These words have been in
my head quite a bit in the past 6 months. It was in early fall that I
began the dreaded process of renewing my Russian residency permit,
and at the beginning it did not look like things would go well.
Immigration officials in different offices told me different
information about the process; it seemed like I was getting funny
looks as they noted my country of citizenship. I heard various
stories – of the Polish journalist who was deported, of the
American pastor whose family was allowed to cross the border...while
he was stuck in Finland.
Not that I have anything
against Finland, mind you, but I was already imaging the various ways
the application process could end badly – I could be denied on some
technicality; I could be denied without even a technicality. I would
have to live in Estonia and get three-month visas. We would need to
move with the family to America...
The expiration date of my
residency permit grew closer and closer. “My” immigration
official in Rostov had been moved to another department. I no longer
knew anyone. Days passed. “Wait,” I heard. And “wait” again.
There must be something wrong. They must be finding a way to make a
good show of exiling an American. “Just because you're paranoid
doesn't mean they aren't after you.”
And then, as the working
day was ending on the very day when my permit was to expire, I still
didn't have my document. I was waiting outside of the office. I was
told that I would get the stamp I need. But I didn't have it. It was
5.15 pm on a Friday. It seemed that my paranoia was going to live on
through at least another weekend. Unless I was made to leave the
country sooner. Or worse...
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| When you speak with your cat, that's not paranoia. Paranoia is when you're afraid to say too much while your cat is around. |
And then, the “higher-up”
who signs such documents came out of a meeting and, instead of
heading home (as he could have done when the working day is
officially over), he took the time to grab my folder, look it over,
and sign my Vid na zhitelstvo.
The process was over; I could legally remain in the country for
another five years.
I can't explain why there
were so many delays. But I can say that this country is
changing. In years past, you wouldn't expect a bureaucrat to steal
even a minute of his weekend for you. Not unless he was getting
rewarded.
In my experience, this is
not the case anymore. There is a chance, even a relatively good
chance, that you might be treated as a human being by the
bureaucratic machine. I wouldn't go so far as to say that the
pressure of the “system,” is decreasing (that would not be the
case), but on the other hand more and more frequently, when I push
paranoia aside, I see that my interactions with government officials
has taken a better turn.
Take the case of my
meeting with a traffic police officer just a few days ago. He
stopped me as I drove home from Matvey's skating practice; they were
stopping everyone driving without their headlights on to warn them
that there is a new rule about having your dims on even in the
daytime. Besides my headlights being turned off, though, I had a more
significant infraction - it turned out that I had left my documents
(licenses, insurance and registration!) at home. Now home was just a
few minutes away, but it was situations like these just a few years
ago, where you felt fully vulnerable to the whim of the police. I
was in the wrong, so, was the policeman going to ask for a bribe? Was
he going to expect that I offer one? Was he going to tow the car to a
safe place (at significant cost of time and money) while I go fetch
the documents? I allowed myself only to hope that he might allow me
to leave the car with him as I took the bus home to get the
documents. But what did this policeman do instead? He allowed me to
drive home in the car and return to him to show him the documents!
Instead of letting distrust rule the day, he treated me as a human.
And I was so thankful I almost wanted to bribe him (almost).
Like many of society's
changes here in the past 15 years, this was actually a bit stunning.
But it is also reflective of larger changes.
And it makes me wonder –
maybe all of us are used to being a bit too paranoid. Whatever
concerns the West has with this country (and I understand that there
are significant and legitimate concerns) and whatever concerns Russia
has with the West (and here, too, I can sometimes see the point) it
would be helpful for everyone if we stopped treating each other as
though the other is out to get us. Such thinking boxes us in to
situations of either us or them, of over-emphasizing one side's being
in the right while doing the same for describing the way the other
side is in the wrong.
The government here, the
one I was paranoid about a few months ago, has given me the right to
remain here for 5 more years. I hope that in that time we can all
move away from the Cold War environment that created “Catch-22”
in the first place...and I hope that I have the wisdom to make my
own, small contribution to that change, leading to a greater peace.
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| Paranoia - sometimes we overdo it. |
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