We often say: “How lucky he was!” - although we ourselves don’t clearly know what this concept means. If you explain it briefly and clearly, then luck is a positive resolution life situations. Some people are lucky in the workplace, others are lucky in their personal lives, others win the lottery, and there are the luckiest people who are always doing well, as if their luck was chronic. Even if something starts out bad, then it unexpectedly turns into a happy ending. The names of such darlings of fate can often be seen on the pages of newspapers or on television screens.
The luckiest person in the world is Croatian music teacher Frayn Selak. During his life, he repeatedly found himself in terrible situations, but he always managed to get away with it. His series of troubles began in 1962.
And again, three years later, I experienced a strong shock. The bus he was traveling in ran off the road. As a result, many died. And our lucky guy, again in a state of shock, received only minor injuries.
Another incident
The next event occurred in 1970, when Selak was driving his own car. Suddenly the car caught fire. In a matter of seconds, the Croatian managed to get out of the burning car. A moment later it exploded. Frank was not injured at all.
The subsequent emergency occurred three years later. The old one sprayed gasoline directly onto the running engine. There was a fire. This time Frayn Selak was left without hair - and that’s all.
Then the luckiest man in the world lived quietly for 22 years. Until one day he was hit by a bus in his own hometown. Upon examination, doctors stated the absence of any wounds at all. Just shock.
Last accident
A year later, Selak went traveling in his car. After turning on the road in the mountains, the Croatian suddenly saw a truck rushing straight at him. He jumped out of the car, which stopped over a cliff, and hung on a tree. It was from there that he watched his car fly into the abyss. The result is a slight shock.
Fortune
In his declining years, fortune did not turn away from the music teacher. He was lucky enough to win a huge amount of money in the lottery.
What happened next in the Croatian's life? Various sources give different information. According to one source, he distributed all the money he won to his relatives so as not to tempt fate any more. His plans were to build a small chapel. Another source says that the luckiest man in the world bought a house, a car and married a woman 20 years younger than him. Frayn Selak also considered his previous four marriages to be disasters.
The luckiest people on earth live quietly, without even expecting any luck.
The Croatian Frane Selak often had accidents where he would inevitably die, but somehow managed to survive. He had his first experience of this kind in January 1962: Selak was traveling on a train when the train derailed and fell into an icy river. 17 passengers died, and the lucky one escaped with a broken arm, minor scratches and bruises.
Then he fell out of the plane when a door unexpectedly opened during the flight, was saved when the bus in which he was traveling overturned and fell into the river, survived two car accidents... Once Frane literally jumped out of his car at the last second, whose gas tank caught fire while driving and the car exploded. Surprisingly, this man is still alive.
In 2003, Selak won a million dollars in the Croatian lottery. Well, perhaps he deserved such luck: after all, because of everything that happened to him, Selak can simultaneously be called both the unluckiest and luckiest person alive.
Beethoven worked to the rhythm of his arrhythmia
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Russia is a country of despondency, and a unique one at that. In few countries, under similar living conditions, people feel as unhappy as we do. This is a scientifically proven fact: as a result of the World Values Survey, which lasted 30 years, scientists Ronald Inglehart University of Michigan came to the conclusion that Russians are among the most unhappy people on Earth.
The study was conducted in one hundred countries around the world. People were asked how happy they were and their sociocultural values were examined. Russia, Nigeria and Iraq took the last places in this “happiness index”.
Ronald Inglehart says: “Incredible pessimism was identified back in 1981, when our group conducted a pilot study in the Tambov region. It recorded levels of unhappiness similar to India and Nigeria, whose residents were significantly poorer. We did not expect such a result!”
Since 1991, scientists from the above-mentioned university have measured the level of happiness in Russia. Once again, they were shocked by the results: our country fell from a low level of happiness in 1991 to a level that was not recorded even in countries affected by war or epidemics! And by 1996, the level of happiness fell even lower!
A slight increase was recorded in 2006 when travel to European countries became available to many residents of Russia. Russians had approximately the same amount of happiness as Albanians. In the latest table, Russia is in 88th place out of 97. Ethiopia, Romania and Rwanda are slightly happier than our country, Iraq, Albania and Zimbabwe are more unhappy.
— The level of happiness depends on the level of income. In rich countries happy people more, says Ronald Inglehart. — Increasing the level of well-being helps people become happier exclusively in poor countries. The more inequality there is in a country, the more unhappy its residents are. Democracy is necessary - not only in politics, but also in Everyday life. A person who has freedom of choice is confident that he will be able to change his life for the better, and this makes him happier... Societies that develop tolerance towards people of other races, nationalities, religions, and sexual preferences are happier. The best indicator of the level of happiness is the attitude towards a woman.
Scientists led by Inglehart have found that even the inhabitants of Africa are not ready to endure hardships like the Russians.
Last December, during a visit to Russia, Ronald Inglehart said: “As our 30 years of research have shown, the well-being of a country and the level of happiness of its citizens are connected in a rather intricate way. As long as a country is poor and the people in it are poor, economic growth leads to more happy people. But this doesn't last long. Poor countries have fewer happy people than richer ones. I don't want a country with so many nuclear weapons, was driven into a corner and filled with unhappy people."
Experts confirm the conclusions of American scientists All-Russian Center for the Study of Public Opinion. According to them, our fellow citizens feel unhappy because of poverty, low income, difficult life circumstances, lack of a good job, and loneliness. The list of “misfortunes” is completed by rising prices and lack of confidence in the future.
A Director of the Interdepartmental Center for Socio-Economic Measurements of the Russian Academy of Sciences Alexey Shevyakov says: “A huge mass of poor and almost poor people have appeared in our country. On the other hand, we have the top of society - 10-12% of the rich, who live separately from the large mass of people. We have a deep socio-economic stratification of society.”
Persistent depression
— The conclusions made by American scientists are correct. Russia is in such a situation that this cannot even be called a disaster. “This is something worse,” says a member of the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation commission on social issues and demographic policy, president of the regional public organization promoting the protection of children's rights "Right of the Child" Boris Altshuler. — For a huge number of families, the birth of a child is a “leap” into poverty and into impossible living conditions; there is nothing to feed the children, there is nowhere to live with them. The reasons for mass Russian poverty are known: low incomes of the population due to the suppression of domestic production combined with monopolistically inflated prices for the most necessary things: the purchase price of a liter of milk is about 10 rubles, with a sales price of 40-60 rubles. And so it is in everything. The only good news is that in the “pseudo-market” new Russia a certain “Vozdukhoprom” has not arisen, where the very ability to breathe does not yet depend on the level of family income. The catastrophic aging of the country's population against the backdrop of low life expectancy (62 years for men, 74 for women, in the USA - 76 and 81, respectively) is stated in the WHO report presented on May 13. Where will happiness come from in such a situation?!
“SP”: — Is it possible to correct the situation and increase the level of happiness?
— To do this, first of all, it is necessary to overcome poverty: to reduce the price of the “minimum consumer basket» in the areas of housing and food. Massive social construction is required. New jobs will appear and the income of many families currently classified as poor will increase. With the construction of public housing and roads, President Roosevelt in the late 1930s took the United States out of Great Depression. The possibility of applying this experience in modern Russia depends on the state’s ability to limit the price appetites of monopolies.
Children must be taken care of, otherwise Manezhnaya Square 2010, drugs, and juvenile crimes are inevitable.
Author of books on child and adult psychology Inna Malkhanova claims that more than half of the world's population accepts life as it is, although about a third are concerned about the state of their affairs: “Eastern Europeans do not feel very happy, but regarding Russians, I agree with the conclusions of American scientists. 75% of our country's population lives in poverty. At the same time, in Russia, 1.5% of the population owns more than 50% of the national wealth.
