Corruption is still a BIG problem in Ukraine

During the past week, many international diplomats in Ukraine have been voicing their opinion on the continual problem of corruption in many government organisations.

Unfortunately, corruption has got worse in the six years I have been in Ukraine.
It's a sad fact that the majority of employees in government organisations, consider that they are 'entitled' to a form of extra reward for providing a service.
Personally I NEVER pay bribes to anyone. This includes the police, who have stopped me on many occasions for speeding or minor motoring offences. I simply refuse to pay anything, which results in me being kept waiting for a long time at the side of the road until they decide how to deal with this 'foreigner who is being difficult'. They always just get frustrated and finally let me proceed. I always ask for things to be done the correct way, expecting to get a speeding ticket in the post, but it never happens.
Strange as it maybe to foreigners living here, the majority of Ukrainains just accept that corruption is a way of life. So when a policeman stops a local person driving a car, the driver fully expects to just give the policeman a cash payment and he will soon be on his way.

But its not just small cash payments we are talking about. Many international companies get hit hard by government agencies like the fire department and the whole range of others who have the powers to grant a certificate or not as the case may be. Some examples from my experience include:

1. A friend who works for a major airline based in Kyiv, told me that they were contacted by the local fire brigade. The fire brigade senior staff were demanding a large discount off the price of air tickets for themselves anywhere in the world. If the demands were not met, then maybe the airline would have many problems with its fire and health and safety certificates. Maybe the airline would be closed due to fire risks at its head office. So senior fire brigade staff now get big discounts on air tickets. (Can you imagine the Head of the London Fire Service calling a senior manager in British Airways and demanding the same?)

2. I was personally involved in helping a company obtain a bank loan from Cyprus. (Bank lending in Ukraine is still very expensive and many Ukrainian companies now borrow from abroad).
However in order for a company to obtain a foreign loan, a certificate must be obtained from the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU). As usual in Ukraine, the paperwork trail is a lengthy process and agreements have to be approved in bi-lingual format by the NBU. The bank employees are only looking for 'problems', so that they can then 'help you' solve this problem in exchange for a bribe. I was informed by an employee from another local bank that most applicants for loan certificates just pay whatever is required in the brown envelope, when meeting the NBU employee in some private location. The NBU employee in our case was asking for 2 percent of the loan value. This represented Euro 5000.
I advised not to pay anything and use a lawyer to process all the documents and do things in the correct way. My choice of process delayed the granting of the certificate by 2 months and the NBU employees still tried to cause problems as they knew they were not getting a bribe.

Its a sad situation. I also think that Ukraine should forget about any possible EU membership.
Until corruption is controlled, I think Ukraine does not deserve to become a member of the EU.

Private Hospitals in Ukraine

Well, I did not stay 'well' for very long. A few days after the flu virus was beaten (so I thought), I developed "Severe Chronic Bronchitis". My medical insurance company introduced me to a new private clinic in the city centre of Kyiv, called "Healthy and Happy" (In English).

So much of a contrast to a typical Ukraine polyclinic or local doctors centre. Everything in this centre was NEW. They provide total analysis. I visited various doctors in their consulting rooms within a few hours including, ENT, X-Ray, Eye test, Blood test etc.
These doctors advised me to enter hospital immediately as a result of the Chest X Ray.

Next stop - Boris Hospital. A well known local private hospital in Kyiv. (For those who have medical insurance or can afford to pay the fees). WHAT a contrast to the Ukraine state hospital previously visited. I was given a private room with Cable TV, private bathroom, modern adjustable electric bed. Introduced to a variety of doctors who conducted further analyses.
Informed I had a very bad case of PNEUMONIA. This explained the high temperatures (40), head aches, lack of sleep and loss of apetite and a feeling of no energy. During the next 11 days I had CT scans of all my body. Ultrasound on my heart (WOW it's interesting, when the sound is switched on). Although I was receiving various drugs via a drip it was not working at first and I felt I was getting worse.

Sunday 29 November 2009 willbe a day never to be forgotten. For some reason my heart decided to jump to around 180 beats a minute. Then go down the opposite scale.
I could see four doctors and four nursing staff all concerned with watching the minitor.
This was going on for far too long and I started to think......well maybe this is it, its the big goodbye.
One doctor told me they would inject a drug to try and bring my heart back to normal.
It didnt work. They dried another drug. Didnt work. Then the same doctor tells me (In English by now...as I had requested that I needed to speak in English as things were getting tricky. I did not want to say yes in Russian when maybe I should have said no)
He says, they may have to put me to sleep and try and restart my heart 'electronically'.
Luckily (I believe in God), my heart went back to normal in a few minutes and everyone started to relax a little.

Things just seemed to get better from then. Although I needed to change the bed sheets and my bed clothes on a regular basis due to high temperatures. (It always looked like someone had thrown a bucket of water over me). During the next seven days, I received a very good standard of care from both doctors and nursing staff. Problem is they never seem to communicate with each other, so everytime I see a doctor, I am repeating exactly what I have just told the previous.
Doctors would appear from no where and examine me. Nurses would take blood samples from me without a word..

So, I am now recovering. They still wanted to keep me in hospital for observations, but I had had enough. I now feel I have a new set of lungs, I 'think' about my heart more and I have not drank anything alcoholic for 8 weeks. It was a wake up call, which I will always remember.

I strongly recommend Boris Clinic/Hospital in Kyiv, Ukraine.

