In Slavic mythology, Berehynia is a female spirit who serves as the “hearth mother, protectoress of the home”. This monument to Berehynia is located in Maidan Nezalezhnosti (Independence Square) in Kiev, Ukraine.
View of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant from a bridge leading into the deserted city of Pripyat. Taken during our July 2007 excursion to the exclusion zone.
I really wish Gazprom would post videos of their press conferences, because it would be rather hilarious to see Sergey Kupriyanov and Alexey Miller shouting their statements to reporters:
As of January 7, when Gazprom was forced to cease gas supplies, the transit pipelines in Ukraine were filled with Russian gas. Therefore, the pipeline pressure is supposed to be sufficient for ensuring synchronous gas flow at the entry and exit points of the Ukrainian gas transmission system. Once we feed gas to the entry point, it is to appear at the exit point!
Russian gas supplies to Europe through Ukraine should be commenced in the earliest time possible. However, now everything depends only on Ukraine!
Interview with Gogol Bordello’s Eugene Hütz on his experience as a kid living in Ukraine during the Chernobyl accident. I’m seeing Gogol at the 9:30 Club in a few weeks and can’t wait. One of the best concerts I’ve ever seen was their show at Coachella in ’07.
Gazprom and Ukrainians fighting over natural gas contracts again:
Russia’s state-owned energy company, Gazprom, will cut off gas deliveries to Ukraine on January 1 unless a new contract is signed, a company spokesman has said.
“We would like to avoid such a scenario, we would like to agree on everything before New Year, but as you understand, we cannot deliver gas without a contract,” spokesman Sergei Kupriyanov told Russia’s Vesti-24 television on Saturday.
Zzzz…they’ll settle this eventually.
The Battle of Chernobyl is by far the best documentary I’ve seen on the disaster and ensuing cleanup. This documentary contains a lot of footage that’s never been shown before, including scenes of the poor liquidators forced to stitch together their own “anti-radiation” suits and then shovel radioactive debris off the roof of the reactor. I originally saw The Battle of Chernobyl on the Discovery Times Channel a few years ago, and was pleasantly surprised to find that it was uploaded to Google Video. If you have any interest in the subject, I’d highly recommend watching this documentary. The 90 minutes is well worth it.
This is from the August 2, 2008 edition of Frontera, a Tijuana/San Diego based Spanish-language newspaper. Recognize that photo at the bottom? Yeah, that is Ryan and I in front of Chernobyl’s infamous reactor four when we (along with Laura) toured the exclusion zone on July 4, 2007.
The entire article is behind a paywall now, but it did list my blog address and this blurb:
Lindsay Fincher es una californiana que visitó el reactor número 4, en su blog describió la experiencia en el lugar como “surrealista”.
From my three years of high school Spanish (which I’ve almost completely forgotten), it generally translates to “Lindsay Fincher is a Californian that visited reactor number four and in her blog described the experience as surreal” or whatever.
The funny thing about this? I had no idea this article existed until it showed up in my website stats. Figures.
If you were under the impression that sidewalks existed solely for the use of pedestrians, you would be wrong. At least if you were in Kiev, where it is quite common for drivers to park on sidewalks. With Kiev’s horrendous traffic, you’re also likely to see cars driving down the sidewalk, as we did while on our bus coming back from Chernobyl. Our bus driver felt it was appropriate to drive on the sidewalk rather than wait at a busy intersection. Amazingly, no pedestrians were harmed in the process.
As bizarre as it sounds, wealthy Ukrainians are building vacation homes near the 30km exclusion zone surrounding the Chernobyl nuclear reactor:
The sky is a cornflower blue and the lake is calm. Sunburned fishermen pull up to the dock in motorboats, their nets filled with pike.
On the deck of a hunting lodge, couples are feasting on their catches and rehashing the day’s adventures. Farther down the road, crews are finishing the roof of yet another lakefront, luxury home.
The latest villa to sprout on the shores of the Kiev Reservoir is just a few metres from the barbed-wire fence that marks the 30-kilometre exclusion zone surrounding the infamous Chernobyl plant.
Yes, nature lovers have discovered Chernobyl. The region near the scene of the world’s worst nuclear accident is now dubbed the “Chernobyl Riviera” for its grand homes and commanding vistas.
[...]
Twenty-one years after a reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded, ripping off the roof, and spewing radioactive poison into the countryside, Ukrainian holiday-makers are flocking to the region to bask in its quiet and enjoy the abundant wilderness that sprang to life when humans were forcibly evacuated.
Today, the woods and waters surrounding the village of Strakholissya – a half-hour drive from the stricken plant – are among the best hunting and fishing grounds in Ukraine. Wild boar, deer and wolves roam in the dense birch and pine forests.
Not one of the many weekenders interviewed expressed concern about potential health hazards. “It’s more contaminated in Kiev,” one fisherman said, laughing.
Recently, Ukraine’s rich and famous discovered the tranquil spot. They are mainly from Kiev, townspeople say, and they have built a line of lavish homes, hidden from prying villagers’ eyes by tall fences.
Their magnificent houses, docks and swimming pools are on full display if you rent a boat and ogle from the lake.
[...]
At the hunting lodge, Mr. Kuzmenko, his wife and friends said they weren’t worried about radiation levels.
“Our bodies have adapted to this,” said Sergei Ivanov, who, along with Mr. Kuzmenko and their wives drove up from Kiev for a weekend of duck hunting.
The group were up at dawn with their rifles. By early afternoon, they were back at the lodge, relaxing on the deck, the corpses of their hunted fowl hanging from the railing. Mr. Kuzmenko’s wife, Oksana, was looking forward to sunset.
“In the evening, the water gets an interesting colour,” Ms. Kuzmenko said. “The moon gives a white light, which makes [the lake] look like ice.”
Personally, I’d rather invest in beachfront property and spend my time surfing instead of picking radioactive mushrooms, but that’s just me. To each their own.
Related: LAist Interview: Director/Adaptor of Voices from Chornobyl, Cindy Marie Jenkins, Chernobyl plant to get a proper burial
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