tv Documentary RT December 31, 2013 9:29am-10:01am EST
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i hope for your sake you don't miss a payment but that's just my opinion. and the searching for the twenty fourteen olympics what's this place like and why is is so special as the russian resort prepares to welcome the world power of the games shaping the city's present and future what more sochi will bring it this is the moment they're reporting from a very cold snowy windy mountainous stuff yet beyond the olympics but the monks say tomorrow on our team. he survived war atrocities. to make a final decision. has changed his life and the world around him. by giving up. hope.
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and love to so many children. nikolai the american worker on. the island of spitsbergen is the starting point for expeditions to the north pole a little over a thousand kilometers away. in early november there's next to no sunlight each day what little light remains continues today. in just ten days the sun will stop rising above the horizon altogether. along ought to know it will begin. with so it will be pitch black. book with more trike it is on the mainland in the middle. all of the night. it's
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just black sky and stars. the locals say there are three not four seasons here day night and snowmobile season. indigenous people on the island because of the harsh environment but a very small few have chosen to live here. we go home yes. the frozen just like. in here be careful. in mid november the arctic night descends on the archipelago. to great at the
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norwegian town of longyearbyen organizes a special ceremony. for many years ago was declared terra nullus old then belonging to nobody it wasn't until nine hundred twenty that the islands became norwegian territory but even today they enjoy a unique status. in any country that signed the spitzbergen treaty can freely and gauge in commercial activity here no visa is needed to visit the island and there are no customs or border posts anyone on the planet can come and settle on the archipelago there's just one condition they must be self-sufficient. this. place is so special because. little people came here and they really didn't know we had or really are because i think ok and already are closer to north pole yes you are. and other people all have
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a funny you know that scooters and everything about. time to the bed and saying sure you're fast like. this era it could be very bad. if you're. about to sell some five hundred people live on the island but knowing the number of beds is more of a challenge there are at least three thousand certainly more than the wrong people . you know. i don't like the oh i'm just here to be. learned for her right well it's a very right i'm sure. you. have you come to the other. firing a rifle here is as easy as hiring a scooter but if a bear gets shot the investigation into whether it was really killed in self
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defense is a thought or was it would be from the. bill and it is indeed an unusual place shops provide special lockers where customers can store their guns while shopping and while deer amble freely in the streets. there is a distinct russian spirit in this small norwegian telling only two countries currently maintain their presence on the island russia and norway. this is the reason why the american i hear that are. going proactively because they have a russian. yeah let me thank you these people took an interest in the russian language for a reason they often visit the town of balanced budget for decades the neighboring towns have shared visits for sporting events. we may be different in
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many aspects but i'm sure everyone's happy to have a neighbor pool you see there are no other neighbors around here. and we've had a lot of enjoyable meetings in baron's burg. fuck off and how you leaving for work yes i do have a regular working day of course not it's a holiday today hardly there are no holidays in the mind two years ago came to spitzbergen alone to see how it would work out. many people can't bear being separated from their relatives. is not everyone manages to move their families here . you could not everyone can cope with the atmosphere in this arctic night.
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he left his wife and three children at home. we didn't feel anything for the first six months. then mum started missing dad. and so did we. well he wasn't there we could only talk on skype he had to call me every day as soon as he was home from work. knowing that he was safely back from the mine was the most important thing for me. two months ago the duble family at last moved to barrett's burg. and i'd like to spend at least ten years here and i want to settle properly and save enough money to buy flats for my kids. i do your homework yet a bit. i haven't seen you for ages so does it feel better having
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a family with you or do you need to ask you must feel more like real man yes. in the past barron's bug was always a male domain not a place for women with children. men still account for the majority of the population. there are no old or socially disadvantaged people here. every inhabitant of the island has to be young and healthy enough to be able to work because. my grandfather worked here and nine hundred fifty six such as he spent two years on this island and dad always dreamed of going where his own father had worked that issue came in two thousand and eight with my mom at the show and in two thousand and nine my wife and i came here to you know i thought i'm the head of the tourist agency and the hotel administrator that's part of my job description. some of them was just although it's my wife's job to deal with the
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mail that rests on my shoulders too. difficult so why not during tourist season i also work as a guide. you know and when we have excursions i work in the souvenir shop in the morning i teach english at the local school which is why i'm not in the office. there's only one employer in better. cold is a russian state owned company everything in the village shops and canteen old belong to the. people can only get tibetans but once every two months. both cooks they decided to change after a wedding anniversary stephanie has brought her two children to be with her husband . has come alone.
