GLOBAL INVESTMENT REVIEW International informational and analytical magazine Bi-monthly magazine Magazine is published since December 2015 № 3-4 (2-3) October-December 2016 Chief Editor – Alex Yar Editor in chief – Vitali Pischenko Executive secretary – Kanstantsin Strausau Commissioning editor – Aleksandra Sakoulevitch Design and layout – Kanstantsin Strausau Publisher and Founder – Alkor LLC 105318, Moscow city, Ibrahimova str. 35-2-14 Ph.: 985-269-82-10 with participation of AY Publishing house http://aypublishinghouse.com/ E-mail: mail@aypublishinghouse.com Head of department of advertising and distribution: Olga Massoner, ph.: +1-918-814-1837, olga@gir-magazine.com Printed in USA Signed to print 22.12.2016 Art paper, size 60х90 1/8 Basic font typeface DIN Pro. Offset printing. 114 pages. Photos in the magazine: copyrights, shutterstock.com Photos of license Editorial (stated about the photo according to the agreement). The opinion of the author may be different from the view of the editorial board. Manuscripts will not be reviewed and returned. Advertisers are in charge of promotional materials. Editors reserve the right refuse advertising without explanation. Any part of this materials can not be copied or reproduced without the written permission of editors. The editorial board is looking to cooperate with professional journalists writing on economic themes, as well as those wishing to try their hand as authors. Manuscripts will not be reviewed and returned. © GLOBAL INVESTMENT REVIEW, 2016 © «AY Publishing House», 2016
TOC SURVIVING IN THE GLOBAL ECONOMIC SETTINGS
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PACIFIC FREE TRADE ZONE AND U.S. ECONOMIC PROSPECTS
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HOW WARREN BUFFETT MAKES MONEY FROM CRISIS INVESTMENT IN ISRAELI REAL ESTATE
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BEN BERNANKE: WHY THE U.S. ECONOMY NEEDS WAR ELECTRIC POWER
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WHAT SHALL WE DO TO AVOID STAYING IN DARKNESS: POWER INDUSTRY IN SIMPLE WORDS SHALE EXPANSION
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THE ROSS GROUP CONSTRUCTION CORPORATION THE MAN WHO HAS FOUND HIS PLACE IN LIFE
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54 MOVING THE WORLD. INTERVIEW WITH IEVGEN SYDORUK 58 FACEBOOK LIVE FOR BUSINESS. HOW TO WIN SALES 62 A WITNESS IN THE THICK OF THINGS 66 KEYS TO PROMOTION OF ARCHEOLOGICAL KNOWLEDGE
RUSSIAN ACTOR VADIM DAVYDOV ON CLASSIC AND MODERN THEATRE ART ON WHEELS
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ON “FAST” PAINTINGS, WOMEN’S LIFE AND HAPPINESS LIVE IN JAZZ STYLE
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MIKAEL AYRAPETYAN: «LET US LIVE, CREATE AND BE THE DEVOTEES AND ADVOCATES OF OUR HOMELAND, OUR CULTURE AND OUR ARTS» INTERACTIVE BOOKS — ARE A NEW FORMAT
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NEED FOR CHILD LIFE SERVICES RISES INTERNATIONALLY CAN YOUR FOOD PRICES GO DOWN? NEW PREDICTIVE TECH REDUCES MAINTENANCE DELAYS 25% SOMETHING ABOUT POLYMERS
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OCTOBER–DECEMDER 2016
Surviving in the Global Economic Settings Nickolai Dorofeiev
[global economy] [expert opinion] [geopolitics] [crisis] [background] [research and analysis] [projections] [the future] [partners]
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oday Russia is obviously facing the wide range of global challenges, both in economy and politics. Another clear fact which aggravates the established situation as many domestic experts believe is that our country is itself an integral part of the global system. We have heard these opinions many times. However the general view would be incomplete without the opinions from abroad. Such as, for example, those expressed by Prof. Jeffrey Sommers in his lecture “Political Economy of Geo-Economical Forces Determining the Current World Order: a New Vision of the Russian Economic Development and More Sustainable World Order” delivered
as part of the Russian Lectures international program of the Social Projection Institute. His view of the issue is particularly relevant as he discusses the availability of natural resources, including energy, as one of the key development drivers both of national economies and the political economy in global scale. For Russia with its continuing over-reliance on oil, these issues are of vital importance.
