Month: October 2021

While speaking with someone who grew up in Slovakia I found out that he did a bit of agriculture work when he was young. How the straw is processed is slightly different than in the US. Rather than creating the bales and dumping them out the back on the ground they were dumped into an attached trailer, approximately one every ten seconds.

One person per trailer, stacking the hay higher and higher. Simply walking around the outside of the stack trying not to fall off. It was during this time he did see what might only be a person looking for a Darwin award. One of the guys, Zoltan, had forgotten his “safety” equipment, er, his gloves. He felt he was tough enough to do hay baling without any gloves, this was despite the fact that they received a new set of gloves each day due to the wear and tear on them.

We all knew that Zoltan must have had a good set of genes. This was both due to his tough attitude but also because Zoltan’s father was also there showing off the rest of the family gene pool. He never seemed to be doing anything important. He was always sitting on top of the hay trailer smoking a cigarette.

Zoltan was actually very tough, he did survive the entire day without any gloves, but unsurprisingly he did not show up to work the rest of the week.

After a discussion about corruption in the EU I had a chat with someone from another country that was a bit further away, she was from Uzbekistan. I did hear that indeed there is corruption in Uzbekistan but that is usually at a government level. She had no personal stories about corruption, neither taking or giving anything for better consideration. Yet it seemed a bit funny that despite all of experience growing up there she could not remember a single incident even from friends or friends of friends.

People never give bribes, rather they sometimes give gifts or they sometimes do favors. If somebody brings in a small envelope with cash in it – that’s a bribe, but if they take me out to an expensive restaurant that is a favor. Not only that, at the bank they have rules that you cannot accept any gifts for a value of greater than 50 euros, but below that is fine, the CEO said so. When the clients gave them gifts of perfume or candy we never changed our minds about giving them a loan, also we shared the gifts within the department.

After I finished speaking with my friend I wasn’t sure if bribes didn’t exist or if the people with whom she worked simply didn’t stay bought.

I was speaking with my colleague Zachary about a recent article about corruption in Europe. The statistics said that 12% of people had experienced corruption in the EU, but oddly there was a higher number in Sweden. I thought that this was a but unusual but my colleague suggested that perhaps people had simply reduced some of the numbers because they looked too awful. He said that assuming the correct age, ie excluding children, that perhaps 100% of the people have experienced corruption. Being the inquisitive, nosy, person I asked for an examples.

Rural development
I personally do not know what the attraction to horses is, but I have heard of more than one person whose ideal job was to have a horse farm. It seems that some countries in the EU have a fairly poor track record of using such rural development funds. My colleague was talking with his ex-girlfriend Mary who did have such a dream and she felt it could be possible with such a grant.

Zachary was a bit skeptical, but Mary was saying that she felt she could make a very good presentation. He said that one of the reasons that these funds were not so effectively used was that in addition to the EU rules other “local” rules and conditions were considered by the people who made such decisions.

Mary did not get her grant this doesn’t prove anything like corruption does exist.

Five door bus
One rather superficial example was about public transportation in Bratislava. It seemed that some new buses were needed and so the exact requirements were made available that companies could make an offer.

It is difficult to say if there was any official preference, but it almost seems that the specifications for the public tender were a copy from one of the bus manufacturers spec sheet. One of the requirements was that each bus had five sets of doors, vehicle weight, length and other technical specifications. Some of the other manufacturers cried fowl as there was only a single manufacturer who currently made such a bus.

The tender was canceled as the conditions did not appear to be fair, transparent and non-discriminatory.

http://spectator.sme.sk/articles/view/49268/3/70m_bus_tender_to_be_scrapped.html

Just a gift
I had read articles about how in Greece since the austerity cuts have been implemented there have been cases where medical care in the hospital may actually require a small “gift” to speed service along.

I was actually very surprised to hear that this has been standard operating procedure for quite some time in other European countries as well, in this case it was Slavakia.

My question “did that change things from all day waits to a one hour wait?

Nah, it is still all day. How much do you pay? I don’t know but you should just ask the nurse they will know what kind and how large the gifts should be.

