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| Thus, the positive balance, the first ever in the history of independent
Ukraine, was 2 billion. Foreign trade was conducted with 182 countries.
Among Ukraine's exports, products of metallurgic, machine building and food
industries are the most important. Food Ukrainians like best In an all-Ukrainian poll conducted by the Institute of Social and Political Psychology of the Academy of Sciences of Ukraine in December 1999, 3600 respondents gave the following replies to a question: "Which food on the list attached you regard as being a symbol of Ukrainian national cuisine?":
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New expedition to Ukrainian station in the Antarctic The Fifth Ukrainian Antarctic expedition went to the Antarctic in January for a spell of scientific research work and observation at the Academician Vernadsky Ukrainian Antarctic Station. Almost 6 million hryvnyas were allocated for the purposes of the expedition which is made up of 12 polar explorers. They sailed on board the research ship Horyzont with a 14-strong crew. The ship will bring back to Ukraine the members of the previous polar expedition. |
| The polar "summer" is short and a lot has to be done before the severest of winters on the globe returns. The National Space Agency of Ukraine provides constant communication with the Vernadsky station via Ukrainian and US satellites. Data of meteorological and other observations obtained in the Antarctic are processed at scientific centres of Ukraine. Polar exploration and space exploration go hand in hand. Leonid Kadenyuk, the first Ukrainian spaceman to go up into space on board an American shuttle, headed the commission that selected polar explorers for the current expedition. The youngest member of the expedition is Oleksandr Kamenev, 28, a native of Kharkiv, an expert in radioelectronics and in seismology. He was chosen out of 20 applicants for the job (no women yet in Ukrainian polar expeditions). The members of the expedition were put through a series of tests to determine their psychological compatibility. These tests were designed for spacemen who go on long missions to space. The main lines of research to be done at the polar station were set up in accordance with the SCAR (international scientific body regulating research in the Antarctic) requirements. There were established 9 most important fields of activity, among them: hydrochemical and dynamic monitoring of nearby islands (in fact, the Ukrainian polar station is situated on one of such off shore islands, Galindez); study of solar corpuscular and radiation energy distribution on the surface of the earth; monitoring of the seismic situation in the southern hemisphere; ecological impact of the polar station on the adjacent environment; assessment of the potential availability of ores' deposits in the Antarctic under-ice geological formations; birds migrations; fluctuations in the krill population in the coastal waters. The head of the expedition is ecologist Yaroslav Kutsenko, PhD in physics and mathematics. It is his first expedition to the Antarctic but his beard gives him an appearance of an experienced polar explorer. When asked before departure what or who he would miss most in the icy fields of the Antarctic, he said it would the warmth of the presence of his granddaughters in his native town of Uzhgorod. |
 Valid and Omar Harfouch. |
Elite Model Look Contest to
be held in Geneva Two brothers of the Lebanese descent, Omar and Valid Harfouch, well-known businessmen in Ukraine, owners of the popular Super Nova Radio Station in Kyiv, and organizers of Elite Model Look contests held in Ukraine and in four other countries, have signed a new five-year contract for organizing the finals of the world Elite Model Look beauty contest. The Elite company these days faces certain problems but Claudia Schiffer, Naomi Campbell and other supermodels are not in a hurry to change allegiance and terminate their contracts with the Elite Agency in search of better propositions. |
| The brothers Harfouch hope that soon the situation will change for the better. From now on, girls under 16 will not be allowed to take part in the Elite beauty contests (last year, Vika Sementsova, a 14-year old Ukrainian, won the contest). The 17th Elite Model Look contest will be held in Geneva. Says Omar Harfouch, president of the Super Nova Geneva Company: "Geneva is a city of bustling business. It is a circumstance that favours professionalism. I'm confident we'll be able to capture at least 350 million TV viewers all around the world, and we also hope that we'll have a very good press." |
 Fedir Savchenko and his model. |
Second Prize in Smirnoff Fashion Awards Contest |
 Maksym Fedorchuk. |
Maths Champion from Leader school |
| Maksym believes he'll make a successful career in science, he has a clear-cut
goal that he wants to achieve but has no ambition to win the Nobel prize.
