Today I go on holiday. 6 weeks returning to the home country. Boy I am looking forward to it, but I dont know what I look forward to the most. smooth roads with no gaping potholes half a meter deep, busses that arent "stuffed up to the windows", being able to get something done without paying a bribe, or simply a nice warm beer with fish and chips and mushy peas?
Maybe its the fact that I am going "home". When I first came to Ukraine I promised myself I would never use that term in reference to going to the UK as "wherever I lived with my partner was home", sorry but no. England is my home, and will soon be ours I think. Once we return from our trip to England I think we will be discussing our long term future here.
Its defeatist but life is too much for me here. I am constantly angry, or frustrated, or both at the things going on around me.
Only time will tell. Iwill let you know on my return at the end of July. In the meantime enjoy the posts already here. As I have said before, its not a rant, or an angry blog, believe it or not its just the truth.
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
The great divide
Hmm, where to start on this one. For those that dont know, Ukraine is a former republic of the old Soviet Union. As such there are many soviet relics plaguing Ukraine and many other of the former republics, which they still have to overcome.
One of the more obvious ones to a well Ukraine-travelled foreigner (I have a job in east Ukraine and family in the west and make the journey regularly) is the east-west divide.
Let me give you an example.
Language - In the west of Ukraine they speak Ukrainian. "So what?", I hear you say, it is their national language. This is true, and Ukrainians are a bilingual race, speaking Russian fluently too, but the national language is Ukrainian. So then, in the west they speak Ukrainian, and in some places Russian is not taught anymore and people are emerging from the generations below mine that do not speak much Russian at all. In the East, however, it is a different story. Russian rules. I have been verbally insulted several times in the east with the phrase "we don't speak English here we speak RUSSIAN", and they do! Everywhere you go Russian is the FIRST language of east Ukraine. everyone knows Ukrainian to some extent but its Russian they speak first. They say in the West that you know a tourist from the east of Ukraine because he will talk to you firstly in Russian. :). Although the signs and documentation are all in Ukrainian, the spoken language is Russian.
Another example?. Ok, religion and traditions.
The west of Ukraine is steeped in local traditions and deep in the Ukrainian Orthodox church. people still believe in and celebrate old traditions and have traditional values and celebrations in their daily lives. Things like traditional anniversaries, local heroes from history, weddings, etc are still steeped in traditions with traditional clothes, music and dances. Religion is a major part in everyone's life with churches well attended and religious blessings in the local language on many occasions. When passing a worker, for instance, it is tradition and action too to bless him in his days work "bozhe pomohay" is the phrase used (sorry about the poor spelling). The east, well, what can i say. Its just like living in Soviet Russia. What's a church? Sunday is for meeting your friends, shopping and getting drunk. Religion plays a very poor part of life here. I see little in the way of tradition at all and its very sterile and staid in its ways. As for "bozhe pomohay", what does that mean? I have never heard it once here in East Ukraine.
Sadly, this is a divide that will be hard to cross and may be a permanent marker within Ukraine's future here. I hope that the traditions and values of the West will survive the stiffness of the East, and personally I think they will. But the divide will also remain and create unnecessary tensions as we can see in other countries that have such marked divides.
One of the more obvious ones to a well Ukraine-travelled foreigner (I have a job in east Ukraine and family in the west and make the journey regularly) is the east-west divide.
Let me give you an example.
Language - In the west of Ukraine they speak Ukrainian. "So what?", I hear you say, it is their national language. This is true, and Ukrainians are a bilingual race, speaking Russian fluently too, but the national language is Ukrainian. So then, in the west they speak Ukrainian, and in some places Russian is not taught anymore and people are emerging from the generations below mine that do not speak much Russian at all. In the East, however, it is a different story. Russian rules. I have been verbally insulted several times in the east with the phrase "we don't speak English here we speak RUSSIAN", and they do! Everywhere you go Russian is the FIRST language of east Ukraine. everyone knows Ukrainian to some extent but its Russian they speak first. They say in the West that you know a tourist from the east of Ukraine because he will talk to you firstly in Russian. :). Although the signs and documentation are all in Ukrainian, the spoken language is Russian.
Another example?. Ok, religion and traditions.
The west of Ukraine is steeped in local traditions and deep in the Ukrainian Orthodox church. people still believe in and celebrate old traditions and have traditional values and celebrations in their daily lives. Things like traditional anniversaries, local heroes from history, weddings, etc are still steeped in traditions with traditional clothes, music and dances. Religion is a major part in everyone's life with churches well attended and religious blessings in the local language on many occasions. When passing a worker, for instance, it is tradition and action too to bless him in his days work "bozhe pomohay" is the phrase used (sorry about the poor spelling). The east, well, what can i say. Its just like living in Soviet Russia. What's a church? Sunday is for meeting your friends, shopping and getting drunk. Religion plays a very poor part of life here. I see little in the way of tradition at all and its very sterile and staid in its ways. As for "bozhe pomohay", what does that mean? I have never heard it once here in East Ukraine.
