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Realistic overview of Ukraine |
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Geographically situated in the center of Europe (the geographic centre of Europe is located near the little Ukrainian town of Rakhiv) Ukraine has lots of resources on its territory. It's well-known fact that 1/3 of world black soils so fertile are allocated on the area of Ukraine so potentially Ukraine could feed all Europe and even more. But what's happenning is Ukraine is one of the poorest countries as in Europe so in the world, today (at the end of XXth century) some people die due to hungriness! This is probably the biggest non-sence on the Earth that the nation has such beautilful and rich land and is poor and hungry. I've spent lot of time thinking about it and still am trying to find out the main problem and reasons "why?". Now I'm suggesting to review these several pictures to imagine better how Ukraine looks like
Yes, it's really lovely at any season. Now let me quote a few words from an official statistical source (1998 year issue) about Ukraine:
" ... The territory of Ukraine stretches from the West to the East for 1,316 kilometres, from the North to the South — for 893 kilometres. Its total area is 603.7 thousand square kilometres. Ukraine borders
on Russian Federation, the Republic of Belarus, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Moldova. The southern coast of Ukraine is washed by the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov. The total length of the state frontier is 7,698 kilometres. The marine frontier stretches for 1,758 kilometres (the Black Sea frontier-1,533 kilometres, the Sea of Azov frontier-225 kilometres). The state consists of 24 regions and the Autonomous Republic of Crimea. May I add that Ukraine consists of 25 regions, each region consists approx. of 20 districts (490 districts in total), each district includes the central town and approx. 70 villages around it. Transportation is really big problem in Ukraine. A car is unreachable dream for most of population - more realistic dream can be some cheap simple bicycle made here. There are some people who gathered money for many-many years and at last could afford to buy russian or ukrainian car - now can't afford petrol and parts so it just stays and rusts. During the period of communism there used to be much better transportation system over the region: there were many routes of buses riding between many villages but often such trips didn't bring satisfaction dur to extremely bad roads or even absence of roads at all. Now the siutation changed and most of buses are cancelled forever so people can't travel within regions any more. At the same time in the capital and big cities the transportation got much better for the last years due to engaging of mini-buses as route-taxis. Ok, as we started to talk about transportation I'd like to provide more details on this matter. First of all - let me quote again part of an official source below:
The transport complex of Ukraine includes railway, automobile, sea, river, air and pipe-line transport. It plays the role of state’s economy circulation system. The total length of automobile roads is 172.6 thousand km, including roads with rigid covering-nearly 163.9 thousand km, railway-22.8 thousand km. Developed automobile and railway network provides links between Ukraine regions, neighbouring NIS countries, Eastern and further — Western Europe, industrial centres of Russia and Black Sea ports. The total length of navigable river lanes is 3,700 km. The navigable lower reaches of Dnieper provide the link between Ukraine’s South and the central part; the lower reaches of Danube give the access
to Danube-Maine-Rhine system. The Black Sea and the Sea of Azov play an important role in international transportation, especially the Black Sea, which is to become a transit zone between Europe and Asia. International carriages by air are organised on 105 routes with 35 countries. In October 1996 Ukraine joined the TRACECA program — the transport corridor Europe-Caucasus-Asia, the purpose of which is to connect transport routes of the TRACECA countries with the European transport network. Main gas conduit and oil pipe-lines pass the territory of Ukraine from Russia and Central Asia to countries of Western Europe. Would be better to say "COULD" instead of "CAN" in the last sentence. Ukraine is too far from world economy level and not only in trasport field, but in everything. But this will be talked about in "Economy" section and now let's get back to transport and geography. 1. Own transport. I can explain why to buy own car was and is unreachable dream for most of Ukrainians. If we analize the situation 20 years ago - the minimum salary in Ukraine was approx. 70 roubles (x-USSR rouble was actually cheaper than US dollar however officially was expensive) per month in towns and cities (misc. workers) and less - in villages (over 40 % of the population - all engaged in agriculture!). The highest salary was over 300 roubles (x-USSR) per month (members of Communist Party, directors of big enterprises etc.). An average was 90-120 roubles (x-USSR) per month (teachers, doctors, engineers etc. people with higher eduation). The cheapest car was Ukrainian "Zaporozhets" - 3500 roubles (x-USSR). Did you already calculate how many years should one gather salaries to buy it? doesn't matter - because having such salary was hardly enough to cover food and clothes costs etc. But if you never was in Ukraine and never saw this Ukrainian car - you are very lucky - it's horrible machine - small, tight and extremely uncomfortable, extremely noisy (exactly like tractor - without exaggerations!), rides slow and breaks down all the time. Citizen from any developed country would definitely never drive it at all. It something like avareage between tractor and tank. I feel so sorry for my nation - but this is also one of indicators of our brains - how can genuine people produce such horrible cars! I will probably never understand this. There is another Ukrainian car - "Volynets" - with very similar characteristics and just another design. That's all - no more Ukrainian cars exist. Next are russian models - "Lada" and "Mosquich". The first one is much better than ukrainian cars but indefinitely worse than any western or american car. Better - because copied from Italian models and worse because