Wu Wei

More on Ukrainian Train Disaster

CNN has now picked up the story here.

It seems 14 villages are affected by the poison cloud and the Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine is calling it a disaster and comparing it to Chernobyl. For Ukraine it is undoubtedly a disaster affecting 35 sq miles, according to the report, but hopefully its consequences are not so widespread and international as Chernobyl.

Twenty poisoned in west Ukraine phosphorus incident

Nobody much seems to be reporting this incident which I picked up from someone in Bukovina:

Novosti's report here:

Twenty people were poisoned when a train carrying yellow phosphorus in west Ukraine's Lvov Region derailed and caught fire late Monday, and criminal proceedings have been launched, prosecutors said Tuesday.

"The prosecutor's office of the Lvov Region opened a criminal case over violations of railway traffic and operating rules," the office said in a statement.

Fifteen of the more than 50 cars involved capsized and six caught fire when the train, bound from Kazakhstan to Poland, derailed at about 5:20 p.m. local time (2:20 p.m. GMT) Monday. The fire was extinguished at about 10:30 p.m. local time (7:30 p.m. GMT). More than 800 local residents were evacuated.

Yellow phosphorus is a poisonous substance mainly used in fertilizers, with 0.05 to 0.15 grams enough to kill a human being. Those poisoned lose their appetite, experience fatigue and take on a yellow hue. The substance is highly inflammable.

All those poisoned were hospitalized and their lives are no longer in danger.

"The investigation is under the control of the Ukrainian prosecutor general's office," the Lvov Region prosecutor's office said.

Emergencies officials have said the environmental situation in the area is normal, with slightly increased danger in two settlements remaining.

Another report says:

Number of victims of chemical accident at railway in Lvov Region exceeds 700 people

but it's not clear whether they were just evacuated or have been hurt.

Update

Update on the Coach of Life  translation here.

The coach of life

Reynolds has a post today about a call to take someone to hospital who sounded like they were having a panic attack.  When he got there it was not a panic attack, but a stroke.  He writes sympathetically about how awful it will be for the family, as it is destroyed by the young father being paralysed, unable to work and needing nursing from the wife.  They have young children.

There but for the grace of God go I.

It was just before my 50th birthday in the year I  should perhaps call annus horribilis, but all the good things that happened since are a direct result of it, so I can't complain.   This (part of the) story starts in September, just after Lady Di had been killed and I had got permission to take the kids to Kiev, after a court battle with the ex-husband.  

First, we lost the contract in Kiev which was going to employ me for the next two years.  After such a year, that was not surprising.  So I had to go back to collect the stuff I had left in my flat in Kiev since April.  On the train to Heathrow I noticed that I was feeling slightly nauseous, but put that down to eating a British Rail sandwich too fast.  Also I went dizzy going through the train tunnels.  But what the hell, I was never ill, was I?

However, suddenly as we were landing in Kiev, I found myself dizzy and nauseous and unable to get up at all.  It was probably about 10 in the evening.  I remember being taken to some dark and dirty part of the airport and people muttering about paralysis, with lots of tapping my knees and feet for reactions.  All I knew was that as soon as I moved upright I was nauseous and dizzy.  I wasn't coherent enough to remember any useful telephone numbers, (by then it was 3 in the morning so I was reluctant to wake anyone up) so I ended up in the local hospital.  I was asked lots of questions but my Russian for illnesses wasn't up to much.  I remember them asking whether I had ear problems to which the answer was no.  Though travelling round Ukraine on the Yak 40s which have bad pressurisation probably hadn't helped.

In the morning I found myself in a double room in a local hospital, a bit bemused.  The lady in the other bed was telling her visitor:  "These foreigners, Kiev is too much for them, they collapse as soon as they arrive".  More to let her know I could understand, than to boast, I explained I had been living there for 3 years.  The hospital phoned my work colleagues who brought the usual essentials, including money, and moved me to my own room, which wasn't so much fun.  They proceeded to treat me for a stroke, which was a bit scary, and I had a drip in my arm, and  lots more tapping for reactions down my left side, which didn't feel too bad to me.

After enough lying on my back, I realised I was seeing double and the room was spinning.  It was exactly like I had had too much vodka.  After a few days I stopped seeing two cockroaches instead of one, and could hobble to the loo without assistance.  All my friends came to see me and I cheered up.  I couldn't really feel that worried.  The ex-husband had the kids and would have to keep them till I got back. After 10 days I was passed fit to go home to England and a nurse was hired to accompany me there  on the medical insurance.  She had a nice trip to London, lots of alcohol on the plane and no obligations as far as I could see. 

When I got home and had a check up, my doctor refused to believe I had a stroke (you don't smoke, or drink, and you are too young) but packed me off to the hospital for tests.  I lay in bed while I had more tappings.  Nobody was convinced that there was anything wrong with me.  By then the only symptom I could produce was being unable to walk in a straight line.  I definitely needed a stick to keep my balance.  So the symptoms were still like too much vodka, but not so incapacitating.

