| On the cover |
| ¹33 (2010) |
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A Load of Hot Air!
Take a balloon ride and see Ukraine from a different perspective
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| 10 September - 16 September 2010 | |
| Active Kyiv |
Full of Hot Air
Growing up, I was always a passionate reader of Jules Verne, and having reached the tender age of 25, I’ve still yet to fall out with the adventurous spirit all of his books are imbued with. What I’ve found, however, is that the excitement and serenity that exist between the pages of those books can be had in real life, all you have to do is make an appointment.
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| Kyiv Kino |
Mr. Nobody (in English)
Directed by Jaco Van Dormael
Drama, Fantasy, Romance – Belgium, England, France 2009
Starring Jared Leto, Diane Kruger, Sarah Polley
Nemo Nobody leads an ordinary existence at his wife Elise and their 3 children’s side until the day when reality skids and he wakes up an old man in the year 2092. At 120, Mr. Nobody is both the oldest man in the world and the last mortal of a new mankind where nobody dies anymore.
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| On the sofa with... |
A Techno Dare-devil
 Being witness to the crazy sounds coming from the I Am Techno party held out at the Kyiv Expo Plaza last weekend, What’s On spotted a highly professional young man behind the turntable. Going in for a closer look, turns out that DJ Sender’s real name is Eugene Evtukhov, and getting him over on the sofa for a little R&R, we get the goods on all of the messages DJ Sender is sending out to his fans.
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| Editorial |
From THE EDITOR (28) |
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 “Breathes there the man with soul so dead, Who never to himself hath said, ‘This is my own, my native land!’ Whose heart hath ne’r within him burned, As home his footsteps he hath turned, From wandering on a foreign strand,” said Sir Walter Scott in his poetic diatribe against the arrogant and self-obsessed. Personally, while I love the lyrical beauty of his poetry, I have never agreed with his correlation between patriotic feelings and selfish snobbery. In fact, I think patriotism is the mother of extreme nationalist views. But I have to admit, as I returned to Scotland last week for the first time in a few months I felt my patriotic passions stirring as the plane flew in over the green fields of Ayrshire, and I could see the sprawling, island-laden waters of Loch Lomond to the west and the rugged rocky slopes of the Campsie Fells to the north.
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“This is my own, my native land,” I thought, and it made my heart swell. I was home, and it’s a place where the likes o’ BJ wouldnae hae a scoobie boot the crack people gie ye. I was here to see ma Da, who’s not keeping too well these days, and, of course, ma Ma, and I was glad to be home. I made my way from the airport to the town centre where I quickly caught up on some rare Scottish delicacies that aren’t available here in Kyiv, and then on out to the village where my parents retired to some years ago. Without doubt, it was good to be home, and great to spend time with my parents. But after a few days, the patriotic feelings that had surged through me as the plane landed soon dissipated and I was left feeling a little cold. A few weeks ago I had lunch with an American who had come to Kyiv way back in 1994. In 2006 he’d decided it was time to return to the US and live a ‘normal’ life, but unable to cope with the mundane nature of existence there, he’d returned to Kyiv last year. It seemed to me that for him, Ukraine was now more his home than his homeland. When I am in Kyiv, I don’t think much about home. But once I’d been home a few days I found my thoughts often turning to Ukraine. Sure, there are many things about life in Kyiv that frustrate me, but is it possible it is becoming more like home than Scotland. It’s a frightening thought. Am I a “man with soul so dead”? Will I when “dying, shall go down to the vile dust, from whence he sprung. Unwept, unhonoured and unsung”? Well in Sir Walter Scott’s eyes, I possibly might, but then, he slipped up when he called the land of Scotland, vile dust. So what does he know? Maybe Ukraine is more home now to me than Scotland, but Scotland is also and will always be home. So now I have two, and I am happy with that.
Neil Campbell
Chief Editor
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| Kyiv Culture |
Corruption: Good or Bad?
Corruption is endemic in Ukraine, of that there is no doubt, and its presence in the higher echelons of government is dragging the country down to its knees. But it permeates all levels of society, and is often the way many a low paid government official provides for himself and his family. And if you ask most Ukrainians about corruption they will smile and say, “If the answer is no, and you really need it to be yes, you can make it yes.”
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| Ukraine Today |
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A Wine Story
I read somewhere that the motivation behind the drinking of wine equals five: the arrival of a friend, one’s present or future thirst, the excellence of the wine, or any other reason. It certainly could be argued that the first, second, third and/or fifth reasons are excellent arguments as to why the good people of Ukraine treat themselves with this little indulgence. With regards to the fourth, however, the jury is still out.
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