Yanukovich - rally for his wife & faux pas in Davos

Watching with unease developments in Egypt.
Here in Ukraine a different sort of protests takes place.

Since his inauguration almost a year ago Yanukovich wife Ludmila is not visible. The Prez travels abroad without his wife. There are rumours Yanukovich wife is under the house arrest.

Thus on Thursday Jan 27th some twenty older women who call themselves members of a party "For rights of older women" arranged a rally in support of the Prez wife Ludmila. The older ladies are appalled by exclusion of the Prez wife from the political life in Ukraine. The rally took place in front of the state administration building. The ladies demanded the release of Viktor Yanukovych's wife "from house arrest of the husband-tyrant."

Women chanted "Vitya (nickname for Victor) - show Ludmila to the world", "Ukraine - not Iran!", "Let's respect the First Lady," "Ludmila - our strength," "Freedom to First Lady!" and "Ludmila - tea with Obama!" Ludmila - coffee with Bruni. "

Participants presented their request to "release the first lady from the house arrest" to the state administration.

It is not only alledged hous arrest of his wife which put Yanukovich in the press.
On Friday Yanukovich gave a press conference in Davos (he was there without Ludmila).
The objective of the press conference was to attract foreign investors. During his speech Yanukovich urged investors to visit Ukraine and Kyiv in spring. The reason - because then beautiful Ukrainian women take their cloths off.
No kidding. But curious to see if  with coming spring Ukrainian FDI will dramatically increase.
Read more: http://www.kyivpost.com/news/nation/detail/95849/

Driving in the winter

Two clips illustrating Ukrainian roads in winter. Both clips shaky due to potholes.
The first is morning drive from Dnepropetrovsk to Zaporozhya.  Beautiful winter landscape makes for less than ideal driving conditions.

The second clip is drive back to Dnepropetrovsk in late afternoon. One can get some idea of a local driving style. The driver was doing 100-120 km/h. Did not dare to say anything to a driver as any remark from a woman about caution and safety could make him to lose concentration.
At one point the car from the opposite direction made a U turn to our side. After that I stoped recording. Closed my eyes. Focused on breathing. Not sure if I will schedule another driving trip in the winter.

Zaporozhiya City

Zaporozhiye was during onr of Stalin's five year plans assigned as the metal city. Hence the city skyline is full of smokestacks. According to number of smokestacks one knows which metallurgical plant works well. The driver told us of different smells and smoke colours. Seems the smokestacks come in rainbow colours.

The clip of industrial part of the city:




The longest road in the city is Prospect Lenina. It's 12 km long. The shaky clip of the road:

Trip to Zaporozhiya

On Jan 25th had a visit to the client scheduled in Zaporozhiya - a metallurgical town about 600 km from Kiev. Flew with my colleagues to Dnepropetrovsk.

While in Kiev it was dark and cloudy in Dnepropetrovsk was sunny, blue sky and dazzling fresh powder snow. And 16 degrees below zero. Idyllic winter day.

From Dnepropetrovsk to Zaporozhiya is about 70 km. The landscape along the road reminded me of a scene Dr Zhivago movie. The road was icy. Did not look like a snow plow passed recently.
The photos of the trip including peculiar Dnepropetrovsk airport restroom staircase, doors and coat hanger are in the slideshow.

Unification Day

Today Ukraine celebrated the Unification Day as on this day in1919 Ukrainian National Republic and West Ukrainian People's Republic became one country.

On the Unification Day across entire Ukraine officials and the public lays flowers at the monuments to Taras Shevchenko. So today President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych, the Prime Minister Mykola Azarov and the members of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine on the Day of Unification of Ukraine laid flowers at monuments to Taras Shevchenko and M. Grushevskogo. Monument of Shevchnko is in the park - so the park was closed. The park was surrounded why hundreds of policemen - both in uniform and plain cloths.

Monument to Grushevski is on the way to park - access closed too. The news reports there were over 1500 people gathered around the parka and the monument. As I had to pass them I can tell you all of them were young students - with their teachers.

Apart from laying flowers at the Shevchenko monuments - the Unification day is to demonstrate. And sseveral small ones took place today. Tymoshenko's party had few thousand people on Sofia Square.
I saw two demonstrations. Both very quite. If people would not carry flags I would never guess they are demonstrators. They looked like hurrying somewhere.
After experiencing protest in Korea - these here were void of emotions. Strange.

This week Korrespondent magazine focus article has a title "Ukraine - concentration camp". The article addresses recent interrogations of entrepreneurs who demonstrated against new Tax Code in November. The initial version of the Tax Code was basically killing small and mendium size business. In the final version the tax code was not so punishing of SME segment but seems now all entrepreneurs who demonstrated are being investigated, put in jail etc. So now after journalists, bloggers and historians entrepreneurs are considered "dangerous breed".

http://korrespondent.net/ukraine/politics/1177120-konclager-ukraina-v-strane-presleduyut-inakomyslyashchih-korrespondent

Rope Walking Practice

This Sunday I saw a young man practicing rope walking. Actually Igor noticed him first. There is always something new and surprising in this small city park.

Playdate

Freezing Sunday morning. A bit of play warms Igor up.

Morning Roof Walking

On Tuesday morning I am enjoying my cup of coffee. I look through the window and there is a man walking on the roof. I do not see it everyday. But he is skillful.

Unfortunatly I am not that skillful with my little Canon. Or perhaps I should treat myself with something better.

Dutch NY Concert in Kiev

For couple of years in first half of January the Dutch Embassy organizes a NY concert. This year the concert took place on Jan 10th. I was sceptical when I have seen the programme with arias from The Magic Flute, I Vespri Siciliani, La Traviatta, Carmen, Lakme, Il Barbiere di Seviglia, Rigoleto. And at the end there was  - Carmina Burana!
But once the singers started their magic singing - the concert was sheer joy. There are all amazing opera stars. This was a truly wonderful concert. I was naughty and have done some poor recording of that amazing concert which I share here:

Violetta's Aria:


Habanera from Carmen:


Flowers Duet from Lakme:


Carmina Burana Fragment:

Capricorne Eclipse

Partial Solar eclipse photo from the office window:

New Year's Eve

Happy New Year!

On 30th Dec flew to the Netherlands. There was heavy snow in Kiev. Doubted the plane will take off. In spite of snow storm with the 45 min delay we were airborne. Arrived on Shiphol. Got train tickets. But trains were delayed due to winter conditions. Once outside the station building wondered where is the snow and what winter conditions messed up trains again..

Kees picked me up in Alkmaar. Within 5 min we were in Bergen. It was my first visit to Bergen. It is a
fairytale-like village. Nice old buildings. Lovely small village roads. Photos are here:

On Dec 31st with Catharina, Kees and Anna we did some shopping. The whole family queued for "oliebollen". Dutch cannot have New Years Eve without "oliebollen". They were delicious and worth queuing. 
After a long time I had a typical Dutch breakfast. Kees was concerned with the way I had "hagelslaag". But as I am a foreigner he gave me a break.

On the Jan 1st went for a stroll on a beach. It was cold and windy. But some people had they New year swim :


While some were in a cold see I was comfortable in the full winter gear with gloves and a fur hat.
Beach photos:

After the beach we had a typical Dutch split pea soup for a dinner. And pancakes for dessert.
Had great time.

People in Bergen care a lot about birds and almost every house has a bird feeder: