Ed And Susan's Adventures In Eastern Europe
I suppose it really is time to say a few words about the Project - after all it is the reason we are here in Kyiv. The folks at Open Society Justice Initiative asked Ed if he would stay on in Kyiv for an extra year as an "OSJI Fellow" and Ed agreed. So we will be in Kyiv until the end of December 2007. Ed will be setting up Public Defender Offices in the Kyiv area (Bila Tserkva) and then one or two more, probably one in the West, near Lviv, and one in the South, near Odessa. But we will live in Kyiv and he will take the train or fly to these places on an as needed basis.
The situation is very different now that he has had the (EXTREMELY difficult) experience of setting up the Kharkiv Office. First of all, he can use all the agreements and forms and protocols that he established for that office in the new offices. Second, it is already clear that the director in the Bila Tserkva Office is as different from Gennadiy as night is from day. Gennadiy is a very nice man and is very dedicated to the Project, but he is not the right man to be the Director. He might be a very good lawyer, I have no way of telling whether he is or not, but I sure can tell that he is a terrible administrator, and that he is far too timid and intimidated by authority and rank, and much too literal when it comes to interpreting rules and regulations, to be an effective leader. Ed literally had to do everything to get that Office going - he had to help buy the computers, help arrange to have the offices cleaned, help arrange for more than one telephone line, and, of course, without him, there never would have been any agreement negotiated with the police (not that the police are complying with the agreement), or any other protocols established for running the office.
Not only did Ed have to initiate and follow through on everything in Kharkiv, but after all that blood, sweat and tears, Genna, because he is so timid and so afraid of confrontation, actually completely undermined the entire operation during a meeting with the General in early December. Here's what happened.
After we came back from the States, Ed checked in with Genna to see how it was going now that the Agreement with the General had been signed. Genna reported that the police were not cooperating and that the PD Office wasn't getting the calls that it should be getting from the police. Moreover, he was having trouble with the lawyers, who seemed to feel that they were independent contractors and could run their cases any way they wanted, without any oversight by Genna. So Ed went back to Kharkiv to meet first with Genna to go over the lawyers' case files to see how they were performing, and then to meet with the lawyers to read them the riot act. What happened? First of all Genna couldn't meet with him to go over the case files. Second, Genna had not seen the case files because the lawyers wouldn't give him access to the files on the grounds of "client confidentiality rules." Third, Genna agreed with their position that they couldn't show him the files. And finally, only two of the lawyers even showed up!!!! It was totally unbelievable. So Ed told the lawyers who were there that they had to show their case files to Genna, that he would be back in two weeks to review their work and that if they didn't cooperate they would be dismissed.
Ed asked Vicky (our friend and his translator) to contact the General's Deputy, Yolana, who was very supportive and helpful during the entire process of negotiating the agreement and getting it signed, to arrange a meeting with the General to discuss the lack of police cooperation in Kharkiv. The meeting was set for early December and Ed flew to Kharkiv. He and Vicky and Genna met with the General, the Police Chief from the Kominternovsky District (the District that the Kharkiv Office serves) and Yolana. Vicky later told me what happened at the meeting - she was so furious she could barely speak. It seems that Ed explained that it was clear that the police officers were not calling the Office whenever a suspect was detained or arrested, and that it was important for the General to know that the agreement that he had signed was being disregarded by the officers who were under his jurisdiction, and thus, in effect, they were disobeying him. Of course, it was Genna who was reporting to Ed that there was a lack of cooperation from the police, and it was Genna who, at Ed's request, prepared the data and charts to demonstrate this to the General. As soon as Ed finished, Genna said something to the effect of "Well, it's not so bad, the police really are trying, I'm sure they want to cooperate" etc., etc. Well, the impact was stunning. Ed had always been something of a mystery to the authorities - no one ever quite knew who he was or what his authority was. Now it was instantly clear to the General that Ed was not in charge, that he could not control Genna, and that he (the General) could do whatever he wanted. Moreover, this had the effect of pulling the rug out from under the feet of not only Ed, but Yolana, who had gotten the General to attend the meeting by reporting to him that the data showed a lack of cooperation by the police! And Genna saw none of this. He saw his comments only as an effort to gain the cooperation of the General - he didn't see that by doing what he did, the General lost respect for both him and Ed and possibly Yolana. (Do you think the fact that Yolana no longer returns calls from Genna says anything about this?) Anyway, the whole thing is so depressing, and, of course, there is still no cooperation from the police. The Office has practically no cases, and so they are going to expand jurisdiction to another police station.