First impressions
When meeting people for the first time it is always a good idea to be on your best behavior. Just as the saying goes, you never have a second chance to make a first impression. Well in Hungary, just like some other hospitals around the EU apparently when you meet with the doctor for the first time it is quite common to bring a small gift. That is what I heard from a male nurse working in a German hospital. This was the first thing he did when going to the hospital in Hungary he met with the doctor with a gift to help ensure that things went smoothly.

It is good to have friends
I have been told that in the not too distant past if you got pulled over for a speeding ticket, you might have a small chat with the officer who pulls you over. At the end of this discussion, perhaps the two of you could come to an arrangement and might involve a small gift and this little problem would just disappear.

It appears that this particular situation is becoming more and more difficult to change. When the policeman catches a speeder, it is saved in such a way that it cannot be deleted – well on-site. The only people who could do that would probably be back in headquarters and it is a much longer chain of people and the cost to “fix” something small like a speeding ticket is it really is not worth the effort compared to just paying the speeding ticket.

A friend of a friend, or victim in this case, got into a car accident with an intoxicated person and of course the police were involved, pictures were taken, notes were taken probably even a sobriety test was taken. Just to be on the safe side the victim also took a few photos with his phone. The accident went to trial and a very odd coincidence occurred, it seemed that the evidence of the accident was somehow lost.

The victims pictures were not lost and even though they were submitted as evidence it seems that the police did interpret them quite differently. With no other real evidence available the judge ruled against the victim who then had to pay the damages and fines.

What? How is this possible? Well, this took place in a fairly small town, it would of course be possible to appeal the decision, but even that result would probably have the same decision. Only if the case were appealed to the state level would it have a fair chance against “outside” influences.

Yet, if the victim would go through this effort, he would end up in a completely fair venue but there would still be no evidence, the process would have taken years and would have cost even more to get to that point.

Fit for human consumption
I was speaking with a colleague about how things were back home. It is pretty common that everyone has one or more complaints about how things are done at home. I was airing a few of mine but my new consultant managed to remind me how everything is relative. Back home for him he had a story about a food safety department. This department was responsible for testing various food crops such as wheat or corn just to mention a few.

I was told there were certain outcomes that would occur in the course of the testing of the food. When some sort of “gratuity” was not offered to the inspector before the tests were performed the odds of your food passing the tests were pretty negligible. Unsurprisingly when a gratuity was offered the food was always fit for consumption. I started to bring up the “B” word but I didn’t even get a chance when he clarified the situation.

It isn’t a bribe, its a gift.

The world is a wacky place and when regimes change, not all of the little rules change at the same time. When I was younger, I wanted to do some travel abroad and for that I needed a passport. I never really thought about what this in depth but this it not only allowing you to leave but in reality it is more permission to let me back into the country in the future.

In Uzbekistan you need the passport to travel within Uzbekistan and before you can leave the country, you need to get special permission in order to leave. This permission is a special form that will last for two years and is put into your passport. This is not directly connected to your passport. If this two year permission is exceeded the passport doesn’t become invalid, nor will this prevent you from entering Uzbekistan. However, when you enter the country with this permission and it expires you cannot leave until you get this permission renewed. Apparently this set of permissions has its roots in the olden days within the Soviet Union.

The good news, or not so good news is that if you are trying to leave Moscow and they see that your permission to leave Uzbekistan has expired they will show enough solidarity with the Uzbek government and will not let you fly to your desired destination but rather they fly back to Uzbekistan.

It is possible to get a more permanent permission to leave, but for that one you will need the permission from both of your parents.

In Germany they have a saying “sport ist mord” or loosely translated sport will kill you. I didn’t think it was true but recently I heard a story that made me change my opinion.

One of the reasons that companies will outsource their manufacturing is because it is cheaper to do it there. Perhaps it is because of the labor laws or perhaps the environmental laws but there is usually one or more compelling reasons to ship your factory elsewhere.

However, the reverse is also true. One of the great fears in some of the more developed countries in Europe was that other laborers from elsewhere in their club would migrate and take away jobs due to their lower costs. Well, companies can do the same thing in reverse, they can hire people from different parts of the world and ship them to where the work is.

