Geum.ru

Учебно-методический комплекс по дисциплине «английский язык» Для студентов заочной формы обучения специальностей

Вид материалаУчебно-методический комплекс

Содержание


Godfather” of odessa gunned down
Подобный материал:
1   ...   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   ...   24

Вариант 2


THE NEED FOR LAW

Mr. Jones, having murdered his wife, was burying her in the garden one night, when his neighbor, hearing the noise, asked him what he was doing.

“Just burying the cat,” said Mr. Jones.

“Funny sort of time to bury a cat,” said the neighbor.

“Funny sort of cat,” said Mr. Jones.

Now it is obvious for everyone that, in a community such as the one in which we live, some kind of law is necessary to try to prevent people like Mr. Jones from killing their wives. When the world was at a very primitive stage, there was no such law, and, if a man chose to kill his wife or if a woman succeeded in killing her husband, that was their own business and no one interfered officially.

But, for a very long time now, members of every community have made laws for themselves in self – protection. Otherwise it would have meant that the stronger man could have done what he liked with the weaker, and bad men could have joined together and terrorized the whole neighborhood.

If it were not for the law, you could not go out in broad daylight without the fear of being kidnapped, robbed or murdered. There are far, far more good people in the world than bad; but there are enough of the bad to make law necessary in the interests of everyone.

There is no difficulty in understanding this but it is just as important to understand that law is not necessary just because there are bad people in the world. If we were all as good as we ought to be, laws would still be necessary. If we never told lies, never took anything that didn’t belong to us, never omitted to do anything that we ought to do and never did anything that we ought not to do, we should still require a set of rules of behavior, in other words, laws, to enable us to live in any kind of satisfactory state.

How is one good man in a motorcar to pass another good man also in a motorcar coming in the opposite direction, unless there is some rule of the road? People sometimes hover in front of one another when they are walking on the pavement before they can pass, and they may even collide. Not much harm is done then, but, if two good men in motor-cars going in opposite directions hover in front of one another, not knowing which side to pass, the result will probably be that there will be two good men less in the world.

So you can see that there must be laws, however good we may be. Unfortunately, however, we are none of us always good and some of us are bad, or at any rate have our bad moments, and so the law has to provide for all kinds of possibilities. Suppose you went to a greengrocer and bought some potatoes and found on your return home that they were mouldy and even that some of them were stones. What could you do if there were no laws on the subject? In the absence of law you could only rely upon the law of jungle. You could go back to the shop, demand proper potatoes and hit the shopkeeper on the nose if he refused to give them to you. You might then look round the shop to try to find some decent potatoes. While you were doing this, the shopkeeper might hit you on the back of the neck with a pound weight. Altogether not a very satisfactory morning’s shopping.

Or you might pay your money to go to see a film at a cinema. You might go inside, sit down and wait. When the cinema was full, there might be flashed on the screen: “You’ve had it. Chums”. And that might be the whole of the entertainment. If there were no law, the manager could safely remain on the premises and, as you went out, smile at you and say: “Hope you’ve enjoyed the show, sir.” That is to say, he could do this safely if he were bigger than you or had a well-armed bodyguard.

Every country tries, therefore, to provide laws, which will help its people to live safely and as comfortably, as possible. This is not at all an easy thing to do, and no country has been successful in producing laws, which are entirely satisfactory. But we are far better off with the imperfect laws which we have, than if we had none at all.

Вариант 3


“^ GODFATHER” OF ODESSA GUNNED DOWN

Kulivar (a.k.a. Karabas) was born and grew to manhood in Odessa in the company of criminals, whose names will not be given. At least two of them today are respectable citizens and holders of US passports. His nickname has been explained in various ways. Most likely, however, is the nickname’s association with a popular nursery rhyme based on Pussn’ Boots: “Whose field is this, sir?” - “the Marquis Karabas!”; “Whose wood is this?” – “The Marquis Karabas!”; “And to whom belongs this city, Odessa?” – “Why to whom else, if not Karabas?”

The path from Kulivar’s birth in 1949 to his rise to dominance over Odessa in the early 1990s passed naturally through two prison sentences (1969 and 1971).

Kulivar took roughly ten percent out from the profits of the businesses he protected. He never checked the books, probably figuring that nobody would dare cross him. He employed a flexible payment system. If a restaurant owner, for instance, expanded onto the sidewalk, this was taken to mean expansion, and the rates went up. If, on the other hand, it became known that the tax police had come down on some firm, Kulivar might accept a delay of payment or even forgive the company’s debts altogether. His men showed up to collect their “salaries” on time., once a month, regardless of how frequently their services might be required.

When Kulivar was an ordinary hood in 1980s, a thousand dollars seemed a vast sum. At the height of his career he came to denominate his cash in the millions. His henchmen did not carry small change. At the cemetery during his funeral they handed out hundred dollars bills to beggars. They say one old woman who had never seen an American bank note in her life had to ask, “How much is that – one hundred dollars – in hryvnas?” When they told her, she fainted.

During the Karabas era there were practical no bloody feuds among the mercial activities. Powerfull Odessa business interests, particularly those in the oil industry, required powerful informal protection from government officials, and were more than happy to enlist Kulivar for their purpose. If some ordinary businessman might never see the man who claimed a tenth of his proceeds, the same was not true for a director of a large enterprise with turnover in the tens of millions of dollars. Kulivar spent a growing amount of time alone in the offices of such men. His new “partners” introduced him to Odessa’s ruling elite. Now one could even expect to see Kulivar on TV, at respectable functions attended by the mayor. He was the only member of the famous underworld to find a place in such company.

He did nothing to boost his security. Kulivar was very proud of such steps, although at times he was known to add extra cars to his escort when traveling around the city as insurance against attacks.

On the Sunday before his death he tested a new Audi. Then, for reasons still mysterious and unlikely to ever be known in full, he ordered his men not to take their ritual Monday trip to the bathhouse at Astahkina 6. Usually he and his men spent the entire day there. On that day, for some reason, Kulivar went alone in his Audi to the bathhouse at 7:30 a.m. it may be that someone hetrusted ha called him in for a short meeting, because he parked his car inattentively.

The killer followed Kulivar into the bathhouse and emtied 19 bullets into his back. Kulivar turned, taking another bullet in his chest. With a final shot in the head the killer tossed the magazine and silencer and departed. Witnesses described him as a tall man aged 23 – 25.

Clearly, people like “Karabas” do not stand a shining example for the public good. Mafias distort the economy. The whole world has experienced such phenomena at one point or another. Nor is Kulivar unique in providing a certain guarantee of public order – more reliable than the police. This order, a delicate thing even during his life, collapsed entirely after his death. His business partners are feverishly carving out Kulivar’s old commercial interests. Kulivar’s own gang is in chaos, with no one of his associates to claim undisputed leadership. Businesses, which Kulivar once «protected», are in panic subject to the whim of anyone who comes knocking. Gangs of Chechen racketeers, which have been arriving to Odessa over recent years, once firmly checked by Kulivar, are now firmly entrenched.