As for Ed's second meeting with the remaining two lawyers - by then another lawyer had quit and one had been fired - they, and Genna, took the position that there could be no discussion of the cases among the lawyers and that no one could see the case files except the lawyer handling the case. Their position was based on the fact that the Kharkiv Office was set up as a "charity" - a non-profit - rather than as an "association" of lawyers. They then argued that the exemption from the rules of client confidentiality that apply to the lawyers in an "association," thereby allowing the lawyers in the association to discuss their clients' cases and communications with each other, did not apply to a charitable organization. This was the most ridiculous thing I had ever heard, and I told Ed so, and he agreed. But in an effort to appease them, not having been able to convince them of the rightness of his position, he proposed that they get the clients to sign waivers (which he drafted) permitting the lawyers in the Office to discuss the cases with each other. The next response was even more ridiculous than the first. They said that a waiver would allow them to discuss the cases with each other, but they would still not be able to show Genna the case files. This of course meant that there was no way to oversee the lawyers' work - a completely untenable situation. Ed then arranged to have the relevant rules and regulations translated, and it was clear to him and to me that Genna and the others were far too literal in their interpretation, and that of course the lawyers could not only talk to each other, but show the files to each other, even without a waiver. Ed raised the problem in his December Monthly Report to OSJI, and it was agreed that the OSJI people and Ed would all meet with the Kharkiv lawyers in Cheltenham to "persuade" them that they were wrong. The meeting took place after dinner one night, and after about 2 hours of discussion, the lawyers finally agreed.
Meanwhile Ed still has to hold Genna's hand for every little thing, and has to initiate every action. For example, they have now gathered statistics on the number of arrests and detentions in the district served by the Office, and it seems they are very low and that the Office needs to expand its jurisdiction to another police station. The General is not at all opposed to this, and in fact suggested this at the last meeting. But instead of Genna taking the initiative and calling Yolana to arrange a meeting to discuss this expansion of jurisdiction, Ed had to call Genna and persuade Genna to do this - Genna thought that the "head" people at the Renaissance Foundation should suggest expansion rather than himself. And of course Ed will have to go to this meeting because Genna will not be able to handle this on his own.
I will add, by way of explanation, not of excuse, that Genna is probably like this because he is the product of three powerful influences that affect almost everyone of his generation here: First, he is the product of growing up under the Soviet system, being educated under that system and beginning his life as a defense lawyer under that system. This was a system where authority was, if not respected, obeyed without question, where rank mattered above all, and where initiative got you nowhere except maybe in trouble. Second, it was also a system where defense lawyers were looked upon as lower than low, the most despicable of creatures, and were treated with contempt by the police, prosecutors, investigators, and judges alike - attitudes which persist today. Third, according to Ed, Genna does fight hard for civil rights in his paperwork - he may not be able to confront someone in person, but apparently he files motion after motion demanding that European standards be adhered to and that civil rights be respected (I am taking this on faith from Ed, as I find it hard to believe). All this may help explain his behavior, but it does not excuse OSJI and Renaissance Foundation for keeping him on as Director of the Kharkiv Office - he would probably be just fine as a public defender lawyer, but he just is not the man for the Director's job in my humble (or not so humble) opinion.
The Director of the Bila Tserkva Office, Victor, is cut from an entirely different cloth. I met him in Cheltenham, where OSJI held a conference for Public Defenders from all over Eastern Europe and former Soviet republics (Bulgaria, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Lithuania, to name a few). I also met all the other defenders in these other countries, and most of them were very impressive - particularly the ones from Bulgaria and a young woman lawyer from Lithuania. Victor is a former prosecutor and is used to acting with authority. He has already found office space, hired a paralegal and administrator, contacted the police to put in place the agreement that Ed negotiated in Kharkiv, and input all the forms and protocols, which Ed had developed for Kharkiv, on the Bila Tserkva office computers. It looks like Ed will be able to limit his attention there to attending the weekly meetings with all the lawyers, and to meeting with Victor once or twice a week to review the Office operations, including evaluation of the level of cooperation from the police and overall performance of the lawyers.
Which is great, because it means we'll be able to continue our trips to the Eastern European capitals and other places that we can easily visit for four or five days here, but which would require us to take a very long vacation from the U.S. if we wanted to visit them once we returned home. Since we've been back from the States we have been to Warsaw (twice), Krakow (and Auschwitz), Budapest, Berlin, London (three times), and St Petersburg. We have plans to go to London again (with a side trip to Barcelona because it is sooooo cheap to fly almost anywhere from London, whereas it is quite expensive to fly anywhere from Kyiv - but at least you can fly almost anywhere from here, as opposed to Kharkiv) in March, to London again in April (with another side trip, this time to Marrakech), to Vienna, Lviv and St Petersburg again with Max and Betsy when they come to visit us in May, to Turkey with all four McGuires in June, to NY for Emily Gitter's wedding in July, then on to Los Angeles to see family and friends, and then to Moscow with Laura and Portis when they come to visit us in October. We're also going to Capetown to visit Michael and Jeremy next December (we wanted to go this year, but it was impossible to get our tickets with BA miles until next December, even though I made the reservations last November!!). And that still leaves Sofia, Split, Sarajevo, Chechenau, Scandanavia, Siberia and Mongolia, to mention just a few places that are high on our list.