His hobby is tennis. He was invited to continue studies at the most prestigious
universities and schools of America and Europe but he decided to go back
to his Leader school. Incidentally, there were 11 students from the
Leader school in the 17-strong Ukrainian maths team. Upon Maksym's return
to Ukraine, the mayor of Kyiv awarded the talented winner a special prize.
At a ceremony marking the 50th anniversary of the Little Academy of Sciences
(an institution for promotion of young talents in science and arts) whose
lectures and seminars are regularly attended by about 6,000 high school
students of Kyiv, it was mentioned that in the past three years not a single
winner of International Maths and Physics Olympiads had left Ukraine to
study abroad in spite of numerous invitations to do so. Young and talented
Ukrainians prefer to make scientific careers in their native country. |
 Volodymyr Soroka. |
Esperanto and international contacts |
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The Esperanto course is combined with classes on ethics of human contacts, economical meals, hitchhiking, computer information, visa support. It is hoped that the Programme, supported by 82 countries, will be helpful in establishing better linguistic and people-to-people contacts. The manager of the Ukrainian part of the project Volodymyr Soroka, a music composer and singer, believes that Esperanto helps people bring about changes in their lives which otherwise they are incapable of achieving, and also awaken the lust for life. Dry-cargo ship Arizona built in Kyiv Krystal makes diamonds Tsycklon rocket carrier |
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The first Gottinghen store in Kyiv An excellent store of the celebrated Gottinghen Company has recently been opened in Hetman Sahaydachny Street in Podil, one of the oldest parts of town. Gottinghen is an Italian company run by the Brognioli family, that specializes in making cooking utensils and metal tableware of extremely high quality. In our pragmatic age we want things to be not only beautiful but also durable, ecologically friendly, convenient in use, efficient. Gottinghen's products possess all these qualities. This company makes both high-quality kitchen and cooking utensils and elegant tableware. The famed Gottinghen Company makes tableware for all those who care for beauty on the table combined with practicalness and superb Italian design. |
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"Wind of Travel" in Kyiv
February 2 through 5, the House of Cinema in Kyiv was the venue of the first International Tourist Film Festival, Viter Mandriv ("Wind of Travel"). The Festival was organized by the Derzhkomturyzm (State Committee for Tourism), Ministry of Culture and Arts, Derzhteleradio, Kyiv City State Administration, National Union of Film Makers of Ukraine, Derzhinfotur Company. |
| Valeriy Tzybukh, head of the organizing committee, said that out of 150 films on tourism, advertisement and culture that had been submitted by Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Egypt, South African Republic, Czech Republic and Argentina, 50 films were chosen for the final round in the contest in eight nominations: Tourist Advertisement; Leader; Ukraine as a Tourist State; Best Tourist Centres of Ukraine; Globetrotters; Children's Tourism; Sacred Places; Revival of Spiritual Culture. The jury was made up of tourist film experts, representatives of tourist bodies and cultural figures. Among them Volodymyr Bystryakov, composer; Anatoliy Borsyuk, TV broadcaster; Mykhaylo Illienko, film director. Doctor Hamdi A. Abdel Hamid, a member of the jury (advisor on tourism at the Embassy of the Arab Republic of Egypt), said he hoped good tourist films about Ukraine would entice his countrymen to visit Ukraine as tourists. Yuriy Nekrasov, head of the jury, after three days of almost non-stop viewing of tourist films, evidently became somewhat disoriented as he was reported saying "Good night" to the audience at 12 o'clock noon. The films did show so many wonders of so many lands that it could make anybody's head spin. Many exciting tourist sites of Ukraine were shown in films, including gorgeous parks, the Carpathian Mountains, historical places and resort towns. The films (mostly videos), presented by the Sector A Tourist Company from Kyiv, were of very high quality but, unfortunately, the texts accompanying them were inferior, and it prevented them from being awarded any prizes. In general, most of the films shown were rather traditional, both as far as their visual effects