Ukraine and the EU - where your tax money goes!!

We are the delightfully named town of Koktebel, for the annual jazz festival.

The initial problem was finding a base. Plenty of places to park the van outside town and ride in on the bike, but we wanted to be right in the middle of things and not have to risk drunken bike rides back to the van on rough roads, and Luda doesn't like the bike at the best of times.

So I hit upon a cunning plan! We just rode the bike up and down likely looking residential streets, looking for houses with big gardens. After half an hour and 3 refusals we found a big rambling place with a yard that could have been designed for the van. Half an hour later we were in, a mere two hundred yards from the centre, market and stages. 50 euros for the week and happy people all round. The old woman in charge seemed a bit nonplussed that we would pay so much just to park in her yard, but I think the penny dropped when we turned up an hour later in the van, it is a big big at first sight, but it slotted in like it lived there. 

The jazz festival proper starts on Thursday, but over this past weekend there was a smaller, free, jazz festival. We were a bit confused at first, why two festivals? Why not just one week long affair?

Well the truth is that you guys back home paid for the free festival!! I only found this out when a bunch of people climbed onto the main stage and started making speeches in English! First up was the Belgian ambassador to the Ukraine! (Now there's an interesting job! Turns out that the headline band was Belgian! Next up was "Deputy Head of the EU delegation to Ukraine" - a shy middle aged woman who was totally out of her depth, with a prepared speech that kept blowing away in the wind, and no idea how to speak into a microphone. Then there was the interpreter, some local minor celeb with silver hair and a basic command of English.

The whole thing was an excruciating farce.....at one level, but for me a very interesting political and social experience.

We are all used to reading about how the EU squanders all our money on dodgy projects and corrupt local politicians, but it was a totally different perspective to actually witness the end result on the ground.

The crowd was as you would expect, well oiled and rowdy, but they also showed respect, and cheered at the salient points. The woman wittered on about EU friendship and support but finished strongly with a nicely crafted statement about how music knows no boundaries. It took her about 20 seconds to say, and silver hair must have laid it on thick with a trowel because it took him about 3 minutes to translate her concluding comments. But the crowd loved it and produced a rousing cheer.

Then they all trooped off looking visibly relieved, and then we were treated to a Belgian jazz sextet of the highest quality, the leader of which was a female Belgian/Ukrainian pianist, who, although she only spoke in Russian to the crowd, was obviously briefed to carry on the message from the politicians.

So........An EU junket freebie at your expense? Or a clever justifiable piece of cultural propaganda?

Resoundingly the latter! The Ukraine is a prime candidate for EU membership, both geographically and socially. Since Romania, Bulgaria and Poland joined a few years ago, free and easy travel between Ukraine and those countries stopped dead - you need a visa, whereas before you didn't. This has caused families and businesses a lot of hardship, and ethnically Ukraine is closer to those countries. But Russia doesn't want it because their only military access to the Med is through their Naval base at Sevastopol, just up the road from here.

Politically the country is split 50/50 between pro EU and pro Russia. The younger generation is for EU membership, but the older generation favours Russia. In reality the split is more in favour of the EU, but the younger generation is less politically active, being to busy surviving or having a good time to take an interest and vote.

Well after what I saw last night, I am sure that a few more will think twice, come the next election. So in my opinion, money well spent.

The final twist is that after the music was over we were wandering around the festival campus ...... lots of bars and cafes and stalls, and who should I find wandering around alone, but Mrs Deputy Delegate herself! And she was up for a good chat. Turns out she was from Slovakia, and had been dumped on by her boss to do the honours at this festival. She had only arrived 4 hours ago, and was out of here the next day - she probably had her weekend ruined, but I could tell from her general demeanour that her heart was genuinely in her work and that although she had had a big dose of stage fright, she was proud of her work.

I won't bore you with the details, but it was a very interesting conversation. Ukraine will join the EU, but it will take at least another 10 years. I got a good laugh out of her when I asked how much it cost to transport a piano from Brussells to Koktebel ........ some 4000 kilometres.....

This weekend the jazz festival starts in earnest, but at twenty dollars per day per person, it is barely affordable for most locals. So I am informed that the next few days will see a huge influx of wealthy Ukrainians from Kiev, and Russians from Moscow, for whom this is their equivalent of our major jazz festival in the UK.....who's name escapes me just now.

Hopefully among them I will find some English speakers. Evidently rich Russians are not held in much regard by your average Ukrainian. Most of the money was made in the mad mad decade after the Wall came down in 89, and most of it is dirty money. I am told to expect Mercs and Lexus' and Chelsea Tractors with blacked out windows, stunning women, ugly men and lots of bling.

I can't wait!