Now on to readers' complaints - yes, I will be adding photos - from all our trips and from Kyiv - I just wanted to get back into the swing of things before doing that. They've changed the Blog set up and I think it will be a lot easier to insert photos - it used to take ages to do it with any sort of reasonable layout, but now I think it will be a one or two step process at most.
Our trips really have been fabulous - on our first trip to Warsaw, in late November, we contacted a human rights lawyer there, Zbignew Lasocik, who is on the Board of the International Senior Lawyer's Project - the organization that put us in touch with OSJI in the first place. He graciously invited us to have dinner at his in-laws' apartment, where they were celebrating his father-in-law's name day. It was such an incredible afternoon - Zbig and his wife Kashya (a director of TV programs, two of which are now running), their 22 year old son Michael, Kashya's sister, Marta, and her 20-something daughter Anya, and Kashya's incredibly elegant mother and father, who spoke no English (needless to say, we speak no Polish). The meal was unbelievable - course after course of the most delicious food - the conversation lively, and there was a great rapport between us all that was so warm and easy. They asked what we were doing for Christmas, and we told them that we were thinking about going to Berlin so that we could have a "real" Christmas (they celebrate Orthodox Christmas in Ukraine, which is January 7, with the real celebration on the eve, January 6). They said "Berlin! No!! For a real Christmas you must come to Warsaw and celebrate Christmas Eve with us." The celebrations start at 6 p.m. and go on until the wee hours. We agreed - and it was fabulous. The only disappointment was that, for the first time in living memory, there was no snow on Christmas Eve!
But still, there were 12 courses of fish before midnight, 3 different soups, 2 different noodle and kasha and poppy seed dishes, at least 6 different cakes, the special poppy seed dish called Kutya (poppy seeds and honey and nuts with sour cream) that is incredibly delicious and served only during this holiday season, 6 courses of meat after midnight (and a brief stop at their neighborhood Church for Midnight Mass - we didn't stay the entire time), Christmas caroling at the homes of the neighbors, and lots of Polish vodka and a fruit compote drink that is also only served during the holiday season. Everyone had to prepare a little skit and they were all really funny and cute - but I must say, ours was the biggest hit. I introduced Edwardo the Magnifico, the world's greatest magician, who would make me, his assistant, disappear. I then held out my arms, demonstrating that they really exist, my legs, my hands, etc. Then Ed came over with my shawl, and we hummed - da ta da da, da ta dah (well, you had to be there) - while he put the shawl in front of my legs and when he pulled it up higher (knee length) only one leg was there - same with the next leg, the arms, the hands. They were really loving it, and we had loads of fun. We got back to our hotel about 2 a.m. and left the next day (Christmas Day) on the train for Berlin.
I was completely blown away by Berlin - I had been there with Dick and Donna in 1990, just after the wall had come down, and it was a totally different city. First of all, we were incredibly lucky with our hotel choice - the Adlon Kempinsky. Ohmygod - the hotel of my dreams. The service, the amazing concierge, the building, the rooms, EVERYTHING, spectacular. And, really, on sale until New Year's eve, and we were leaving on the 30th.
We took a taxi from the train station and drove down Unter Den Linden, which was soooooo beautiful with every tree on both rows in the center island outlined in lights. We passed two Christmas Markets that looked fabulous before driving up to the Brandenburg Gate, the beautiful Adlon, which is next door to the Modern Art Center, which in turn is next door to a gorgeous Frank Gehry office building, all harmonious and blending together perfectly. That's the amazing thing about Berlin - the architecture is astounding (as is the music - the magician concierge got us fabulous tickets to the already sold out performances - believe me I tried on the internet - of The Magic Flute at the gorgeous Statsoper - with the greatest and most handsome bass I have ever seen or heard in the role of Zoroaster, a fantastic chamber music concert on Boxing Day at the Chamber Music Hall, and, the best of all, Simon Rattle conducting, Mitsuko Uchido in a Berlin Philharmonic concert at Philharmonic Hall). The Peter Eiseman Memorial to the Six Million Murdered Jews of Europe was, without question, the most moving holocaust memorial I have ever seen, or will ever see. It is right behind the Adlon Hotel, and I won't even try to describe it, because words and picture cannot begin to convey the feelings evoked when you walk through the site. From the borders it brings to mind those old Jewish cemeteries in Eastern European cities, like Prague, but when you walk through it you feel as if you are lost in a horrible maze with no way out. I'll never forget it. The renovation of the Reichstag was great, as were all the new Norman Foster buildings surrounding it, the new Hopfbahn, and Pottsdamer Platz, all are breathtaking in their own way, as is the beautiful church right next to Kudam where the new building emanates from the old ruins. 
