The story so far
I have been working as a male manny (nanny), tutor, surrogate father to a Russian oligarch child (see other links at the bottom of this section). My temporary role, as a wind up toy for child X, came to an end this week. Mrs X, mummy of child X, informed me today that I was to be thrown out with all the old toys, as the father of child X thought I was too expensive and a waste of money (although father is loaded). I am like all of child X's and child X's brothers toys, I am without batteries and no longer used or needed.
To smell a rat
Some days ago when the brother of child X began stalking me in the playroom. His mission, to check if I spoke to child X and to translate orders from the nanny cow who is one of two nannies that look after the family of child X. Child X is one of four kids in the family. We will call the brother, child Y. Child Y talks in English like a machine. He is devoid of any empathy or emotion. This has been caused by so many years of getting what he wanted when he wanted. I was late to arrive at child X the other day and nanny cow told child Y, to tell me I was late and that I must stay four hours. I explained to him that their driver was late to collect me and that it was not my fault. Child Y said "that's not our problem you stay four hours". Nanny cow caressed his cheek after he had translated her message to me, he had done his job well. Child Y is twelve and child X is older than a baby but still very young. Mummy wanted him to speak English, although he could hardly speak any Russian. My job was to play with him and speak to him. I did both of these things on a daily basis. After several months of looking after child X, he had not advanced much past a few words in English but then he is still in nappies, so has other more urgent priorities to learn. Mummy X was getting impatient.
Anything can be bought
These oligarch families view the world and people as things to buy. They can buy what they want when they want such as a toy costing thousands of Euro, a yacht in Italy, a business contract or a persons life. We are all disposable, like unwanted toys. They behave like Kings and queens and really do rule the world. In their world anything can be bought. I think it would be a fascinating experiment, to take a child from an oligarch family and put him or her into a high rise flat in a poor family, in a poor part of Russia. leave them there for two weeks and see what they learn. Of course this would never happen.
Nanny of child X has been very jealous of me, a foreigner and a man stamping in her territory, stealing her children and elbowing my way into her luxury private world. Child X has two nannies that work on rotating shifts. One is a cow and one is pleasant and friendly. I have fought a daily battle with nanny cow and lost the battle. Mrs X told me I may be needed later and would call me but I think her husband was jealous and her nanny was jealous of me. I am not so ugly and mummy X is a very attractive young woman. He need not have been jealous as I am married and my dick was cut off years ago. My dick is like an old lift, you push the button but it does not arrive at the floor because a its controlled by a button in another building (my wife) and I would not want it any other way.
Mr X could get any vagina he wanted to, it would be attached to an attractive face with expensive breasts but he would pay for it. Perhaps a rich man paying for woman, is not so different to him marrying one. Russia is full of mega rich men with wives who are whores in all but name. However Mrs X is not a whore but an intelligent woman, who clearly loves Mr X. He seemed devoid of emotion and never even said hello to me in the rare times that I passed him in the marble hallway, as he was leaving to get into his chauffeur driven Mercedes to another business deal or other "activity". He looked the sort of man without a conscience or soul. Perhaps he was different when Mrs X married him? Money and a luxury life must have changed him into a hard, cold machine. We will never know. If walls had ears, they would answer these fascinating questions.
The results and the now
When these kids grow up what kind of adults will they be? Adults lacking in empathy and humanity? Perhaps they will become adults who are arrogant, rich and bad? Money is a blessing but also a curse if handled badly, especially with children's development. I suspect, many of these kids of oligarchs born in the last ten to twenty years, will grow up mentally disturbed and emotional void as a result of their upbringing. Despite my concerns for these oligarch kids, for the right price, I can be bought and I'll be your wind up toy in a wind up world or any oligarchs. I don't need food or water, just put in the key and wind me up and pay me hard cash. I am a 'must have' for any oligarchs child. For now, I'll return to my full-time domestic duties at home. The break will be good but the money will be short, that's life. I am sure something will come up soon. I am for hire, confidentiality is a promise.
I must say, my life here has been interesting and I have seen what many people never see. Since arriving in Moscow, I have never seen so many Bentleys and Range Rovers in one city. I'm sure there are more here than in the whole of the United Kingdom, the colour of choice is of course black. This wealth has been made via a back door and all in a very short space of time.
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Sorry to hear of your plight, but purely on financial grounds: the scenario that you have described sounds like a nightmare and I feel sure you are better off away from the criminal that employed you. And I always think these people are criminals: there is no way one can become so unimaginably rich in such a short period of time in a society that was only 20 years ago a one-party communist state with a command economy and almost no private ownership worth speaking of.
ReplyDeleteBefore I married, one of these types such as your former employer is offered to be my sole employer on terms similar to those which you have recently "enjoyed". I was tempted. He offered me a daily chauffeur driven limo service from my at that time 2-room Kryshchevka Mosccow flat to his "cottage" just outside of the outer ring road and the chance of extensive and exotic foreign travel with his wife and nannies and sprog: I just had to talk to the boy all the time in English.
I'm glad I didn't take up his offer. In fact, I only turned him down because I had just met the woman that became my wife. Best break I've ever had.
Anyway, I hope things turn out fine for you after this sorry affair. I'm quite sure that they will.
All the best!
