In post-soviet Russia, school too cool for YOU! Ust-Yansk’s elementary school and kindergarten takes things up a notch with THREE colors: red and bright yellow complementing buff siding. One student seems to be having a blast, toting a replica rifle while rocking a forest-camo jacket. Try that in the good ol’ U S of A, kid, and we’re talking lockdown and SWAT teams.
The town diagram above was created by the school’s teachers with input from the students. Looks like a village of colorfully iced cupcakes! While there’s certainly more than enough ice to go around most of the year, it’s obvious that something as simple as applying colors to building exteriors can have a positive effect on residents’ moods. Blogger BASOV-CHUKOYKA is impressed at the changes – not only to the eye – that have transformed Ust-Yansk from a place that “was a sort of Chicago: that’s knife, then gunshot, then suicide.” Dude, Chicago’s changed since Al Capone’s days, right? Right??
Future’s So Bright, Gotta Wear Shades
Russia is the largest country in the world by land area but getting people to work, live and STAY in its more isolated regions is a necessity: “use it or lose it” applies to nations as well as skills. While Ust-Yansk’s population is on the decline at present, that will change should global warming enable a greater range of human activity in Earth’s arctic climes.
Russia is thinking long term when it comes to its farthest-flung outposts and it’s likely the appealing look of Ust-Yansk is just another way to “show the colors”.