It looks like Germany, or Berlin anyway, recruited the best architects in the world to rebuild the city after the wall came down. And a great job they did, too. And, on top of everything, it was Christmas, with beautiful lights everywhere, and Christmas markets with enough potato pancakes, wursts, and marzipan to keep even me happy.
But before Christmas, there was still the trip to Krakow (and Auschwitz) and to St Petersburg, again in late November. The great thing about traveling during the winter is that all of Europe and Russia is on sale, including the great hotels. So we got to stay in a fantastic place in Warsaw, called Le Regina, just outside the Barbican at the edge of the Old Town Square, an equally fabulous place, just off the Old Town Square in Krakow, call Stary, and the fantastic Hotel Astoria facing St Isaac's in St Petersburg, all at a fraction of what they cost at other times. (I know, because I've been trying to get hotel rooms in St Petersburg for us and for the Gitters when they come in May, and how does $800 a night for the room we stayed in for $190 a night sound????)
After our dinner with the Lasociks and Zbig's in-laws in Warsaw we went to the ballet to see "Romeo and Juliet." The hotel had gotten our tickets, and when I looked at them I was very disappointed because I had requested the first row of the orchestra and it looked to me as if these tickets were in the first balcony. When I inquired, reception called the ballet theater and the theater insisted they were the very best seats in the house. When we arrived at the theater - which is very beautiful, with incredible crystal sculptures, chandeliers and clock (all modern, but very elegant), we were directed to the first level. I was soooo unhappy, but what could I do at this point - not much. The usher took us to seats in the first row of the first level, two off the aisle. Well, at least I had an unobstructed view, even if it was, for me, far away (around Row N of the orchestra). Two women showed up soon after, and one told me, in English, that we were in the wrong seats. We looked at her tickets, and at ours, and indeed, they were the same. The thing about the tickets - they are not really tickets - instead you get a beautiful "card" with the seat locations hand written (beautifully) on them. The woman indicated that we were probably in a different section and showed us where she thought we should be sitting. There must have been something about her manner that prevented me from being obnoxious and telling her that these were our seats, and that maybe she was in the wrong section. We went over to the ushers, who got very flustered, went back with us to the seats, spoke to the woman in our seats (in Polish) and then told us to sit in the two aisle seats next to them. Well, this was okay with me. The woman told me that the seats we were in were the Director's seats and that sometimes when the Director of the Opera and Ballet Theater was not using the seats they were sold. We had bought a very expensive and beautiful program showing all the great dancers who had danced Romeo and Juliet, and of course I had seen them all - from Fonteyn and Nureyev to Barishnikov, Marcia Haydee and Richard Cragun - you name it. I asked the woman if she had seen this particular production, and she said "Oh yes, many times." I indicated that I had never seen it, although I had seen the ballet itself many times with performers like the ones in the program. I then asked if she liked this production, and she said "Well, I am the Director of the Ballet, so I think the answer is yes." Ed turned to her and said "Should we tell you how much we liked the performance now or should we wait until after it's over?" She loved that and asked us to really tell her what we thought - she would like to hear it. Thank goodness, it was great - the sets were the best I've ever seen, Juliet was gorgeous, the music of course is beautiful, Romeo was really good too, as were the other male dancers and the corps. We told her how much we had enjoyed it and she gave us her card and told us to let her know when were next in Warsaw and she would like us to come to the ballet as her guests! When we decided to go to Warsaw for the Christmas eve celebrations, I looked at the schedule and decided we should leave for Warsaw on the 21st so that we could see The Nutcracker there. But when I went online, it was SOLD OUT!! I decided to take Jolanta up on her offer, called her, told her my problem and asked if she could help us get tickets, which we would pay for. We ended up in the same seats as last time (great seats by the way, although I still prefer first row orchestra so long as you can see the feet of the dancers from there - it depends on the theater - you can't always), and had a lovely coffee with her the next day. She was a principal with the Warsaw Ballet, and then the Vienna Ballet, before coming back to Warsaw to teach at the ballet school, becoming the director this year. I really want to go back again, because they are dancing Onegin, my favorite ballet (we're seeing it in London in April) and Jolanta said she would take us to the school and show us her most promising students. We'll have to see - we're running out of open travel slots!!
It's snowing out now - we had our first snow last week - before that only a light dusting one beautiful night early in November - we were having dinner at the apartment of our one friend in Kyiv, Mike Willard (boy, how different the city seemed to me when he took us out to dinner the second night after our arrival in Ukraine!), and Olga, his "might-as-well-be" (our term for someone who might as well be the other's spouse), and we got to walk back on a pristine fresh white carpet - it was magical with the golden domes of St Sophia and St Michael shining in the clear sky, lit only by the moon and stars. Well, that snow completely disappeared by the next morning. Last week's snow is here to stay - although now it is more like black ice - and a fresh batch is welcome if only to make it beautiful once again. I've got a cold so I've stayed in for the past couple of days, and now I have to stop blogging and start reading Val McDermid's The Mermaids Singing so that I can listen to the BBC Radio 4 Book Club discussion, which will only be available to me on the internet for about 5 more days. Descriptions of our trips to Krakow, Auschwitz and St Petersburg will have to wait until another day.