In this terrible situation, the Russian government wrote off the debt of Libya in the amount of 4.5 billion dollars, Iraq in the amount of 12 billion dollars, Afghanistan in the amount of 11.6 billion... Our rulers provided Venezuela with a loan of 2.2 billion dollars for the purchase of weapons. The Republic of Nauru, home to about 15 thousand people, received funds for the implementation of social programs after recognizing independence Abkhazia loan of 50 million dollars!
“SP”: — So, Russians will not be happy in the foreseeable future?
- What are you talking about? Almost half the country lives in a state of persistent depression. People are going wild from the inability to support their children, from unemployment, from the fact that they don’t see a way out... People show unmotivated aggression, commit suicide for minor reasons.
Poverty and misfortune
Inna Malkhanova’s words are confirmed by the abundance scary stories, occurring in the Russian state.
The village of Kozlovka, located in the Buturlinovsky district of the Voronezh region, has been rocked by scandals for almost a month. The peace in the village was disturbed after a local guy got into a fight with an Azerbaijani peer. The young men admitted that they were both wrong and made peace.
A few days later, a fight broke out again: this time, 20-year-old Alexey Lepyokhin got into a fight with 21-year-old Armenian Robert Koshelyan. Some of the residents sided with Robert: they say that Lyoshka recently returned from the army, his blood is boiling... Another part said that Robert is not an angel, he wrote on the Internet that “he will do whatever he wants.” Lyoshka didn’t like this and expressed his dissatisfaction to his neighbor. As a result, he suffered a broken jaw.
At first, the parents of the fighters wanted to “settle the matter peacefully.” The Lepyokhin family demanded 100 thousand rubles from the Koshelyan family, but they replied that they could only provide 30 thousand. The Lepyokhins were not satisfied with the mentioned amount and Alexey wrote a statement to the police against Robert.
Local residents were outraged by the behavior of the Koshelyan family. At the same time, they remembered about the Azerbaijanis, whose family opened a bar in the village. Several dozen people decided to eliminate the “hot spot” and headed to the bar. The parents of the victim Alexei Lepyokhin were not among them.
Head rural settlement Alexander Golovkov managed to reason with his fellow villagers. But a few days later, almost 500 people gathered near the bar. Residents of neighboring villages came to the aid of the Kozlovites. People shouted that the visitors were to blame for the fights and the sale of low-quality alcohol. The police had great difficulty in calming down the angry people.
Local authorities, wanting to end the conflict, invited residents to a meeting at the village club. About 200 people came, but there was no conversation. People shouted: “They beat our children, and you stand up for strangers!”, “The newcomers here are getting rich, but we are beggars!”
— In my opinion, the causes of the conflict in Kozlovka have nothing to do with interethnic contradictions. Poverty, a feeling of hopelessness, irritation that strangers are earning a lot of money... People are tired of a hard life and take out their anger on newcomers, says Voronezh human rights activist Andrey Komarov.
Last July in the Pskov region, 58-year-old teacher Vishlevskaya high school Nadezhda Udaltsova hanged herself in a barn near her house in the village of Kryukovo, Novorzhevsky district. We talked about this terrible story.
According to the relatives of the deceased, Nadezhda Udaltsova committed suicide because her students received bad Unified State Exam results. She indicated this motive in her suicide note.
In May of this year, a 14-year-old schoolgirl who lived in the village of Tetyanovo in the Gornomarisky district of the Mari El Republic was found hanged on the veranda of her house. IN personal diary the deceased girl explained that she was pushed to commit suicide by the prediction of the American preacher Harold Camping about the coming end of the world. The girl’s teachers and friends say that she was inquisitive and actively interested in what was happening in the world.
The schoolgirl changed when she became familiar with the sermons of the American charismatic Harold Camping. The American, who has been anathematized as a false prophet by almost all Christian communities in the United States, is known for his predictions of the end of the world. IN last time Camping, by its own will, set the date of the apocalypse for May 21 of this year...
