Trip Report: Germany,
Ukraine, Russia

Germany

I reported to you in one of my previous trip reports how disgusted I am with the American TV shows projected in foreign countries. How we are exporting smut and then we are upset that there are anti American feelings abroad and that some Muslim religious leaders consider America the Satan.

Well, in Germany that is not the case. I watched TV every night for a week and every channel in my hotel. I do not speak German but I can still recognize sex and for sure violence when I see it. They had none of it. Most of the shows in Germany are talking heads. Where you find the smut is in countries where they do not have the funds to develop their own shows so they buy what they can get for cheap and it is smut. And those are the countries where the people have low education, are not that sophisticated and they believe everything they see. And they are easily impressionable and an easy prey for the radical mullah and their hostile messages.

Ukraine

I lectured in Kiev to about three hundred executives and MBA students. By mistake my overhead projector was put on a very high stand so I had to write with my hand raised high. By mistake, I put my transparency instead of north south ie in a vertical position, I put it east west, ie in a horizontal position. That meant that the audience in order to read on the screen what I wrote on the transparent equipment had to twist their neck and turn their head sideways almost into a ninety degree angle.

Half the way through my lecture, for some reason, I turned my head and looked at the screen and realized what was happening. It was about an hour and a half into my lecture.

During all this hour and a half, no one, no one including the Dean of the Business School who was sitting in the first raw, did anyone point to me that I had the transparency positioned wrong.

I than realized what communism has done to people: they accept anything an authority does, from fear, from respect or what I do not know but they accept and bear any condition that an authority will do to them. That also explains why service is atrocious in ex communist countries. The market ie the consumer, in this case the audience, have no rights. They are there to accept and enjoy and be grateful if they get anything.

Now imagine in this cultural milieu how worthwhile it is to teach entrepreneurship ?

I screamed at the audience how dare they sit quietly and suffer, “ Did you not pay to hear me? So why don’t you stand up for your rights? “

There is and must be a cultural revolution to accompany the political revolution before true market economy is established in these countries.

Russia

To continue the experience from Ukraine. What communism has done is not only to make the people sheep like and accept anything done to them.

I just read what Stalin did to the family. It was part of the communist propaganda that sexual monogamy, faithfulness that married people should commit to each other, was a bourgeois syndrome and should be abolished. So, open marriage was not an American innovation. Communist discovered it and made it morally acceptable and sanctioned it during Stalin’s regime. What did that do? Break the family apart. Another way to break the family cell was to educate the children at school that if they hear anyone in the family speak against Stalin to report it to the police. And quite a few parents were sent to Siberia.

So, if the family cell is broken, to whom do you have any affinity? To whom do you belong? Clearly to the communist state. And Stalin was the father of the nation.

I remember how I was brain washed in communist Yugoslavia where I was born to believe that I was first and above Titos’s son. I had the obligation to report my parents if they said a word against my “True Father”

The (A) role needs to control everything. To mold everything so it is controlled. Any means are acceptable. It uses religion. It uses ideology. It uses and molds what is to be considered moral and what is not. (A)’s reward and punish mercilessly to gain absolute control. (A) wants control and any means are legitimate and if they are not legitimate, they make them legitimate

But is it only happening in communism or fascism? Granted, they are an extreme example of extreme (A) in action. What about large organizations? Especially the multi national. What do they do to gain control of their people? Is moving executives frequently from one country to another so they do not develop any local friendships and develop all their friendships only within the company, an example?.

Any examples, if any, that the readers can provide? .

One more insight from Russia.

One would expect that their culture is (A). Communism was an overwhelming (A) system. Everyone shares the same. Equality at all price etc. Look at the buildings from that era. I can tell which was built during the communist era as I was driven through the city and I never failed when I asked the driver to confirm my choice. The buildings are all big and square and heavy and bombastic: glorified (A). Same is true for the buildings in Berlin from the Nazi era or in Italy from the fascist era.

But look how the Russians drive. I can tell a lot about a culture of a country and the style of a person by how they drive. Russians do not know what a lane is. They all try to find a hole in the traffic they can exploit to move forward ahead of someone else. Very Israeli or Greek style driving. Typical (E) or (P) but it isn’t (A). If you want to see (A) driving, go to England. They know the rules and honor them without being asked or told. It comes natural to them. And guess what else? Russians do not have a translation for the word “efficiency” either. Efficiency is the purpose of (A) and is “displayed on its flag” you might say. So how come the bureaucracy and the (A) buildings and endless forms one has to fill to get anything done in Russia?

I suggest that the (A) during the communist era was not culturally based. It was ideologically imposed. Russians do not stand in line. They push and shove and get ahead of the other person. (A) is not their culture. The British have it in their blood. So do the Germans. So may I postulate that communism was not culturally welcomed in Russia. it was imposed by Stalin with force and intimidation.

How come?

I believe that Stalin was a sick (AE). He wanted to change the country but in a fully controlled way. He imposed change with death warrants. Millions of peasants were murdered or exiled to Siberia to die: Change at any cost with iron controls. And for such a style communism was the best suited system for him. He could have been a Nazi as well. It was style. not values. It is not strange to me that he signed an agreement with Hitler who had the same style.

Oh well enough for today. And that is it for this trip.

Happy Passover for you that celebrate.

Cordially yours, Ichak Kalderon Adizes

PS. Can you send my insights, if you like them, to other executives and suggest to them to subscribe?

Thank you.