When you land at Lviv airport - the city which calls itself the capital or gateway to Western Ukraine - you really feel the difference from the fast-paced, more Russified Kyiv. People seem more courteous, the pace is far slower, every street and building in the central district seems to be a historical site. Many of the cobble stone streets are pedestrian only and there is hardly the grinding traffic of Kyiv.
And the the kavarnias - or coffee houses! They are everywhere and maintain the European tradition of lazy coffee sessions, spent pouring over newspapers, books or just good old fashioned gossip!
For me, the greatest pleasure - by far - is visiting with relatives, no matter how remotely related! This time I met a new set of relatives connected to my mother's side. They picked me up, took me to their large house on the outskirts in Lviv, and proceeded to feed me home-made borscht, varennyky and of course vodka/cognac shots! This was repeated again a few hours later in the "selo" (village) where we had another full mean, plus copious more shots. Trips to the lavatory meant spiriting across a mud field to an outhouse. Love it!
Another striking thing about visiting Western Ukraine these days? The massive plummet in support for Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko and his gang! Don't forget that this was his prime base of support - people I met here travelled hours to get to Kyiv during the Orange Revolution - to spend days and days there protesting, supporting! Now many say they regret doing so, expressing disenchantment at the President not delivering on his many, early promises; in fact many say he has become friends with greedy oligarchs and has delivered very little. It's a sad state of affairs indeed! Now Ukrainians do tend to complain A LOT - but even discounting that genetic characteristic one is blown away from the wave of criticism!
Lviv night life has received a shot in the arm in recent years with the opening of new venues. One of the most talked about is Kryivka (www.kryjivka.com.ua) - it's a sort of underground bar where entrance is gained by the password "Slava Ukraini!" Then one is offered a stiff shot before a hidden door is opened to allow passage down some stairs and a large, 3-room bar/restaurant offering some of the best beer and traditional Ukrainian food (i.e. varennyky, kapusniak, onion and potato pancakes). Ukrainian patriotic hymns blare from the speakers and you can even pose for photographs with ancient firearms!
On the classier side is Restaurant Kupol - in a charming old building at the end of Chaigovskoho Street. I had the solyanka soup and cabbage rolls and ended up with change from a 50 hryvna note (usually the amount of a tip from a good meal in Kyiv)!
Lviv Airport is still an entity onto itself! Like most airports in the former Soviet Union you can still spot the carcasses of unused Soviet-era passenger aircraft off the tarmac. Often times it is a guessing game where the boarding process will take place before a departing flight! But at least most announcements are now bilingual!
четвер, 11 грудня 2008 р.
четвер, 27 листопада 2008 р.
Economic Crisis in Ukraine
One doesn't have to look far to see signs of the economic crisis taking hold in Ukraine.
Due to a seizing up of credit, many prominent construction projects - 70 percent by some estimates - have been halted.
On the way home this evening I strolled by one of the capital's most exclusive restaurants - just a few blocks away from the Ukrainian Parliament - and just one table was occupied.
Longtime expatriates here tell me that even the city's most popular restaurants no longer have waiting lists for tables. The neon-clad casinos and "adult clubs" that used to be magnets for Turkish men are all but deserted.
Most worrisome is that falling demand from Detroit and elsewhere has led to the temporary closure of the country's steel mills - that sector alone accounts for about 40 percent of Ukraine's foreign currency earnings!
For locals one of the biggest headaches is acquiring US dollars. Many people have loans denominated in USD - and with the greenback scarce - they have to jump through many hoops to get the cash. This week alone the US-hryna exchange rate surged from 6 to 7 hryvnas to the dollar! Many banks slap "surcharges" on customers changing currency to USD. Many Ukrainians convert a good percentage of their earnings to USD as a hedge against future swings in the exchange rate. What is more the hryna is essentially a non-convertible currency so those wishing to travel overseas need USD.
The rising expense of USD is on top of an inflation rate of about 25 percent!
Many of the capitals posh stores and car show rooms are deserted. Restaurants which were impossible to book on a Friday or Saturday evening now no longer require reservations. I wonder for how long they can maintain themselves.