In June, a 14-year-old schoolgirl committed suicide in the city of Kopeisk, Chelyabinsk region. The girl grew up in a prosperous family; on the eve of the tragedy, she had no conflicts at school or at home. In her suicide note, the schoolgirl wrote that no one needed her.
— People who accept life as it is are much happier than those who experience severe anxiety about their lives. Alas, Russians, most of whom are concerned with getting a living and feeding their children, cannot think like that, says Inna Malkhanova.
1 Denmark 4.24 2 Puerto Rico 4.21 3 Colombia 4.18 4 Iceland 4.15 5 Northern Ireland 4.13 6 Ireland 4.12 7 Switzerland 3.96 8 Holland 3.77 9 Canada 3.76 10 Austria 3.68 11 El Salvador 3.67 12 Malta 3.61 13 Luxembourg 3.61 14 Sweden 3.58 15 New Zealand 3,57 17 Guatemala 3.53 18 Mexico 3.52 19 Norway 3.5 20 Belgium 3.4 | 78 Tanzania 0.13 79 Azerbaijan 0.13 80 Macedonia -0.06 81 Rwanda -0.15 82 Pakistan -0.30 83 Ethiopia -0.30 84 Estonia -0.36 85 Lithuania -0.70 86 Latvia -0.75 87 Romania -0.88 88 Russia -1.01 89 Georgia -1.01 90 Bulgaria -1.09 91 Iraq -1.36 92 Albania -1.44 93 Ukraine -1.69 94 Belarus -1.74 95 Moldova -1.74 96 Armenia -1.80 In chapter Russian citizens have two strong convictions. First, they are the most unfortunate. Secondly, they don’t have enough money to be happy. American sociologist proved that the first statement is true and the second is false. True, there is also good news. Our grief can be helped if we have the desire. For 30 years, under the leadership of University of Michigan professor Ronald Inglehart, the World Values Survey (WVS) was conducted. Within its framework, scientists study civil society in hundreds of countries around the world. People are asked how happy they are and their sociocultural values are also explored. Every year the WVS publishes a “happiness index”, which is very popular with the world media. Russia traditionally ranks last in this index. Our citizens feel as unhappy as the inhabitants of impoverished Nigeria and war-torn Iraq. The most unhappy people on Earth live in Russia. This is already a scientifically established fact.“Russia is a unique case. Here the level of happiness is much lower than it should be under the current state of affairs,” says Ronald Inglehart. According to him, incredible pessimism was identified back in Soviet times: in 1981, his group conducted a pilot study in the Tambov region. The results were shocking. “The level of happiness depends on the level of income - in rich countries there are more happy people. But in the Tambov region, the level of unhappiness was recorded at the level of India and Nigeria, which were much poorer,” says Inglehart. Since 1991, the level of happiness in Russia has been measured every five years. The results amazed the scientist so much that starting next year he will head the Laboratory of Comparative Social Research, which is opening here with a grant from the Russian government. “Your country is a very interesting case,” the scientist admits. “Although, of course, I wouldn’t wish anyone to be the object of such interest – after all, it’s the same as a doctor’s interest in a unique disease.” "Social Doctor" Inglehart knows what he's talking about: judging by the results of measurements, Russia has fallen from a low level of happiness in 1991 to a completely impossible level. Moreover, such a speed and depth of decline has never been recorded - even in countries engulfed in war, epidemics and famine. But this was not enough - by 1996, the level of happiness fell even more. And one more thing... A slight increase in it was recorded only in 2006. By this time, the country was swimming in petrodollars, holidays at foreign resorts had become commonplace for Russians, and Russian prices caused consternation among stingy foreigners. Russian citizens had as much happiness as Albanians. Inglehart explains the Russian phenomenon by stagnation and then the collapse of the USSR, lack of democracy, etc., but in general he admits that the answer is not complete. Still, the collapse of communism affected other countries, and even the former Soviet republics; many countries experienced much more misfortune and poverty, but such pessimism is not observed among their citizens. In essence, Inglehart came to our country to find the reasons for the phenomenal unhappiness of Russians. One explanation is the sociocultural values of Russians. In 2006, WVS compiled a kind of cultural map of the world. All countries studied (which is 90% of the Earth's population) were distributed along two coordinate axes. One concerns cultural values: traditional - modern. Roughly speaking, “All