Sadly, this is a divide that will be hard to cross and may be a permanent marker within Ukraine's future here. I hope that the traditions and values of the West will survive the stiffness of the East, and personally I think they will. But the divide will also remain and create unnecessary tensions as we can see in other countries that have such marked divides.
Monday, June 9, 2008
Sights and sounds. 3
Some of the stuff I have seen here that has turned my head...
Observation: Why do overweight women with large bags always sit at the back of the marshrutka and always want to get off when its full of standing passengers?
Observation: Why do overweight women with large bags always sit at the back of the marshrutka and always want to get off when its full of standing passengers?
Sights and sounds. 2
Some of the stuff I have seen here that has turned my head...
My partner and I were walking through the village and heard from behind us a car and loud music. As it passed I realised it was an old Moskvitch, with one side panel missing. Driving it was a young man with his expensive sterreo turned up full, blasting out some russian music. As it passed me and my partner, we could not help but laugh as we saw that the drivers door was missing and the driver was sat on an old plastic crate, steering wheel in one hand, beer in the other with a cigarette hanging from the corner of his mouth as his head bobbed backward and forward with the music.
My partner and I were walking through the village and heard from behind us a car and loud music. As it passed I realised it was an old Moskvitch, with one side panel missing. Driving it was a young man with his expensive sterreo turned up full, blasting out some russian music. As it passed me and my partner, we could not help but laugh as we saw that the drivers door was missing and the driver was sat on an old plastic crate, steering wheel in one hand, beer in the other with a cigarette hanging from the corner of his mouth as his head bobbed backward and forward with the music.
Sights and sounds. 1
Some of the stuff I have seen here that has turned my head...
I remember walking home in the village and coming upon the rear of a large trailer. This trailer was about 2 metres wide and 3 or four meteres long and piled upon it were the remains of a large tree cut into pieces, trunk, branches, roots and all. Two middle aged men with saws were talking at the side of the trailer and drinking beer. As we passed the trailer I expected to see a small truck or two large horses hitched to the front of the trailer. Imagine my surprise when all i saw was a small and incredibly fed up looking donkey....
I remember walking home in the village and coming upon the rear of a large trailer. This trailer was about 2 metres wide and 3 or four meteres long and piled upon it were the remains of a large tree cut into pieces, trunk, branches, roots and all. Two middle aged men with saws were talking at the side of the trailer and drinking beer. As we passed the trailer I expected to see a small truck or two large horses hitched to the front of the trailer. Imagine my surprise when all i saw was a small and incredibly fed up looking donkey....
Sitecore
So, enough about me and more about Sitecore. We are in the process of running up to the release of Sitecore 6 and man I am excited. The latest release is a HUGE step forward from Sitecore v5. The developers have been inspired to make changes to the product that have really brought the product to the front of the web CMS market. I personally think that this will be a huge success for Sitecore and will push them way up the ladder from the heights they are already at.
The improvements are large and various, from a new Page Editor that means that people can edit data directly on the web page without developer help, to a new security model integrated using the latest .NET architecture. They have got rid of something that has bothered me since I came here, and I know that it has bothered users too. MASTERS HAVE GONE. Hoo-bloody-ray if you ask me, I never did completely understand how they worked. The new templates are so easy to understand that I told my 16yr old daughter how they work when I was showing her the product and she understood without any more than one explanation. Even I understood it (lol)...
The security makes sense, it uses .NET architecture and will be so much easier to provide and is so flexible and infinately more secure than the old Sitecore model.
I also like the way that the way the Page Editor works. The ability for an unskilled computer user to have the ability to directly edit text and change pictures with no need for Sitecore knowledge will be a godsend to some businesses, allowing their staff with skills and knowledge to contribute to a web site without waiting for a developement schedule for things to be changed. Imagine a health worker being able to add the latest news and update the latest medical details on a site immediately, just by clicking on a text area and editing the text directly on the page. Cool feature, and I think it will be an instant hit with those who have been used to the more unwieldy WebEdit features and also with those new to Sitecore.
Combined together these features along with the host of others, like reducing the databases from seven to three and having each database have its own recycle bin and archive integrally and the content management improvements make Sitecore look so stunning and easy to use that even I have finally got round to trying to design a web site with it. :)
The improvements are large and various, from a new Page Editor that means that people can edit data directly on the web page without developer help, to a new security model integrated using the latest .NET architecture. They have got rid of something that has bothered me since I came here, and I know that it has bothered users too. MASTERS HAVE GONE. Hoo-bloody-ray if you ask me, I never did completely understand how they worked. The new templates are so easy to understand that I told my 16yr old daughter how they work when I was showing her the product and she understood without any more than one explanation. Even I understood it (lol)...
The security makes sense, it uses .NET architecture and will be so much easier to provide and is so flexible and infinately more secure than the old Sitecore model.