Its also forecast that many of the 2-million or so Ukrainians working in Russia could start returning home soon, denying the country of foreign remittances. There are many Ukrainians in Poland, Italy, Portugal and elsewhere that may be sent home due to the global financial crisis.
The most pessimistic forecasts predict that by early 2009 Ukraine will buckle under the pressure and default on its international loans. Meanwhile political leaders are seen to be doing little to lighten the burden on ordinary people - instead bickering on petty issues.
Due to a seizing up of credit, many prominent construction projects - 70 percent by some estimates - have been halted.
On the way home this evening I strolled by one of the capital's most exclusive restaurants - just a few blocks away from the Ukrainian Parliament - and just one table was occupied.
Longtime expatriates here tell me that even the city's most popular restaurants no longer have waiting lists for tables. The neon-clad casinos and "adult clubs" that used to be magnets for Turkish men are all but deserted.
Most worrisome is that falling demand from Detroit and elsewhere has led to the temporary closure of the country's steel mills - that sector alone accounts for about 40 percent of Ukraine's foreign currency earnings!
For locals one of the biggest headaches is acquiring US dollars. Many people have loans denominated in USD - and with the greenback scarce - they have to jump through many hoops to get the cash. This week alone the US-hryna exchange rate surged from 6 to 7 hryvnas to the dollar! Many banks slap "surcharges" on customers changing currency to USD. Many Ukrainians convert a good percentage of their earnings to USD as a hedge against future swings in the exchange rate. What is more the hryna is essentially a non-convertible currency so those wishing to travel overseas need USD.
The rising expense of USD is on top of an inflation rate of about 25 percent!
Many of the capitals posh stores and car show rooms are deserted. Restaurants which were impossible to book on a Friday or Saturday evening now no longer require reservations. I wonder for how long they can maintain themselves.
Its also forecast that many of the 2-million or so Ukrainians working in Russia could start returning home soon, denying the country of foreign remittances. There are many Ukrainians in Poland, Italy, Portugal and elsewhere that may be sent home due to the global financial crisis.
The most pessimistic forecasts predict that by early 2009 Ukraine will buckle under the pressure and default on its international loans. Meanwhile political leaders are seen to be doing little to lighten the burden on ordinary people - instead bickering on petty issues.
вівторок, 25 листопада 2008 р.
How to be reminded that Ukraine was once part of the USSR?
- One can still whiff traces of obnoxious Soviet-made cigarettes
- There is little sense of shared space: entranceways and lobbies of most apartment buildings are terribly neglected!
- Red-tape is stifling! Tons of paperwork even for the smallest transactions! Signatures and official seals are mandatory most of the time: all restaurants need to have the signature of the owner ON EACH page!
- People still carry around shopping bags: shops charge customers for plastic bags (actually this unintentionally has forced recycling)
- a faceless, central authority decides for ALL Ukrainians when their heating will commence in fall and cease in spring
- the carcasses of cannibalized Soviet-built passengers planes on the aprons of most Ukrainian airports
- Cockpit crew are the last to enter the aircraft and the first to get off (domestic flights)
- Ladas and other remnants of the centralized, Soviet automobile industry are still on the streets
- the venerable hammer and sickle can still be seen on many buildings
- older hotels still have an attendant (mostly elderly and female) on each floor - though they are no longer reporting to the KGB the each and every move of guests!
- most gas pipelines are controlled by Moscow
- There is little sense of shared space: entranceways and lobbies of most apartment buildings are terribly neglected!
- Red-tape is stifling! Tons of paperwork even for the smallest transactions! Signatures and official seals are mandatory most of the time: all restaurants need to have the signature of the owner ON EACH page!
- People still carry around shopping bags: shops charge customers for plastic bags (actually this unintentionally has forced recycling)
- a faceless, central authority decides for ALL Ukrainians when their heating will commence in fall and cease in spring
- the carcasses of cannibalized Soviet-built passengers planes on the aprons of most Ukrainian airports
- Cockpit crew are the last to enter the aircraft and the first to get off (domestic flights)
- Ladas and other remnants of the centralized, Soviet automobile industry are still on the streets
- the venerable hammer and sickle can still be seen on many buildings
- older hotels still have an attendant (mostly elderly and female) on each floor - though they are no longer reporting to the KGB the each and every move of guests!
