Secrecy Is in Our Blood

Today has been an interesting day. Once again, I woke up a little before 5:00 am and could not fall back asleep. This has been putting a real damper on the schedule that I have planned for myself. I don’t want to actually get up and do things that early, because I know I will be tired later, but that means I feel compelled to stay in bed until the last possible minute and I’m not able to do anything in the morning. Maybe tonight.

This hostel I’m staying in is really weird. As of yesterday I seem to be the only person here besides the lady who’s running the place. It’s nice, in the sense that it’s quiet and I have my room to myself, but it’s also strange to be staying here with just this one lady, especially since we don’t interact very much. Also, they’ve decided that tonight is the perfect time to do a little remodeling, which means there has been drilling, sawing, and hammering going on all evening. They’re still out there working and it’s midnight! They’re quieter now, though, so it’s not really bothering me. They did turn off the wifi though, so this entry won’t get posted until I get the office tomorrow.

Speaking of which, here’s a picture of the building where I’ll be working every day.

Today Ivan, the head of the organization, asked me to come and participate in a meeting with a guy from the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), an independent NGO established by Congress, which is the source for at least some of the Institute’s funding. It was interesting to hear Ivan talking about the challenges they are facing and the work they’ve done in the last year, explaining why the US government should continue funding the organization, essentially. These challenges in the last year have included personal physical attacks that resulted in hospitalization, a group storming the office (which explains the emphasis on always looking the office door), and obstacles from the Ministry of Justice, including litigation. Meanwhile the guy from the NED was interesting to talk to and has a pretty cool job. They don’t hire lawyers though - I asked.

During this meeting one of the things we discussed is the importance of helping people use the Russian freedom of information act, which is a challenge because a lot of people either don’t care, or think that the government should keep secrets. Ivan explained, in reference to the Russian people, that “secrecy is in our blood.” While progress of some kinds might be slower than we might like here, the rate of change is pretty remarkable when you consider that Russia has experienced essentially 800 years of bad governance (and often tyranny).

I’ve spent the evening working on my writing competition stuff. I’m going to be hard pressed to get it done, but I’m certainly going to do my best. Unfortunately, I may not have been doing my best for the entire two weeks, so my best tomorrow might not cut it. Those are called consequences. And jet-lag (I just want to sleep all the time!).