THE WORTH OF GLOBAL ECONOMY
The global economic crisis has been lasting for almost forty years already. The recent years saw a clear sharp decline both in oil and gas prices. This decline is advantageous
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for the United States of America, save for large energy producers that are based in the States, and quite negative for other countries such as Russia. We can observe which trends are shown by exchange rates depending on the drop of oil process. It is obviously a serious issue for Russia. It should be remembered that any significant change in prices generally or the price configuration of the global energy markets only often leads to the rearrangement of the global economy in its entirety. Price changes represent a kind of signaling events which may be followed by the transformation of the economic system in general. In 1918, the world has faced an energy crisis. At that time, the energy was mainly generated from wood and coal, and the most developed world areas in economic terms were the North-Eastern Europe and China. These regions have taken the lead in economic development as early as in the late XVIII century. The United Kingdom, for instance, owed its positions to the fact that coal, its key source of energy, was deposited close to cities. The wet climate raised an urgent issue: the coal mines were often flooded. To solve it, a steam engine was invented to pump out the water. Subsequently, the transformation of British economy based on this solution extended to the entire North-Western Europe. In China, coal deposits were remote from cities, and mines were not flooded. In this area, the methane explosions constituted the key issue which remains unsolved even now. As a result of changes in the energy sector, there emerged a large gap between the economic development of China and that of the North-Western Europe which changed the entire situation for long. Further significant changes in the global history were connected with
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fluctuations of grain prices. Grain is another key factor with the potential of reconfiguring the world economic system. During the 1920-ies and the 1930-ies, the grain prices slumped. This slump influenced the development plans of the Soviet Union as regards industrialization. Through the grain supplies, the Soviet leaders were expecting to obtain funds for the purchase of required equipment. But due to the price slump the Soviet Union faced its widely known crisis in the 1930-ies. The industrialization was completed of course, though, but for the decline in grain prices, it would have been accomplished much smoother, probably more successfully and less sensitively for the Soviet people. Back to the energy issues, in the 1970-ies the severe crisis has broken out in the United States of America, mainly because of the oil price change. They increased slightly lower than by 1000 %. It was a strong hurt both for American and European economy. During the 1980-ies, the United States of America and Saudi Arabia have artificially created the oil crisis to affect the Soviet Union, and succeeded in this effort. The collapse of the Soviet Union was followed by a great economic boom in the United Kingdom, the USA, while Russia, accordingly, lost its capital. The exported money were settled in the pockets of owners of the former state assets and then sent to the United Kingdom and the USA
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through the offshore banking systems of Cyprus, Latvia etc. That money has contributed to the economic growth in the USA and the United Kingdom, and caused the stock market boom. In practical terms, it was the transfer of tangible values - and the resulting loss of the investment capital by Russia.
OIL AS A CORE WEAKNESS
In one respect, the discovery of large oil deposits supports the economic growth. However in other respect, the overreliance on oil money has already become an Achilles heel for the Russian economy. We may see the extent of Russia’s dependence on oil revenues as compared, for instance, to the USA. In Russia, the state hydrocarbon revenues amount to approximately 50 %, while for the USA the same index is almost equal to zero. In the USA, this misbalance is set off by consumer purchasing power and recovery of production capacities. Also, it should be remembered that oil production in the USA remains relatively cheap, even
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including the shale oil, the production of which, if taken alone, is not cheap at all. The Baken deposit as one of the main shale oil production drivers in the States generates profit at $42 per barrel. However the continuing improvement of drilling and production processes pulls this price down. This boom in production of oil may negatively affect Russia in two possible ways. First, it may cause reduction in the state revenues. Second, Russia is striving to become a world leader in export of grains, but the grain prices will sooner or later go down driven by the negative dynamics of oil and gas prices. Also, the higher production of oil and gas in the USA will cause the government to diversify the use of lands where the biofuel is produced to involve them into agricultural operations. This change will accordingly boost the reduction of prices at global food markets. There is some hope
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however that this trend will be slowed down by efforts of the US powerful agricultural lobby which possesses significant tools of political influence. However it will hardly manage to change the situation radically. There will be of course the attempts to obtain grants for the production of bio fuel, but at some stage the market self-regulating power will cause the government to redirect these lands towards agricultural uses.