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it will. not. come without her husband that's a first. about a year ago another woman came on her own she left pretty soon though. she was an accountant. usually it's the other way around. well after their husbands men try to find jobs for their wives on the island mist of the season. new arrivals gather beside the personal department. stephanie brings her children with her. there's no one else to babysit because
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everyone is at work. arctic also owns a productive mine the parents. everyone has to attend a briefing when they first get here. there is going to work at a sauna. she'll start as soon as her children are going to kindergarten but first they have to get used to the new home. movies and putting the kids started whimpering and i decided to leave so we wouldn't disturb anyone. it's always dark outside so i'm constantly sleepy and my eyes hurt but i'll get used to it. other people cope somehow so well i will wait for the light i hope will settle here well like the place. i think. now the main thing is for the kids to adapt to the climate and be healthy. the first contract is
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usually for six months a second for two years on average people have spent four to five years in balance back but there seems to be changing workers or nell spending longer periods of time here printing furnished apartments and so the arctic cold trust is renovating many of the houses and was there a t.v. set yes so there it's so nice just great. to see you everyone likes this place it's nice and tidy. new residents meet up at the home supply store everyone has a long shopping list. because that's a small pan. in. a bucket. i think our first two paychecks will be spent entirely on the household number one two and the third one
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as well there's no cash on balance budget in two thousand and eleven there was an attempt to introduce a local currency called the bone but norwegians were unhappy about the idea of bank notes. and soil with the russian federation printed on them. it's rumored that to avoid conflict the government's decided not to use any money at all and no more bank cards don't work here either the shops only accept a special internal card which is given to all of coles employees everyone sets their own credit limit and the balance is a bench really deducted from salaries. it's easy squire laying money away because there is nothing to spend it on no rest trends or days cuz i'm sure that if we do you manage to leave here for some time it will be closer to each other so this just goes to show that my uncle told me about people living there has been so why is four other men and women. it must be an island of temptation here.
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it was the year these whack jobs introduced the bell in help to buy debt debt and lord debt the never ending lesson of fines for crimes to which j.p. morgan will never have to admit obamacare the corporate espionage surveillance state the bedroom tax that housing bubble. unexplored antarctica what is it in this icy expanse that attracts the people who come here. just a little but you know now i only go to the dodger. and antarctica. a new generation of polar explorers is coming. we
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have a new group of specialists here now all of them are young how are they going to get along with each other and i don't know. who. i used to be a bureaucrat. seriously. what adventures await in this mysterious land where they live what to eat and what are they actually doing it on talk to go. go to kindergarten my daughter asks me it's still duck we're going to be it will always be dark now i tell her the sun has gone to sleep she says i want to go home
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i don't want to live by the sea she thought it would be warm and sunny. four hundred thirty people and including a hundred and thirty women and fifty five children no one is born on the island it's against the rules that pregnant women must return to the mainland. spitzbergen children never catch colds the virus survive here. it's only the newly arrived to bring infections to the island. that's why children are always quarantined for their first ten days when they can't go to school or. sometimes though children just can't adjust to the climate. their parents either have to send them away or leave them for good it's too cold to go outside so the kids wrap up to play in an unheated hole where they can exercise without being exposed to the elements even
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irrespective of age. the teacher gives each student individual assignments and then checks them separately. after classes the children stay in school there's nowhere else to go and the teachers always try to find new ways to entertain them. you know . it was useless i realised why running small difficult here is what is in the air pressure on the island is higher than on the mainland and it's not difficult to brief. you the worst of them will you sometimes i ask myself if a normal life would make it easier for him in the future. i still don't really know . i'm not sure if we've made the right choice.
