European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - March 2, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Food and Medicine plentiful scarcities by Jack Redden United press International w Hile other women waited in the col for the store to open Marina slipped around to the Back door to buy the family s  a cubicle office at the top of the stairs an expensively dressed woman a Friend who had called to Tell Marina that a meat shipment was in pulled hunks of meat from under her desk and pushed them toward Marina s red Nylon bag. Marina paid the official two Ruble $2.40 per kilo Price and turned around and left. No frigid lines no empty shelves. Corruption yes but everyone does it. Soviet life is a Maze of contacts privileges friends and acquaintances used to circumvent rules that otherwise would make life unbearable. Sometimes the Exchange is Money but mostly it is goods or influence. A Carton of Western cigarettes or a bottle of whiskey to an administrator and suddenly there Are Choice seats to a sold out play. A favor to a school official now could help your child in the future. Shops near Marina s apartment resemble american convenience stores on the outside. Not so on the inside. At one shop 10 people stood at the meat counter waiting for fresher pieces to appear. The shelves dirty and rusted at the edges were Bare except for lumps of fat and Bone. At the Well stocked bread counter Marina waited her turn to test the loaves for freshness with a Large Fork and paid the heavily subsidized Price of a few cents to a woman adding on an Abacus. But Marina returned empty handed from the milk counter. They say they Don t know when they will get any she shrugged. The adjoining fruit store was better stocked than westerners might expect even if the pomegranates did look Rotten. Tangerines have disappeared by mid Winter and bananas Are just a Distant memory but supplies of Grapefruit from Cuba and oranges from Egypt usually last until Spring. The cabbage a Staple of the russian diet apparently had been left outside because it was partially Frozen. Its Mushy  Why people would pay five times As much for cabbage in the Farmers Market. The next shop sold partially prepared food a Good idea in a country where both parents normally work. However it was mainly Bare shelves with three staff members looking blankly from behind a tray of Black meat. People try to counter the endless lines and shortages in two ways. There is the polite method of buying extra for friends or saving a place in line for someone who is lined up elsewhere. Then there is the other. People looking at a shelf will see the meat is All fat but realize some Good meat is about to arrive and will line up said one Young woman. But when the line gets to be 12 or 15 people those at the Back realize they will not get any so they move up and pretend to look at something else. As soon As the meat appears they grab. Those at the Back yell but the person just runs off. Sometimes two people grab one piece of meat then it s the stronger who  the chronic problems have forced the government to allow an exception to pervasive state control. The rink a Market where Farmers Are allowed to sell produce from their Small private plots often is jammed despite prices several times what a state store would charge. Cucumbers that were 12 rubles a kilo 2.2 pounds in december had risen to 15 rubles $18 in february. One Cucumber costs about $4. Marina shopped carefully buying a Small cabbage for 2.50 and turning Down Honey at 12 rubles a kilo. Potatoes in a state store Cost Only 20 percent of the 60 cents per kilo charged in the Market but the Quality is so bad you can buy 10 kilograms to get just  the Success of the markets is a vivid reminder to the Kremlin of the failings of its centrally planned Economy. Productivity is vastly higher on privately owned plots than on those cultivated by the same Farmers for the state. Another area where ingenuity is crucial to survival is health care. Medical treatment the government likes to note is free and available to everyone. But it helps to carry gifts and Wield influence. My physician likes gifts said a russian woman in her 40s. She saw the Robe i was wearing and asked for one. I told her to take mine but she said it was too Small. So i asked a Friend to get another. The result was i had a private room. I saw another room with 16 Beds touching each  bribery thrives in a society where doctors Are paid an average of about $240 a month. And almost everyone state run Butcher stores often offer no fresh meat customers Settle for sausage or search elsewhere. Page 16 the stars and stripes sunday March 2, 1986 up photo pays because almost everyone has need. Perhaps it is the harsh climate Moscow is roughly at the latitude of Juneau Alaska. Perhaps it is the difficulty in keeping a healthy diet but illness is chronic in soviet life. At a neighbourhood clinic patients waited on benches outside the doctors offices. On each of the three floors the situation was the same about 12 people waiting per doctor. But both Marina and her daughter Tanya 16, have had More serious health problems requiring stays in the state run hospitals. Their Quality varies widely from Dingy buildings serving the general Public to the inaccessible facilities of the ruling elite. At one average Hospital on a tree lined Moscow Street the Halls were dimly lit and the linoleum on the floor showed every undulation of the underlying Concrete. Edges on the Concrete stairs had crumbled. A doctor said the building was Only 16 years old but Marina thought it was probably 20. A doctor in one room fished around in her medical bag pulled out a Stethoscope and threw it on a bed then found what she wanted a bag of sugar for the Tea she would drink throughout her shift. It is not so bad there. I have a Friend in that Hospital said Tanya. I had another Friend last summer at another Hospital. It was terrible. There were 12 people in one room. One was an old woman who suddenly Felt very bad. The others called for help but the staff just said she was going to die anyway. So she  although the soviet Union boasts of providing Basic medical care for its population it also faces an alarming decline in life expectancy. Soviet statistics stopped appearing in 1979, but american researchers estimate child mortality has risen while life expectancy has fallen to Only 61.9 years for men an amazing 11.5 years less than for women. The cause almost certainly the High level of alcoholism. One doctor said one of his colleagues supplemented his income by agreeing to falsify the cause of a fracture. If the Hospital form showed the real cause drunkenness the patient would lose his wages during the period he was off. The shortcomings of the medical system also Are reflected in dentistry. Sometimes they use painkillers but most times they Don to said a 50-year-old specialist in Trade. If you Are a Strong Man you Don t need it usually i Don  he noted things have improved since he had a tooth extracted in his Home Village 25 years ago by having one Man hold him Down while the other pulled. But novocaine is still not provided unless required and available. Westerners of ten Are asked by soviet acquaintances to bring vital Medicine from abroad. A Friend who had spent six years in Geneva went into a store in Moscow because he needed something for a headache a Friend of Marina s recalled. They had nothing. He shouted that it was impossible the Friend said laughing As he remembered his response you re Back in the soviet  like everything in the soviet Union dentists in theory Are tightly controlled supposedly working in a state run clinic or independently under strict government supervision. In practice Marina take members of her family to a dentist who moonlights from his Home. He is careful to limit the number of patients because it is part of the vast underground Economy. Her family shows none of the stainless steel Teeth that create so Many tight lipped smiles in the soviet Union. Marina takes care of their needs right Down to supplying the drugs her dentist cannot always provide. Marina reached up on a shelf in her living room and pulled Down a syringe Needles and vials of novocaine. She would not reveal her source saying Only i bring my own when we visit the