Category Archives: Mostly Tourism

Boxes, Jazz, a Diploma, and tracks in Mises’s childhood home

I had the opportunity recently to sit in on a sales presentation of a company that sells boxes in Ukraine. I loved every minute of the three hour meeting — absolutely fascinating. I learned not just about boxes, but about the business who use boxes. What a fantastic perspective on the Ukrainian economy. The next day, I noticed these beauties in the supermarket:

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Jazz Festival in L’viv.

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There’s one short street in L’viv with no addresses on it. All the buildings have their addresses on adjacent streets. Every year during the city’s film festival the street gets one more name. All the names so far are of movie directors.

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The childhood home of Ludwig Von Mises is, as far as I know, the only building in L’viv with rails in the entrance way. I was told by a tour guide that there had been a small factory in the building. Perhaps they used the tracks, which are only about 20 meters long, to move a cart for coal from the street where it was loaded to the factory inside.

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So, apparently, this is what a diploma looks like in Ukraine. It’s a hard identification card with holograms on it. It’s also too big for one’s wallet. So strange. Would it be more efficient for university to simply verify records of graduates for curious potential employers. It’s hard for me to understand this thing.

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L’viv at night:

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Two sirens near the city center:

Bandurists in Lviv from Roman in Ukraine on Vimeo.

RIP Ruslan the Para-planer

About a year ago I went para-planing. It was so much fun. I felt giddy for days. Here are a few pictures:

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I remember the pilot, Ruslan. He was a super nice guy. How can you not be cheerful when you spend your days taking excited adventurers para-planing. We were his last flight of the day. He and I talked about my background, the Ukrainian diaspora, modern Ukraine.

I was distraught to hear that a couple months after our flight, he crashed and died, along with a pair of passengers. Here are a couple headlines.

http://tsn.ua/ukrayina/avariya-paraplana-na-truhanovomu-zabrala-sche-odne-zhittya.html

http://kiev.vgorode.ua/news/124363/

http://korrespondent.net/kyiv/1370592-zhena-paraplanerista-razbivshegosya-na-truhanovom-provodit-rassledovanie-katastrofy

R.I.P.

The Vibrancy of Kyiv, every time I visit

Of course political and financial capitals benefit economically at the expense of the rest of the country, but nevertheless, I’m always impressed and excited when I visit Kyiv — the same can be said of New York City.

Both are great places to visit.

I saw new restaurants and was particularly surprised to see an organic place and a raw-foods place. I was not surprised by the peculiar mixing of styles — Mex Tex Italiano

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Of course, where there are abandoned properties literally a few hundred meters from Maidan, Kyiv’s central square, you know this isn’t a normal free market:

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As on most weekends, they close the Khreshchatyk, the main street that runs past Maidan. It looked like some sports celebration. There were two girls on equestrian styled horses, gymnasts jumping on trampolines, wrestling matching, little arena-style football games, relay races, tug-of-war and more.

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Olympic events invoke two of the things politicians love most: flag waving and government-funded infrastructure projects.

A programmer, two central bankers, and I were on a train . . .

Not kidding. I was on the Kyiv-Lviv train today. Happened to be sitting in the wagon’s one booth arrangement of seats. There’s exactly one in each wagon of the new Hundai trains. My companions are two young women who work at Ukraine’s central bank and an 8-year computer programmer, back-end specialist.

He spoke English pretty well. The two women were attending some central bank conference in L’viv. They mentioned that there’d be discussion of an audit.

Great conversation. Yes, Bitcoin came up. It came up a lot. :-)

I love my life.

Oh, and during the trip, a fantastic rainbow appeared over half the horizon.

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Taxes & Tyranny In Ukraine’s foundational Narrative

I have a new perspective on the stories I learned as a child in the Ukrainian Saturday school run by New York City’s St. George Church.

I see tax stories!

The first king of the Rurik dynasty was named Oleg. (He displaced two local kings, Askold & Dyr, about whom we know little.) Oleg’s son Ihor was killed whilst collecting taxes by the Dereviany (people of the woods) tribe.

The chronicles which were commissioned by Ihor’s grandson then tell the story of Ihor’s wife, Olha herocially conquering the Dereviany to shore up the integrity of the Kyiv Rus empire.

Tax story #2:

There’s a church whose foundation still exists as a tourist site in Ukraine. It’s called the Desiatynna Church (10% Church) build by Ihor’s grandson Volodymyr. There was 10% taxation, apparently to build the church. Think about it — 10% taxation to build one measly church. It seems the mass corruption which surrounded the building of stadiums for Ukraine’s co-hosting of Eurocup 2012 has a deep and profound tradition.

:)

Spring Pics

Beautiful L’viv

Lviv Fashion Show:

Me vs. a Cat (I never thought this would work. I am the hunter!)

A Brief visit to Kyiv:

Some guys playing with matches: