Inside News on Odessa and Ukraine
Amongst the NGOs and civil society I follow most closely are those engaged with attempting to influence local government and local populous. Given the prevailing desire of the majority of the Ukrainian voting public to still seek out the “strong-man leader” for the nation, and in doing so legitimising the “Arbiter/Rental Society” model that is […]
Yesterday I was interviewed by one of the EU’s many Brussels based (and funded) media outlets. I am a regular contributer and am often asked to offer up difficult and thought-provoking questions which are then in turn put to members of the European Council, the European Commission, or MEPs, eventually forming the basis of articles […]
Odessa has many statues and sculptures. Hundreds of them to be honest. Then it is quite an old city. It seems the next sculpture to be erected is to be dedicated to Steve Jobs (of Apple fame) because of his obvious links to Odessa. The motivation behind erecting a decision to create and dedicate a sculpture […]
Approximately 46 million people generate a lot of rubbish in Ukraine. If global trends are simulated in Ukraine then almost 75% of the population will be living in cities by 2035. That will, needless to say, put a severe strain on the infrastructure of the established cities in Ukraine, many of whom, despite exceptionally poor […]
Life is full of little surprises, some good and some bad, but little surprises nonetheless. I have had a little surprise. One which for me with so much free time on my hands I will consider a good surprise. It is especially good from my point of view, as it marries where I live now […]
As most regular readers of this blog will have noticed by now, I am something of a policy and governance watcher. Invariably this means I also take note of civil society/NGOs/NFPs and their interaction with the authorities and individuals of influence. The more than casual reader of this blog will also know that I do […]
I am struggling dear readers. My extremely limited intelligence is having difficulty with human rights. I don’t mean I don’t understand what human rights are according to the various laws, national and international to which I am both subjected and protected by, even my limited intelligence has been able to grasp that, but I am […]
For those of you who didn’t know, 1st - 7th August is World Breastfeeding Week as promoted by the WHO and UNICEF. It is celebrated, or probably more correctly stated, promoted, across more than 170 nations each year and has been for the past 20 years. In fact this is the 20th year since the […]
It has to be said, my Latin is somewhat rusty, so my apologies to anybody reading this whose Latin is in a far better state than my own. However, when it comes to lobbying in Ukraine, si ventus non servierit accipe remis (if the wind will not serve, take to the oars) seems quite appropriate. Now we […]
Completely unrelated to this blog, I have been invited by an EU institution to pose a number of questions at the 9th annual “State of Europe” round table on 11th October. Amongst those sitting at the round table will be Herman Van Rumpoy, Jose Manuel Barroso and Martin Shulz. Some big EU names. Naturally, October […]