World

~

Quick notes froma
changing country

MOSCOW — I suffer from a perennial
sense of inadequacy as each day I struggle
my way through the Soviet press with help
from my wife, interpreter, Russian teacher,
various friends and official translation ser-
vices. There seems no hope that I will ever
be able to communicate to Tribune readers
even the tiniest fraction of the drama that is
unfolding here on a daily basis.

The Soviet media has come alive and
vibrant under the impact of new thoughts
and experiences welling up from the grass-

From
Moscow |

roots. The USSR has the largest, and cer-
tainly the most politically aware intelli-
gentsia in the world, and a geometric-
ally-expanding number of “informal”
groups and organizations — 30,000 of
them at latest count. All are finding their
way into the press.

One of the hottest Soviet newspapers
these days is the weekly Literaturnaya
Gazeta, published by the Soviet Writers
Union, which last year increased its circula-

tion by a hefty 22.6 per cent. Beginning in
January, 1989, LG has decided to come out
on a bi-weekly experimental basis in an
English-language edition as well.

“We've had a lot of comments in the
world press,” says LG’s editor-in-chief,
Alexander Chakovsky, “and this indicates
widespread interest in the processes taking
place in the Soviet Union. Politicians, busi-
nessmen, intellectuals, journalists and oth-
ers will soon be able to receive Soviet
literary and other news from our newspaper
firsthand.”

The English version of LG will be printed
in the Soviet Union with an initial press run
of 30,000 copies, though this may be raised
to 70,000 if demand warrants. My advice to
interested Tribune readers: if you want it,
start besieging Progress Books with your
requests now.

* * *

__Irecently heard a story so rich in cold war
irony that it bears repeating.

_ It concerns the list of COCOM restric-
tions on high technology exports to socialist
countries, the bible with which the Reagan
administration has been flogging western
electronics companies and other producers
of sophisticated gear for the past several
years. The ostensible purpose of the prohi-
bited list is to prevent sensitive military

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados — ‘The
year was barely a month old when it was
announced in Trinidad-Tobago and
Barbados that TV evangelist Jimmy
Swaggart was coming to the Caribbean
on a two-week crusade.

Then, like a bolt out of the blue, news
came that Swaggart was being investi-
gated by his Pentecostal Assemblies of
God for sexual misconduct. In Barba-
dos, Rev. Jerry Seale, head of the Pen-
tecostal Assemblies of the West Indies,
told the Tribune that tour organizers
were taking “a wait and see” attitude.

When news reached the islands that 52
year-old Swaggart, cousin of rock and
roller Jerry Lee Lewis, had made a tear-

From the | ,
Caribbean |¢

ful confession in front of his Baton,
Louisiana congregation about a sexual
encounter with a prostitute, all hell broke
loose in tour committee rooms.

In the midst of the confusion, both
Trinidadian and Jamaican TV stations
pulled the plug on Swaggart’s telecasts,
and Barbados television indicated it will
do the same shortly.

Tour organizers in both islands so far
can give no clear indication whether
Swaggart will indeed visit the islands
when the three-month preaching ban
imposed by his Pentecostal Assemblies
expires. This appears unlikely. In addi-
tion to the raunchier details of this scan-

Caribbean telecast cut
for fallen Swaggart

: extracting South African minerals. This
; neo-colonialism is more subtle than the
European colonialism which led to slav-

dal, the anti-apartheid organization in
Port of Spain says Swaggart “has a lot of
explaining to do” about his crusades in
South Africa.

Television videos shown here reveal
Swaggart saying the apartheid regime is
unjustly maligned by international crit-
ics. Prior to the recent scandal, Swaggart
rana full-page advertisement in the press
saying he didn’t support the apartheid
system.

But Barbadian Roman Catholic pri-
est, Father Harcourt Blackett, opposed
to the Swaggart visit from the start, said
people of the developing world, like
those in the Caribbean, should be wary
of the “hidden political agenda” of right-
wing fundamentalist preachers like
Swaggart and U.S. presidential hopeful
Pat Robertson.

“Their kind of thinking not only pres-
ents God asa rich North American busi-
nessman with a colonial mentality, but
uses the bible as an instrument for

ery, but it is every bit as dangerous to our
development,” said Father Blackett.

The outspoken Catholic priest is
reported to have said he opposes U.S.
political and military might “when it tries
to use that power to dominate and ruth-
lessly coerce the world, instead of seeking
justice and peace.”

Meanwhile, the chair of Swaggart’s
tour organizing committee in Barbados,
Pastor Holmes Williams, said he will
have nothing more to do with Swaggart.
In announcing he is washing his hands of
the U.S. millionaire evangelist, the
former Canadian banker turned preacher
said “the crusade is over and done with.”

WOMEN CONSTRUCTION WORKERS, Moscow. |
S$ another three hours and 13 min

Izvestia survey, there’
the average Soviet woman.

technology from falling into Soviet clutches.
Its actual goal is to blockade the socialist
countries’ economies, keep alive cold war
spy fever and instill in western business a
terror of “trading with the enemy”.

A couple of years ago, a small U.S. com-
puter firm, Columbus Instruments, tried to
ship an exhibit of laboratory research
equipment to a medical symposium in
Moscow. Among the items was a Taiwan-
built clone of the IBM PC-XT computer.
U.S. Federal agents descended on the ship-
ment in New York, confiscated it, raided the
offices of Columbus Instruments, and
alerted the press to this “critical leak of
militarily sensitive technology”. IBM com-
puters, the Pentagon later confirmed, must
not be shown to the Russians.

Now it happens that the Soviet bear, cast-
ing about for machines with which to con-
quer the world, doesn’t need to look so far
afield. In Bulgaria recently, I came across an
entire classroom filled with young Darth
Vaders, at the “Indira Gandhi” vocational
school in Sofia, who claimed to be learning
word processing on something called the
“Pravetz-16.” Upon closer inspection, these
turned out to be Bulgarian-produced copies
of the IBM PC-XT, identical in every
respect and using the same software. The
computer class teacher (if that’s what she
really was), admitted the debt to IBM but
insisted that Bulgarian industry “has
improved upon it”.

Meanwhile, back in the States, the presi-
dent of Columbus Instruments, almost
ruined by legal expenses and the hinted spy
scandal, has also acquired a “Pravetz-16”

_and wonders what would happen to him if
he tried to ship it back to eastern Europe.

* * *

Like most other things, the problems and
frustrations of Soviet women are pouring

into the open and being earnestly debated in ~

the Soviet press these days.

Pravda set a new tone with a withering
attack on male chauvinist attitudes on its
front page, Feb.1. The title of the article:
“Kak zhiviotsia babonki?” — roughly,
“How’s it going, girlies?” — pillories the
patronizing language of male bosses to their
female employees. The piece goes on to deal
with the “double burden” of career and

. after work, according to an
utes of household chores for

housework, the under-representation of
women in the upper levels of management
and the dreadful working conditions that
are an everyday reality for many Soviet
women employed at collective farms and
factories.

An even tougher piece — which has the
advantage of being accessible in English
— was published in Moscow News, No.7,
1988, in the form of an interview with Soviet
novelist and women’s activist Maya Gan-
ina.

Perhaps most interesting, not to say
explosive, is a survey that turned up last
week in the government newspaper, Izves-
tia. This survey broke down the average
Soviet woman’s waking life, and found the
following:

e@ A Soviet woman spends seven hours
and 57 minutes at work, five days a week,
plus one hour and 38 minutes doing work-
related things, such as travelling to and fro.
On week days, shopping and other errands
take up 46 minutes, while housework and
cooking take three hours and 13 minutes.
On weekends, she spends one hour and 25
minutes per day shopping, and six hours
and 18 minutes doing household chores.
Isvestia concluded that the average woman
has barely 17 minutes of time each to spend
with her family.

* * *

When reflecting upon the vast possibili-
ties for Canadian-Soviet co-operation, the
mind practically boggles with ideas: Arctic
exploration and northern development, oil

and gas technology, telecommunications... .

Well, let’s hope so. But the ink is just dry
on the contract for one of the first
Canadian-Soviet joint ventures, and I'll bet
you didn’t think of it.

Macdonald’s Restaurants (Canada) Ltd.
will soon be opening a hamburger empo-
rium here in Moscow. Sitting on my desk is
one of the company’s advertising broad-
sheets, showing a picture of that familiar,
nasty little sandwich, in pastel colours,
which says: Come in and try a delicious
“bolshoi Mac”’.

For Soviets, whose level of public food
services has been poor, this may well repres-
ent progress. But what the hell is wrong with
our oil and gas industry anyway?

Pacific Tribune, March 23, 1988 e 9