- most gas pipelines are controlled by Moscow
понеділок, 24 листопада 2008 р.
75th Anniversary of the Great Famine (Holodomor) in Ukraine
This weekend was a somber one. Ukrainians here and in the Diaspora commemorated the 75th anniversary of the "Great Holodomor" of Ukraine of 1932-33, in which millions of peasants died from hunger in a campaign engineered by Stalin. Incredibly - it’s a little-known fact of history that only recently came to the world's attention...thanks in no small part to the tireless lobbying of Ukrainian communities in the USA and Canada, as well as a US Govt commission led by the late scholar James Mace.
In Kiev the main 75th anniversary events were held on Saturday. Locals complained about huge traffic headaches caused by the presence of so many foreign dignitaries - including Kazcynski of Poland and Shaakashvilli (President Yuschenko's best buddy) of Georgia. Conspicuously missing from the honoring of Holodomor were leaders from Moscow, who have objected to recent calls for the deaths to be labeled as genocide.
We attended the Holodomor memorial candle-lighting ceremony on Mikhailivska Ploshcha - though the crowds were thinner than expected it was moving nonetheless. Few places in Kiev offer a better setting than a square book ended by the grand Sophia and Mikhailivski churches! However a minute of silence scheduled for 4PM didn’t materialize....
Later we dropped by the multi-million dollar, 80-foot-tall Holodomor memorial erected on the banks of the Dnipro River near the famous Pecherska Lavra. Soviet-esque is the phrase which comes to mind when you first set eyes on this huge monument to the millions of famine victims. However what I found most moving was a smaller bronze statue of a rail thin girl - very haunting indeed! A driving, wet snow added to the sense of melancholy.
On Sunday I attended a huge display of Holodomor art, through the eyes of Ukrainian artists. Not only do you need a lot of time to view the entire exhibit, you also need to persevere as much of it is quite graphic and heavy. One poster of Stalin playing a drum with the bones of Ukrainian peasants says it all!
In Kiev the main 75th anniversary events were held on Saturday. Locals complained about huge traffic headaches caused by the presence of so many foreign dignitaries - including Kazcynski of Poland and Shaakashvilli (President Yuschenko's best buddy) of Georgia. Conspicuously missing from the honoring of Holodomor were leaders from Moscow, who have objected to recent calls for the deaths to be labeled as genocide.
We attended the Holodomor memorial candle-lighting ceremony on Mikhailivska Ploshcha - though the crowds were thinner than expected it was moving nonetheless. Few places in Kiev offer a better setting than a square book ended by the grand Sophia and Mikhailivski churches! However a minute of silence scheduled for 4PM didn’t materialize....
Later we dropped by the multi-million dollar, 80-foot-tall Holodomor memorial erected on the banks of the Dnipro River near the famous Pecherska Lavra. Soviet-esque is the phrase which comes to mind when you first set eyes on this huge monument to the millions of famine victims. However what I found most moving was a smaller bronze statue of a rail thin girl - very haunting indeed! A driving, wet snow added to the sense of melancholy.
On Sunday I attended a huge display of Holodomor art, through the eyes of Ukrainian artists. Not only do you need a lot of time to view the entire exhibit, you also need to persevere as much of it is quite graphic and heavy. One poster of Stalin playing a drum with the bones of Ukrainian peasants says it all!
пʼятниця, 21 листопада 2008 р.
Why I'm here in Ukraine
Rarely do I take on an assignment or challenge where the chances of success are minimal. So it was with mixed feelings that I accepted an invitation from UNICEF Ukraine to come to the country for many months to work on a project to "restore public trust in immunization."
Of course immunization is absolutely central to UNICEF's child survival strategy. The number of lives saved is in the millions; polio has been almost wiped out and tetanus is limited to just several dozen countries. Immunization is extremely cost-effective and easy to implement. I've often marveled when, in times of natural disasters, parents - even those with very little education - flock to UNICEF tents to have their children vaccinated against life-threatening, preventable diseases.