By now the doctors had decided that one of the bones in my middle ear had broken and my balance was affected. Apparently this has similar symptoms to the stroke and happens more often than you would think. Looking back on several severe colds, heavy nose blowing and badly pressurised aircraft, I could see that this was possible.  The doctors refused to give me a brain scan, as they said " all the symptoms will have disappeared", as I thought, they are trying to save money yet again. 

After about six months, my balance was OK though I still can't walk in a straight line (perhaps I never could) and I don't wobble any more when passing bright lights or looking at complex patterns (floor tiles and  lace curtains were quite bad). It seems my brain has reprogrammed itself to keep the balance, but it is using parts which normally do other things, so it's sometimes a bit slow.   I finally got a brain scan after a manic attack.  They weren't sure what had caused the manic attack (just stress and a badly managed thyroid).  But as soon as I started complaining about the meanness of the NHS, they realised I was quite sane, but gave me the brain scan anyway. 

Looking back, I was relieved that the Kiev doctors treated me for a stroke and not a middle ear problem.  They don't deal with probabilities the way the NHS does, and took no risks.  The hospital was a bit basic but I was quite comfortable.  My treatment cost 200 USD though how much was bribe and how much treatment was not clear.  I learnt that it is not a disaster to be ill in a foreign country.  And I had lots of laughs about my symptoms afterwards.

Later that year I found a poem by Pushkin about the different ages of man, including the crises of middle years, which made me laugh as mine had been both physical and mental crises.  This is a rather tame translation compared to the one I have at home.  Pushkin was one of the new things I had time for that year.

The coach of life (translation from here)                            Better* translation from here:  The Waggon of Life

Although her load is sometimes heavy,                             Though creaking sometimes with the load
The coach moves at an easy pace;                                    Life's running waggon scarcely rocks
The dashing driver, gray-haired time                                Grey Time conducts us down the road
Drives on, secure upon his box.                                        This driver never leaves the box.

At dawn we gaily climb aboard her                                    We climb upon the boards at dawn
We're ready for a crazy ride,                                             Full of wild devilment and crowing
And scorning laziness and languor,                                    Spurning the languid life with scorn
We shout: "Get on, there! Don't delay!'                              We cry, 'Go on, get fucking going!'

But midday finds our courage wane,                                  But by midday we've lost that boldness
We're shaken now: and at this hour                                   Feeling the waggon shake and judder.
Both hills and dales inspire dread.                                     Dread are the heights and dizzy gorges.
We shout: "Hold on, drive slower, fool!"                            We cry, ' Slow down, you silly bugger!'

The coach drives on just as before;                                  On goes the waggon round the bend,
By eve we are used to it,                                                  By evening well we know the rhythm.
And doze as we attain our inn.                                          Nodding, we ride to our journey's end
While Time just drives the horses on.                               Time's waggon ever-onward driven.

 

So I really feel for that family where the husband did have a stroke.

 * Better translation in the sense that I'm not good at poetry, but I was hooked by the Everyman Selection.  How accurate or true to the original, I'm not qualified to judge.

Technorati tags: NHS, middle ear, stroke, being ill abroad, Ukraine, hospitals

International Women's Day

Is International Women's Day early this year in Kiev? It's always been on March 8 before, but moldovAnn seems to be celebrating it on March 7, and I got a card from my friends in Kiev yesterday. Did I miss something?

Divine answers

Snowsquare reports here that Moscow is likely to have no snow for New Year, an unheard of event.

Do you think that the warm winter throughout Eastern Europe could possibly be Someone's response to Lukashenka's prayers about Gazprom's bullying over gas price rises?  He doesn't seem to have many alternatives.

Or the result of Gazprom's prayers in case it can't meet domestic demand and EU exports in the case of a severe winter (predicted here for 2010).  

Technorati tags: Gazprom, gas, Lukashenka

Plock off

The Jamestown Foundation reports this

Information released following the December 10-11 session of the Ukraine-Kazakhstan Intergovernmental Commission on Economic Cooperation suggests that Russia has successfully forced an indefinite postponement of the Odessa-Brody-Plock oil transport project. Kazakh and U.S. companies in that country were to have been the oil suppliers and Poland the first among European Union consumer countries, once the pipeline would be extended to Plock in Poland under a EU-backed project.

More here.

My colleague who was working on the EU project doing a business plan for this extension must be well miffed. Even the Polish side managed four changes of leadership during 18 months, so the Ukrainians were not the only difficulties.

Celebration Dinner Menu

Whilst rooting in my family history box, I remembered this treasure, which dates from my first year in Ukraine, 1995.

