford to get out of them?" occurs. How can these people come together to ensure everyone is paying for their heat? Should they even have to do this? It's like involuntarily living in a commune.
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There is a lot of foreign money coming into a place like Moldova. This is in the forms of foreign aid and remittances from citizens working overseas. Wouldn't it make sense to combine these investments into helping people to physically live in a way that doesn't continuously remind them of their communist past, that doesn't encourage the kind of thinking that takes away personal responsibility?
Two ideas at a more micro level:
1). Renovating the current systems to give individual control over one's heat. This involves a lot of material and workforce investment and would also create a lot of jobs. OR
2). Assisting to develop communities within these buildings where the citizens work together to solve the issues of debt and do what needs doing to ensure each person can take care of their bills and if not form some sort of loan/assistance/social program.
And from the WAY "macrocosmic" view I cannot help but see, it's truly an issue of the individual vs. the whole. Are we all in this together? Though I haven't fully developed the idea yet, here is another concept I am researching:
Is it better if people:
- Do what is best for one's self in order to contribute positively to the greater good? For example taking good care of your health and home so that you have energy to contribute to the whole.
- Do what is best for the greater good in order to positively contribute to your own life? For example helping to create better public policy, being an honest public servant, creating businesses that respect the earth and its people.
What do you think works best? I see that it's a balance of each. But are we living in different imbalances in different cultures as a whole?
XOm
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