GLOBAL ECONOMY AND GEOPOLITICS
The saying of Carl von Clauzewitz “the war is the continuation of politics by different means” is as relevant today as ever. It can be said that the modern war is made through the control over oil prices. It is quite probable that oil pricing and output terms are negotiated between the USA and Saudi. Both of them have been considering the reduction of prices since 2011. Both countries
maintain the geopolitics intended to change the situation in Syria, and the overthrow of Bashar Asad is now also in their wish-list. Russia takes efforts to overcome this geopolitical situation, like in Ukraine, by the regulation of oil prices. Another important point that should be emphasized is the fluctuation of prices for natural gas. Their variance is advantageous for the USA, especially where the natural gas from new shale deposits is used. On the contrary, prices in other countries have started growing after 2010, thus providing an enormous privilege for the USA in terms of gas costs and its economic benefits. In some cases, gas is cheaper in the States by one third than in certain European countries. It implies that consumer costs of electricity are also one third lower than somewhere in Europe. As a sequence, the United States of America started drawing the direct foreign investments for their production sector. Many West-European producers are launching their facilities in the U.S. What about Russia? We also have a good chance to respond in favorable manner. I have no doubt that Russia uses its best efforts to start benefiting from low cost of electric power which seems to be almost the same as in the U.S. From the economic prospective, the industrial development and attraction of foreign investments provide conditions for successful operation in the settings of the current economic crisis. No profit will be generated in a short run of course, but it can be reasonably expected over a medium and long run. The Russian pricing policy is quite favorable for the growth of production, especially in automotive sector. On condition of its being applied expediently, the Russian Federation will certainly benefit from it.
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In addition, the common interest for the States and Russia is to maintain low prices for natural gas in the USA. Exactly in the USA, because Russia will be able then to direct its efforts against the expansion of hydraulic fracturing process in the gas production sector. Russia has a potential to influence the mass media and shape the public opinion. This position strongly requires support of industrialists and the nationalistminded groups within the USA in order to prevent the raise in domestic gas natural prices and exports. The large energy producers are certainly interested in construction of LNG terminals for export purposes but it would not be beneficial for the countries at least because the provision of the port infrastructure will take too many years. If the US industrial community manages to freeze the current situation, they will be able to enjoy the favorable gas prices. The Russia’s advantage in this case will be that the cheap American gas will not reach the European markets and there will be no competition prejudicing the traditional Russian areas of interest. The same consideration applies to Japan and China. Russia may initiate the dialogue with American industrial community to convince them that their gas should remain inside the country instead of being liquefied and exported. This position would contribute to the development of American economy on the one side, but allow Russia to maintain relatively high gas prices and enhance its share in European and other gas markets on the opposite side. The key force which would obstruct this plan is the so-called foreign policy “hawks” who desire to use the energy sources to weaken the Russia’s positions and anchor the USA strongly
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in the international energy markets. But today’s American society is rather interested in reduction of tensions and more relaxed relationship with Russia. U.S. people want cheaper energy and more jobs. This situation plays into the hands of Russia. The drop in oil prices may boost the global economic development. The markets will see a growing demand both for renewable energy sources and fossil fuels. The metal prices may start
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experienced the tremendous changes due to which the capital was transferred from manufacture and accordingly research and development to the finance sector. The famous Ford’s economic model which, in its days, helped to develop very efficient methods and practices of large-scale industrial production based on a single company and had a prominent importance as an R&D funding paradigm was substituted by
Russia should learn to invest money in domestic economy and, what is of key importance, in research and development projects (R&D). growing accordingly in the long run, as the recovering world economy will be actuated by cheaper energy. In the meanwhile, however, we may observe the reduction in prices for energy sources and commercial metals which is disadvantageous for Russia as one of the world’s leading metal exporters. This situation will change as soon as the global economy steps out on the growth trajectory.
