We arrived at the festival in Kiev this morning after getting up at 3:30 a.m. and taking the two flights from Kazan. It was sort of a Ukrainian patriotic festival on a beautiful hilltop above the town. There were hippies and people doing martial arts and archery and Hare Krishnas and food stalls, and strange pre-Christian effigies.

Unfortunately it was also pouring rain and the stage had a half-inch of water on it. No one seemed to speak English and the stage manager looked about 24. Any attempt to convey that water and electricity don’t mix was met with blank stares and a shrug.

Frustrated, we decided to not do a sound check but a line check later before the show if the weather cleared enough to play.

We left for the hotel, which turned out to be almost a museum of an old soviet hotel. Huge, dingy but fascinating and beautiful in it’s own way. With halls full of photos of employees and odd shaped doorways, layers of smells and giant steep steps in the building that you have to drag your luggage up like the stairway in a Mayan temple. Communist architecture seems to often disregard ergo-dynamic function completely.

Photos from Kiev, inside the hotel, down by the river, photo of the band Yat Kha

The hotel had fantastic Ukrainian food in the restaurant on the 10th floor with great salads and dumplings, even though the service was soviet style, that is: there was none. The process took hours to get the food, which didn’t always arrive at all.

On the 11th floor was “Heaven on Eleven” a gentleman’s “entertainment” club with strippers, an odd contrast to the solemnity of the rest of the building.

I had a nice walk in the rain by the river and admired the unbelievable dowdy soviet buildings. They had a sad homely charm with laundry hanging from the windows.

We arrived at the festival and the stage was still flooded and the sound crew seemed a bit lost, but the audience standing in the rain was amazing, roaring with delight and energy and full of excitement. Due to the difficulty of getting the line check together, we had a reduced set time from an hour to a bit over 30 minutes, but the adversity of a situation like that always makes me want to do my best, and the audience and the band were so excited.

We had a great show with the audience screaming clapping and jumping up and down and as special treat Albert Kuvesin from the Tuvan band Yat Kha came up and sat in with Joe on his solo on the song “Everybody Loves You” his Tuvan sub-sonic karrgara sounded incredible with the tuba, and the show was a thrill, the rain was still strong but the audience stayed in there.

We left the stage with soaked shoes and a smile. It was a very memorable and special show, but now back at the hotel at 11:30 p.m. I am drying my clothes and equipment and my soaking shoes and preparing to leave at 4:30 a.m. tomorrow morning to play on national television in Moscow. Sadly both Reut Regev our trombonist and Steve Elson our sax player had to leave, Steve for California and Reut for her own tour in Europe. So we will continue our tour with a much reduced horn section.

From the menu at the hotel restaurant: “Potatoes prepared on your desire,” ” Potato baked in its own grasses,” and “Ice-cream in your desire.”

By Brigid McCarthy

As Egyptians celebrated the overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak last month, Yevhen Fedchenko watched with mixed emotions.

“We share your euphoria,” he said. “But let’s see what will happen next.”

Fedchenko is a professor of journalism in Ukraine, at the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy.

He’s been paying close attention to the popular uprisings that have swept across Egypt and other parts of North Africa and the Middle East because they remind him of what happened in his own country.

During Ukraine’s 2004 Orange Revolution, hundreds of thousands of ordinary citizens rose up and overturned a fraudulent presidential election. Many hailed the Orange Revolution as the birth of democracy in Ukraine, a former Soviet republic.

“From a psychological point of view and a sociological point of view, both events [in Ukraine and in Egypt] are really great to start people expressing their feelings,” Fedchenko said.

But more than six years after the Orange Revolution, the transition to democracy in Ukraine remains rocky, and some Ukrainians contend their country’s missteps hold important lessons for Egyptians today.

Hope and expectations

“There’s always great hope and a great expectation about the outcomes of the revolution,” said Anastasia Bezverkha, one of the student leaders of the Orange Revolution.