and texts are concerned. Prizes were awarded to Lyudmyla Lysenko, TV broadcaster; Volodymyr Huba, composer; Larysa Rodnyanska, producer; film Karpatska Kazka ("Carpathian Fairy Tale"), and others. Among foreign films, a prize went to Meet South Africa, a film presented at the festival by D. Von Tonden, South African Ambassador in Ukraine. The Grand Prix (and a voucher for staying for two weeks at Oreanda Hotel in summer) was awarded to Volodymyr Harpenko's film about Chernihiv. Harpenko, a professor at a theatrical art college, said that the tourist industry could almost literally make money out of the air — all you had to do was to provide adequate service and good entertainment. About one fifth of all the films were devoted to Kyiv. Mykhaylo Shparyk, a member of the jury (and head of the Hotel, Tourism and Excursions Department of Kyiv), had this comment to make: "This is the first festival of such kind to be held in any of the countries of the former Soviet Union. I hope it'll be helpful in promoting tourism. Last year the city of Kyiv received two million tourists, 125,000 of them were foreign tourists. In the past four years, 500 million Hryvnyas have been put into the development of tourism and tourist facilities. Kyiv has a number of excellent hotels, among them Prolisok, Dnipro, Lybid and others. A comprehensive guide- and reference book about Kyiv has been recently published but one must admit that the tourist industry is not provided with adequate information and advertisement materials. This film festival, and the next ones to be held in the future, will be helpful in improving information materials and in turning Kyiv into a tourist Mecca." |
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Pop Singers Riding the Dragon Katya Buzhynska, 20, a Ukrainian pop singer, has had her name included into the Big Ukrainian Encyclopaedia and into a reference book published by the Cambridge Geographic Society. She has released a new album, Music That You Love (Rostok-Records; producer Yuriy Kvelenkov) which is made up of 10 songs, all of them about love: love for a man, love of the native land, love of life, love of God. Buzhynska's video was shown on Ukrainian television in the New Year 2000 programme right after the chimes struck twelve midnight. Ani Lorak's song, Dzerkala ("Mirrors"; music by Igor Krutoy, a leading Russian composer), was made into a video by Alexander Igudin, a popular video maker from St Petersburg. |
 Ani Lorak. |
| The expressive video was made at the Akvatoriya bowling club (producer Yuriy Falyosa). Fans also enjoy watching a video about Lorak's life, Ani Lorak Forever, which reveals some facts, hitherto little known, of her biography. Gorgeous pictures of the 21-year-old singer taken by photographer Oleksandr Krytorchuk are published in a big calendar The Year 2000. They present quite a new image of Ani Lorak to her admirers. Our two pop singers have started the Year of the Dragon well. To which heights of success will the Dragon carry them yet? |
 These mushrooms have been brought from Japan and now they are cultivated here. |
"Your Food Should Be Your Medicine, Your Medicine Should Be Your Food." These are the words said twenty five hundred years ago by Hippocrates, the great ancient Greek physician. Ukrainian doctors and medical scientists have worked out new technologies of producing food additives, medicinal and cosmetic preparations made from mushrooms. These additives will help increase immunity, help prevent negative effects of environmental pollution, slow down ageing, stimulate the reproductive function. The researchers have studied the experience and discoveries of Ukrainian folk medicine as well as oriental folk medicine which has used certain species of mushrooms for medicinal purposes for thousands of years. |
| Some of the technologies employed in the production of these additives have been used for the first time ever not only in Ukraine but in the world as well, and some of the preparations are quite unique, they are of the kind not made anywhere else in the world. Vesna Zhyttya ("Spring of Life") preparations, which increase the protective mechanisms of the human body, have already been patented. Pivdenny Viter ("Southern Wind") preparations, good for regenerating the skin, are to be patented soon. Biotek Research and Production Centre in Kyiv has begun making some of the new preparations. One can hope that their price will make them accessible to Ukrainians even with low wages. |
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By H.-H. Pylypenko, Kem Listkov, |
