Slashdot Mirror
Russian City Ever Watchful Against Being Sucked Into Earth
Jeremiah Cornelius writes "Dmitry Rybolovlev bought the most expensive apartment ever sold in New York City — the $88 million penthouse at 15 Central Park West — and did much for local real estate values. But in Berezniki, the mining city where he made his fortune, properties have literally been plunging. 'Imagine putting a sugar cube in a cup of tea,' Mikhail A. Permyakov, the chief land surveyor for Uralkali, the company that owns the mine. 'That is what happened under Berezniki.' Berezniki is afflicted by sinkholes, hundreds of feet deep, that can open at a moment's notice. So grave is the danger that the entire city is under 24-hour video surveillance. In 2008 a government commission cleared Mr. Rybolovlev of wrongdoing, blaming past unsafe practices for the sinkholes. A senior official close to Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin says that Mr. Rybolovlev bears some responsibility, even though he sold the mine after the occurrence of the first great openings."
There are a few places in Sweden where entire towns are in the process of being gradually moved due to the expansion of neighboring mines. The thing is, these towns were built _because_ of those mines in the first place, generations ago. The citizens don't mind, they actually support it, since they know their towns would become ghost towns without the mines.
That being said, from the sound of things this town should have undergone similar procedures a long time ago. But there is more than one side to this type of situation.
If the town would not be on top of the mine, these sinkholes in town would not appear and this would be non-news.
Guess why the town is on top of the mine? Because it was originally a Soviet labor camp and built on walking distance from point of prime interest, the mine in this case. It's quite hard to blame "privatisation" for this decision. Also, if these sinkholes would appear on a mine in the middle of Siberia with no population above them, nobody would care. Those wouldn't be even environmental issue - just holes in the ground.
The potash mines employed many people for years before Mr Rybolovlev started skimming the profits off for his personal benefit (the mines opened in the 1930s as a Soviet work camp). Putting it another way, this stuff probably would have been mined whether or not Mr. Rybolovlev got involved, and it was mined for decades. He was just fortunate enough (*cough* corruption *cough*) to buy the mines for cheap when the government practically gave them away in the 1990s. This is a lucky opportunist, not a particularly skilled entrepreneur who cares about their employees. I'd be surprised if all the employees in his former potash business earn as much as he made from the deal (he sold it for billions). He's more concerned with whether he'll lose his $100 million yacht in his divorce.
FTA: "The largest sinkhole appeared in 2007."
I thinks its even worse than you think since the only reason this tycoon is being made an example of NOW is that he probably forgot to pay his dues and/or respects to soon-to-be-president-again Putin. At least that has been the narrative in the past when some wealthy Russian falls from grace.
In Soviet Russia, the corrupt decorrupt you.
The point is, it's the wealthy, influential people who are the problem.
No, the point is it's the sociopathic people who are the problem. It just so happens that many of the rich happen to be sociopathic, but they can be seen in all strata of a society. They care only about themselves, and will enrich themselves at the expense of others. But it is unfair to say it is the wealthy that are the problem. Look at Warren Buffet, who advocates for heavy taxes on the wealthy, or Bill and Melinda Gates, who donate much of their money to charity. There are plenty of wealthy people that, while they still try to further their wealth (which is what "pursuit of happiness" originally meant), still believe they have social responsibilities to those less fortunate than them, or to the government.
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil