Banality often contains concentration wisdom of folks. They say, it is not shameful to be poor. Poorest can obtain social security benefits. What is poverty in Austria, how it looks, tastes and smells? Apart from concept, I wanted to know this as personal experience. Being granted with work after five years of survival training in Graz, I felt myself enormously rich  being registered as poor in Vienna. Low income is inevitable lot for many emigrants. In case of Austrians, poverty is often life philosophy. Those whose income is lower than 893 euros are considered to be poor and can buy goods on lower prices in social supermarket. There I paid visit yesterday, hungry for new experiences.
It was crowd in front of gloomy building forty minutes before opening. This crowd spoke different languages and had shopping bags on the wheels. I felt curious about miraculous presents life had in store for me and found modest size of my bag regretful. Austrian woman nearby started talking to me, and I paid attention to her exquisite make-up and numerous silver rings. She told one must pay or wait, and she preferred the second. Eventually the first two visitors were let in the store, and after half an hour we together with silver lady reached the entrance, where joined new queue to registration office. I counted sufficient quantity of social workers around, who briskly moved forth and back in front of us, but line was moving on with speed of snail. Pale woman in front of me in long Muslim dress and scarf told she was close to faint after two hours of waiting. The dark young mother behind, had three small children, who shrieked playing run and catch, what added to whole turmoil. Meanwhile I was observing faces of buyers leaving store, and there was no air of satisfaction at them. They dragged their bags with listless expression.
After my patience was significantly strained and sweat flowed on my backside under cloths, I was let in registration room. (more…)

Deep in my sad thoughts, I awaked to notice an African middle-aged woman sitting at secluded bus stop bench and talking to herself. There was nobody around. Apparently woman was delirious and argued with voices in her head. Perhaps, her problems were imaginary, but her fierce emotions, her rage were quite real. If she spoke German, I would not slow my pace to listen to her. But she spoke African English. I came up to her and asked whom she was talking to. She instantly looked at me with eyes, red from suppressed anger, but unclouded, and replied:

- I am talking to God.

Chef of styrian social-democrats is for coalition with ÖVP
Styrian SPÖ Governor Franz Voves has spoken up in support of governing coalition with the ÖVP.
Voves said: “I was and I am a supporter of this coalition. I think that it is the best solution for the next five-ten years.”
Franz Voves – former ice-hockey national team player refused to comment on whether the SPÖ should continue such cooperation in case it fails to receive the most votes in the 28 September election. Voves dismissed talk about possible election outcomes as mere speculation at the moment. In contrast to some other SPÖ leaders, the 55-year-old Voves stressed the point that he would not exclude any party from talks about a possible coalition. Voves expects that the SPÖ will be number one on 28 September due to new SPÖ leader Werner Faymann, which has beén “fantastic” in Styria.Austrian Times.
Russian _Съёмка Вернера Файмана
Shooting with social-democrats leader Werner Faymann
Вначале я ринулась на пресс-конференцию „зелёных“, где оказалась единственным фотографом. Все репортёры караулили у дверей штаб-квартиры социалистов, когда появится Файман.
Лидер „зелёных“ – симпатичный пожилой дяденька в красной кофточке. Рядом восседает его соратник и партийный активист, которого я видела на манифестации „голубых“. (more…)

Once great Russian writer Ivan Turgenev wrote that our happiness is usually erected at pedestal of other people misfortune. Mechanism of reality is so that we can feel good only on expense of somebody else. In ethical sphere it is expressed in emotional vampire-like sucking of humans, in social and economic sphere it lays in basement of labor exploitation. Any human society has hierarchic edifice, and all social organizations support and contribute to it. From this point of view all my petitions to Austrian employment offices and applications to newspapers are not completely senseless, o, no! They confirm the universal rule: persons without income, immigrants, lonely and also those who have no native education and work experience- fill lower groups of society open to mistreat and exploitation. With their own bodies, they erect pedestal for feet of other species in social hierarchy. It would be miraculous thing if one of Austrian newspapers would willingly offer me a piece of pie. Journalism and media normally perform management functions in society to preserve its existing arrangement and power boards.

(more…)

Galina Toktalieva for Die Wiener Nachrichten
Photo by author
Audacious I am presenting here collection of photos depicting small beggars in Vienna streets. Very often they are accompanied by adults who hide themselves somewhere and then take away collected rewards. I photographed already so often the beggars, that knew all of them in the face. Some time after the begging in the streets with children will be prohibited. I associated myself with these downtrodden people, as it was very hard time for me in Austrian capital, when I lived on nobody knows what and didn’t see any improvement for myself in the future. It is difficult to photograph homeless children, they are afraid of everybody, and many a time I asked myself, do I have moral right to do that. (more…)