The situation is very different now that he has had the (EXTREMELY difficult) experience of setting up the Kharkiv Office. First of all, he can use all the agreements and forms and protocols that he established for that office in the new offices. Second, it is already clear that the director in the Bila Tserkva Office is as different from Gennadiy as night is from day. Gennadiy is a very nice man and is very dedicated to the Project, but he is not the right man to be the Director. He might be a very good lawyer, I have no way of telling whether he is or not, but I sure can tell that he is a terrible administrator, and that he is far too timid and intimidated by authority and rank, and much too literal when it comes to interpreting rules and regulations, to be an effective leader. Ed literally had to do everything to get that Office going - he had to help buy the computers, help arrange to have the offices cleaned, help arrange for more than one telephone line, and, of course, without him, there never would have been any agreement negotiated with the police (not that the police are complying with the agreement), or any other protocols established for running the office.
Not only did Ed have to initiate and follow through on everything in Kharkiv, but after all that blood, sweat and tears, Genna, because he is so timid and so afraid of confrontation, actually completely undermined the entire operation during a meeting with the General in early December. Here's what happened.
After we came back from the States, Ed checked in with Genna to see how it was going now that the Agreement with the General had been signed. Genna reported that the police were not cooperating and that the PD Office wasn't getting the calls that it should be getting from the police. Moreover, he was having trouble with the lawyers, who seemed to feel that they were independent contractors and could run their cases any way they wanted, without any oversight by Genna. So Ed went back to Kharkiv to meet first with Genna to go over the lawyers' case files to see how they were performing, and then to meet with the lawyers to read them the riot act. What happened? First of all Genna couldn't meet with him to go over the case files. Second, Genna had not seen the case files because the lawyers wouldn't give him access to the files on the grounds of "client confidentiality rules." Third, Genna agreed with their position that they couldn't show him the files. And finally, only two of the lawyers even showed up!!!! It was totally unbelievable. So Ed told the lawyers who were there that they had to show their case files to Genna, that he would be back in two weeks to review their work and that if they didn't cooperate they would be dismissed.
Ed asked Vicky (our friend and his translator) to contact the General's Deputy, Yolana, who was very supportive and helpful during the entire process of negotiating the agreement and getting it signed, to arrange a meeting with the General to discuss the lack of police cooperation in Kharkiv. The meeting was set for early December and Ed flew to Kharkiv. He and Vicky and Genna met with the General, the Police Chief from the Kominternovsky District (the District that the Kharkiv Office serves) and Yolana. Vicky later told me what happened at the meeting - she was so furious she could barely speak. It seems that Ed explained that it was clear that the police officers were not calling the Office whenever a suspect was detained or arrested, and that it was important for the General to know that the agreement that he had signed was being disregarded by the officers who were under his jurisdiction, and thus, in effect, they were disobeying him. Of course, it was Genna who was reporting to Ed that there was a lack of cooperation from the police, and it was Genna who, at Ed's request, prepared the data and charts to demonstrate this to the General. As soon as Ed finished, Genna said something to the effect of "Well, it's not so bad, the police really are trying, I'm sure they want to cooperate" etc., etc. Well, the impact was stunning. Ed had always been something of a mystery to the authorities - no one ever quite knew who he was or what his authority was. Now it was instantly clear to the General that Ed was not in charge, that he could not control Genna, and that he (the General) could do whatever he wanted. Moreover, this had the effect of pulling the rug out from under the feet of not only Ed, but Yolana, who had gotten the General to attend the meeting by reporting to him that the data showed a lack of cooperation by the police! And Genna saw none of this. He saw his comments only as an effort to gain the cooperation of the General - he didn't see that by doing what he did, the General lost respect for both him and Ed and possibly Yolana. (Do you think the fact that Yolana no longer returns calls from Genna says anything about this?) Anyway, the whole thing is so depressing, and, of course, there is still no cooperation from the police. The Office has practically no cases, and so they are going to expand jurisdiction to another police station.
