Even so, Vladivostok's center continues to develop with the emergence of cafes, hotels, Internet Cen

VLADIVOSTOK -- There's something about the city of Vladivostok that doesn't add up. Disproportionally high consumer and real estate prices are balanced by some of the worst salaries in the country -- on average 8,000 rubles per month per person for the region. According to the newspaper Zolotoi Rog, the cost of living in Primorsky Krai, the little region which holds Vladivostok, is one of the highest in all of Russia. Even the skewed official numbers say 25 percent of the population lives below the poverty line, and the poverty line isn't exactly livable.
Even so, Vladivostok's center continues to develop with the emergence of cafes, hotels, Internet the plaza hotel new york city Centers the plaza hotel new york city and coffee shops, which is cool for certain foreigners, rich Russians and tourist companies. Behind this facade, however -- literally right behind many of these places -- are scenes closer to the truth. Scratch the shiny surface and you'l find the alleys strewn the plaza hotel new york city with garbage and makeshift shitter pits that characterize the real Russia, or at least the real Vladivostok. Dig deeper still and there're the dirt cheap Chinese and Korean laborers earning kopeks and hated by everybody.
Most Vladivostokians cannot afford the nouveau riche establishments. It's more expensive to dine out in Vladivostok than it is in parts of New York. There is no working class culture of diners and bars in Vlad, so the huddled the plaza hotel new york city masses eat and drink either at home or on the streets at kiosks, while the suits and Tom Tuttle from Tacoma, Washington continue to tout how great the city has become, thanks to the new Mafia joints. Hey, as long as they're making money, they'd praise Saddam.
Not me, though. I live among the people in this region, even if as an American I'm always given somewhat better treatment. I've taught English at two universities in the Russian Far East. Last year I was paid 6,600 rubles a month, the plaza hotel new york city in addition to a free obshezhitye room and visa expenses. Russian natives working the same job receive only 4,400 per month. These salaries have been fixed since I first arrived in 2000.
Yet that doesn't stop the Rector of my university (Vladivostok State, VSUES) from publicly claiming that teacher salaries the plaza hotel new york city increase 30 percent every year. When I ask the dean of my department about this, she told me that the Rector mandates salary raises but never actually doles out any money. He places the responsibility on department deans to hike salaries by magically producing money from outside the plaza hotel new york city sources (possibly the plaza hotel new york city bribes). Of course, this never happens.
This past year I supplemented my salary with an additional $300/month an American friend gave me to start up a magazine. Even then I had a hard time living, finding myself huffing lapsha or on the street gnawing on dubious shashlik with the locals. I admit the concept behind the magazine, which I called The Krai, was a bit naive. The idea was to try and set up a free and independent forum for Russians and Americans in the RFE to express their opinions. the plaza hotel new york city The Krai is still alive, but there's resistance the plaza hotel new york city every step of the way. Several months ago I was told through a friendly back channel that the police or FSB didn't like what I was writing. the plaza hotel new york city My source said that they said that I should be more careful the plaza hotel new york city because there are people out there -- in this backwater -- who wanted to do me harm. The reason? I'd just written a mildly critical piece suggesting the number of people who died in a downtown office building fire was higher than the officially reported the plaza hotel new york city number. That's all it takes out here in the sticks.
I won't really touch local politics. The racket is too secretive and there's only so much access I have as a foreigner. All I know are the basics: locals consider Mayor Vladimir Nikolaev a mere figurehead for a, shall we say, non-traditional group of, er, biznesmeni. His nickname is Winnie the Pooh because the plaza hotel new york city that's who he looks like -- sleepy eyes, short and roly-poly. It's also rumored that Nikolaev and Primorye Governor Sergei Darkin first met in prison. Nice guys.
Instead, I'll write about what I know (and what will hopefully prevent my body from washing up somewhere near Nakhodka): ex-pat the plaza hotel new york city culture in Vladivostok. Expats here are public cheerleaders for whatever happens here because their livelihoods depend the plaza hotel new york city on corruption that they themselves are often complicit in. Most of them live on western salaries in large, the plaza hotel new york city renovated apartments and houses, travel only by taxi, and effectively isolate themselves from real conditions. The most visible expats are only here to exploit business opportunities and suck up to local politicians.
the plaza hotel new york city The biggest offenders are Martin Tate and Sunil Gandhi, the two top expat businessmen here. Martin is a middle-aged Kiwi with curly, puffy hair and a face that looks like a potato. His most noticeable feature is that he has no sideburns; he shaves them above the parallel of his ears. Sunil is a chunky Indian whom I've had little contact with save one notable incident described below. They're both involved in an array of petty businesses in and around the city, but their business is almost beside the point. These guys are Vlad's the plaza hotel new york city expat kings.