THE RUSSIAN FUTURE
Considering Russia’s strengths and weaknesses, if it fails to raise more foreign capital or retain its own, or attract the best brains, its future wouldn’t look very good. Russia should learn to invest money in domestic economy and, what is of key importance, in research and development projects (R&D). R&D and related innovations should be considered as the potential areas of economic growth. Since the crisis of the 1970-ies, the global economy has
completely different approach. It offered an innovative organization of business and manufacture. Major corporations started disposing of their non-core assets and trying to concentrate on their key operations through outsourcing of majority businesses, focusing more on profitable financial transactions only, with low concern about what could be produced as a result of research and development, just because there was no room in that new model for R&D. The said new model which is known as an “open distribution model” has produced new distributorship products instead, like Walmart. What we now observe is the Walmart-ization of the economy, with changing relationship between distributors and manufacturers. A distributor becomes so powerful that it may impose prices and all other terms on manufacturers. Thus the need in R&D as a key source of innovation for the development of new products is eliminated.
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The deviation from the path of innovations and R&D generates a risk of their total destruction. For the time being, they are not totally destructed but moved to the areas of more favorable environment. Within the framework of the post-Ford model, American corporations transfer the R&D and innovation activities to public and state universities which become a kind of their last bastion. At the same time, by transfer of R&D under control of the government, these corporations obtain the reduction in their taxable base. The situation is essentially controversial: it is impossible to provide support to R&D when the government cuts the funding of universities which create innovative products, because the general development vector is now changing. As a result, the support available to universities becomes progressively smaller. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the funding of R&D projects has virtually stopped. This is a global trend, with local differences however. The largest GDP portions are allocated to research and
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development projects in the USA, Finland, Japan, and Sweden. Many countries use the money intended to support R&D in applied and not fundamental studies. As a result, they do not prepare the necessary basis for investments. In fact, many companies only declare that they are engaged in researches but use them as a loophole to avoid taxes or have some tax credits and other privileges. As for Russia, it is almost in the bottom of this rating with just about 1 % GDP spent in R&D projects. Such a low level of R&D expenditure will hardly allow the country to survive in the modern global economy. The choice of the most effective ways to fund this sector is a big issue closely related to a variety of tax escape practices. On the side of the USA, we can see that between the 1940-ies and late 1960-ies that country maintained the highest upper threshold of taxation and simultaneously the highest level
of economic growth and well-being. That is not to say that there is a strong causal relationship but some kind of connection is obvious. The highest limit of taxation reached about 90% during that period: thus, it was a threshold for an income above USD 3.6 million. Ninety percent of such income should be returned to feed the economy. This policy allowed, first of all, generating funds for the infrastructure investments, and, second, employing money in R&D sector. It was actually based on a simple logic: nobody will want to give money for nothing, any businessman would prefer his 90 % to be used in the development of his own enterprise, innovations and R&D projects. Therefore, even escaping taxes, they were still creating the value.
WHAT SHOULD BE DONE THEN?
The solution invented in the 1970-ies to overcome the crisis was to increase the investment capital by reduction of tax rates. The released money was intended to fund R&D sector, but in reality it was used in anything else but research and development. There are all grounds to believe that the economic ideas of the 1930-ies would fit the current crisis settings. We have more than sufficient resources at hand but do not use them appropriately.
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During the 1930-ies, many economists and governments, regardless of their ideological attitudes, whether in the USA, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union or Germany, believed that the economic thinking needs to be changed. The methods they were employing have overturned the conventional views of economy. Here are some possible solutions for the future. It is necessary to develop and adopt the international agreements for the control of offshore banking systems. Further, a land tax must be introduced. Landowners should be encouraged either to use lands or pay tax on them at considerable rates. Property should not remain unemployed, it must generate income for the state. By the way, if such taxes are introduced, the prices for property will drop and this money will be released from financial sector. Where will they be used then? In the production sector. I am absolutely sure that this measure will be very easily implemented and render a significant positive effect on the
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economy. But its implementation requires first of all a political decision. The public sector must be changed and transformed into the source of new technology development. Other measures should include the increase of wages, and also increase of taxes on capital and property so that they were not “standing idle” but could work for the state and economic development. As a last method, I would propose to deploy the dual currency system allowing the development of local industries. It would be relevant to recall the principles of economic recovery that appeared in Germany during the 1930-ies. Unemployment causes poverty, jobs produce the material wealth. Capital does not create jobs, but jobs do create capital. These all are simple statements, but interesting. Material is provided by our partner, the Russian magazine Rossiyskaya Federatsiya Segodnya (Russian Federation Today)
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Pacific free trade zone and U.S. economic prospects Adam Novotny
[global economy] [economic situation] [international cooperation] [trade] [analysis and research] [expert opinion] [projections] [geopolitics]
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prototype of the Pacific free trade zone emerged in the 1970s. Back then, the Philippines, South Korea, Japan and some other Southeast Asian nations were actively expanding cooperation and strengthening their relations with the United States. Those countries demonstrated tangible economic progress in the period of regional stability thanks to the military and economic support of the United States.