for one” or “Each for himself.” The second measures motivation: survival values – self-realization values. Again, continuing the generalization: “It’s better to live on your knees” or “It’s better to die standing.” The results are as follows. The Scandinavians thought it was better to die standing, but every man for himself. The English-speaking world also preferred to die standing, but everyone doubted it for themselves. Japanese and residents South-East Asia, professing Confucianism, decided that everyone is, of course, for himself, but it is not at all necessary to die standing. The inhabitants of Catholic Europe differed from the Confucians in only one thing: they are not sure that every man is for himself. Proud residents Latin America Naturally, they answered that they were ready to die standing, but all for one. Residents of Africa and South Asia are ready to live on their knees, but again, all for one. In post-Soviet countries, citizens chose to live on their knees, but every man for himself. Russia turned out to be the most “advanced” here - even the inhabitants of Africa are not ready to endure as much as the Russians, and comparable individualism was found only among the Bulgarians and Belarusians. It is clear that in a world where “everyone dies alone” and “you die today, and I die tomorrow,” it is difficult to be happy. The second explanation lies in a discovery made by Ronald Inglehart's group. It turned out that the saying “money doesn’t buy happiness” is absolutely true. True, only from a certain level of income: when the country’s GDP per capita exceeds 5 thousand dollars per year. Up to this point, increasing the level of well-being of citizens makes them happier. Moreover, with a GDP below 2 thousand dollars a year, this is the only thing that can bring them happiness. If the GDP level exceeds 15 thousand dollars per capita, then money cannot make citizens happy. “Bill Gates is unlikely to be much happier than the average American,” Inglehart explains. Russia is one of the countries where GDP per capita is about 15 thousand dollars. That's why we don't become happier when oil prices rise. “Increasing wealth only helps make people happy in poor countries,” Inglehart explains. – If we were talking about countries like Nigeria or India, I would advise their governments to boost their economies. But in countries like Portugal, as incomes increase, happiness grows slowly or does not grow at all.” So Russia will benefit from greater fairness in income distribution much more than rising wages and even pensions. “The more unequal a country is, the more unhappy its people are,” says Inglehart. He also notes the need for democracy. But not so much in politics, but rather in everyday life. “A person who has freedom of choice is confident that he can change his life for the better, and this makes him happier,” says the scientist. And freedom of choice is not only and not so much the election of government bodies, but the opportunity to choose a place of residence, education, work, medical care And so on. That is, we need transport accessibility for all regions, reform of education and medicine, reform of the registration system and many other reforms. Finally, there is another factor that generally has little to do with the authorities, but which is a good indicator of the level of happiness: tolerance. “Societies that are more tolerant of people of different races, ethnicities, religions, gender preferences, etc., are happier,” says Inglehart. “And the best indicator of the level of happiness is the attitude towards a woman.” This sign was noticed even before the scientist by the American writer Robert Heinlein. The health of a society can be judged by its attitude towards women, teaches the hero of his most famous novel, Friday. A society that demeans women is sick. However, one cannot ignore the peculiarity of Russian citizens, which economist Evgeniy Yasin calls “ high level poverty." This phenomenon, one might say, is historical and is reflected in the very proverb about the Kazan orphan, which, as is known from Russian history, received rich gifts from Ivan the Terrible for complaints. “It’s already written in our brains: bend down, don’t stick your head out, this is still with Tatar-Mongol yoke is coming,” says psychologist Valery Gostev. It is still profitable to pretend to be poor in Russia - so Russian citizens give answers that surprise honest American scientists. However, this benefit is questionable. Firstly, it makes it difficult to see the real problems. The writer Varlam Shalamov, in his famous “Kolyma Stories,” wrote how prisoners, in order to