As for Ed's second meeting with the remaining two lawyers - by then another lawyer had quit and one had been fired - they, and Genna, took the position that there could be no discussion of the cases among the lawyers and that no one could see the case files except the lawyer handling the case. Their position was based on the fact that the Kharkiv Office was set up as a "charity" - a non-profit - rather than as an "association" of lawyers. They then argued that the exemption from the rules of client confidentiality that apply to the lawyers in an "association," thereby allowing the lawyers in the association to discuss their clients' cases and communications with each other, did not apply to a charitable organization. This was the most ridiculous thing I had ever heard, and I told Ed so, and he agreed. But in an effort to appease them, not having been able to convince them of the rightness of his position, he proposed that they get the clients to sign waivers (which he drafted) permitting the lawyers in the Office to discuss the cases with each other. The next response was even more ridiculous than the first. They said that a waiver would allow them to discuss the cases with each other, but they would still not be able to show Genna the case files. This of course meant that there was no way to oversee the lawyers' work - a completely untenable situation. Ed then arranged to have the relevant rules and regulations translated, and it was clear to him and to me that Genna and the others were far too literal in their interpretation, and that of course the lawyers could not only talk to each other, but show the files to each other, even without a waiver. Ed raised the problem in his December Monthly Report to OSJI, and it was agreed that the OSJI people and Ed would all meet with the Kharkiv lawyers in Cheltenham to "persuade" them that they were wrong. The meeting took place after dinner one night, and after about 2 hours of discussion, the lawyers finally agreed.
Meanwhile Ed still has to hold Genna's hand for every little thing, and has to initiate every action. For example, they have now gathered statistics on the number of arrests and detentions in the district served by the Office, and it seems they are very low and that the Office needs to expand its jurisdiction to another police station. The General is not at all opposed to this, and in fact suggested this at the last meeting. But instead of Genna taking the initiative and calling Yolana to arrange a meeting to discuss this expansion of jurisdiction, Ed had to call Genna and persuade Genna to do this - Genna thought that the "head" people at the Renaissance Foundation should suggest expansion rather than himself. And of course Ed will have to go to this meeting because Genna will not be able to handle this on his own.
I will add, by way of explanation, not of excuse, that Genna is probably like this because he is the product of three powerful influences that affect almost everyone of his generation here: First, he is the product of growing up under the Soviet system, being educated under that system and beginning his life as a defense lawyer under that system. This was a system where authority was, if not respected, obeyed without question, where rank mattered above all, and where initiative got you nowhere except maybe in trouble. Second, it was also a system where defense lawyers were looked upon as lower than low, the most despicable of creatures, and were treated with contempt by the police, prosecutors, investigators, and judges alike - attitudes which persist today. Third, according to Ed, Genna does fight hard for civil rights in his paperwork - he may not be able to confront someone in person, but apparently he files motion after motion demanding that European standards be adhered to and that civil rights be respected (I am taking this on faith from Ed, as I find it hard to believe). All this may help explain his behavior, but it does not excuse OSJI and Renaissance Foundation for keeping him on as Director of the Kharkiv Office - he would probably be just fine as a public defender lawyer, but he just is not the man for the Director's job in my humble (or not so humble) opinion.
The Director of the Bila Tserkva Office, Victor, is cut from an entirely different cloth. I met him in Cheltenham, where OSJI held a conference for Public Defenders from all over Eastern Europe and former Soviet republics (Bulgaria, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Lithuania, to name a few). I also met all the other defenders in these other countries, and most of them were very impressive - particularly the ones from Bulgaria and a young woman lawyer from Lithuania. Victor is a former prosecutor and is used to acting with authority. He has already found office space, hired a paralegal and administrator, contacted the police to put in place the agreement that Ed negotiated in Kharkiv, and input all the forms and protocols, which Ed had developed for Kharkiv, on the Bila Tserkva office computers. It looks like Ed will be able to limit his attention there to attending the weekly meetings with all the lawyers, and to meeting with Victor once or twice a week to review the Office operations, including evaluation of the level of cooperation from the police and overall performance of the lawyers.
Which is great, because it means we'll be able to continue our trips to the Eastern European capitals and other places that we can easily visit for four or five days here, but which would require us to take a very long vacation from the U.S. if we wanted to visit them once we returned home. Since we've been back from the States we have been to Warsaw (twice), Krakow (and Auschwitz), Budapest, Berlin, London (three times), and St Petersburg. We have plans to go to London again (with a side trip to Barcelona because it is sooooo cheap to fly almost anywhere from London, whereas it is quite expensive to fly anywhere from Kyiv - but at least you can fly almost anywhere from here, as opposed to Kharkiv) in March, to London again in April (with another side trip, this time to Marrakech), to Vienna, Lviv and St Petersburg again with Max and Betsy when they come to visit us in May, to Turkey with all four McGuires in June, to NY for Emily Gitter's wedding in July, then on to Los Angeles to see family and friends, and then to Moscow with Laura and Portis when they come to visit us in October. We're also going to Capetown to visit Michael and Jeremy next December (we wanted to go this year, but it was impossible to get our tickets with BA miles until next December, even though I made the reservations last November!!). And that still leaves Sofia, Split, Sarajevo, Chechenau, Scandanavia, Siberia and Mongolia, to mention just a few places that are high on our list.
Now on to readers' complaints - yes, I will be adding photos - from all our trips and from Kyiv - I just wanted to get back into the swing of things before doing that. They've changed the Blog set up and I think it will be a lot easier to insert photos - it used to take ages to do it with any sort of reasonable layout, but now I think it will be a one or two step process at most.