russian brains are not far from ukrainian. It had several models costed around 4500 roubles (x-USSR). "Mosquich" was (and is) something between ukrainian "Zaporozhets" and russian "Lada". But anyway who could afford it? Only people which (1) had considerable extra (unofficial) earnings (officially forbidden that time) (small chance) or (2) those who was stealing all the time (more likely). The first category was not numerous: in cities - high-educated people who was giving private lessons, persons who managed to speculate and re-sell deficiency goods so popular at that time in our country (miscellanous stuff from clothes to wall-papers and toilet-paper - unavailable in the shops but available on the black market) or those who managed to work abroad (very rarely at the time of "iron curtain" between us and the world). Mainly owners of cars belonged to the 2nd category: most of governmental and Communist Party officers and leaders all the time were stealing money and taking bribes and they had even not one car per each thief. In every city, town and village there were such persons. More details will be provided in "Government" section. However the quantity of cars in our country was very low anyway. Again official statistics(1998): in Kiev there is 268700 cars (6.0% of the total in Ukraine which is 103 cars per 1000 people - the highest level in Ukraine. An average region has approx. 110000 cars (2,5 % of the total in Ukraine which is approx. 75 cars per 1000 people). But don't forget that big part of those cars are horrible because made in Ukraine or Russian. For today the situation has changed as following: after communism collapse Ukraine got fast flow of foreign used old cars. I've heard figure of cars import to Ukraine about 250000 per year. Of course these old used but made by brains cars looks and rides much better than even new ukrainian cars and the price is lower. But the situation with salary also changed: people got much lower salaries due to hyper-inflation and the worst is - they stopped to receive it in time and many enterprises and institution started to delay salaries for many months. But at the same time it became officially allowed to make business in Ukriane and many rich, healthy and sometimes talented people started it. However there are bigger part of population unable to run own business due to many appearent reasons (details - in "Lifestyle" section) - so for today they can't afford even sufficient meals so how can they afford car (even petrol or parts to it)? So the most popular own transport in the village is bicycle - simple one costs not too expensive if made in Ukraine and doesn't require any petrol so many people can afford it - of course this is good for village with roads. however these are many villages without roads at all - just deep mud over all streets and only tractors and horses can ride there. Again - details are in "Lifestyle" section. In the towns and cities there's another big problem for cars owners - traffic police. This is one of the most corrupted institution in our country, its officers usually hide in the bushes and when you drive - they instantly jump on the road, stop you and check documents. Often they demand the bribe (in cash) straight away but if you refuse to give it - they will hold you too long time checking all your documents, then checking your luggage, then your car and they will of course find something suspicious and enforce you to pay the bribe any way. If you break the highway code - then probably giving bribe is much cheaper than to pay official penalty - so 99% of drivers use this way and so save money. However the road signs installed on the roads especially to help you to break the highway code - and traffic officers know where to expect you when you drive and more likely break the code - for example they specially switch off the traffic light on some big junction and then it's getting very difficult to pass such junction without breaking the hoghway code - at the same time they expect you right after junction and trace how you are driving to stop and demand the bribe. Another matter is import of car and it's registration. This is extremely difficult and complicated procedure. 2.Public transport. Ukrainian public transport is probably one the most bright indicator of our mentality and shows that our nation has no respect to itself. If we are talking about public transport - we should again note that there's different situation in the cities and villages. In the capital of Ukraine and big villages there are many buses, trolley-buses and trams routes, also some cities have underground. The cost of one trip independently of destination withing certain city route is about 0.07 usd. However travelling by public city transport is very exhausting and tiresome due to always overcrowded transport - see pictures below:
Yes, it's always overcrowded. Every morning we go to work and every evening we go back home - we spend too much efforts to enter the bus or the train. Especially in the winter months when its frosty with temperature of 10-20 Celsium degrees below 0 or snowing\raining and we have to wait 20 - 30 minutes on the bus-stop to wait untill next bus comes but it comes overfilled and sometimes even doesn't stop at all. If it stops - mad crowd of frosted people are trying to get in, they scream, hit each other and press strongly to get inside. Of course - if you got inside this crowd - you can't move or exit, it's really not easy, you should stay among crowd and resist their squeezing you fom everywhere. They push you, tread you feet, breathe to your face with their ill teeth smell, even couch and sneeze to your face, they press on you so strong that your clothes snaps. That's how we travell here. Of course in such crowd none pays fare and none can control. However after communism collapse several companies brought lots of "Ford" mini-buses and started to run route-taxi services - it costs a little expensiver - around 0.10 usd independently of destination withing the route but are running much faster and more often but though there're only places to sit - people manage to ride standing and so again they make crowd and complicate moving inside the mini-bus. Of course - drivers get these extra money, but people are again sufferring of crowd. This shows again our mentality - all we are big crowd, we are accustomed to live in crowd and don't want to change ourselves. In