It's still not so easy to travel to Cuba. It's a pity, because it's not so far from me. American citizens still need to be part of some type of organized tour for educational, professional or humanitarian purposes. Independent travel remains impossible to my understanding, and the cultural exchange tours are too expensive. I'm receiving invitations to them in the mail frequently. I think it's much easier to go to Venezuela. :)
Surely, you can go to N Korea and ask for a citizenship. They will be happy to oblige. The organized tour is not the same as the full immersion. I really recommend the immersion to understand the advantages of the full blown socialism. It is outstanding!
It is very interesting question when (if) we will hear about your experience.
Don't go to Cuba, it is not the same anymore. And Venezuela is still building the real future society, they are not there yet
How can you argue that life was not more structured during Soviet times, esp. with regard to ordinary things like food choice, jobs, education, etc. I don't like socialist systems, where people rely on governments for everything. We have too many lazy people like this now in the U.S., simply living off of welfare, when they are perfectly capable of working.
I have a younger brother (born in 1976), three half-sisters and three half-brothers. 3 of us have university degree, 4 have professional education. Parents were just regular workers. My mother could rise three kinds alone before getting married second time to my father. The life was different from western style, it was different from how it is now, but it was not "structured and predestined" at all. People did make decisions the same way they do it always. Don't listen for idiots, it's impossible to "structure" life of 300000000 people, only in minds of internet morons
well, I lived there in 1970's and 1980's. I live in New York since 1993. #1 education was probably ok, but I cannot really comment on that since my own education was easily one of the best in the world at the time, but it was not typical #2 no #3 ha ha no #4 lies #5 don't know #6 hell no
Then you agree with the author of the article that life is much better now? Why is your education not typical? I don't like the higher education system in the USA, where universities are now primarily businesses in search of profit, rather than educators.
my high school was specializing in math and physics and it was one of the best in the country. it was basically equivalent to first two years of college. and it made it easy for me to pass the entrance exams into one of the best universities in the country. if I did not get into that high school, there's no way I'd get into the top university. and after all that it was fairly trivial for me to get into a decent grad school in the US.
so, the system was not uniform. there was a small number of elite schools teaching kids perfect English, deep math, etc, preparing them for top colleges, etc. but those schools were not really open to the general public. you had to pass a difficult entrance exam, like some of my friends, or like me to have a grandma who pulled some strings and voila I was accepted after failing the exam
"совок" - yes it is offensive for those who lives in Russia and who believes that Soviet era was better. :)
Everything that time was kinda free, but it was not - since people had very small salaries and did not have much in stores. Soviet government told what size of apartment you should get. Everything was by government's control. Socialism is bad idea and it shown by other different countries.
there was a huge offer of jobs. People could easily live their job and in a day find another. To get people state companies had to offer benefits like rooms in hostels and a queue to get an apartment which was certainly a state property. Graduated students could choose a job from several offered depending on their ranking
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I am so sorry Cuba and Vietnam not on the list anymore
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It is very interesting question when (if) we will hear about your experience.
Don't go to Cuba, it is not the same anymore. And Venezuela is still building the real future society, they are not there yet
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who told you this nonsense? Another "man who was only nine years old when the Soviet Union collapsed"?
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#1 education was probably ok,
but I cannot really comment on that since my own education was easily
one of the best in the world at the time, but it was not typical
#2 no
#3 ha ha no
#4 lies
#5 don't know
#6 hell no
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and it was one of the best in the country. it was basically
equivalent to first two years of college. and it made it
easy for me to pass the entrance exams into one
of the best universities in the country. if I did not get into
that high school, there's no way I'd get into the top university.
and after all that it was fairly trivial for me to get into a decent
grad school in the US.
so, the system was not uniform. there was a small number of elite schools
teaching kids perfect English, deep math, etc, preparing them
for top colleges, etc. but those schools were
not really open to the general public. you had to pass a
difficult entrance exam, like some of my friends,
or like me to have a grandma who pulled some strings
and voila I was accepted after failing the exam
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Everything that time was kinda free, but it was not - since people had very small salaries and did not have much in stores. Soviet government told what size of apartment you should get. Everything was by government's control. Socialism is bad idea and it shown by other different countries.
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Тогда я был молодой, высокий и кудрявый))
Теперь старый , маленький и лысый (((
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