When it comes to immunization the situation here in Ukraine it is quite grave. Many parents have stopped vaccinating their kids against preventable diseases. Unlike in Soviet times, when kids were lined up in school yards and given jabs without parental consent, there days parents and caregivers need to give the Ok before their kids are vaccinated. Without vaccinations there kids could be prevented from attending school. So naturally this has opened a market among health workers in signed vaccination certificates. The going rate is just a few dollars!
Parents began backing away from immunization in droves following the death of a 17-year-old boy in Donetsk in spring of 2008. The boy died several hours after receiving the jab. However, subsequent investigations by the WHO concluded that there was no link between the death and the measles and rubella (MR) jab - that the boy had died instead of "septic shock." It also appears that very poor case management in the hospital contributed to his death.
Immediately after his death, there was a flurry of sensational and negative media coverage, the Government froze the campaign, and several investigations were launched. Much has been made of the fact that the 9-million vaccines were brought in from India and, reportedly, not properly registered.
It was also unfortunate that the Ministry of Health jump started the campaign earlier than planned - meaning that crucial campaign ads didn’t reach parents. Now we are faced with the situation that 5-milion vaccines, worth $5-million dollars are sitting in storage. Ukraine is sitting on the brink of a measles outbreak - the last thing its crumbling health system and faltering economy needs!
Of course parents and others have reason to be skeptical. Decades of Soviet rule has eroded public trust in government-initiated edicts. Haunting memories of Chernobyl are still very fresh in people's minds. Add to that rampant corruption, deception at the highest levels and shady deals and little wonder that ordinary people don’t trust their leaders.
What very much frustrates me is that there are very, very few role models in society - people who have the moral gravitas to sway people's decisions or attitudes. Who does one recruit to help spread positive, life-saving messages?
I do know that this is a society where "alternative medicine" - especially in rural areas is still very much used. Over lunch yesterday a friend told me how his mother-in-law suggested a cure from a Ukrainian medical encyclopedia to cure a rash: raw onions placed over the eyes! (It didn’t work).
Of course immunization is absolutely central to UNICEF's child survival strategy. The number of lives saved is in the millions; polio has been almost wiped out and tetanus is limited to just several dozen countries. Immunization is extremely cost-effective and easy to implement. I've often marveled when, in times of natural disasters, parents - even those with very little education - flock to UNICEF tents to have their children vaccinated against life-threatening, preventable diseases.
When it comes to immunization the situation here in Ukraine it is quite grave. Many parents have stopped vaccinating their kids against preventable diseases. Unlike in Soviet times, when kids were lined up in school yards and given jabs without parental consent, there days parents and caregivers need to give the Ok before their kids are vaccinated. Without vaccinations there kids could be prevented from attending school. So naturally this has opened a market among health workers in signed vaccination certificates. The going rate is just a few dollars!
Parents began backing away from immunization in droves following the death of a 17-year-old boy in Donetsk in spring of 2008. The boy died several hours after receiving the jab. However, subsequent investigations by the WHO concluded that there was no link between the death and the measles and rubella (MR) jab - that the boy had died instead of "septic shock." It also appears that very poor case management in the hospital contributed to his death.
Immediately after his death, there was a flurry of sensational and negative media coverage, the Government froze the campaign, and several investigations were launched. Much has been made of the fact that the 9-million vaccines were brought in from India and, reportedly, not properly registered.
It was also unfortunate that the Ministry of Health jump started the campaign earlier than planned - meaning that crucial campaign ads didn’t reach parents. Now we are faced with the situation that 5-milion vaccines, worth $5-million dollars are sitting in storage. Ukraine is sitting on the brink of a measles outbreak - the last thing its crumbling health system and faltering economy needs!
Of course parents and others have reason to be skeptical. Decades of Soviet rule has eroded public trust in government-initiated edicts. Haunting memories of Chernobyl are still very fresh in people's minds. Add to that rampant corruption, deception at the highest levels and shady deals and little wonder that ordinary people don’t trust their leaders.