But she cautioned that a revolution alone cannot guarantee profound and sustainable social change. Yevhen Fedchenko said his country made a “great mistake” by depending on one man to fulfill the hopes of the revolution.

That man was Viktor Yushchenko, the opposition candidate who beat the incumbent president’s handpicked successor only after nationwide protests forced a rematch.

After President Yushchenko was sworn in, Ukraine’s pro-democracy activists folded up their tents and orange banners and went home. They figured their work was done. Then they watched in dismay as Yushchenko failed to enact any meaningful political reform during his five years in office.

Back to pre-2004

“Ukraine is now moving back to a pre-2004 period in terms of political culture, pressure on the media, and opposition,” said Fedchenko. “That’s always a problem with revolutions when you really expect big changes and you rely heavily on one person to do that, and this person fails.”

President Yushchenko won just 5 percent of the vote when he ran for re-election last year.

The man who won the presidency, Viktor Yanukovich, has quickly restored one-party rule in Ukraine, harassed and jailed opposition figures, and brought Ukraine firmly back into the Russian sphere of influence. President Yanukovich, by the way, was the candidate who tried to steal the 2004 election, which sparked the Orange Revolution.

Student leader Bezverkha said true systemic change takes sustained grassroots activism, and she thinks Egypt faces even greater challenges in this regard than Ukraine.

“In [a] country where there was a military rule for so many years, where there was an authoritarian regime, it’s hard to establish a democratic society within a year or two,” she said. “There has to be a strong will of the whole nation to build the institutions that will ensure democratic change is happening as a system, not as the will of a certain politician.”

She and other veterans of the Orange Revolution still hope Ukraine can resume its transition to democracy, and they will be watching to see whether citizen activists in Egypt and other parts of the Arab can help their countries achieve that transition, too. Download MP3

Another TV channel led with news of protests over a bill that would make Russian the country’s second official language. Next was an update on a dip in the value of the hryvnya, the local currency.

And in local news, some residents in the Black Sea port of Sevastopol were alarmed by the smell of natural gas.

So, match those headlines with a country in eastern Europe.

The answer is Ukraine. President Chavez met with Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych to talk about energy. Ukraine promised to help develop oil and gas fields in Venezuela. And Venezuela vowed to send more oil to Ukraine — and neighboring Belarus. Both countries are looking to diversify their energy supplies, so as not to depend too much on Russia.

Read the Transcript
This text below is a phonetic transcript of a radio story broadcast by PRI’s THE WORLD. It has been created on deadline by a contractor for PRI. The transcript is included here to facilitate internet searches for audio content. Please report any transcribing errors to theworld@pri.org. This transcript may not be in its final form, and it may be updated. Please be aware that the authoritative record of material distributed by PRI’s THE WORLD is the program audio.

LISA MULLINS: Some events make headlines all over the globe. The rescue of the miners in Chile, for instance. But many times, the top news stories in another country are quite different from ours. For example… For our Geo Quiz today, we want you to identify an eastern European country by the top stories on its TV newscasts last night. Okay, for example, one channel led with coverage of a visit by Venezuela’s president Hugo Chavez. It was Chavez’s first visit to this country, again in Eastern Europe, where he talked about oil and airplane deals. Another TV channel led with news of protests over a bill that would make Russian the country’s second official language. Next, an update on a dip in the value of the hryvnya. That’s the local currency. And in local news, some residents in the Black Sea port of Sevastopol were alarmed by the smell of natural gas. So, match those headlines with a country in Eastern Europe. We’ll be back with the answer in just a bit. We asked you to name an eastern European country in our Geo Quiz today. It’s where Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez paid a visit yesterday. The answer is Ukraine. Chavez met with Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych to talk about energy. Ukraine promised to help develop oil and gas fields in Venezuela. And Venezuela vowed to send more oil to Ukraine and to neighboring Belarus. Both Ukraine and Belarus are looking to diversify their energy supplies, so as not to depend too much on Russia. This is PRI, Public Radio International.