PACIFIC ZONE MEANS SECURITY AND ECONOMIC GROWTH
Security threats have been somewhat alleviated, and a shift from military-political
support to the bolstering of economic interests with a course towards U.S.style democracy has been on the move. The presence of U.S. weapons in the region has reduced by approximately 10% since the Cold War epoch. Of course, strategic defenses are intact as Washington retains the possibility of rapid and professional protection of its interests in the region whenever that is necessary. The present-day security strategy of the United States is closely linked to the situation in the Asia Pacific region where even a minor modification has substantial consequences. The presence of the United States effectively balances
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relations between big regional actors – India, Japan and China. The main task of America for now is to avoid intense rivalry evolving into a confrontation. The United States, India and Japan have signed security agreements for that purpose. Washington remains concerned about the development of atomic energy technologies and the nuclear program of China. A focal point of America is the security of shipping lanes in the region. Disruptions in the supply of key resources caused by restrictions or blocking of maritime trade are totally unacceptable to the United States. It meets the U.S. interests to encourage a growth of the deterrence potential of Singapore, South Korea and Japan. These states should independently resolve local defense tasks being supported by America in certain areas.
NEW DEVELOPMENT COURSE FOR PACIFIC REGION
The new U.S. strategy for the Pacific region has three keynote objectives: Economic integration of developed states in accordance with free trade principles and laws. Promotion of Western democracy fundamentals without doing harm to common values. Enhancement of the military potential keeping the threats and concerns characteristic of the region in mind. In turn, the new strategy is based on four principles spelled out by Dick Cheney: The United States continues to strengthen its positions in the Asia Pacific region. Every bilateral security agreement is extended. Efficiency and concentration of the military contingent in potentially dangerous zones grow amid the contingent’s reduction.
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The defense cooperation format changes to mutual complementarity of member countries. These principles make it clear that the United States is minimizing costs and carrying on the policy of balance avoiding confrontation, rivalry and arms race between leading countries of the region. Reducing costs of the military contingent stationed in a relatively stable part of the planet is also dictated by the U.S. active involvement in Middle East conflicts. The policy has yielded a focus on economic matters alongside promoting the idea of the need for independent strengthening of the defense potential by Singapore, South Korea and Japan.
BRIEF PROJECT HISTORY
Barack Obama announced the establishment of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) already in 2009. Back then, the United States launched active negotiations with prospective partnership members. South Korea and China expressed their wish to join the project in 2013. President Obama said during his Asian tour in 2012 that the United States was about to pivot its economy towards Asia because of the rapidly growing role of the region on the global economic scene.
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Exports between the United States and Asian countries stood at $698 billion in 2013, which the U.S. Department of Commerce estimated at 44% of the nation’s total exports. Trade with Asia and Oceania is growing rapidly year after year.
