Life in Kyiv, Ukraine

Picture puzzle

Three mornings while  passing this board I was wondering what it was about. I had some very romantic ideas and thoughts.
 

But as simple as it is - this board is just an advertising of Ukrtelekom 3G connection. it's kind of sad.

Competative advantages of Ukraine

Just came back from the lecture of the IMF's representative in Ukraine.

It is always a pleasure to listen to smart people. H

Here is the question I asked him:

What could be the major Ukraine's competitive advantages in the world economy ?

His answer was very relevant and quite close to my view, so I want to describe it:

1 Agriculture. It's true that agriculture is subsidized all over the Europe, but if use rich soil of Ukraine in right way it pay back. And agriculture may produce the fuels of the future, like ethanol, which is great hidden potential for Ukraine.

2 Skilled workforce. System of education was competitive enough to teach many talented people in different spheres. They might be as smart as there counterparts in other parts of the world, but they certainly have fairly low level of salaries now. When capital flows in and combines with skilled inexpensive labor it will produce outstanding results.

Quatations: Price.

Yesterday my ACCA tutor said the following
"You can always get what you want in this world if you prepared to pay the price".

Basically, he was speaking about debtors with unreliable credit history in UK. The point was that those people would not get a credit from normal bank, but they always can find financial enterprise to borrow from. It just a percent, that would be ridiculously high.

This quote found a spot in my mind.
I extrapolate it for the things beyond the financial markets and keep applying to different spheres of human behavior.

I thought about career and personal life. You might become extremely successful in business, but do you want to sacrifice your family for it ? At least for some period ?  In my life I figured it out that Miss PERSONAL HARMONY is the key thing to concentrate on, contrary to the MISTER tremendous brilliant adored SUCCESS. 

I thought about democratic  society. Would you limit your rights in stake of others ? I believe it might be a key to building a peaceful society in the future. The price for living in the stable environment will be sacrificing part of very basic human freedoms. To the reasonable extent of course.

I thought about relations, but I did figured it out. What is the price to to pay to be in love ? Is it total changeover of own life ? Is it sacrificing a pieces of everyday activity ? Is ruining the old balance and finding new one ? Kind of the open question for me.

Fun of business interviews

Fun of management consulting interview
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwixqrJID_I

Fun of investment banking interview
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTeKCm0ueHM

Great speeches from the movies

Here are the most provoking ones from YouTube

1 Ben Affleck
 Motivation money (Boiler Room) - a movie about investment banking
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtmhqqSPpU8

2 Alec Baldwin
In Glengarry Glen Ross, Alec Baldwin plays the character Blake, almost earning Baldwin an Oscar for the role. The salestalk presented is one of the finest ever, allthough sarcastic, it contains the foundations of a well meditated salesmen
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-AXTx4PcKI

3  Michael Douglas
Greed is good
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvLekQ7gob0

Trip to home town (photoreport)

Koziatyn - 30,000 thousand town in Vinnytsia region,  2.5 hours from Kyiv by train.
Interesting fact about Koziatyn - it has 3 monuments to Lenin (1 per 10 000 popualtion).
here are 2 of them

So I came home

with the purpose to but my Mom a new laundry machine.
I think my parents have psychological problems with buying new things for themselves, so found a few reasons why the family should not do it. 3 basic reasons:
1 "we don't have money"
2 we already have a laundry machine
3 to buy a laundry machine we need to go to Vinnytsia, we don't have time for that.

which were reasonably stroke back by me
1 "you don't, but I do"
2 here I explained that soviet-era laundry machine which requires a lot of manual work is a little bit outdated

3 here I had to compromise and agreed to buy it in Koziatyn.

So the family  went to bazar, which have not changed much from my school years

There we found local electronic mega stores

Unfortunately they do not accept Visa, so I had to found the only Aval cash mashine in the cetral shopping mall
   

While looking for it I noticed a lot of positive changes in the town. A lot of banks opened there branches, and what especially pleased me: the park, which was a dirty place for drinkers and drug-takers now looks very clean and has three children's playgrounds

also the town has Gothic style "kostiol"
   

Anyway, I got money and finally bought the thing

And the simple fact made me the happiest man in the world.

I know my loved mother would not have to do all hard manual laundry anymore.
Enough.

View from my window

The atmosphere is my room is really cozy because of the weather. It is so warm to be home on such a  Sunday evening. I
- edit movie clips
- write e-mails
- talk over Scype
- think about business ideas
- read MBA blogs in Internet
- track my football bets online
- listen to Fatboyslim

and every I turn my head left I see amazing snow picture:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OMIwBP0YpM

Murphy's Laws

As you know I like smart humor. Here are the good samples of it.

Murphy's Law ("If anything can go wrong, it will")

If anything just cannot go wrong, it will anyway.

If there is a possibility of several things going wrong, the one that will cause the most damage will be the first one to go wrong.

If everything seems to be going well, you have obviously overlooked something.

· Murphy's Law of Thermodynamics
Things get worse under pressure.