I also like the way that the way the Page Editor works. The ability for an unskilled computer user to have the ability to directly edit text and change pictures with no need for Sitecore knowledge will be a godsend to some businesses, allowing their staff with skills and knowledge to contribute to a web site without waiting for a developement schedule for things to be changed. Imagine a health worker being able to add the latest news and update the latest medical details on a site immediately, just by clicking on a text area and editing the text directly on the page. Cool feature, and I think it will be an instant hit with those who have been used to the more unwieldy WebEdit features and also with those new to Sitecore.
Combined together these features along with the host of others, like reducing the databases from seven to three and having each database have its own recycle bin and archive integrally and the content management improvements make Sitecore look so stunning and easy to use that even I have finally got round to trying to design a web site with it. :)
The good things in life.
so to balance it out a bit I thought I would write about the good things here. Yes, there are some.
The people, thats the real, honest normal folk are really nice here. Street crime just doesn't exist in the majority. I can walk the dark streets without fear of being attacked most of the time. If you get into trouble and people are around they always jump in. Once I saw an ignorant van driver try to force his vehicle through a crowd of people at a red light. He was getting angrier and angrier. Imagine HIS surprise when a couple of guys in the crowd he was trying to force out of the way dragged him out of his van to teach him a lesson in good manners. YES! One up for street justice. The real honest folk here (thats the poor, the rich dont care about anyone but the dollar in their pocket and there is no middle class, you are either rich or poor) are decent honest hard working people and will help you when you need it. Coming from england that's refreshing. In the villages everyone greets everyone else as they pass, something I have NEVER seen back home.
Kids are well looked after and raised properly with the correct moral standards and respect. You NEVER see drunk teenagers throwing up on street corners here and the kids are always quiet and polite when out and about and would never even think of abusing someone as they would quickly get exactly what they deserved. If someone assaults someone else then the police are called and that person is summarily "dealt with" then dragged off and given his just deserts then told to go home. To some that may sound a bit severe but it works, you just dont do stuff that may incur the business of the police, they carry sticks they can and WILL use and for the really stupid they are also armed.
The Ukrainian countryside is beautiful, long rolling green fields and small villages dot the countryside. The sun shines all day and it mostly rains only at night. In winter its covered in snow all the time with regular and heavy snow falls and temperatures that drop to a bone chilling -30C and in the summer it glows all day in a hot and steamy +40C. the seasons are definate and marked by stunning changes in scenery as you go from the grey and white of winter to the green and blue of summer with all the shades in between in spring and autumn.
I feel that Ukraine has a lot to offer the right people but has a lot of problems it needs to address before it will reap the rewards that the countryside and the mountains can offer its people.
I do have a soft spot for Ukraine and what it can be, however, what it is at the moment is really tough for someone like me and I admire anyone who can live here all there lives and not fall into the traps of poverty and alcoholism.
The people, thats the real, honest normal folk are really nice here. Street crime just doesn't exist in the majority. I can walk the dark streets without fear of being attacked most of the time. If you get into trouble and people are around they always jump in. Once I saw an ignorant van driver try to force his vehicle through a crowd of people at a red light. He was getting angrier and angrier. Imagine HIS surprise when a couple of guys in the crowd he was trying to force out of the way dragged him out of his van to teach him a lesson in good manners. YES! One up for street justice. The real honest folk here (thats the poor, the rich dont care about anyone but the dollar in their pocket and there is no middle class, you are either rich or poor) are decent honest hard working people and will help you when you need it. Coming from england that's refreshing. In the villages everyone greets everyone else as they pass, something I have NEVER seen back home.
Kids are well looked after and raised properly with the correct moral standards and respect. You NEVER see drunk teenagers throwing up on street corners here and the kids are always quiet and polite when out and about and would never even think of abusing someone as they would quickly get exactly what they deserved. If someone assaults someone else then the police are called and that person is summarily "dealt with" then dragged off and given his just deserts then told to go home. To some that may sound a bit severe but it works, you just dont do stuff that may incur the business of the police, they carry sticks they can and WILL use and for the really stupid they are also armed.
The Ukrainian countryside is beautiful, long rolling green fields and small villages dot the countryside. The sun shines all day and it mostly rains only at night. In winter its covered in snow all the time with regular and heavy snow falls and temperatures that drop to a bone chilling -30C and in the summer it glows all day in a hot and steamy +40C. the seasons are definate and marked by stunning changes in scenery as you go from the grey and white of winter to the green and blue of summer with all the shades in between in spring and autumn.
I feel that Ukraine has a lot to offer the right people but has a lot of problems it needs to address before it will reap the rewards that the countryside and the mountains can offer its people.
I do have a soft spot for Ukraine and what it can be, however, what it is at the moment is really tough for someone like me and I admire anyone who can live here all there lives and not fall into the traps of poverty and alcoholism.
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