For those with nothing to do in Odessa on New Years Eve – or for those on a budget – the usual New Years Eve entertainment of concerts and fireworks is taking place.
Be forewarned that I may or may not post tomorrow – I’m off out to the “Very Sexy Night” at Gnezdo on Shevchenko tonight and my not be compos mentis enough to write anything whatsoever thereafter!
Yes I know! Quite how “Very Sexy Night” and myself fit together as anything other than an oxymoron is yet to be determined.
Today I was going to write about why reform in Ukraine is so slow and the bottom-up support that is missing. That will have to wait until I get around to it.
Currently I am researching serious and organised crime for a document that will be published elsewhere in cyberspace in the months ahead. Certainly it should be published by the year end. Needless to say, Ukraine like most nations has issues with serious organised crime and within that broad heading human trafficking falls.
During this research, this very powerful, short and thoughtful Dutch video got my attention. Whilst it does not go into the methodology, statistics, trafficking routes, reasons and end results, it does make anybody who watches it think twice about what is going on around them.
Watch it to the end – Something to think about!
Oh dear, I seem to have missed a post for Monday.
Sorry dear readers, but business rolled into social and……..well I didn’t get home in time to post yesterday.
Of course today I look like a bucket of smacked twats with eyes like piss holes in the snow.
In fact, if beauty is skin deep, today I look inside out.
Anyway, I am now fully versed and an expert on Captain Morgan’s nightclub in Odessa……..even if I couldn’t hang in there until closing time.
Well dear readers, The Prodigy return to Kyiv for the 3rd time and are playing Kyiv on 7th October…….
I don’t know whether to “Smack my bitch up” or “Firestarter”……………
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmin5WkOuPw
……..Well, I wasn’t going to “Smack my bitch up” now was I.
Well dear readers……..see below.
Not like I haven’t told you sad people many, many times in other posts on this blog.
You still won’t get the message though will you!!!
I have had a few emails from my loyal readers asking how it is I can write about something every day…..Well this is Ukraine and every day there is something more bizarre and absurd which happens……..meaning I have a never ending supply of material.
Last week in Dnipropetrovsk there was a fire in a “casino” in which 9 people died and 11 were injured…….when a gaming machine caught fire near the entrance to the establishment……..Of course there was no fire escape!!
This is Ukraine…….health and safety, fire regulations and other such minor issues just do not register on the radar…..unless it is by an official in need of an “administration fee” to “look the other” way when he wants a new car and doesn’t have quite enough cash.
As normal, a criminal case was opened and the directors of the “offshore company” which owned this “casino”……as well as many others no doubt……..were arrested.
Calls were made by certain RADA members and City Administrations to not only enforce all regulations on casino’s but to consider their locations…….preferably out of town.
Obviously casino’s in Ukraine are normally a way of laundering money and are usually owned by “offshore” companies…..with Ukrainian directors. Well there is no point in laundering money if your company isn’t offshore…..you’ll pay tax on your clean money if it isn’t!!
Ukraine has no Elliot Ness type figure…….so the Al Capone’s go unchecked. In fact modern day Ukrainian business, politics and economics can be compared quite well to the USA between the 1930′s – 1960′s.
Now Ukraine’s casino’s are not exactly what you will find in Las Vegas. Some are fairly large but the majority are just small shops filled with old gambling machines and a lot of old Babooshka’s and old men being paid a little extra money to stretch their pensions, by feeding the machines all day and night……….This is to give the “casino” the appearance of being busy all the time to launder the massive amounts of cash which are supposed to go through them…….but quite clearly don’t.
Anyway, after the said fire last week in a “casino” one would think that a little more thought, care and attention would be given, considering the recent media coverage, as to location, fire regulations etc. etc.
The last thing you would expect to hear from a Government official is that it is Ok to put them in residential buildings………but this is Ukraine, a place where money will override common sense and morals every time!!
Yesterday, the Deputy Minister of Housing and Municipal Services of Ukraine…….he must have a f*cking big business card……Orest Lotosky stated that is was possible to put these “casino’s” into residential properties. I quote “We have decided this kind of activity, the gambling business, in residential premises, is permissible.”
Hmmm……..so not only will the residents of the apartment blocks where these “casino’s” will start to appear have to put up with lifts that don’t work, drunks in the stairwells, lights which don’t work in the communal areas…..not to mention piss, shit and puke from the dossers which sleep in the communal areas if they can get into them……you are now going to encourage the drunks, insomniacs, addicted gamblers, debt collectors and other associated low life which are connected to these low level “casino’s” to congregate around the entrances to apartment blocks 24 hours a f*cking day?
Just what a young mother wants every morning, having successfully fought off the unwanted attentions of the first 4 drunks she encounters on the stairs…….she then has to step over the shit, piss and puke……explain to her kids the man is “not well”……..and then avoid the blood-bath outside. The same goes for every occupant of the apartment block.
Then we still have the issue of safety for the residents from the other causes such as fire………as seen last week.
What did the said Minister have to say about this?
“They will be checked jointly with the corresponding structures of the Emergencies Ministry, the Ministry of Architecture and others. Establishments located in residential houses will be checked in accordance the procedure foreseen in law. We’re only checking to see if the placement of such establishments in residential buildings is permitted.”
WTF?……..You have just said they are permitted you twat!
You have also not given anyone direct responsibility and even in a non-corrupt country, with so many agencies involved, things would fall through the cracks!! All you have done is said A,B,C and X,Y and Z are responsible for checks…..So unless their inspectors are feeling somewhat poor this month and need an “administrative fee” to look the other way from the obvious violations, nobody will actually carry out these checks or be held responsible when the next fire occurs but this time the whole apartment block goes up in smoke.
The only consistency in Ukraine is the consistent inconsistency.
Well, as the name suggests, this restaurant/nightclub has a very Turkish theme to it.
The theme does not run through the decor……..but the food. If you like Turkish cuisine……..and I don’t dislike it, this place is Ok………..and it does the hookah!
It is on Deribovaskaya. During the day, you can sit outside on the pavement in a “patio” environment in the summer months……as I have done on several occasions.
The menu is not “exclusively” Turkish…..and the standard “European” can eat here without a problem……..but hey, if you go to a Turkish Restaurant, you’re going for Turkish food right!!!
The nightclub itself does not open until 2200……..and stays open until 0600…….playing predominantly “dance” music.
It does host live music on occasion, together with “show programmes”………………and strippers.
………Well, I know you have been a little disappointed by the lack of “fun pillows” in my blog lately!!
Eh?…….You can’t see?…….But I always make sure every photo claiming to be taken of a place is taken from that place……it’s called authenticity!!
There are no better pictures of “fun pillows” from this club!!
You don’t care eh……….Ok, hang on…………….
Happy now……….even though they have nothing to do with the nightclub in question??
It is quite a small club though, accommodating a maximum of 350 people………so therefore the average Ukrainian or Moldovan wedding packs it to capacity……..Errrrm, no I’m not joking, the last Moldovan wedding I went to, there were over 500 guests……….and no he works for me, he isn’t an Oligarch.
What?………..Sure, if you’re interested I will put a post together on traditional weddings here……..but this post is about the Turkuaz……which is an Ok place to eat!!
Found on Dobrovolsky in the city centre, Club El Rico opened it’s doors to the public in 2005.
I have called it a club…….although it is not what you would call a nightclub……or a bar……or a restaurant……..but somewhere within all three.
What?
Ok, I will explain.
It seats only 60 people…….so not a nightclub similar to those I have already written about, which can host 1000 plus people……although it has a dance floor/performance area.
It is a restaurant……..but it isn’t because of the live entertainment………which some of you will be pleased to know will be covered in a few paragraphs time…….which is not always conducive to watching when eating……as food will probably fall from your open mouth!!
It is not a bar……..because the food it fairly good and like I say, it seat 60 people.
The menu is what you can term “European” although heavily Spanish orientated.
The music has a wide variety depending upon which night you go and covers the Drum & Bass, Blues, Latino, Electro Pop, Hip-Hop, Disco and Dance spectrum.
There are also various acts which……….yes you’ve been waiting a few days now……includes strippers!!!!!!!!!!
It’s actually not bad little place, as long as you can cope with tits in your Tortilla and nipples in your Neapolitan.
Eh?………What do you mean that wasn’t worth the wait and you’re off to another blog!!!……Hang on………………
Ok……….so you’ll be reading again tomorrow then.