 

As part of my work, we were trying to get money for a hospital for Chernobyl victim and so we were invited to visit several hospitals in the Zhitomir region where they hoped to build it.  On the day in question, we had set off in the morning without much idea of what to expect, and the roads were rather bad, so we were planning to come back early.  But things didn't turn out that way.  First we went to a sanatorium which was incredibly depressing and gloomy.  I am sure we were shown a room where they were given radon baths, incredible though that sounds now, as a treatment for heart problems.  Then we had a full Ukrainian lunch with the director, including the usual copious toasts of vodka.  Rather worse for wear we were taken off somewhere else and found ourselves in another hospital which was rather new.  There we repaired to the coffee bar and had some more liquid refreshments and admired the new building. 

Finally about 5pm we arrived in another place where it appeared an annual celebration was to take place and a formal dinner was laid on starting at 7pm.  At this point I should add that we were dressed for warmth with several layers of sweaters, socks and scarves and boots, and looked rather out of place with the medical ladies who were dressed up to the nines in their backless dresses. It was freezing in the banquet hall.  But we were persuaded to stay and eventually we sat down to the menu above, or at least something as copious.

The menu itself is a spoof.  All the items are written as Russian puns or descriptions especially amusing to medical people.    For example under Main Courses, No 4 says Beef steak with blood (from a donor, Group 1, rhesus negative).  Or electric ray, portions with 110 or 220v. For side orders you can have sapogetti, a type of pasta for soldiers (you have to know that sapogi are boots worn by soldiers).  For desert you can have cake with cream (for normal or dry skin).

I don't remember the actual food, though there was a lot, and it was clearly going on for a good few hours.  However, our driver demanded to leave early so we could get home safely in the snow, so we missed most of it.

 

Technorati tags: dinner menu, russian menu

More changes in Ukraine

Some random changes we noticed during our visit:

1. it was unseasonably warm.  Usually by now there is snow and hard frost at night.  Hats and gloves were hardly needed. This weather must be ordered specially in preparation for the sharp price rise for gas and electricity planned for the New Year, which is likely to cause the new government some problems in the eastern region where their biggest support is.  I saw a report suggesting that payments for utilities are already quite low in the Donetsk region.

2. The posters in the metro telling you to pay your utility bills (with a picture of an ostrich with its head in the sand) have vanished.  Instead (?) there was a very discreet poster for Aids Day. Aids in Ukraine is growing fast, according to the Kyiv Post about 1% of the population are infected.  However, the World Bank has just reinstated its loan to fight the spread of AIDS and tuberculosis, which it suspended earlier this year due to lack of progress.

3. At Boryspil Airport a third language has now appeared on the screens announcing departures and arrivals.  It's quite strange to think that perhaps the one place that justified notices in Russian, didn't have them till now.

And a restaurant review for "Parmesan" from Petro's Jotter

Technorati tags: Ukraine, Russian language, utility bills, AIDS

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The EU (in Ukraine) is not yet dead*

Despite what you might think, some parts of the Ukrainian government are still actively working towards EU membership.  I took the fact that Yushchenko attended the summit in Helsinki with Ukraine to mean that Yanukovich didn't care enough to go himself.  Nevertheless my visit has ended on an unexpected upbeat note.

We met some interesting new organisations working on the last phase of our work.  A specially created unit in the government is designed to help cooperation between European institutions and their Ukrainian equivalent.  The excellent practical technical discussion we had with a senior manager was spoilt by the team of three young people who sat like stones throughout the discussion, but were introduced as the "future of the unit".  As their leader only spoke to them in Russian, we assumed they were not understanding anything, or we were dealing with a unreformed Soviet organisation, where you do not speak (or even look)  out of turn. When he went, they turned into humans again and we saw that they spoke good English, so we made our own deductions.

Then we went to the organisation helping Ukraine change its legislation to comply with EU legislation, which had just started work.  All the projects were delayed over the summer while the government crisis went on.  There is a whole change of culture needed in Ukraine.  New laws are regarded as little more than bits of paper if they get in the way of businessmen and the government, so they aren't really important.  Even so, if they are thought to really make a difference, there is a battle to get them through the Verhovna Rada, and so we thought we would start now.  And then there is the need to implement the laws.  So many people say that recent laws are not bad but nobody knows how to implement them.  It's more accurate to say that vested interests are not too interested to make them work, so the implementing organisations are never set up and the government never makes the rules and regulations that are needed to make the primary law work.

In fact we came across an interesting problem of translation.  In the EU, the Directives have the force of law and although each Member State can choose how to turn them into a law in their own country, the EU monitors the progress of transposition and implementation.  Some countries have a rather poor reputation of turning EU Directives into law and regularly find themselves in court with the European Commission chasing them. 

But in Russian, a directive is more like a recommendation, with no force behind it.  So there is plenty of scope for misunderstanding what implementing an EU Directive means.  With no real force behind the process of adopting EU legislation, it will be interesting to see what really is working in 5 years time.

*with apologies to the national anthem of Ukraine

Technorati tags: EU, Ukraine, Directives