Copyright ©2009 PRI’s THE WORLD. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to PRI’s THE WORLD. This transcript may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without prior written permission. For further information, please email The World’s Permissions Coordinator at theworld@pri.org.

• Mad Heads XL’s website
• Wikipedia: Mad Heads XL

• Battle lines drawn over Ukraine’s strategic direction
• In pictures: Ukraine parliament chaos

Read the Transcript
This text below is a phonetic transcript of a radio story broadcast by PRI’s THE WORLD. It has been created on deadline by a contractor for PRI. The transcript is included here to facilitate internet searches for audio content. Please report any transcribing errors to theworld@pri.org. This transcript may not be in its final form, and it may be updated. Please be aware that the authoritative record of material distributed by PRI’s THE WORLD is the program audio.

MARCO WERMAN:  Ukraine has its own political drama.  Last week lawmakers hurled eggs and smoke bombs in the chambers of Parliament.  This was after the ruling party of President Viktor Yanukovich ratified a controversial treaty between Ukraine and Russia.  The treaty extended the lease of a Russian naval base in Ukraine an additional 25 years.  This isn’t the first time Ukrainian lawmakers have gotten into fistfights.  But last week’s brawl could signal the beginning of a much more turbulent period in Ukrainian politics.  Brigid McCarthy reports from the capital Kiev.

BRIGID MCCARTHY:  Viktor Yanukovich, Ukraine’s newly elected President has taken everyone by surprise.  As a candidate, his official slogan was “Ukraine for the People”.  Some reporters observed that he seemed to spend more time on the tennis courts than the campaign trail.  But once he got elected, President Yanukovich got right down to business.  He changed the Constitution, some say illegally, in order to create a Parliamentary majority.  Then he ousted Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, his chief rival, and gave the job to one of his long time political allies.  Yanukovich and his party now control all branches of government in Ukraine, something that hasn’t happened since the 2004 Orange Revolution.

MYKOLA RIABCHUK:  What happened here is a kind of Parliamentary coup d’etat.  They usurped power, basically.

MCCARTHY: Mykola Riabchuk is a writer and independent political analyst in Kiev.

RIABCHUK: What is surprising is that there are not only authoritarian but they are so openly pro-Russian.  Not only in declarations, but also in real gestures.

MCCARTHY: Two weeks ago the Ukrainian President stunned the opposition by signing a treaty with Russia’s President Dimitry Medvedev.  It lets Russia keep its Black Sea fleet on Ukraine’s Crimean coast an extra 25 years.  Russia’s lease was due to expire in 2017.  In exchange for the extension, Moscow agreed to give Ukraine a steep discount on gas imports.  President Yanukovich said the agreement saves Ukraine billions of dollars.  The next day, a Kiev newspaper ran the headline “Great Gas Deal, or Sell Out of the Nation?”  Simon Pirani is a senior research fellow at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies.  He says the treaty is unfortunate because it means politicians, not global markets are setting the price of gas.

SIMON PIRANI: In our view, that’s bad in the sense that it mixes the gas up again with the politics.

MCCARTHY: When that happens, Europe pays attention.  A quarter of the European Union’s gas imports come from Russia and most of that gas travels through Ukrainian pipelines.  Twice in the last four year, Russia has shut off the gas to Ukraine because of pricing disputes leaving European customers shivering without heat too.  Pirani says whether or not Viktor Yanukovich is pro-Russian, Ukraine needs huge amounts of gas to keep its Soviet era factories humming, but can’t afford to pay market prices.

PIRANI:  It has not modernized industry.  It has certainly not done a thing about those district heating systems which are terribly leaky, which use an enormous amount of gas and so it’s paying all this money for this gas, it’s importing this gas and not using it effectively.

