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Caviar and capitalism give food for thought

IT'S not hard to guess why these two Russian waiters look somewhat bemused. After all, it can't be much fun coming to work after a morning spent in an ill-tempered food queue only to walk into this scene of consummate consumption on a heroic scale.

Champagne and caviar were what the pampered commissars feasted on. But wasn't that all supposed to end when the walls of communism came tumbling down? Very confusing, eh Sergei? We hope someone told the two white-liveried lads from St Petersburg that these were really a bunch of hedonistic capitalists, mostly from Hongkong, in town for something called the White Knights Ball (Motto: Leave your social conscience at the door, folks).

And think of all that hard currency they were bringing into the beleaguered economy (not much consolation, mind, if the locals suspect you are feasting on their waylaid rations).

But it wasn't all gormandising. No siree. Some of the pictures that landed on our desk did show the ball-goers attempting cultural pursuits such as Cossack dancing (at least that's what the low gravity poses appeared like to us), and even gathered arounda piano for a spot of community singing.

Hope they chose something written by Lenin - with music by McCartney, of course!

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