Our trips really have been fabulous - on our first trip to Warsaw, in late November, we contacted a human rights lawyer there, Zbignew Lasocik, who is on the Board of the International Senior Lawyer's Project - the organization that put us in touch with OSJI in the first place. He graciously invited us to have dinner at his in-laws' apartment, where they were celebrating his father-in-law's name day. It was such an incredible afternoon - Zbig and his wife Kashya (a director of TV programs, two of which are now running), their 22 year old son Michael, Kashya's sister, Marta, and her 20-something daughter Anya, and Kashya's incredibly elegant mother and father, who spoke no English (needless to say, we speak no Polish). The meal was unbelievable - course after course of the most delicious food - the conversation lively, and there was a great rapport between us all that was so warm and easy. They asked what we were doing for Christmas, and we told them that we were thinking about going to Berlin so that we could have a "real" Christmas (they celebrate Orthodox Christmas in Ukraine, which is January 7, with the real celebration on the eve, January 6). They said "Berlin! No!! For a real Christmas you must come to Warsaw and celebrate Christmas Eve with us." The celebrations start at 6 p.m. and go on until the wee hours. We agreed - and it was fabulous. The only disappointment was that, for the first time in living memory, there was no snow on Christmas Eve!
But still, there were 12 courses of fish before midnight, 3 different soups, 2 different noodle and kasha and poppy seed dishes, at least 6 different cakes, the special poppy seed dish called Kutya (poppy seeds and honey and nuts with sour cream) that is incredibly delicious and served only during this holiday season, 6 courses of meat after midnight (and a brief stop at their neighborhood Church for Midnight Mass - we didn't stay the entire time), Christmas caroling at the homes of the neighbors, and lots of Polish vodka and a fruit compote drink that is also only served during the holiday season. Everyone had to prepare a little skit and they were all really funny and cute - but I must say, ours was the biggest hit. I introduced Edwardo the Magnifico, the world's greatest magician, who would make me, his assistant, disappear. I then held out my arms, demonstrating that they really exist, my legs, my hands, etc. Then Ed came over with my shawl, and we hummed - da ta da da, da ta dah (well, you had to be there) - while he put the shawl in front of my legs and when he pulled it up higher (knee length) only one leg was there - same with the next leg, the arms, the hands. They were really loving it, and we had loads of fun. We got back to our hotel about 2 a.m. and left the next day (Christmas Day) on the train for Berlin.I was completely blown away by Berlin - I had been there with Dick and Donna in 1990, just after the wall had come down, and it was a totally different city. First of all, we were incredibly lucky with our hotel choice - the Adlon Kempinsky. Ohmygod - the hotel of my dreams. The service, the amazing concierge, the building, the rooms, EVERYTHING, spectacular. And, really, on sale until New Year's eve, and we were leaving on the 30th.
We took a taxi from the train station and drove down Unter Den Linden, which was soooooo beautiful with every tree on both rows in the center island outlined in lights. We passed two Christmas Markets that looked fabulous before driving up to the Brandenburg Gate, the beautiful Adlon, which is next door to the Modern Art Center, which in turn is next door to a gorgeous Frank Gehry office building, all harmonious and blending together perfectly. That's the amazing thing about Berlin - the architecture is astounding (as is the music - the magician concierge got us fabulous tickets to the already sold out performances - believe me I tried on the internet - of The Magic Flute at the gorgeous Statsoper - with the greatest and most handsome bass I have ever seen or heard in the role of Zoroaster, a fantastic chamber music concert on Boxing Day at the Chamber Music Hall, and, the best of all, Simon Rattle conducting, Mitsuko Uchido in a Berlin Philharmonic concert at Philharmonic Hall). The Peter Eiseman Memorial to the Six Million Murdered Jews of Europe was, without question, the most moving holocaust memorial I have ever seen, or will ever see. It is right behind the Adlon Hotel, and I won't even try to describe it, because words and picture cannot begin to convey the feelings evoked when you walk through the site. From the borders it brings to mind those old Jewish cemeteries in Eastern European cities, like Prague, but when you walk through it you feel as if you are lost in a horrible maze with no way out. I'll never forget it. The renovation of the Reichstag was great, as were all the new Norman Foster buildings surrounding it, the new Hopfbahn, and Pottsdamer Platz, all are breathtaking in their own way, as is the beautiful church right next to Kudam where the new building emanates from the old ruins. 