peak-time it's the same difficult to enter such mini-bus as there's always big gloomy crowd on the stop and every time bus approaches the stop - crowd starts to push each other moving to the bus and trying to enter. Different situation with public transport is in the villages. At the period of communism there used to be run bus services between each distric central town and many villages with roads however now most of routes have been cancelled forever and some of buses are running only twice per week. So most of rural population has no chance to travell anywhere. Some of them just walk by feet many miles to reach the town and make some shopping or to sell something, other use bicycles as there are not many cars available at the rural area of Ukraine. Of course there are some bus routes between towns and cities but they are always extremely overcrowded. So in the winter you can catch flu while expecting the bus and trying to get it and in the summer you can pass out to the trance while hot sweated bodies squeeze you from all sides and you can't breathe with their sweat any more. Why are they so sweated? Because they don't wash themselves - many of our people just don't have such facilities in their houses like shower, hot water or even cold water. They use swells on the street to bring water from. In the cities and towns in big building with facilities it's very usual situation when there's no water in the system due to misc. reasons - usually just too high usage of water so people on the lower floors use water and it loses the flush to reach upper floors of buildings. So those people have very small chance to take showers regularly. This subject is to be better disclosed in "Lifestyle" section. (to be continued...) 3. Roads. Another matter is now Ukraine has big import of cars from Western Europe while Ukrainian roads are not ready to serve them. If we are talking about towns and cities roads - most of them are in extremely bad conditions, concrete is not smooth at all and there are just deep dents so if you ride faster you can loose wheels. Usually there's no marking on Ukrainian roads and roads sign are placed in the bushes so you can easily miss them, often so needed road sign are just missing or stolen so you can't know the direction unless you stop and ask people walking on the road and so you have to be specially sensinble to drive successfully. Why are they walking on the road? Because on Ukrainian roads usually there are no sidewalk for pedestrians so they walk just on the road and riding cars should override them. However taking to account that there are lot of mud even on concrete roads - you can imagine how to walk on the road nearby running cars when it's rains or snows. Another detail is there are no lamps on the road so people usually walk in darkness and only running cars light the way. This is especiall true for all Ukrainian villages - there are no lamps on the streets at all. Also there are no direction signs on the streets and no signs on the houses or buildings so it's almost impossible to find our the right street and house without asking people. Maybe this all concerns more lifestyle but this gloomy life is just non-sence, how can I understand my neighbours willing lo live in such darkness and mud? (to be continued...) Let's get back to another official source of geographical info about Ukraine: "...Ukraine is situated in the south-eastern part of Central Europe and has its own territory, government, national emblem, flag and anthem. It borders on Russia, Byelorussia, Moldova, Slovakia, Roumania, Hungary and Poland on land and Russia, Georgia, Bulgaria, Roumania and Turkey on sea. The territory of Ukraine is mostly a level, treeless plain, calls "steppe". There are the Crimean Mountains in the Crimean peninsula and the Carpathians in the west, but they are not very high. Mixed forests of pine and fir-trees, beeches, limes, oaks and elms cover the mountains, but the thickest woods can still be found in the northern part of the republic, in Volyn. Kiev and Cherkassy lie in the midst of Ukrainian southernmost pine forest. The main Ukrainian river is the Dnieper. It is one of the longest European rivers and one of the republic's main source of hydroelectric power. The Dnieper and its tributary the Ross had been the cradle of the Ukrainian and Russian people in time immemorial. The climate of the country is moderate. Winter is rather mild, with no severe frosts but with regular snowfalls everywhere except the south. The rivers and lakes freeze in winter. The average winter temperature varies -20 Centigrade in the north to -3-5 in the south. Summer is quite hot and dry, with occasional showers and thunderstorms. The fertile black soil is well watered in spring and autumn and gets plenty of sunshine in summer. Due to favorable climatic conditions, Ukraine is traditionally an agricultural area. It grows wheat, maize, buckwheat and other corn, red and green vegetables, all kinds of fruit, melons and berries..." Please note: I may be wrong but it seems to be probably one of the main reasons why our nation lives in povetry. Yes, climatic conditions are really favorable and therefore historically people were not enforced to use their brains to feed them - all food can be easily grown on any peace of land due to incredibly fertile soils here. So what they do all the life is they grow food and then consume it. No need to develop brains. Just grow potato and that's it. "... Ukraine is one of the world's main centers of sugar production. It produces sugar both for her own needs and for export..." They forgot to mention that most of sugar production is Ukraine is unprofitable and brings just losses - due to extremely low harvest level and too expensive processing technology. The country is rich in natural resources, such as iron ore, coal, color metal, oil, gas, mineral salts, clay and potential water power. It has developed a varied industry, concentrated mostly in and around big cities, such as Kiev, Zaporozhye, Dnepropetrovsk, Dnyeprodzerzhinsk, Odessa, Kharkov, Lviv, Nickolayev and other. It produces planes and ships, lorries and buses, motorcars and locomotives, computer and electronic equipment, precision instruments and agricultural machines, TV and radioset, chemicals and textiles and various consumer goods. Odessa, Sebastopol, Nickolayev, Kherson and Kerch are main ukrainian ports.
(to be continued...) |
