Russian coal-mining town 'paints snow white to hide evidence of pollution'

[ansible]

Russian authorities reportedly slapped white paint onto snow to hide evidence of pollution in a coal-mining town in Siberia. Footage shared by Russian media shows a woman whose hands become coated in what appears to be paint after she brushes against a bank of snow in Mysky, Kemerovo.

“You can see the stains... it even sticks,” she says, according to The Moscow Times. Local media reported white snow was in short supply around the town due to the number of polluting coal mines in the region. On Wednesday, a town official apologised to residents for the incident.

“I will refrain from assessing the professional qualities of the workers, because it is quite obvious,” Dmitry Ivanov said in a statement. “I gave the command to immediately clean ... the paint and put it in order,” he added.

“I apologise to the townspeople to whom this incident spoiled the New Year mood.”

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/russia-snow-white-paint-siberia-mysky-coal-mining-pollution-a8692336.html

[eppur_se_muova]

1. Should have used Wintrex ...

Conger: Sea, sand and sunshine make Paignton the queen of the English Riviera. But for the next six months this sleepy Devonshire resort will be transformed into the blizzard-swept wastes of the South Pole. For today shooting starts on the epic 'Scott of the Antarctic', produced by Gerry Schlick. (walks over to Schlick)

Schlick: (American) Hello.

Conger: Gerry, you chose Paignton as the location for Scott.

Schlick: Right, right.

Conger: Isn't it a bit of a drawback that there's no snow here?

Schlick: Well, we have 28,000 cubic feet of Wintrex, which is a new white foam rubber which actually on screen looks more like snow than snow...

Cut to shot of people nailing and sticking white foam rubber over things. It looks terrible. Others are painting the sand with white paint.

[Achilleaze]

2. Should have called in republican Fake Artistes

republicans are experts at fake shit

[Igel]

3. Potyomkin village.

Stalin's model cities, with the 'burbs being off limits ... The more so, actual villages. Matryona's House (however Matryonin dvor is translated) is a reasonable thing to look at for background.

Hitler had Terezin, the showcase concentration camp for Jews.

It's a common human drive. We all want to look good, and some need to look good. Too much humility, otherwise, and that's not a high-ranked virtue (or a virtue at all) for a lot of people.

If you should look good by right but don't, and humility's ruled out, that leaves two options. Masking or scape-goating. Kemerovo masked; it needed to, to look good, instead of saying, "Hey, we have dirty industries, so of course we look dirty." The alternative would be to blame somebody else, but that at least has to be believable with less than Herculean effort.

Kemerovo lives by its industries. In the late '80s and '90s the fairly prosperous area (by indigenous standards) fell on hard times. Take away the hope, you wound up with crime, organized and petty; alcoholism; family breakdown; and a high level of STDs and suicides. Putin was popular because he said he'd restore the jobs; he did. Gotta give the US President a lot of the credit, though, with those sanctions that forced Russia to rely on marginal factories and resources in marginal communities.

Make all the pollution go away, and the jobs go away. Cheaper to import than to clean up. On paper, in theory, the people must be happier and healthier. But it would be a return to the late '80s and early '90s.