Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!mcvax!inria!imag!csinn!schiltz From: schiltz@csinn.uucp (Jean Pierre Schiltz) Newsgroups: comp.society.futures Subject: Re: UUCP - USSR Message-ID: <140@magic.csinn.uucp> Date: Tue, 27-Oct-87 04:34:59 EST Article-I.D.: magic.140 Posted: Tue Oct 27 04:34:59 1987 Date-Received: Sat, 31-Oct-87 00:33:43 EST References: <11217@orchid.waterloo.edu> <410@suadb.UUCP> Organization: Cap Sogeti Innovation, Paris, France Lines: 66 Summary: A few words of my experience about various topics in this discussion. After reading all the articles I have here about the issue (as recommended in 'How to use the news :-)'), I would like to precise the following : - Moscow is only 44 hours from Paris by train, and the soviet customs are the only ones that actually open the cars ceilings to look if there is someone there. I suppose that some*thing could be put in as well, and a Sun is not that big, is it ? - I think it is quite difficult to phone from Moscow to Paris (about 2 hours waiting), for technical reasons essentially (or that is what they say). Note that I have been there for a few weeks, not for tourism. I do not pretend that I know ALL about Soviet Union anyway, but I think I know a very little bit more than some other people. - Hungarian people can go as they want to Austria and to Europe, provided they pay. I know they can bring computers home if they say it was a gift (for fiscal reasons). It is very easy to phone France from Hungary (I have done so from a phone booth). It is also very easy to go to Hungary (I got my visa 2 days before leaving from the embassy in Vienna). - Note that though I also have been to Yugoslavia, and speak some russian, I am not a 'crypto-communist' (;-)) and have no money in the Banque de l'Europe de l'Est... - For minitels, I can tell you that lots of people finally got a $800 bill for a month, and that in France, if you claim your bill is too high, the first question you are asked is "did you get a minitel ?". I think the discussion such as the one we have seen before would not be that long if all the writers had had to pay that price. Pink Minitel companies are the ones that make the more money in France. - For computers in soviet union, as far as big computers are concerned, the only terminals I have seen were old tin-boxes in the airports. In the big hotels of Moscow and Leningrad, there are NONE. So I suppose that would they have such computers, they would prefer to use them for more URGENT purposes than discussing with people overseas. Paper magazines are still up-to-date, air mail works well (at least in Europe, I have been told that US mail was not that good, is it ?), it gives the writers time to think instead of typing things at the same time as they come to the mind (just what I am doing at the moment :-)) and -of course- it is much easier to control. For the Canadian to Soviet paper someone told about a few messages ago, notice that of course you will see a lot of criticism about bureaucracy - it has been a long time tradition in USSR and even in Russia to do so - but you will never see any criticism about WHY the bureaucracy is like that - not speaking of criticizing the Government. Now, to relax, a joke : An american man says to a soviet man : " America is real democracy : I can go in front of the White House and shout "Reagan, you bastard !", no one will arrest me ! " And the soviet answers : " Well, I can do the same, go in front of the Kremlin and shout "Reagan, you bastard !", no one will arrest me either !". Sorry for my english, very approximative, and for this long notice. I am very interested in any review, mail lists, and theoretical works, etc... in/about Esperanto. I can not speak esperanto, or at least very few. Jean-Pierre Schiltz - Cap Sogeti Innovation - 118 rue de Tocqueville 75017 Paris (France) - +33(1) 46 22 60 27 # 232.