go to the “hospital,” feigned illness, not noticing that they were already mortally ill. That's not what we're crying about, sociologists say. Russian society“atomizes”, all social and even family ties are severed, and people complain that there is not enough money, or even that their neighbor has more money. Secondly, it is not without reason that the same American psychologists believe that in order to become happy, you must first smile. “The mourner’s pose” sooner or later leads to the fact that a person really begins to believe in his misfortunes. Result? Already during the first study in the Tambov region in 1981, Inglehart discovered an increase in alcoholism and an increase in male mortality - something that is now recognized as a weapon of murder of the nation. Note that we are talking about 1981, not 1991. That is, the “damned democrats” have nothing to do with it. At first we thickened the colors a little so that we had something to drink to. Then they believed themselves and added. Then reality confirmed that we were right (how could it be otherwise, because no one doubted the worst) - well, how can you not get drunk? Then... And then it may be too late: the heart of society, like the heart of a person, may not be able to withstand it, the scientist warns. Pessimism kills. Perhaps it was the authorities' awareness of this danger that led to the fact that Inglehart's group was the only one in the field of social sciences to win a grant from the Russian government. The scientist himself admits that he is ready to give advice based on the results of the study. “I don’t want a country with so many nuclear weapons to be cornered and filled with unhappy people,” he simply explains his interest in the project. Our interest is much higher, so it’s worth listening carefully to the scientist’s advice. And first, try to at least learn to smile. Once upon a time there lived the most unfortunate man on earth. He was lonely, did not know love and affection, lived in his own invented and closed world. He loved to sit on the windowsill for hours in cloudy weather, looking out the window. The man watched as heavy, gray, shapeless clouds flew across the endless sky, covering all space. It seemed that soon the whole world would be covered with a gray and nondescript veil of wandering clouds. The sun persistently broke through them. The heavy rays of the heavenly body fell to the ground, having the shape of indestructible pillars. It seemed that the great columns of Olympus could not withstand the strength and power of the continuous wind, the weight of gray clouds and the loneliness of the unfortunate person. Finally, the sun defeated the cruel war and the clouds floated into the distance. They resembled ships on a long journey. The cold, nasty wind was their captain, which carried them away from the window on which the unfortunate man was sitting. And he silently watched them. After all, they could fly wherever they wanted, not tied to anything, they wandered through cities and plains, mountains and fields. But the unfortunate man did not know that with the first heavy rain they would irrigate the earth, thereby giving their lives to others, that the journey of the gray ships across the sky would not last long. Suddenly, a cloud descends towards the unfortunate man’s window. It was not as gray and large as its brothers. The cloud leaned against the cold glass of the guest it flew to. On the other side of the window sat an unhappy man, watching the cloud. Drops ran down the glass, they resembled roads leading to the unknown. A sharp gust of wind drove the last gloomy clouds from the sky, and the sun sparkled in all its glory. The drops on the glass began to dance in a rainbow dance. The unfortunate man’s room lit up with all the colors of the rainbow and shimmered like an uncut diamond. The cloud that descended from heaven to earth told the unfortunate man how beautiful the world could be, showed what his life could really be like. That you should not be sad for clouds that have long flown away, you should not envy the wind that travels with them. There is no need to think about those who can so freely leave you at any moment. That after all the clouds and heavy rains, the sun will always shine, and after dark night, the dawn will always come that after any defeat, you will achieve victory. After any bitter tears, you will smile. The little cloud told all the secrets happy life to a person. And finally, he said: “Even the most unhappy person on earth can become the happiest of billions of others. We just have to wait until the rain passes and the wind blows away the gray clouds.” |