Much of that life has been spent in Georgia, Florida and the Caribbean, with a 17-year period just prior to coming to Ukraine working in Washington, D.C. and living in the Virginia suburbs. After working my way mentally through some of those places of work and residence - and the considerable North-South (Canada to South America) travel associated thereto - I suddenly came to the realization that I have now lived longer in the same flat in the same city -- Kyiv -- than any place else in my life.
I was never deliberately a rolling stone, but as a journalist - later editor - fairly frequent change goes with the territory. I came to Ukraine not with the idea of staying, but merely to do a one-month consulting job. Incidentally, my consulting partner on that first trip died several years ago at 45, and the person who recruited me for the job, so I was informed this week, died several months ago at age 58. As for me, I feel as healthy today at 70 as I did at 40 or 45 and have no intention of retiring anytime soon.
There is one consistent fact related to my most recent years in Kyiv and that is that I am almost always the oldest member of staff in any organization with which I am associated. Here in the Willard organization, I trump the oldest Willard by seven years and the younger by eight. All other members of staff are under 60 with a substantial number in their 20's.
One of the things in which I take considerable pride is that in the United States - mostly Georgia and Florida - and now Ukraine, there are a considerable number of younger journalists that I consider protegees. Most had completed "j-school" - that is they had completed at least a bachelor's degree in journalism at university - and I was in many cases the supervisor responsible for bringing their university training into contact with the reality of daily deadline reporting.
And that, to some extent, explains why I keep doing what I've been doing in one form or another for most of 55 years. There are several reporters here in Kyiv that I flatter myself that I have had some positive impact on, and a couple with whom I am currently working.
How long will I keep this up? That's a question no one answer, least of all me. For now, I keep on keeping on, because even at my age I have one son just entering university. However, perhaps the most important factor is that I cannot imagine anything on earth more boring than just sitting around doing nothing. So, if I'm going to be busy, why not be busy at what I truly enjoy most - and that remains - 55 years after the first experiences - writing and editing.
I learn new things, I meet new people and I look forward to every day. I guess my real goal is to be as lively and lucid as my mother is today - at 95. I'm not sure I'll make it, but I'm sure going to try.
Earlier I wrote in praise of the appointment of Arseny Yatsenyuk, the young man who quite unexpectedly became Ukraine's youngest foreign minister, following a number of predecessors in their 50's, 60's and even 70's. Yatsenyuk is, as he should be, respected for his great education and high intelligence. But, it was probably inevitable that he develop a nickname reflecting his relative youth. A friend serving in one of Ukraine's high profile foreign embassies tells me that Yatsenyuk is referred to in private conversations as the "Kinder Surprise".
In writing and editing articles for the Observer, sometimes you are forced to make hard decisions about leaving out interesting parts of a story because of a lack of space. Such was the case in the current cover story on tourism.
One of the most rapidly developing sectors worldwide is that of gay tourism. For example, it so important that, in spite of opposition from religious parties, Israel's minister of tourism has sponsored with state money a site entitled: Gay Israel [http://glbt.org.il/new-b/tourism.php].
In response to our request, Svyatoslav Sheremet, head of the Ukrainian Social Organization "Gay-Forum Ukraine" submitted a prepared statement about the history of gay tourism in Ukraine that reads, in part: "There is a settlement called Semeis on the south cost of the Crimea. For more than two decades it has been constantly popular as a gay resort where people from all countries of the former Soviet Union arrived. It started flourishing even in the years of domination of communist ideology. Semeis, which is located near Yalta, is an attraction in the summer period for homosexuals both from all regions of Ukraine and from the nearest foreign countries, first of all Russia and Belarus. This summer in Kastropol, near Semeis, a special summer gay and lesbian camp is being organized. To some extent Semeis resembles as to its climate and landscape a well-known gay resort Sieges in Spain near Barcelona."
We have considerably more information on this subject that we were forced, because of a lack of space, to leave out of our current cover story. The whole subject may come up again later in Ukrainian Observer Online.
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