The Ukrainian Example

In Belgium the government just resigned because they cannot solve an issue that divides the Dutch speaking and the French speaking coalition parties. A quote from today’s Belgian newspaper illustrates well Ukraine’s image abroad. The Belgian Vice prime minister is quoted saying: ‘In any case, we have to try to avoid a Ukrainian scenario’. The newspaper adds: ‘ she refers to the incident in the Ukrainian parliament, where a vote on the Russian fleet in Crimea resulted in fighting and the throwing of eggs in the Parliament.

Rada Outlaws Fortune Tellers

Stock market forecasts, however, still are allowed

http://kyivweekly.com.ua/accent/news/2010/04/22/005317.html

Berlin - Kyiv by Train

An interesting article on the Berlin - Kyiv train

http://www.monstersandcritics.com/lifestyle/travel/features/article_1549591.php/The-Berlin-Kiev-express-Out-of-Europe-properly

Ukraine Just Can't Get Enough

"Ukraine hopes to secure a new $12 billion lending program from the International Monetary Fund for the next 30 months, "

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704448304575196121494426774.html

Small Risks

"Europe's airlines and airports have called for an immediate reassessment of flight restrictions imposed because of volcanic ash from Iceland.

Two bodies that represent most of Europe's airlines and airports say they question the extent of the flight restrictions currently imposed.

Airlines that have carried out test flights say planes showed no obvious damage after flying through the ash."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8628323.stm

by the way:

"After 9/11, 1.4 million people changed their holiday travel plans to avoid flying. The vast majority chose to drive instead. But driving is far more dangerous than flying, and the decision to switch caused roughly 1,000 additional auto fatalities, according to two separate analyses comparing traffic patterns in late 2001 to those the year before. In other words, 1,000 people who chose to drive wouldn't have died had they flown instead."

http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200712/10-ways-we-get-the-odds-wrong

Note that the whole article is a great read!

Independent External Testing

Lots of discussions on the importance of the independent external testing these days - to me, this kind of centralized testing is the only way to 'compare' students across schools. Giving weights to the student's school results has the danger that it gives schools the incentive to give good grades. At the other side, school results are based on the performance over a period of time which means students cannot game the system by just study for a single test.

One thing the external testing has made clear is that there is quite a performance gap between rural and urban schools - in that sense, not using such centralized tests, might have an equalizing effect if university admission committees are foolish enough to take school results at their face value.

http://www.day.kiev.ua/295503/

It's the Economy, Stupid!

"The problem of forced Ukrainization and ousting the Russian language concern only 4.8% of respondents surveyed by GFK Ukraine in March 2010.

Only 3% of those polled are worried about tense international relations. At the same time, more than half of Ukrainians (55.8%) are concerned over inflation, and 40.5% are worried about rising unemployment. One third of respondents said they were concerned over the lack of money."