August 2007 Archives

August 31 is the 3rd annual Blog Day. The idea behind this concept is to expose your readers to 5 other blogs that you find interesting. I have not spent a lot of time looking at other blogs, but I do have some favorites. Here is my list:

Notes from Україна is by a Duke University student who spent this summer conducting research on the effects of the Chernobyl disaster.

Pripyat Blog is the English-language blog from the administrators of the Pripyat.com site. Postings on the site are sporadic, but the few posts are typically interesting. Posts are more common on their Russian-language blog Блог Чернобыль.

My year of getting published is by a freelance writer from New Zealand who is chronicling her quest to get published.

Carl Montgomery - Random Adventures is by a man from Australia who has documented many of his trips to some obscure and "ill-advised" places.

At Home in the Wasteland has stories of travels through the former Communist Bloc countries in Eastern Europe.

I hope you enjoy these sites as much as I do.

With Ukraine’s parliamentary election just around the corner (September 30), I am going to make a series of posts covering different aspects of this event. Today, I want to take a look at Yulia Tymoshenko, the leader of the reformist Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc.

I am very excited to announce that I have been named Feature Writer for Eastern European/Russian Affairs at Suite101.com.

I'll bet you're wondering what that means and what it has to do with the content on this blog. Well, it means that I am in-charge of the Eastern European/Russian Affairs section of the Suite101 site. I will personally be writing at least one article and one blog entry per week for that section. Besides that, I will also be monitoring the discussion area and occasionally starting a poll (hint: look for one in the next several weeks regarding the upcoming parliamentary elections in Ukraine).

Over the weekend I found out there is now an official prohibition against entering the buildings in Pripyat, the city that used to house the Chernobyl Nuclear Plant workers. I guess the lack of maintenance in the last 21 years has finally caught up to these structures. However, I do not believe there is a prohibition for entering buildings in the surrounding villages.

My sincerest apologies to everyone for not posting much this week. I hurt my back last weekend and pain and discomfort have continued throughout the week.

In an attempt to get back in the swing of things, I decided to have this blog participate in Blog Action Day on October 15. The purpose of Blog Action Day is to have bloggers across the web write about one specific topic. This year's topic is - the environment.

A summer 2007 drought in Moldova has been classified by the United Nations as having reached catastrophic proportions.

This situation is part of the drought that has plagued much of central and southeastern Europe throughout the summer. Extreme heat and lack of rain has created a crisis in the country's agricultural sector that may continue well into 2008 and beyond. The drought has not only effected agricultural production this year, but farmers are also having a difficult time preparing their fields for the autumn sowing due to the poor condition of the land as well as a lack of seeding material. This could ultimately lead to more financial hardship on the farmers because it will lead to a much smaller crop yield in 2008.

Efforts are being made at both the national and local levels to minimize the drought's impact. Let's hope something can be done to help this tiny country that is extremely dependent on agriculture for its food supplies and income.

The same reader (Nikola) from my last post has sent me a set of follow-up questions. This is a long post, but here we go with Part II of the Chernobyl Sarcophagus Q & A (again, questions are in bold):

A reader from Serbia and Montenegro viewed my Chernobyl trip article yesterday and asked some very good questions about the Sarcophagus at the Chernobyl Plant. I answered his questions directly last night and decided this information should be shared with everyone. In some instances, I have restated her questions or slighly embellished my answers.

If you are contemplating a trip to Ukraine, there are many issues to consider to make the trip as hassle-free as possible. The following is a brief list of items to think through during your preparations:

When in Kyiv last year, I found out the hard way that most people do not speak English. That also means that staff at most hotels only speak Russian and/or Ukrainian. Notice that I said MOST, but certainly not all.

This blog does not always have to cover serious topics, so let's take a look at Andriivsky Uzviz, a really neat area to visit when in Kyiv, Ukraine. When I visited Chernobyl last summer, I only had one day remaining to see some sights in Kyiv. Believe me, that is not nearly enough time to see and properly appreciate all that this city has to offer.

Andriivsky Uzviz is a very old road that connects Kyiv's upper city to the lower Podil district. Starting at St. Michael's Church (seen above), wind your way slowly down the street, taking time to admire the amazing architecture surrounding you. While there, take time to visit many of the street vendor tents that cover the area like a daily art fair. If you are interested in matrioshka dolls, this is the place for you! There is so much to see and do here that you should plan to spend several hours seeing all the sights and soaking in the atmosphere.

I wish I had more time to spend around Andriivsky Uzviz, but with only one day in the city, I wanted to see as much as possible. I walked here all the way from the Hotel Rus and was determined to find the Chernobyl Museum once I reached the Podil District.

There seem to be a lot of people interested in viewing and possibly purchasing a copy of Julio Soto's award-winning 2005 documentary film about the Chernobyl accident. This is a very well-done film that includes some scenes with my friends who lived in Pripyat at the time of the accident, Lyubov Sirota and her son Sasha, who is currently the editor-in-chief of the public project Pripyat.com. I am usually left sad and speechless after viewing this film, partly due to the sad nature of the film, but also from seeing my friends returning to their former home.

If you are interested in more details about the film, see my summary and review of the Radiophobia documentary. That review is from a preview copy of the film I obtained directly from director and producer Julio Soto in 2005, before its release. This film is not available for free download on the internet (or should not be). If you are interested in purchasing a copy of this film, I suggest that you contact Luna Pictures directly.

At the Chernobyl Nuclear Plant in Ukraine, work has begun on a new containment structure that will cover the remains of Reactor 4, which was destroyed in the 1986 accident. Construction of the "New Safe Confinement" (NSC), will occur a short distance from the reactor building and then slid into place on rails when complete. Once the dome-shaped structure is in place, the original Sarcophagus will be dismantled to prevent a possible collapse and subsequent damage to the NSC's interior.

The NSC has been designed to last for 100 years, much more than the 20 year estimate for the existing Sarcophagus (that has now been in place for 21 years). When construction and placement of the NSC is complete, let's not forget about it because in several generations the NSC itself will need to be replaced.

A building already exists on site for NSC workers to change clothes. Interviews are now taking place to screen potential workers for the New Safe Confinement.

You can also see a brief film about the screening process here.

It has now been over a year since I wandered around the beauty and horror that is the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, and still I find it difficult to describe my feelings about what I saw. With all the talk about nuclear power these days, let's see if I can get past some of those issues and put into words what is locked away somewhere in my mind.

This is a big moment for me. My first post on my very own blog. It's probably not a big deal to most (or all) of you, but it is to me.

So, why have I created this blog? The simple answer is that I would like to become a more serious writer and this blog can be an outlet for my writing. For years I have thought of becoming a freelance writer, and now I have some time to pursue this dream. To become a successful writer, people need to know you exist and be able to read what you write. So, here I am, ready for the world to hear what I have to say.

So, why Chernobyl and Eastern Europe? Writers are at their best when writing about subjects they care about. Right now, my interests are focused mostly on Chernobyl and Eastern Europe, so in this blog you will find information about anything and everything related to these subjects.

I am very excited about making this a fun and informative place for people to visit. If there is a subject or topic you feel should be discussed here, please let me know. I also write about the same subject matter at Suite101.com, so feel free to check out my articles if you have the time.