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although the spitsbergen coal reserves are being depleted to continue mining is a matter of principle a presence on the go is a political imperative for both russia and norway. the mind works around the clock so the adults work in shifts they often leave as early as six in the morning leaving dunhill to wake the younger kids. but also when the alarm clock goes off. i wake marine or in the silly they want to stay in bed we're going to still duck where we go and they ask. well i brush merriness teeth i mean obviously does his own. kind of put the kettle on and dress them. more when i grow up i'll move to the
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mainland and go to university. all. i want to be an interpreter. to make good money. is not love it's always good to know a foreign language. the most important event in autumn is the annual sports competition. people from the norwegian to. visit the russian to attend. it's a tradition that dates back many years some say it began as early as the nine hundred thirty s. when both norway and the then soviet union was still new to the occupy l.a. go. the norwegians told their neighbors their traditional game called. we never even seen a stick before when we started playing we didn't know the rules and we were
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constantly asking questions now we've got the hang of it how one wants. this. but i think we're on equal ground we're good at volleyball and always win at basketball we're about even in football and as for chess we've got a new player who will bring us victory. all the competitions are held simple to flee. winning is a matter of both countries especially when it comes to football and bundy. only twice in the competition's history as the balance but to be from the
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norwegians at the national game. the second time was last year but fortune wasn't to smile on them this time. the football had the fans on the edge of their seats with the team's neck and neck. as though the russians proved victorious. i lost two games. and i played with and walnuts as well. there's my boy. did you know the done he did clever boy. surprisingly the basketball game is the most dramatic. the norwegians are less than happy with the referee and one spectator is quite indignant. i don't know much.
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do we need a ref at all no referee you can do without a ref while you are afraid let him do it while you're doing. referee give him a whistle. go over there. there'll be two of you go on. to referees take to the court. the people of spitzbergen do know how to compromise. the remote and forty different ethnicities living together on the island. no more than life demands tolerance and cooperation if it's to be survived. thank you.
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the sporting event is one of the very few opportunities people have to socialize and meet up especially during the long arctic night. you work here. and you just if it. were going off. just so mike ok in table time in our football well ok. it was good but you got one. better making ambitious plans to develop its own tourist industry. the abandoned mining town. will be home to the new russian tourists and. and there are no people there so he's kind of like a ghost town there was one guy named toby lived with both of you try to go for
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a hike so. it took him by two weeks and he had had to get. picked up by a fisherman because he had no more food left so i think you should only do it if you have a yeah. but it can only be reached in daylight and the devil is already of. the for when the polar night ends and the snowmobile season begins the archipelagos russian six will be teeming with people her. tourists there's this they like watching us locals picking up the kids from school the guide probably tells them where the natives used every room that is we have to say hi and smile we go to work or come home shopping or just walk
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and they're gone yet it's ok we stay right back. but that won't happen until the polar night ins and the northern sun has risen again. for now people only venture away from the settlement for emergencies perhaps to repair vital and hard to reach equipment no one leaves the village without a very good reason. that usually people only leave the village to admired the beauty of spitzbergen oil and like watching the sea at night for nothing. there's absolutely nothing to see. during a long polar night the residents tend to live ordinary workaday lives in new arrivals are given time to get their bearings but today is oldest first day at work
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. i was anxious. to do everything on time. but i managed to find the husband and he starts work tomorrow he's here and will to support his wife we're going to spend at least two years here but we'll have to see how it goes to here is a long time maybe six months will do it. before starting to work independently they will shadow a colleague for a few days. i have a boyfriend. but i'm not sure she'll come here. stephanie children couldn't started kindergarten because one of them has a cold only time will tell if he can cope with the climate i was.
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he survived war atrocities. to make a final decision. has changed his life and the world around him. by giving up. hope. and love to so many children. nikolai the miracle worker on the ati. if you. start to construct you're a. bit. don't want to be gangsters you know. they don't want to blow with the time
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prison person really ryan sees new address pledging to fly as terrorists until the phony defeated falling to the last in volgograd bush claimed the lives. also the sound of the machines are watching the n.s.a. is reportedly intercepting a laptop purchased online to install spyware malware before they reach that destinations. relations and breakthroughs and precious. edward snowden spying scandal a long awaited nuclear deal with iran global run is against food and fracking we'll look at the stories that shaped twenty thirteen.
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