Hospitals in Ukraine

Most people will be aware that a 'flu pandemic' has been the major focus in Ukraine for the past few weeks. Unfortunately, the virus found its way to me and I must say its the worst case of flu I have ever had. Its approximately four weeks today since I fell ill and I am only just getting back to normal.

Getting sick in Ukraine is a tricky business if you have to enter hospital.
As I tried to battle with the virus for the first week at home, my wife finally called in the doctor and he ordered an ambulance to take me into hospital. I had a very high temperature, my throat was closing up and I was having difficulty speaking.

To my suprise, instead of sending the ambulance to a private clinic, he told them to take me to a specialist public hospital dealing with the virus.
Anyone who has visited or had the unfortunate situation of being a patient in a Ukrainian hospital will know that it is close to a nightmare experience.

I will never again make any criticism about the British national health service.
In a Ukrainian hospital they provide you with NOTHING. OK they provide you with a bed. The mattress looked like it had received blood from many of its previous occupants.
The bathroom and toilet would have been condemned in a western european country. Plus there were no light bulbs in the toilet or bathroom, so I could never see what I was doing.
Luckily, I am covered by health insurance, but felt as if it was not providing me with any benefits.
The hospital doctors informed me that they would only start treating me, when my insurance company had delivered the medicines to the hospital.

When I say the hospital provides you with NOTHING, I am talking about:
No toilet paper, no water or drinks etc. My wife knows the situation too well as she is a Ukrainian and came the next day with a bag of basics including a KETTLE, Cup, 5 liters of water, food etc.

If a foreign person found themselves in the unfortunate situation of having to stay in a Ukrainian hospital and they had no friends or relatives to help them, I shudder to think how they would survive.

After a few days I convinced myself I would be better off at home, so checked myself out of the hospital. Outside the hospital, I witnessed the longest queue of ambulances I have ever seen.
The hospital was becoming over run with patients and it was obvious they could'nt cope with demand.

I went home and confined myself to the security of our own apartment.

I NEVER want to visit a hospital in Ukraine again. But it has helped me to understand how bad the situation is with the Ukraine Health Service. I think a good guide on the economic/social status of a country is provided by the state of its health service. Unfortunately, in Ukraine it is on par with a third world country.

BBCU Meeting 29 October 2009

Unfortunately I have been very ill during the past few weeks with the dreaded swine flu virus.

So, I missed the Otcober networking meeting on 29 October at the Radisson Hotel in Kyiv.
However as usual it was well attended and an excellent presentation was provided by our member company - Bold Endeavours. The theme of the event was " e-marketing, Extreme Website Makeovers. Some of our members volunteered their web sites for analysis.

Ukrainians - How to do business with them - Opera Hotel 24 Sept 2009

Summer is over and we are back into the Autumn season of meetings.
The BBCU held its September monthly meeting at the Opera Hotel in Kyiv.
The theme: Ukrainians - How to do business with them.
This was a pure networking and social event and as usual we had a high turnout and for the first time we had to restrict the number of guests as the hotel was getting full.

The Opera Hotel is managed by Mr Benoit Kuborn and he is a breath of fresh air when it comes to hotel management in Ukraine. He is a true professional who knows how to make people feel welcome in a 5 star environment. I think we will have more events at the Opera.

Talking of doing business....unfortunately there is not alot of it about. Ukraine is still suffering from the Financial Crisis and many people are using the old excuse of "Lets wait until after the presidential election to see what we do next". So many projects/deals are being put on hold until post 17 January 2010.
Its a long time to hold your breath.

BBCU Golf School - Launch

We have had so many people requesting more about golf, that we have decided to launch a BBCU Golf School. One of Kyivs long time expats - Bill Bennett, is a great golf player and has stepped forward to lead on this project.

We will form a partnership with Royal Kyiv Golf Club, we have known them for some time during the construction of the golf course. The course is almost finished and already has a great Driving Range, Chipping and putting green and an excellent 6 hole Academy Course for beginners. So we have the basic facilities in place to start teaching people the game.

However, as usual in Ukraine its not without problems. Due to the economic crisis, the club house is not even built yet and the driving range building is not complete. We are just being honest with people and telling them that they cannot expect VIP service for some time. Hence our initial green fees and school fees will be low, plus we will introduce a 'Pay and You Play' scheme to make it easier and just get people playing.

We know we have many expats who have been waiting a long time to play on a REAL golf course in Ukraine. Visitors will be pleasantly suprised when they see the layout of the 18 hole course.
Designed by Martin Hawtree (British Golf course designer), the Royal Kyiv Golf Course will be THE first professional level course in Ukraine.

BBCU Golf Day

We escaped from the city centre of Kyiv on Friday 31st July to visit Golf Stream, approximately 30 km to the west of Kyiv. Golf Stream management were kind enough to provide a bus, to avoid any drink driving after the event.

With 42 members and guests a great time was had by all. Although we only had six real golfers.
The winner on the 9 hole course was Peter Burningham, with Tim Huxtable a close second.

Those who took part in the "Golf Clinic" throughly enjoyed their introduction to the game.
Everyone had the opportunity to play on the chipping green, putting green and driving range.
The best performance was from Ben Hunt closely followed by Ursula Silling and Sergey Savchuk.

I still think golf is like a drug. You get addicted to the game and want to get more of it.
Maybe we should challenge our American friends at the ACC to a tournament?