Re: PostgreSQL Anniversary Summit, Call for Contributions

On Sat, 11 Mar 2006, Oleg Bartunov wrote:

> It's still not easy to come from Russia to Canada. I have to convince
> officer in canadian embassy that
>
> 1) I have enough money for living in Canada
> 2) I don't want to immigrate
> 3) I'm a loyal citizen
>
> Invitation from conference commitee could help me to get an official letter
> from my institute to embassy (1,2). But we still have 3)
> I should get references for all members of my family from our police
> department that we're not criminals :) There is no united database, so I
> should get references from all places I live ! This is awful and I'm about
> to give up, even if I'd be able to afford tickets.

Yowch! I know it must have improved somewhat since (doesn't it?),
post-Cold War Russia was well painted in the media as 'corrupt and heavy
crime rate' side of things (news rarely reports the good, since the bad is
what sells) ... and none of *that* helps make, *at least* 2 in the above
any easier ;(

>
> Oleg
>
> On Sat, 11 Mar 2006, Christopher Browne wrote:
>
>> Quoth scrappy(at)postgresql(dot)org ("Marc G. Fournier"):
>>> Just curious, but how do ppl come to Canada as tourists from other
>>> countries? I don't imagine they need to be "invited" by a Canadian,
>>> do they?
>>
>> Well, the "invitation" thing doesn't apply at all to people from North
>> America or Western Europe; it's generally just applicable to those
>> coming from Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, and South America.
>>
>> Much of those regions represent "developing countries," where the
>> notion of "middle class" is emerging as opposed to being a mature
>> thing.
>>
>> Absent of "middle class," you generally have the other two ends,
>> namely lower-lower class, who can't conceivably afford to be
>> "tourists," and "upper class," who can certainly arrange invitations
>> (if not diplomatic status :-) !).
>>
>> In my lifetime, the world has quite changed. Thirty years ago, the
>> only way Russians would be coming to Canada would be under pretty
>> strict scrutiny of the apparatus of the former Soviet Union, which
>> would definitely elicit suspicion. Either you'd be of
>> governmental/diplomatic status, an athlete/performer, or, well, quite
>> likely you're an undeclared spy...
>>
>> It's quite an enormous change for relatively ordinary people (well, if
>> they're working on PostgreSQL, they've got to be at least a little
>> extraordinary! ;-)) to be "just visiting" from such places.
>>
>
> Regards,
> Oleg
> _____________________________________________________________
> Oleg Bartunov, Research Scientist, Head of AstroNet (www.astronet.ru),
> Sternberg Astronomical Institute, Moscow University, Russia
> Internet: oleg(at)sai(dot)msu(dot)su, http://www.sai.msu.su/~megera/
> phone: +007(495)939-16-83, +007(495)939-23-83
>
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