You say toMAYto I say toMAHto

Well, Alister and I don't pronounce toMAYto the same - but that's the least of our word woes. Weekly we have word wars over pronunciation (and grammar usesage and spelling- but that's another issue). Early on in our dating relationship we ran across some of the words I said erb - he said Herb. I said vinyard. He said vIne-yard. The tip of the comical ice burg was when he said ur-eye-nal instead of ur-in-al. (although on all of these pronunciations the dictionary says that both are correct) Most recently the debate has been over lasso - I say lass-oh, he says Lass-oo. So we make trade off. I am forever to forsake the word erb if he always says vinyard.
However, on the Lasso / Urinal debate we have met a standoff as both sound utterly ridiculous to me and I will not budge an inch - i'm from the "wild west" for goodness sake, where we not only use lassos, but know how to pronounce them. As for urinals, well as they aren't really a subject to come up in conversation, Alister can say it however he wants until he can no longer bear the laughter from the men "queueing" for the toilets.

How to make a politician work

Yes, politics does exist beyond the American primaries.

Here in Ukraine - the political situation is, once again, mired in inactivity.

Over simplified recap:
Summer 2007 - Parliment didn't work and new elections were called
September 2007 - New elections - Tymoshenko wins
December 2007 - Yushenko becomes prime minister (notice that it took THREE months for them to finally let her have the primeminister seat after all of the shuffling of seats that took place AFTER the election but that the election was supposed to solve???)
December 2007- A new Parliment is formed
December / January 08 - Parliment ceases to work - the politicians can't get along and so they block the podium, dissalowing a session to be called. Last year this tactic went to far as to even lead to blockages of breaker box and toilets, and a plan to attack the air ducts as well.

After almost (another 50) days of an innactive parliment the biggest questions in the minds of Ukrainians are:
Why do they receive salaries if they never work?
And is this what Democracy is, and if so why do we want it.

If I hadn't Mastered in Peace and Conflict Resolution, I would say that it's time for a good old fashioed peoples rebellion, complete with tar and feathers for the parlimentarians at large. At the very least the politicians should be placed in stocks and paraded through the streets of Ukraine, North, South, East and West to see that there actually ARE problems in the country, bigger than the importance of padding their pocketbook.

Problem:
Aids - As more of the Adult Population become infected with Aids (mostly through drug use) the quantity of worker input into the economy declines while money to care and provide for them declines. Not that their is any money to care and provide for those infected with aids (Did you see the post on the hospitals?)
HIV diagnoses in 2006: 13,256
Rate per million in 2006: 288.3
Total diagnosis recorded at end 2006: 91,057
Adult HIV prevalence 2005: 1.4%

TB - TB is also becoming more prevelant and in this area of Europe in Particular, the untreatable strain in bumping up. TB again effects the ability of the Adult adult population

GAS - Ukraine relies on Exports for 75% of its oil and gas needs. These come from russia. The disputes in congress not only take attention from the country - but inhibit foriegn relations as no one could ever possibly know who they should be dealing with today. Admittedly, the second gas crisis was looked into quickly - but that might be because the politicians haven't built their own personal oil store housees somewhere yet.

Poverty - 37% of Ukrainians (that's 17,130,949 people out of a country of 46,299,862!!!) live below the poverty line.

Inflation - While current inflation is recorded as 11%, it is reckoned that it could go as high as 27% by year end. This in turn will push more people into poverty.

These are just a few of the general problems facing the nation - but isn't enough for the politicians to see that even if they are just working for themselves - they aren't making a very profitable estate for themselves.

For a Comprehensive look at the achievements and battles facing Ukaine, Go to this paper by the Center of strategic and international studies: http://www.csis.org/media/csis/pubs/080213-bugajski-ukraine.pdf

Fascinating Russian Facts

In my quest to learn Russian quickly - I have harvested dozens of bookmarks to grammar, vocab, and other internet russian learning tools.

By far one of the most amazing resources I have found is http://russianmentor.net/tools2.htm Now, for those of you who don't have an inkling to learn russian - that's fine there is also an incredible English portion of the site on Russian Culture. http://russianmentor.net/dtcl/index.htm

As an American approaching Russia - we come at it thinking that everything there is wrong, or second rate. (Well, actually we come at most countries of the world that way - but Russia especially has nothing good to be said about it. Putin, chechnya, Stalin, and Communism - but how many positive words can you name?)

I must admit, I had never been interested in Russia. Though I loved russian fairytales, had heard Russian literature to be the great standard of writing (though I wasn't impressed with Anna Karenia - I thought her cousin deserved the title role - stupid people shouldn't have books written about them unless they are comedies - or such was my attitude as an 8th grader - I'm beginning to think I should re-read the book). However, living in Ukraine, my interest in Russia has necessarily changed - not least because like it or not the history and culture of Ukraine is wrapped up in Russia and Russian thought.

There is a joke a friend told me once several years ago - How long is a Russian Meter? It doesn't matter, its just longer than yours. We might say the same thing about a Texan - that stubborn pride that pervades everything. But that's why i was even more intrigues as i read through this history and culture page (http://russianmentor.net/dtcl/index.htm ) and saw in all the ways that Russian had the short end of the publicity stick.
The tallest mountian in Europe is not in the Alps, but Rather in Russia. The Longest River in Europe is not the Danube, but rather the Russian Volga.