It was this exact situation that caused a very nice Ukrainian woman to begin working on our project. The benefit for companies who hire contractors is that once the work is done they all go away. This particular gal loved to go running in the morning, and as she was planning on leaving the project and the region perhaps never to return, so she decided to take a few photographs.

It is understandable, but when you stop jogging in front of a gate to an American base in a foreign country to take photos people tend to get nervous. She didn’t get shot, but the authorities were called and took her in for questioning. Why? She was going jogging and didn’t have any identification with her and she did admit to not being German.

Perhaps it isn’t jogging that is so hazardous to your health as much as taking pictures.

I was more than surprised to hear that in Germany your first three years, grades 1 – 3, are half a day long. As most grownups work a full day they came up with a nice solution which is “the Hort”. The hort is a type of after school daycare where the kids can go to after school. They are not left to their own devices on the street, but rather are in a controlled environment where they can interact with some of their friends from school, do homework and depending on the Hort, crafts and field trips as well.

Wow, this sounds great. It sure sounds like solution to a latchkey kid spending his or her time at home alone and unsupervised. Hort’s are within walking distance of the school and the students who go there usually meet as a group and walk together in pairs or groups. However, as you might imagine resources are limited, so you have to sign up. Which sounds all nice and organized until you realize that you cannot sign up any sooner than six weeks before school starts and because there is no centralized authority you don’t know where there are free places and where not. This usually yield a bunch of parents signing their child up to multiple Hort’s in order to get a free place.

My favorite part of trying to find a Hort spot for my son was finding out what happens to the waiting list. After a reasonably short period of time and without any correspondence to the parents each hort pretty much throws away the list. From what I was able to determine much after the fact was the general consensus was that after a few months all of the students must have a place. So the only way to get a spot would be to continuously call the people at all of the horts daily until you get a place. Not a very nice prospect as there is a line between “following up on” and “badgering”. If I cross that line my child will never get a spot no matter what.

The worst surprise is reserved for those who somehow manage to get through their first year with a creative use of friends and family. Once the first year is over, your child will not be put into any of the Horts until all of the children from current year have found a place – yup if you can’t get a place the first year you are pretty much locked out of the system. Sure some places may show up but oddly enough that is usually at the Horts who have incredibly lackluster reputations.

It was actually a few years later that it became obvious why all of the Horts were full. I had managed to have a child during a bit influx of children which exceeded the amount of children when compared with previous years. This information came home in spades when we had to try and find a high school that was not overfull or one that was an hour away from home.

Well, I have lived in some fairly questionable apartments, most of which were in the USA. However, one of the most memorable situations was when my car was moved to another location from the one I parked it in.

We lived in a fairly ethnic part of town that sported its own Turkish grocery store, Turkish pizza stand and a Turkish bar. We also had a very trendy cocktail bar that was also less than a minute walk away.

This part of town had a lot of people, a lot of cars and virtually no legal parking places. We actually parked in illegal spots most of the time I lived in that apartment.

We actually parked our care quite close to the Turkish bar and as we didn’t use it every day it was actually parked there for a few days. We were planning on moving it next time we went shopping but we never got the chance.

One night we wanted to visit my wife’s parents and so we went to the car only to find it was no longer there. We were starting to panic when we found that it was parked in actually right up on the sidewalk. There was no legal way to move it out of there without moving about 10 other cars.

It seemed obvious to us that some of our neighbors didn’t like our car parked in a very prime spot so they moved it. If it happened to me today I may have taken a different approach, but back then I decided to go into the Turkish bar, I don’t speak Turkish, nor even hardly German and see if I can convince the entire Turkish bar full of men to move their cars.

I do have to give them credit, they did come up with a very creative reason how my car ended up in its new parking spot. They suggested that the wild people from the cocktail bar must have moved our car to this location. I tried to explain that we lived in this building and we needed to get our car but it was parked in. I had to stress this point as nobody who lived in this neighborhood liked that cocktail bar.

The guys, were not willing to admit who had moved our car there, nor where they willing to move their cars. But after they had their own quick conference one of them did assist us, he simply got into my car and drove it down the sidewalk (illegally) for perhaps 50 yards and out into the street.

We did learn a lesson from all this. The first was that you should not park that close to the Turkish bar, and the second was although using a parking break is a good idea, always leave your car in gear.