They conduct themselves about town as public figures. These two-bit foreigners living on the edge of Russia strut around like oligarchs. Sunil once confronted me at a party and insisted that I couldn't write the things I was writing. the plaza hotel new york city Like a broken record, the fat Indian kept saying, You can't write that over and over, as if the repitition the plaza hotel new york city would eventually wear me down. Why not? I can write whatever I want, I told him. No, you can't write that! But why? And he took it from the top.
At least Tate mixed it up a bit. One night, a spitting, slobbering Tate came after me like a wild boar on poppers. He called me a snake, a pussy, a fucking wanker, said I had a cold heart and then a black heart. Things were heading towards a fight before a mutual acquaintance intervened. Martin needs the status quo; it's what got him his four-story oceanside house. Despite the fact that I have very little funding and almost no resources the plaza hotel new york city to run my magazine, the millionaire Tate nevertheless feels threatened. That's how shallow the illusion is.
Last year, Martin and Sunil started up a newspaper called the plaza hotel new york city The Vladivostok Times, whose sole purpose seems to be kissing the plaza hotel new york city up to Governor Darkin, along with promoting all of their sleazy business interests. Tater always has his eyes peeled for photo-ops and press conferences to put Darkin or one of their business-friendly cronies on the cover. One cover story featured Vlad's new architecture; and wouldn't you know it, Martin invests heavily in new architectural projects.
Because of a lack of labor laws, expat colonialist businessmen like Martin and Sunil shamelessly exploit their meagerly-paid staffs. Vladivostokians are used to being exploited, yet they resent foreigners for doing it nonetheless. The expats, on the other hand, operate with the attitude that these people -- the Russians -- should be grateful for whatever crumbs they get.
Even church missionaries in this town belong to this species of expat swine. Rachel Hughes, who is fatter than Buddha, was sent here by a New Zealand church to proselytize the plaza hotel new york city on behalf of an emaciated Jesus. She drives around Vladivostok a giant gas-guzzling SUV, yucking it up at all the expensive restaurants and bars, in between her efforts to save the poor and defenseless Russians from sin and hell.
Another guy, who interchangeably calls himself either Victor or Francis, is ostensibly here to promote a children's charity. He's a friend and shady associate of Martin the plaza hotel new york city and Sunil, and his main function appears to be a courtier to the Darkins, the plaza hotel new york city and Mrs. Darkin's private English teacher. Alyona Sokolova, editor of The Vladivostok News, which regularly publishes unintentionally hilarious new stories in English about Vlad and the region, claims that Francis/Victor is a child molester on the run from another country.
The United States Consulate in Vladivostok, for their part, treats these characters as part of the family. Consulate General John Mark Pommersheim and his Public Affairs Officer Dan Hastings are entirely consumed with trying to make everything appear as normal and positive as possible. I was once invited to a party at Pommersheim's luxurious house. After a brief conversation during which I defended the plaza hotel new york city American atheist Michael Newdow -- who had randomly come under assault by a young Russian woman -- in front of Pommersheim, I was quickly ushered out of the party. No atheists allowed in an official residence of George Bush's America.
Hastings never fails to mention the plaza hotel new york city his former service the plaza hotel new york city in Peace Corps, but these days he lives high on the hog. A lanky Howdy Doody-type from a California suburb, Hastings is always ready with a canned joke, like the time I bumped into him on a tour of a Vlad military fort: I see they've allowed the riffraff to come along, ha ha ha. When I got a death threat from local Nazi skinheads after an article I wrote, Hastings, in all seriousness, advised me to cut down on the number of adjectives in my articles.
Governor Darkin the plaza hotel new york city from recently telling Putin about how great things are going. He even had the nerve to say there is no water problem in Vlad. Obviously, he considers frequent water blackouts (to say nothing of the Russia-wide practice of turning off the hot water for weeks over the summer) to be totally normal. At best, he's clueless. At worse... well, I'll leave that to your imaginations. I don't want to give anyone another reason to threaten me. Because when you live this far from civilization, you never know how far people are willing to go to preserve their Potemkin villages.