What you say is true, follow the links:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2028863/4-Russians-exclusive-college-filmed-gang-rape-fellow-student-iPhone.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/2669805/The-1bn-minigarchs-The-children-of-Russias-oligarchs.html
I experienced it mate.
ReplyDeleteYou are most definitely better off out of there. I have had dealing with such people, as you say they only see you as a disposable item. If there are disagreements about terms/payments/contracts/whatever you cannot possibly win, they will go all out to destroy you. There is no honour.
ReplyDeleteMoscow Exile is correct - there are very, very few who earned what they have by "honest graft", I'm blessed to know some of those few which gives me back my faith in mankind.
Great blog - don't stop!
Yes ipolit but the crooks pay well while schools pay peanuts but expect the world, in this case ill risk the crooks as I need money. What choice is there unless I rob a bank or win the lottery!? : )
ReplyDeleteThe story reminds so much of a very nice French movie of "old times", that means of the end of 70-ies previous century (Pierre Richard starring) about a journalist bought as a toy in a store and bought by the son of a very rich man, owner of the newspaper, factories, mansions, etc. He used to buy houses at an irresistible price throwing the owners out immediately. He used to buy people like his son, a teenager who looked like a boy without empathy and emotions. He bought a young wife as a toy for himself. I am sure all the today Russian oligarchs watched this movie at least once. The happy end showed that the boy preferred to stay with Francois Perrin (performed by Richard) instead of his rich father. It was so touching and humane. In these "old days" oligarchs were schoolchildren, and most likely active members of the Young Communist League. Now we know that they desired to become owners of property and byuers of other people when they watched this story. Poor things! You'd enjoy the movie if you find it ("Jouet" produced by Gaumont). Alas in our case there could be no happy end like this. Just one advice: tell next oligarch "a poshli vy vse!" And let them go!
ReplyDeleteI have heard of this French movie but never seen it. I chose the title as I like the song by Mika. See link and it matched my feelings on the issue.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately all too true about the new Russian rich!! I live in Moscow and find it both sad and frustrating that people in the tax department, and Duma declare incomes of a few hundred thousand rubles per year, but own 20 million worth of property. Of course the question never gets asked, or answered as to how they came about the wealth!! Russia is going backwards, and another 12 years of Putin will not help. By then, even blogs such as this will be banned. What really frustrates me is that the Russian people seem to accept this corruption as just another aspect of life. No opposition, no freedom of press, etc, etc, etc..........
ReplyDeleteI try not to be political so I can't see this blog being banned. However I agree with you it is sad. When will it change? Maybe never? Too many pockets are filled up with millions so there is no desire to make change.
ReplyDeleteAs regards your going for the money and accepting the risks involved rather than accepting peanuts at a language school, I understand fully your position. On several occasions I have "gone private", accepting high pay in return for individual tuition rather than work as a low-paid drudge at a language school, but there has never been any contractual agreement in such undertakings - not that such a contract would be of any use to a foreign employee if ever there were a breach of any terms or conditions therein: for example, it goes without saying that in such an arrangement no taxes are paid and if you go running to the law for help, you will very likely end up regretting it.
ReplyDeleteI do recall, however, an old colleague of mine who made a tidy sum in Moscow through the individual tuition of clients whom he had sought out himself. The secret of his success was planning. He arrived in Moscow from Edinburgh in order to work at a run-of-the-mill language school, and then set out to build a portfolio of "private clients". He always demanded the highest price for his tuition and received many refusals, but in the end it paid off: after he had gathered a managable group of fat cats who were willing to pay top-dollar, he quit the school and worked all hours with his "private students" for a year before returning home considerably better off than he was when he arrived in Russia.
He was a very methodical person though, and all this was part of his plan to finance his studies: he was working towards his being awarded a Ph.D and had taken a year off in order to acquire some finances. The fact that he already had an MA in Economics and Business when he arrived in Moscow was one of his biggest selling points to his potential clients, most of whom having their sights set on gaining an MBA either in the UK or USA.
The problem with this tactic though, and I have experienced this many times, is that you are always at the beck and call of your employer and cancellations of lessons because of pressures of business are common and result in a fall in earnings: no show - no dough! At a regular language school, though, if the client or class cancels, the teacher is still paid. And there are other benefits in working at low-paying schools, which benefits may include all or some of the following: paid holidays, accomodation and travel support, visa and work permit support and processing, transport support including the cost of an annual return flight to a teacher's home country and medical insurance.
In my experience, such benefits more than compensate the potentially higher earnings that could be earned teaching "private". The main thing for me in this matter was, however, that I am a married man with three children: I prefer to earn a steady, guaranteed low income with all the benefits rather than a high income off a gang of fat cats that can suddenly ditch me at a moment's notice.
Having said all this, I must add that there was one thing that above all overode my considerations concerning the financial advantages of teaching privately: in my experience, extremely wealthy individuals that hire private tutors for themselves, their spouses or offspring invariably treat the teacher as though he were a servant, and a foreign servant at that, something way down in the social pecking order of the Russian servants hired by the "New Russian".
Mr exile I agree with all you have. However my family is not dependent on my pay so although cancelled lessons from a private client inc any fat cat is a pain its ok. I have tried one school here and I was treated worse than at any rude oligargh. Id rathet take high pay at a fat cat without a promise of paid holiday or cancelled lesson pay.
ReplyDelete