In the Hungarian weekly "Heti Világgazdaság" there is
an advertisement begging Hungarian computer graduates
to go to work in the US for 3-5 years, with equal salary
to US counterparts, family allowed to be taken,
accomodation and car provided...
Eva
> Well, Ed, Eva and John.
>
> C.E.O. T.J. Rodgers of Cypress Semi-Conductors has testified before Congress on
> many anti-government pro-private industry initiatives. The highly successful
> Sema-tech venture with government and private silicone valley companies is one
> of his favorite targets. Recently he has been lobbying Congress for a new
> possibility. He wants to have Congress let down the barriers to technicians from
> the former Iron Curtain countries.
>
> Where Rodgers has been instrumental in cutting the budget for most government
> ventures he can't wait to harvest the educational ventures of the most complete
> government programs on the planet. The old Soviet Empire. His chief technician
> is from Cuba. He claims American engineering schools can't cut it, although he
> doesn't seem to have any guilt about being a part of that problem with education.
>
> The same is true with the performing artists, scholars, teachers, and general
> population pouring into the country. In Israel they are the most trained group
> of immigrants in the nation and the Metropolitan Opera in New York has just hired
> James Levine's replacement from the Kirov Opera.
>
> I suspect that in Russia these groups seem all the same and without novel
> creativity to outsiders who have never been welcomed into the Russian houses or
> practice rooms. But like diamonds on the ground in a country where they are
> common, no one notices them much and the tourists simply think of them as
> trinkets. Their lack of wealthy peaks in their environment covered the eyes of
> people used to judging economies by the highs and not by the averages.
>
> But when put the Soviet workers in the environment in North America they shine
> for the wonderful artists they are. I'm not being romantic. I work with them.
> Their training is wonderful, as is their artistry. Their ability to improvise in
> all of the styles is superior and their singing will take over the continent.
> You should not forget that I am a voice teacher in the toughest market in America
> and I know what I see.
>
> It happened in England during Handel's time when the Italian singers and styles
> destroyed the English musical culture. Everyone became a consummer of Italian
> whipped cream and the wonderful Elizabethan composers just dried up on the vine.
>
> It will happen here as well. Not because they are bad people or invaders, they
> happen to be wonderful, generous people but 1.) they have had a better education
> and a work life "training" that we cannot possibly match at the present given our
> poor work training environment. 2.) The sheer number of people trained far
> surpasses our schools. Just as in the last century, they are migrating because
> all of that talent now has no work in their native land. Even the great
> Stanislavsky Theater in Moscow, a world treasure, has been defunded by the
> Russian government.
>
> All of this political stuff you are arguing over is left over from the cold war.
> I would suggest that we pay more attention. Unlike the previous groups that have
> integrated into the culture, these Soviet technicians, artists, poets, singers
> and yes great composers, are too well trained and too grounded in their culture
> to do any less than make North America fit their images of reality. Your
> description of them as second rate and lacking creativity is not in my experience
> even a little be true. The side walk artists in NYCity are no more creative than
> anyplace else and are not generally as skilled as their immigrant colleagues
> painting beside them.
>
> However, I do not believe that "cultural war" is a proper metaphor for this
> coming reality. Instead I would suggest that we either decide to be a culture
> and be big enough to develop a new reality together without all of this "poor"
> economic victim stuff that is making us ravage our social fabric. The social
> fabric that so many Americans moved North to live within, will be forever changed
> without the sacrifice of North American financial input into the West European
> heritage.
>
> As a Native American I feel a very strong emotional tie to the Russians (maybe
> the mongal shamans) and yet I would hate to think that the last 200 years of
> American culture with its great sacrifices was lost because of an economic
> religion that was just too cheap to be a culture. I would add to this that the
> Russian artists don't want to "win" either. They are excited about this new
> reality and its possibilities but without a huge input of insight and funding,
> they WILL win by default. They are a very strong people with strong
> personalities.
>
> Regards,
>
> Ray Evans Harrell, artistic director
> The Magic Circle Chamber Opera of New York, Inc.
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
>
>
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