It looks like Germany, or Berlin anyway, recruited the best architects in the world to rebuild the city after the wall came down. And a great job they did, too. And, on top of everything, it was Christmas, with beautiful lights everywhere, and Christmas markets with enough potato pancakes, wursts, and marzipan to keep even me happy.But before Christmas, there was still the trip to Krakow (and Auschwitz) and to St Petersburg, again in late November. The great thing about traveling during the winter is that all of Europe and Russia is on sale, including the great hotels. So we got to stay in a fantastic place in Warsaw, called Le Regina, just outside the Barbican at the edge of the Old Town Square, an equally fabulous place, just off the Old Town Square in Krakow, call Stary, and the fantastic Hotel Astoria facing St Isaac's in St Petersburg, all at a fraction of what they cost at other times. (I know, because I've been trying to get hotel rooms in St Petersburg for us and for the Gitters when they come in May, and how does $800 a night for the room we stayed in for $190 a night sound????)
After our dinner with the Lasociks and Zbig's in-laws in Warsaw we went to the ballet to see "Romeo and Juliet." The hotel had gotten our tickets, and when I looked at them I was very disappointed because I had requested the first row of the orchestra and it looked to me as if these tickets were in the first balcony. When I inquired, reception called the ballet theater and the theater insisted they were the very best seats in the house. When we arrived at the theater - which is very beautiful, with incredible crystal sculptures, chandeliers and clock (all modern, but very elegant), we were directed to the first level. I was soooo unhappy, but what could I do at this point - not much. The usher took us to seats in the first row of the first level, two off the aisle. Well, at least I had an unobstructed view, even if it was, for me, far away (around Row N of the orchestra). Two women showed up soon after, and one told me, in English, that we were in the wrong seats. We looked at her tickets, and at ours, and indeed, they were the same. The thing about the tickets - they are not really tickets - instead you get a beautiful "card" with the seat locations hand written (beautifully) on them. The woman indicated that we were probably in a different section and showed us where she thought we should be sitting. There must have been something about her manner that prevented me from being obnoxious and telling her that these were our seats, and that maybe she was in the wrong section. We went over to the ushers, who got very flustered, went back with us to the seats, spoke to the woman in our seats (in Polish) and then told us to sit in the two aisle seats next to them. Well, this was okay with me. The woman told me that the seats we were in were the Director's seats and that sometimes when the Director of the Opera and Ballet Theater was not using the seats they were sold. We had bought a very expensive and beautiful program showing all the great dancers who had danced Romeo and Juliet, and of course I had seen them all - from Fonteyn and Nureyev to Barishnikov, Marcia Haydee and Richard Cragun - you name it. I asked the woman if she had seen this particular production, and she said "Oh yes, many times." I indicated that I had never seen it, although I had seen the ballet itself many times with performers like the ones in the program. I then asked if she liked this production, and she said "Well, I am the Director of the Ballet, so I think the answer is yes." Ed turned to her and said "Should we tell you how much we liked the performance now or should we wait until after it's over?" She loved that and asked us to really tell her what we thought - she would like to hear it. Thank goodness, it was great - the sets were the best I've ever seen, Juliet was gorgeous, the music of course is beautiful, Romeo was really good too, as were the other male dancers and the corps. We told her how much we had enjoyed it and she gave us her card and told us to let her know when were next in Warsaw and she would like us to come to the ballet as her guests! When we decided to go to Warsaw for the Christmas eve celebrations, I looked at the schedule and decided we should leave for Warsaw on the 21st so that we could see The Nutcracker there. But when I went online, it was SOLD OUT!! I decided to take Jolanta up on her offer, called her, told her my problem and asked if she could help us get tickets, which we would pay for. We ended up in the same seats as last time (great seats by the way, although I still prefer first row orchestra so long as you can see the feet of the dancers from there - it depends on the theater - you can't always), and had a lovely coffee with her the next day. She was a principal with the Warsaw Ballet, and then the Vienna Ballet, before coming back to Warsaw to teach at the ballet school, becoming the director this year. I really want to go back again, because they are dancing Onegin, my favorite ballet (we're seeing it in London in April) and Jolanta said she would take us to the school and show us her most promising students. We'll have to see - we're running out of open travel slots!!
It's snowing out now - we had our first snow last week - before that only a light dusting one beautiful night early in November - we were having dinner at the apartment of our one friend in Kyiv, Mike Willard (boy, how different the city seemed to me when he took us out to dinner the second night after our arrival in Ukraine!), and Olga, his "might-as-well-be" (our term for someone who might as well be the other's spouse), and we got to walk back on a pristine fresh white carpet - it was magical with the golden domes of St Sophia and St Michael shining in the clear sky, lit only by the moon and stars. Well, that snow completely disappeared by the next morning. Last week's snow is here to stay - although now it is more like black ice - and a fresh batch is welcome if only to make it beautiful once again. I've got a cold so I've stayed in for the past couple of days, and now I have to stop blogging and start reading Val McDermid's The Mermaids Singing so that I can listen to the BBC Radio 4 Book Club discussion, which will only be available to me on the internet for about 5 more days. Descriptions of our trips to Krakow, Auschwitz and St Petersburg will have to wait until another day.
posted by Susan Spivak at 11:30 AM
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