What very much frustrates me is that there are very, very few role models in society - people who have the moral gravitas to sway people's decisions or attitudes. Who does one recruit to help spread positive, life-saving messages?
I do know that this is a society where "alternative medicine" - especially in rural areas is still very much used. Over lunch yesterday a friend told me how his mother-in-law suggested a cure from a Ukrainian medical encyclopedia to cure a rash: raw onions placed over the eyes! (It didn’t work).
четвер, 20 листопада 2008 р.
UKRAINE - PART 1
So at last I am in Ukraine! My first time to be living and working here, and with all previous visits to my homeland, I arrive with mixed emotions.
To be sure, Kyiv has changed almost beyond recognition from my first visit just when glasnost was starting to take hold. It used to be that one of the most offensive structures lining the skyline was the chrome/nickel/steel "Motherland Statue" - which at 102 metres - dominated the horizon for years. Nowadays a double-towered skyscraper has taken over as the most obnoxious and prominent structure on the once pristine skyline of golden-domed churches and treetops.
Snarled traffic has got to be the Number One gripe of most Kiev residents. Many complain of commutes of up to 2 hours, especially from the Left Bank suburbs into the city. First-time visitors are astounded at the number of late model vehicles clogging the roads - from Bentleys and Land Rovers to Audi sports cars and even the occasional Hummer! I am told that Kiev's road system was designed to accommodate 50,000 vehicles but now handles more than 1-million! Our driver tells me the rule of thumb is to book all appointments in the morning when traffic is lighter.
Spiralling costs is another shock! The health club which I just joined (which wanted about $900 for a 6-month membership!) boasts a poster of a suburban house for a cool $250,000. A half-decent meal for two at my favourite Georgian or Uzbek restaurant (with regional wine) runs about $200. And a one bedroom apartment close to the center of town can easily top $2000! "You are beginning to see New York-type prices here," said one UN official.
But despite a financial crisis that has seen the currency plummet and credit squeezed, consumption is still high. Well tailored women, along with their mafia-looking boyfriends, pack some of the trendiest restaurants.
Amid all of this Ukraine is going through a seismic demographic shift. I always remembered Ukraine - a nation the size of France - having a population of 52-million. Well, a declining birth rate couple with people leaving to make better wages overseas, has caused Ukraine's population to drop to about 47-million!
To be sure, Kyiv has changed almost beyond recognition from my first visit just when glasnost was starting to take hold. It used to be that one of the most offensive structures lining the skyline was the chrome/nickel/steel "Motherland Statue" - which at 102 metres - dominated the horizon for years. Nowadays a double-towered skyscraper has taken over as the most obnoxious and prominent structure on the once pristine skyline of golden-domed churches and treetops.
Snarled traffic has got to be the Number One gripe of most Kiev residents. Many complain of commutes of up to 2 hours, especially from the Left Bank suburbs into the city. First-time visitors are astounded at the number of late model vehicles clogging the roads - from Bentleys and Land Rovers to Audi sports cars and even the occasional Hummer! I am told that Kiev's road system was designed to accommodate 50,000 vehicles but now handles more than 1-million! Our driver tells me the rule of thumb is to book all appointments in the morning when traffic is lighter.
Spiralling costs is another shock! The health club which I just joined (which wanted about $900 for a 6-month membership!) boasts a poster of a suburban house for a cool $250,000. A half-decent meal for two at my favourite Georgian or Uzbek restaurant (with regional wine) runs about $200. And a one bedroom apartment close to the center of town can easily top $2000! "You are beginning to see New York-type prices here," said one UN official.
But despite a financial crisis that has seen the currency plummet and credit squeezed, consumption is still high. Well tailored women, along with their mafia-looking boyfriends, pack some of the trendiest restaurants.
Amid all of this Ukraine is going through a seismic demographic shift. I always remembered Ukraine - a nation the size of France - having a population of 52-million. Well, a declining birth rate couple with people leaving to make better wages overseas, has caused Ukraine's population to drop to about 47-million!
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