I was most intrigued by the following "Russians have always existed on the edge of starvation. Indeed, in the course of their history they have lost more people to famines than to wars. As a result many important economic, social and political decisions have been based on the success or failure of harvests. Ironically, during the Soviet era successful harvests tended to lead to repression, failed harvests to relaxed policies. For example, poor harvests in the early 1920s led to NEP, the New Economic Policy (Новая экономическая политика - НЭП), a period of loosening of state control in agriculture designed to encourage peasants to be more productive, and poor harvests in the 1970s to a marked increase in trade including grain purchases from the West, particularly the U.S. "

Why the starvation? - Well it turns out that though the soil is fine - the growing period is awful. It explains why the theme of the land amoung Russian literature - to have to put so much work into something and yield almost nothing. Also amazing to see how governments react to differnt crisis and what the long term consequences are.

Weather, babies, and Drafts

The weather in Kiev has been unseasonably warm - which has been pleasant.

Today, however, a gale blew in from all directions. Hail and sleet came banging in from the left while rain flew in from the right. The wind blew through making visible currents in the rain.

Looking down on the sidewalk from our window, we watched the poor people caught in the rain - their umbrellas turning inside out in the wind, clutching their coats up to their chins, and breaking into a fast trot to wherever they were going - the store, home, a friends. Anywhere dry. 8 minutes later the rain and hail and wind stopped. the Sun came out and now, looking out our window, you see a fresh and brighter Harkovsky, the sun reflecting off of a distant Communist grey building. Nestled in the middle is the brick Baptist church of the Transformation. A lovely new building with, seemingly, multiple ministries - including a group for young mothers. There are hundreds of mothers who walk up and down our sidewalk. Apparently children must be taken out in the air twice a day without fail. In Ukraine - fresh air is very healthy - unless you are inside and open a window - at which point the air turns into a Draft (note the capital D as in deadly). While many younger people have conquered their fear of the Draft - others remain in its clutch and sit suffering and sweating in stuffy overheated rooms for fear of the horrors of opening a window. While there may be some wisdom in this - a teacher of mine in highschool once suffered from a full paralysis of the right side of his face from sitting front of a fan - the extent to which it is sometimes taken is very difficult for me - who feels that it is hot, stuffy, and unbearable. However, I am also currently suffering from a head cold - invariably brought on by sitting in front of an open window during our small group last night - after another group member had relinquished his seat due to the draft.

World Monopoly - Vote now!!

Monopoly is creating a world edition game - you can have your say and vote for your favorite city - country abroad by clicking here and registring - you can vote everyday or just once - Some cities aren't listed - so you can type in your own - wild card city at the bottom of the page - Vote now!! (Croatia and Ukraine are high on my list!) http://www.monopolyworldvote.com/en_US/world

Ballet and Spartacus

Spartacus - Roman revolt, eventual failure and crucifixion, Kirk Douglas.


This was basically all I would have associated with Spartacus before last night.


Last night Alister took me to see a ballet At the National Theater. It was my second ever ballet - the fist also being in Ukraine the November before last when Alister first Came to Ukraine. -
But still, the ballet came as a bit of a surprise.

First of all - I associate ballet with something old - from the time of Mozart and all that - very classical and sweet and innocent. Spartacus did not fall into any of these categories.

It was written in the 60's - had a very energetic score, and, well risqué costuming. Not that I know much about ballet costumes, it would seem that in general that they aren't wearing much anyway - but in this ballet, people were even more scantily clad, (Loincloths - they were wearing loincloths) and as the subject matter dealt with the excesses and abuses of the Roman empire, well despite the artistic vagueness of a wordless art form - the ballet is hardly G rated.

What stood out to me: 1 - that they were able to find so many men (I would say at least 40 men - not to mention at least another 20 women) who were able to dance ballet and were willing to wax everything to dance around on stage. Since this is the Kiev Ballet, I assume that these people are here and are professionally connected to the ballet in some way - but what do they do the rest of the time? Giselle - the ballet we saw last year - had only a handful of men - like 5 - so what do all of these male dancers do when there isn't a huge production of Spartacus going on? Are they part of the circus, or athletic instructors? What does a dancer do when they aren't dancing? What would motivate them to keep practicing to be in shape for the next production of an epic war somewhere down the line?

2: From the last ballet and judging from this one as well - the best dancing never takes place at the start of the ballet. In fact, both ballets were rather dull at the start. This may have something to do with the fact that we have arrived a bit late both times, and so it takes a bit to get into the story as well - but in general I think they save the best dances for later. I don't know why, but I would guess that they do this to help the dancers warm up thoroughly.

3: In this ballet especially - they were doing all sorts of different lifts and falls - there was after all a revolt going on! - The amazing thing was that even in the final act, they were able to jump and lift and spin, and spin, and spin, without missing a step (not that I would know if they missed a step - but they certainly didn't seem to falter, stumble or struggle - ) and without even a grimace of exertion! Their super humanity was, however, checked by the fact that they did break a sweat.

4: From our seats, we could see the orchestra section. It must be very boring to be in the orchestra of a production where you have very little to play. The trombone players were talking amongst themselves for most of the first act.

5: The magnitude of the number of people need for a production astounded me. Not only the army of dancers - but the full orchestra, and then all the people running the lights, and the props, the women taking your coats and the ushers showing you to your seats -And to think that originally this was all for the private entertainment of the king and his court!

6: How did the ballet practice before tape recorders and CDs? Did they have to gather the whole orchestra together and practice while they were practicing?

These are the random thoughts that run through my head in the third act of a 3 hour ballet.

Russian Scrabble

Well - Alister and I have branched out on our scrabble addiction - we are now trying Russian Scrabble - which considering you have 10 extra letters in the alphabet, but only 7 still in your hand, and the small number of tiles overall while needing more letters to make more words - is pretty challenging.

We introduced two Ukrainians to the sport as well - They were really getting into it. I ended up winning - but only because I basically claimed no knowledge of Russian - put all on my tiles on the board and kept asking is this a word? How about this? Or this - which resulted in finding, and learning - Amazing words with high point placements.