BREAKFAST AT HOTEL IMPRESSA, KIEV I lived here for more than a year. Almost a ye

BREAKFAST AT HOTEL IMPRESSA, KIEV

I lived here for more than a year. Almost a year and a half. And it will always represent rebirth and to me. Life in a new alien world that now is anything but alien. The most obvious changes are both in me (I have adopted Ukraine’s pace-of-life, and Ukrainian manners), and in Kiev – the revolution destroyed downtown, and the government is no longer a vehicle for corruption like it was – so the area is relatively poorer than it was prior to the revolution. One of the “Agents” for the ex-president (criminal) worked out of the restaurant here, and sold influence on behalf of the president. I have a photo of his business card. These people were called ‘Advisors To The President”: influence peddlers. I’ve overheard maybe a hundred of those conversations. Because most of the influence was obtained by foreigners – people wanting to do business in Ukraine, and they would get help and financing in exchange for a ‘cut’. Those people are gone. But so is the restaurant business created by their corruption. Conversely, I see entrepreneurship filling the vacuum. And that takes a bit of time. But it’s slowly happening.