Calgary’s Russian community hurt by negativity surrounding Sochi
Posted Feb 12, 2014 3:08 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Reports of off-colour water, faulty hotel rooms and the twitter account @SochiProblems may be contributing to an unfair assessment of Russian people and their culture, according to some members of Calgary’s Russian community.
Schadenfreude, a term being used on some social media sites to describe a westerner’s “love-to-criticize” attitude of the Sochi games, roughly translates to English as “malicious glee”.
Olga Magyar, said that kind of attitude shows people here are stuck in a Cold War mentality about Russia.
“The general image of a Russian is negative here,” said Magyar.
She moved to Calgary 16-years ago from a Siberian city she calls the “Russian equivalent of Calgary”.
She said, while she thought the opening ceremonies in Sochi did a great job of showing off county’s better attributes, there has been no change here in how people see her compatriots
“Every westerner who has worked with Russians personally, they do appreciate the team spirit and especially the warm hospitality, the very warn friendliness of Russian people,” said Magyer.
She said she understands where the negative view comes from, but it’s not exactly accurate.
Father Peter Shashkoff, with the All Saints Russian Orthodox Church, said he is a bit hurt by the negative attention on these games, adding it seems social media has taken too much attention off the Olympians and to problems that should be helped, not mocked.
“Each country has its own pros and cons. I lived in Australia, there were problems there, lived in the United States, there were problems there, living in Canada, there are problems here,” said Shashkoff.
He said the “poking-fun” of real life situations in Russia, like unclean drinking water, doesn’t make sense when you look at Canada’s known humanitarian attitude.
Before the Olympic Games opened in Sochi, the International Olympic Committee president, Thomas Bach, urged the world not to drive a political agenda on the back of the athletes.
Both Magyar and Shashkoff said they agree with the stamen, but don’t think the western world has taken it to heart.
Magyar said she believes the high level of politics seen in recent Olympic Games is a new phenomenon.