MCCARTHY: The long term solution is for Ukraine to make its factories and urban infrastructure more energy efficient.  Cheaper gas from Russia removes any incentive to do that.  Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin has made Ukraine an even bigger offer, to merge Russian gas giant Gazprom with Ukraine’s national gas company.  Putin’s latest proposal seems to have taken even Yanukovich’s government by surprise.  Those this too may be an offer that President Yanukovich finds too good to refuse.  But it may also trigger even bigger political protests.  Russian and Ukrainian leaders will begin talks on the possible gas industry merger next week.  For The World, I’m Brigid McCarthy in Kiev, Ukraine.

Copyright ©2009 PRI’s THE WORLD. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to PRI’s THE WORLD. This transcript may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without prior written permission. For further information, please email The World’s Permissions Coordinator at theworld@pri.org.

• Wikipedia: Kiev
• BBC Ukraine profile

Read the Transcript
This text below is a phonetic transcript of a radio story broadcast by PRI’s THE WORLD. It has been created on deadline by a contractor for PRI. The transcript is included here to facilitate internet searches for audio content. Please report any transcribing errors to theworld@pri.org. This transcript may not be in its final form, and it may be updated. Please be aware that the authoritative record of material distributed by PRI’s THE WORLD is the program audio.

KATY CLARK:  Thousands of miles from the Winter Games in Vancouver there’s another death defying winter sport taking place on the streets of Ukraine’s capital.  Brigid McCarthy reports from Kiev.

BRIGID MCCARTHY:  Walking down a Kiev sidewalk these days is like buying a lottery ticket to the hospital.  Pedestrians pick their way across sheets of ice that are slick as oil, polished by thousands of feet.  Everyone I know has fallen at some point.  And yet, down these sidewalks, striding briskly and with style, come elegant women in high heeled boots.  Not just high heels, these are stratospheric heels, space-needle heels.  To my eye, these are true, world class athletes on ice.

MARTYN HINDLEY:  We’re looking for height as well as balance, speed and finesse.

MCCARTHY: That’s Martyn Hindley, a British sportscaster who’s in town this week.  We’re standing on Kiev’s Independence Square for the daily stiletto slalom.

HINDLEY: So perhaps the most difficult point in the course now, the point which really does meet heavy slush with heavy ice.

MCCARTHY: Judging from the level of competition though, these are the preliminary rounds.

HINDLEY: It really looks like she’s forcing it from the knees.  Now let’s describe the footwear here.  It’s a very, very thin stiletto and it’s also coming from quite a height.  It looks like she’s got some ankle support, but she’s sliding along.  This is almost a penguin’s style of ascent.  It’s a good attempt, its good style of boot, it’s not good style of athleticism there.

MCCARTHY: It’s really hard, she says, the only reason I’m wearing these boots is because I have to for a business meeting.

HINDLEY: To anybody who’s tried to navigate this course in conventional footwear with large treads, it seems extraordinary that somebody can try and do this.

MCCARTHY: These are my little ones, this athlete says.  I have other stilettos that are almost seven inches high.  Her friend adds, I’ve tried wearing flat soled shoes, but they’re just not comfortable because my feet are so used to high heels.  And like all world class competitors, these athletes start training early.  She says, as soon as girls here turn 13 or 14 they go up on the heels.  It’s a tradition here.

HINDLEY: Now this is a quite amazing gold medalist course here because we have somebody who’s in the shortest of stilettos, but is moving at an incredible velocity.  We’ve got style, we’ve got purpose, we’ve got just about everything here.  She’s going for a bit of width, a bit of grip there, but some of it’s come off.  Some of that stiletto has come off on the turf.  That’s absolutely extraordinary.  So we’ve had pace, but she’ll probably be walking quite awkwardly now.  The bottom of the right stiletto heel has caught in a crack.  There was a look of disdain towards the ground from the competitor as she lost her heel on the right hand side and that will cost style points further on.

