I just finished reading David Satter's book Darkness at Dawn: The Rise of the Russian Criminal State, about life in Russia in the 1990s and early 2000s. The most depressing book I have ever read. Crime, corruption, despair, inhumanity. Every government official is corrupt. Everybody's on the take.
One anecdote made me laugh.
An anonymous caller phoned in to the Russian equivalent of 911, reporting a dead body at a certain address.
The 911 operator tries to figure out which police department will have jurisdiction and find their telephone number.
She calls, but, unbeknownst to her, she has dialed the wrong number. She has actually called some schmo in an apartment somewhere in town.
"There is a dead body at 123 Main St." she says. "Have you written this down?"
"Yes," the unknown man on the other end says. "I've written it down."
After a few minutes, the guy calls her back and asked, "What am I supposed to do with this dead body?"
This is not a joke. Satter (p. 227) says this actually happened. Weird, but it made me laugh.
One anecdote made me laugh.
An anonymous caller phoned in to the Russian equivalent of 911, reporting a dead body at a certain address.
The 911 operator tries to figure out which police department will have jurisdiction and find their telephone number.
She calls, but, unbeknownst to her, she has dialed the wrong number. She has actually called some schmo in an apartment somewhere in town.
"There is a dead body at 123 Main St." she says. "Have you written this down?"
"Yes," the unknown man on the other end says. "I've written it down."
After a few minutes, the guy calls her back and asked, "What am I supposed to do with this dead body?"
This is not a joke. Satter (p. 227) says this actually happened. Weird, but it made me laugh.
