Let's Get Married

(Secret audio recording)

@ 1:23:46 "I am here for political asylum"

@ 1:15:56: American Travis takes off the headphones and started to directly talk to Barbara, contestant three.

@ 1:15:56: Американский Трэвис снимает наушники и начал напрямую общаться с Барбарой (участник трех).

Why I walked out: http://moscowamerican.com/wiki/Let%27s_Get_Married

See the full edited program here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkoD1_OUGmQ

@ 4:14 - With the translator who was in the booth - Putting in and adjusting the audio headphones. Asking if I could have something to write down their names - they refused. @ 11:02 - 12:29 Problems with the headphones @ 12:59 - Walking out to the stage @ 17:28 - Start of program @ 1:15:56 - Taking off the headphones. @ 1:16:57 - Starting to talk directly to Barbara in Russian and English without headphones @ 1:17:37 - Asking Barbara her name. @ 1:18:01 - Travis: "Can I ask her a question?" @ 1:18:29 - Travis: "What is the most important thing that you have done in your life?" (In English) @ 1:18:54 - Larissa - In Russian - Go into the private room. @ 1:21:43 - Darya stops the private conversation after one minute. I walk out. I am surrounded by people. Darya blocks my way. Camera in my face. @ 1:23:58 - "...you don't understand what I had to go through to be here." (To get to Russia and to get to that show that day) @ 1:26:11 - Larissa comes to greet me - Darya finally moves from blocking the door, I walk out.

American breaks show rules - Let's Get Married secretly recorded episode - April 20, 2016 - Travis American

WHY I WALKED OUT.

Have you heard the term "vote with one's feet"? [link removed] Russia is a country reeling with extreme poverty. Women are hurt most of all. In my short nine months I have lived here: I saw first hand how alcoholism is rampant in rural Russia among men, with women bearing the brunt of this debilitating disease. [link removed] I saw first hand at Dialog, Executive Language Center, a Moscow English School, how women are regularly screamed at and put up with all manner of abuse. [link removed]

On websites like "Wamba.com" Moscow women actively "sponsor" themselves. This means that if you are a woman looking for a "sponsor", you are a woman who will give sex to a man if they support your financially. Prostitution is rampant, with websites like [link removed] openly selling sex for as little as 2000 rubles ($31 USD) for an hour.

Many women feel they must marry to get out of terrible poverty. Shows like "Lets Get Married" take people's misery and make it entertainment. I saw the desperation in Evgenia's eyes (contestant two) and it broke my heart. It was the look of desperation and anger that my own ex-wife had when I met her on a marshrutka in 2001. My ex-wife, an ethnic Russian, was living on $100 a month working at Lukoil in Odessa Ukraine when I met her on Valentines Day, 2001. She would steal money from her rich customers to survive. She was supporting herself, her eight year old son, her mother and grandmother on $100. Her son was living in rural Ukraine, a house with no hot water, no telephone, and an outhouse.

On Let's Get Married that day the host Larissa and the other three women hosts showed their misery in their faces when the camera was not pointed on them. Larissa was habitually kneading two pieces of facial tissue in both hands, extremely stressed. Darya, the young director who interviewed me was a basket case that day.

As these poor three women contestants bore their soul and deepest secrets to a national audience, I noticed two men above the crowd in the shadows, watching the entire heart wrenching spectacle. They were the two people calling the shots, they were the two men who were being enriched by other people's misery.

My entire life has been devoted to helping others. When I was Mormon I was a missionary for the church from 1992-1994. From 2000-2004 I was a United States Peace Corps volunteer helping build orphanages with the American embassy in Odessa, Ukraine. I became an attorney to help others- to fight for the poor. I earned a masters degree in International Relations to to be a voice for the voiceless that America murders. I married my now ex-wife not out of love in 2002, it was a fake marriage. I couldn't bear to abandon her and her family in the poverty of Ukraine.

I came here to help Russians, to build a community. To help build Russia. To help stop the Russian "brain drain" to Russia's enemies who want to destroy this beautiful country. I am here to proclaim that America, behind the propaganda all Russians watch on television, is an evil, miserable and violent country. Behind many American's fake bright smiles is a deep loneliness.

I didn't come to beautiful Russia to help a television show make comedy of people's misery.

So I walked out of the show. I voted with my feet. It was the brave decision. It was the right decision.