MCCARTHY: That’s probably not all it will cost, but these competitors are tough.  I’ve broken my foot twice, this woman says.  But as soon as it’s healed, I’ve gotten right back in my heels.  A man standing nearby sees our microphone and approaches.

MALE VOICE 1:  And they can run faster than us men.

HINDLEY: Now we have friends competing against each other.  We have one who is almost so forceful with very, very thin legs on the right hand side, but still able to generate a lot of power and precision through stilettos that are remarkably thin.  Now she’s looking for a degree of difficulty that hasn’t been seen before, certainly not in this competition.  And she’s trying to actually climb on marble.  Now this is a very new trick, trying to pirouette closely to actually sit on the marble top.  That is really terrific stuff.  Perhaps already she has done enough for gold.  Zelataya Diabushka, the golden woman in this winter event.

MALE VOICE 2:  It’s beautiful and we like it.  Male like it.

MCCARTHY: Which, I suppose is the ultimate prize.  For The World, I’m Brigid McCarthy in Kiev, Ukraine.

Copyright ©2009 PRI’s THE WORLD. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to PRI’s THE WORLD. This transcript may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without prior written permission. For further information, please email The World’s Permissions Coordinator at theworld@pri.org.

Coffee shop in the Ukraine

What exactly does it mean to be Ukrainian? A thousand years ago, Ukraine was the heart of the Slavs’ first great civilization, one of the largest kingdoms in Europe. Since the 13th century, parts of Ukraine have been over-run and ruled by Mongols, Poles, Lithuanians, Hungarians, Austrians, Ottoman Turks, Russians, and Soviets. Ukraine finally achieved true independence in 1991. But Ukrainians are just starting to figure out what it means to be Ukrainian. The World’s Jason Margolis spent 10 days in Ukraine and reports on the quest for Ukrainian identity, exploring the nation’s music, politics, history, and humor.

Ukrainian humor
September 15th, 2008

Odessa Fish Market

The brand of humor that made Seinfeld such a hit is often described as New York Jewish humor. It’s a little off-the-wall, neurotic, and self-deprecating. Perhaps bitter and pessimistic. And very funny. The roots of modern Jewish humor come from Eastern Europe. More specifically, it’s said if you want to go to where funny was born, go to Odessa, the city on the Black Sea.

Listen:

Family roots
August 4th, 2008

Vladimirets, Ukraine

66 years ago this summer, the Nazis swept through the Ukrainian countryside. It’s estimated that they killed between 600,000 and 900,000 Ukrainian Jews during the Holocaust.The family of The World’s Jason Margolis is originally from Ukraine. He recently traveled to the place where his grandmother grew up.

Listen:

Vladimirets audio slideshow

Famous battle
August 19th, 2008

"Famous Battle"

Listen:

Economy draws Ukrainians home
July 28th, 2008

Shopping in downtown Kiev

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, many Ukrainians left their country to find better jobs in the West. Now, some Ukrainians are reversing the pattern. They’re heading home because of new economic opportunities in Ukraine.

Listen:

Okean Elzy
July 15th, 2008

Ukraine’s most popular rocker is now serving in that country’s Parliament.

Listen:

Chernobyl tourism
July 24th, 2008

Jason Margolis in front nuclear reactor in Chernobyl

Chernobyl is the site of the world’s worst nuclear accident. When a reactor exploded there in 1986, it sent plumes of radioactive material across Europe. Chernobyl’s still largely off-limits. But the Ukrainian disaster zone has been turning into something of a tourist destination. Jason Margolis took the tour.