· The Murphy Philosophy

Smile . . . tomorrow will be worse

 Murphy's Constant
Matter will be damaged in direct proportion to its value

 · More Laws of Selective Gravitation.

· A falling object will always land where it can do the most damage.

Murphy's love laws

· All the good ones are taken.

· If the person isn't taken, there's a reason.

Money can't buy love, but it sure gets you a great bargaining position.

Murphy's commerce law

· The first 90% of a project takes 90% of the time, the last 10% takes the other 90% of the time.

· If you can't get your work done in the first 24 hours, work nights.

Murphy's technology laws

• Logic is a systematic method of coming to      the wrong conclusion with confidence.

 Murphy's Laws of sex

A man in the house is worth two in the street.

Airplane Law:

When the plane you are on is late, the plane you want to transfer to is on time.

Billings

's Law:

Live within your income, even if you have to borrow to do so.

To read all of them go to the official Murphy's Laws official website

Buying at Amazon from Kyiv

Why would I buy at Amazon, can't I get all the books in Ukraine ?
1 If you need books in English, you might not find all of them at UA web-sites
2 Most of the time it is cheaper
3 Amazon is absolutely user-friendly web-site

What do I need to buy there ?
1 Visa Classic or Maestro Mass
2 A friend, who lives in USA
3 Time
4 Money

What are the traps on this way ?
1 Visa and Maestro have CVV code at the back of the card. Call to the bank and disable it right before the transaction.

How is my American friend can ship it ?
1 You can arrange everything using Meest . All he or she needs to do is to physically pack books, fill in customs declaration and take the parcel to closest UPS shop.

I don't have such a friend. How may I find ?
No friend, no books. Be creative.

That's it. Here is logical scheme of purchase. Estimated time before you get books - 2 months.

Download list_of_books.doc

Essays: Ethical dilemma

Two cases demanded to turn aside the law. Two different answers appeared for the ethical questions.
Am  I comfortable with the decisions taken? YES. Will I violate the law in one of the cases? YES. Were my decisions honest enough to follow my behavior standards? Good question.

The story: The story is about my attempt to buy shares in the investment fund. I went to the investment fund to sign a purchase agreement. They took the copy of my passport and we did sign the document. Afterwards, I became obliged to contribute the investment amount during 1 working day after the agreement.  So I went to the special bank (only one bank location  in Kyiv that accept cash payments from 11 till 13.  Everything is for the sake of investor, isn’t it ?). Unfortunately, the bank’s cashier was attentive enough to discover the fact that I was 25, at the same my passport  did not have a picture at the place “25 five years old”. Ups.

Law requirements: Under Ukrainian legislation the citizen must have in the passport the 16, 25, 45, years old pictures.  The picture has to inserted only by special state authority and the citizen must be present personally at the procedure. If the picture is not in the document at the age required, it is officially not a valid one.

Ethical dilemma number 1:  The cashier refused to accept the payment, because the passport was not valid. My option was to try another bank, where non-cash payment were possible. In such a case I would additionally  have lost the  bank commission, but could have sneaked in. And saved substantial amount of own time too. The cashiers are not that attentive in other banks, so there were some chances to succeed.

Solution to the ethical  dilemma number 1: Although I was angry as hell about time lost, I recognized that cashier had a clear grounds to refuse the payment. It was my fault to represent not a valid passport. I called the investment bank, explained the situation and promised to resolve the passport issue during a week. New agreement would haveh to be signed. Valuable time had been lost, but I decided not to cheat.

Ethical dilemma number 2: State authorities in Ukraine work very limited hours and only on working days.  My passport is issued in my hometown in Vinnytsia region. To be present personally in the procedure I must take at least one day off. Available option to evade the law is give my passport to Dad. He knows people in state authority and for small fee of chocolate bar or cognac bottle official they will insert picture without my presence.

Solution to the ethical dilemma number 2: A day off for stupid bureaucracy is too high price, so I opt to give Dad my passport. Certainly it is disrespectful to the law, chocolate bar is a bribe, but I feel very comfortable with such a decision. Partly, because I know that young  professionals like me would certainly consider it as normal option. It is not even a question to give small bride to avoid unimportant bureaucratic rules in Ukraine.

Summary: In the United States the law is simple to follow and everybody is equal under law. One of the things I love about America is that you may become rich there and still stay honest. In comparison it is almost impossible in Ukraine. Here disrespect to some laws arises from two factors: firstly – they are stupid formalities that exist for the brides feed, secondly – nobody follows them the laws 100%.

One American friend ones asked me question : “Obviously you will not steal foods in a grocery story or cheat your employer with a few dollars. But If you knew that you may steal 10 mln dollars and get away with it, would you do it?”.  I answered “I don’t how. I have never been close to 10 mln dollars”. I believe dirty money will not bring happiness in life. Still,  it is interesting if there is a price, isn’t it ? And if it exists, then what is the level of it ?

Hence, I am just wondering where is line between stupid law that is normal to disregard and strict law that must be respected by the all citizens of Ukraine.