White Niggers
Chapter 26
Friday, September 6th, 2019, 10:15
Reception area, Vienna University of Economics and Business, Welthandelsplatz 1, 2nd district of Vienna
Lisa is meeting with Dr. Zemanek. The secretary tells her Dr. Zemanek is running late, and asks Lisa to wait in her office.
Lisa enters the office of Dr. Zemanek and feels as if it was the dressing room of a rock star. She has been here several times, but never alone, and never had the opportunity to observe the office in detail to learn more about the personality of her mentor.
There is a desk with a few papers, a keyboard and a monitor on it. The keyboard and the monitor are covered with a layer of dust.
Behind the desk there are bookshelves mounted on the wall. Squeezed between two volumes of Dostoyevsky are photographs of Dr. Zemanek. On one of them she is wearing a dirndl, dancing and smiling. The other one shows her in a summer dress and a straw hat on a sandy beach.
In front of the desk is a chair, and behind it – a couch with a coffee table to the left. On the coffee table is the latest issue of the Wienerin magazine and the Popp & Kretschmer catalogue.
Above the couch, there is a corkboard with postcards from various places Dr. Zemanek visited, mostly skiing and hiking resorts in Austria.
To the right of the desk, there is a wooden cabinet with a Jura E8 coffee machine on it.
Everything is a little bit too usual, too traditional for such a rebel as Dr. Zemanek, Lisa thinks. I don't see the slightest trace of her genius. Maybe I was wrong about her. Maybe the poet was right:
You could deceive me even bluntly!
And I am game for self-deceit!
Next to the door, on the coat stand hangs a pantsuit in a garment cover. Lisa sits down on the chair in front of the desk. She takes out the meeting agenda from her purse.
Dr. Zemanek walks in about 15 minutes later than scheduled. She carries a bag with the Julius Meinl logo – a young Moor wearing a fez. This reminds Lisa of the conversation with Timur about culinary racism.
"Hello, Lisa," Dr. Zemanek says. "Sorry for being late."
"Good morning," Lisa says. "No problem, I appreciate your help with my thesis."
"It's a pleasure to work with you," Dr. Zemanek says.
She gets behind her desk.
"Do you want some coffee?" Dr. Zemanek says, smiling at Lisa.
"Sure," Lisa says. "Should I shut the door?"
"No," Dr. Zemanek says. "I don't have anything to hide from the secretary."
Dr. Zemanek turns on the coffee machine. After a couple of minutes, they are drinking their Ristrettos from thimble-sized cups.
"I probably shouldn't be telling you this, but you are my favorite student," Dr. Zemanek says. "You remind me of me, decades ago."
Let's see what you say when I drop the news that I want to follow in your footsteps, Lisa thinks.
"I like the way you work on your thesis," Dr. Zemanek says. "Very diligently."
"Thank you," Lisa says. "It's precisely about the thesis I wanted to talk with you."
"I am all ears," Dr. Zemanek says.
"The conclusion of the thesis was that Ukraine has the right to demand reparations from Russia for annexing Crimea and inciting separatism in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions," Lisa says.
Dr. Zemanek nods.
"I came across some new data, accidentally," Lisa says. "I think this new data completely invalidates that conclusion."
"Invalidates, how?" Dr. Zemanek says.
"In several ways," Lisa says. "First, the real apple of discord was Ukraine joining NATO. The Russians officially stated that's a no-no, back in 2008."
"Right," Dr. Zemanek says.
Does she really know that I'm talking about the "Nyet means nyet" memorandum, or she is going through the motions? Lisa thinks.
"That's what everybody knows," Lisa says. "But many people don't know that every single post-Soviet Russian president wanted Russia to join NATO."
"What does it have to do with Ukraine?" Dr. Zemanek says. She clicks her fingernails against the desk.
"If both Russia and Ukraine were in NATO, they would be allies, they would be in the same boat," Lisa says. "If Russia was accepted into NATO, it wouldn't have objected to Ukraine joining the NATO, EU, or both. There would be no incentive for Russia to fight pro-Western regimes in Kiev."
"This is all hypothetical. Coulda, woulda, shoulda," Dr. Zemanek says. "Therefore this argument for defending Russia is rather weak."
"I'm not defending Russia," Lisa says. "I'm trying to find the right party to blame."
"Is scapegoating someone a good thing?" Dr. Zemanek says.
Is she gaslighting me? Lisa thinks. She is getting defensive, which means she thinks I may be up to something.
"There is a difference between a scapegoat and suspect," Lisa says.
"How in the world do you imagine it – Russia joining NATO?" Dr. Zemanek says. "It would be the end of the alliance, because it was built to fight the Russians."
"When your enemy becomes your ally, isn't that the ultimate victory?" Lisa says. "Russia joining NATO would be the proof of Western intellectual and spiritual superiority."
"In an idealistic sense, maybe," Dr. Zemanek says.
"The West can afford idealism," Lisa says. "NATO absorbing Russia would be a huge step for world peace."
"But–" Dr. Zemanek says.
Lisa feels on fire, like a Katyusha multiple launch rocket system in full barrage.
"Not only that, by making Russia a member of NATO, the West would drive a wedge between Russia and China," Lisa says. "In the long run, Russia would fight China together with the West, just as Brzezinski predicted."
"Lisa, I think you are unrealistic on this one," Dr. Zemanek says. "The NATO has an annual budget of close to a trillion dollars–"
"I told you they can afford idealism," Lisa says.
"No, they can't," Dr. Zemanek says. "If Russia is in NATO, there is no enemy to fight with. This means: no money for the bureaucrats. A trillion dollars per year, gone. They would fight tooth and nail to prevent it."
"No problem," Lisa says. "This is only one of the many ideas I have."
"Let's hear the next one," Dr. Zemanek says.
"One of the reasons the controversies were so great in 2014 was that the Ukrainian government had to choose between trading with the EU and trading with Russia," Lisa says. "Do you know who created this dichotomy?"
"The West, I assume," Dr. Zemanek says.
"Right, the EU, to be precise," Lisa says. "The association agreement with the EU forbade Ukraine to trade with the Russians. The Russian one did not forbid Ukraine from trading with the West. And until this day, Russia remains Ukraine's number one trading partner."
"You mean that if the Europeans were as flexible as the Russians, then Ukraine would be able to live in both worlds?" Dr. Zemanek says.
"Right," Lisa says. "The Ukrainians would have Russian gas, sell agricultural products to Russia, and get their EU subsidies, too."
"You may have a point here," Dr. Zemanek says.
"In that case, there wouldn't be such tensions between the pro-Western and pro-Russian factions," Lisa says.
"You mean some streetfights?" Dr. Zemanek says.
"I mean a full-blown civil war which is being sugarcoated as an anti-terrorist operation," Lisa says. "Ukrainians fighting Ukrainians over who should control their country – the Westerners or the Russians."
"How come nobody is fighting for Ukrainians to control Ukraine?" Dr. Zemanek says.
She smiles with an arrogance that matches the vastness of the Austro-Hungarian empire.