Listen:

Chernobyl audio slideshow

Viktor Yushchenko
June 26, 2008

Four years ago, something terrible happened to Viktor Yushchenko while he was running for president of Ukraine. His face became horribly disfigured. Doctors determined he was poisoned by dioxin. At lot’s happened since then. Ukraine went through the ‘Orange Revolution’ and Yushchenko went on to become president. These days he face looks less damaged. Now it’s his political health that’s suffering. Jason Margolis has an update on the Ukrainian leader’s physical — and political — health. Listen:

BBC video: the strange tale of Viktor Yushchenko’s face
Ukraine’s Viktor Yushchenko

Thoughts on Ukraine
July 14th, 2008

Jason found beautiful architecture, clean streets, and a certain bluntness in Ukraine. Read his journal

In Ukraine, the question asked isn’t a friendly, “May I help you?” Rather, the question best offered is a pleading, “Will you please help me?”

Margolis ponders the pastry that might've been

This is my first trip to the former Soviet Union. I’d been told to expect a different, shall we say, “style” of customer service. But I still wasn’t fully prepared. For 10 days in Ukraine, I get the same blasé attitude everywhere I go. Apathetic waiters, can’t-be-bothered concierge workers, tour guides who are annoyed when I ask questions.

People do their jobs. Period. Nothing more. The pastry chef’s assignment is to bake the pastry, not to sell it.

Some people say it’s a remnant of Soviet mentality. Others blame the Orthodox Church. Some blame Ukraine’s harsh history. Others cite the winters. Whatever the cause, I find the Ukrainians to be unfriendly, impolite, and frankly, a little lazy.

Ukraine was a Soviet republic from 1922-1991

But after a few days in Ukraine, I begin to change my tune. No one is offensive, rude, or pushy. I have not met a single loud or obnoxious Ukrainian, with the exception of a group of teenage boys who were celebrating a soccer win. (And even they were well behaved, by worldwide teenage-boy-celebrating-soccer-win standards.)

After a week, I actually begin to kind of enjoy the bluntness here. Nobody is trying to butter up to me or pretend to be my friend. You know where you stand in Ukraine. Think about it: Why would somebody be glad to help a stranger decide which pastry is best for them? It’s insane.

Downtown Odessa

And Ukraine is beautiful. And clean. I rarely see trash on the street. In 10 days I saw two pieces of graffiti, one of which was a Zoro moustache drawn on an Antonio Banderas advertisement, which I’m not even sure technically counts.

I share my reflections with a Ukrainian professor over a cup of coffee. He offers another theory: It’s possible I’m getting a cold shoulder because “all Ukrainians” think “all Americans” are imbeciles. I’m not surprised to hear this, but I am rather surprised he said it to me. (After all, by definition, if all Americans are imbeciles, he has just informed me that I am an imbecile.) When I ask why he holds 300 million people in such low regard, he answers with another question: Why do Americans always smile for photos? I don’t have a good answer for him.

In Ukraine people don’t smile for photos. Why would they? I have to admit, it is a little bizarre to suddenly burst into a wide grin. And, at the end of the day, Ukrainians would rather complain than smile.

Fish vendor in Odessa

As a reporter, I’m used to people complaining to me – my job is to listen to complaints. But Ukrainians have turned grumbling into high art. Generally when I ask an interviewee a question, they give me an answer. That’s how the game works. In Ukraine, I have appointments with people who have prepared a list of unrelated grievances in advance of our meeting.

I wanted to speak with a scientist about solar panels; I heard a lot about his wife’s pension. I needed to chat about Ukrainian history with another man; he talked at great length about his aching knee. I spoke with one man whose wife actually interrupted our interview and said to my translator, “I NEED to complain.” I didn’t know what to do, so I tilted my microphone in her direction. She was unhappy with her husband.

All this being said, I do not find Ukrainians to be unpleasant people; I rather like them. And I’m starting to get a kick out of the game.

Towards the end of my trip, I stop at a street vendor for some ice cream. The woman selling ice cream is on her cell phone, doing her best to ignore me. My translator shrugs his shoulders and explains it to me this way: She has all the ice cream, she’s in absolute control. How can one argue with this logic?

One final unrelated observation from Ukraine: If there’s ever a worldwide shortage of mayonnaise or sour cream, we know who is to blame.

Typical helping of sour cream