PACIFIC FREE TRADE ZONE TO HAPPEN
An agreement on the new association has been signed by the United States, Singapore, Vietnam, Australia, Mexico, Canada, Japan, Brunei, Peru, New Zealand, Malaysia and Chile. The involvement of South Korea in the project remains uncertain but the country is eager to join in. The aforesaid states produce about 40% of the global GDP. The project is tasked to standardize environmental norms and wages and to minimize or partially liquidate existent trade barriers. In addition to the general positive economic effect from the project, certain groups of producers will have a chance to make a real breakthrough. Companies manufacturing computers and microchips are one of those. Once the agreement is ratified, the data exchange will become a free flow, which will make unnecessary the creation of major server centers in various countries. For such companies as Google this will
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mean a significant reduction of costs and workforce. The project has opponents that claim the free trade zone will trigger a swift outflow of labor force from the U.S. labor market. Yet the global strategic purpose – the need to maintain a certain level of competition with China, which is of primary importance in the Asia Pacific region – nullifies minor flaws. Barack Obama commented on the important event in the country’s life after the agreement was signed and said that America could not afford to let China prescribe the rules of the game on the global economic arena at the time when 95% of potential buyers of U.S. goods lived abroad.
RUSSIA’S REACTION
Russian President Vladimir Putin has strongly criticized the TPP project and dubbed that association as another attempt of Washington to build a new model of economic cooperation customized to
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individual needs. The Russian chief of state thinks the new format of trade and economic relations has no future without the involvement of China and Russia. At the same time, Vladimir Putin positively assessed the alternative project of the Asia Pacific free trade zone promoted by China. Leading Russian scientists differ over this subject. Prof. Yury Tavrovsky from the People’s Friendship University
supports the opinion of the Russian president and thinks that the TPP project has a confrontational nature. In turn, Mikhail Karpov, Associate Professor of the National Research University Higher School of Economics’ East Development Faculty, maintains the opposite viewpoint, thinks that the Russian official position is subjective and denies the confrontational nature of the TPP project. Panayotov S hutterstock .com
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How Warren Buffett makes money from crisis Marina Stankevich
[investments] [personality] [topical] [expert opinion] [success story] [economic situation] [projections] [strategies] [prospect]
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arren Buffett is a very kind and selfless person. He still lives in a modest house in his home state where he lived before he became rich and famous. The financial guru donates millions or even billions of dollars he earns for various charities. As soon as another crisis emerges in the financial world, Mr. Buffett goes ‘hunting’ to make ‘a little money’ for his charity or to buy a stake in a company of his interest. The guru’s strategy is directly opposite to the advice leading analysts and experts give. The ‘oracle
from Omaha’ buys when everyone else sells and sells when 99 % of market actors are positive it is buy time. Mr. Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway made as much as $ 10 billion from the 2008 crisis alone. The shrewd financier will definitely use the ongoing fluctuations of crude quotes and the dollar to his advantage.
HOW DOES THE WORLD-FAMED INVESTOR ACT?
One of the richest persons of the world has loads of money in his pocket, and he plays big during financial shocks.
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Kent Sievers / Shutterstock.com
As a rule, blue chips are rescued at their most unfortunate moments. Charity is not on the table under such circumstances, and the future success is forged by the billionaire’s business acumen and vision. Decades-tested investment in commodities which are always in steady demand pays off very quickly. Catch phrases sporadically uttered by the guru show best his approach to monetary transactions, investments and the work done on financial markets. The idea is to be careful when most market actors are too busy buying assets and to be active when most traders tend to be reserved. Mr. Buffett sincerely believes that any investor can make several millions or even a billion buying stock on a panicking market. Everything happened precisely that way in fall 2008. Shares of most companies fell to a record minimum and all one had to do was to invest and to wait for the market to go up again, which was guaranteed within a certain period of time. There is just one snag. Everything looks so simple and even primitive when Warren Buffett speaks about investment. But far from all can make billions of dollars on financial markets.
‘MR. SAGACITY’
Many, among them the U. S. Department of Treasury, are copying the guru’s strategy with a firm belief in success. Investments made in shares of distressed companies on behalf of the American government in the times of crisis amount to hundreds of billions of dollars. Return on these investments is rather big, 12 % on the average, but this ratio is still thrice smaller than the return on Buffett’s deals. How does ‘Mr. Sagacity’ spend his money? Being a modest man who does not need much, Mr. Buffett prefers to
invest the money he makes in stakes of his interest. A reason is that the guru prefers his money in the form of shares and has been sticking to this principle throughout his life. Berkshire never stops eyeing the expediency of buying a stake in certain companies. The entity’s investment portfolio has long exceeded $ 100 billion. Although he has practically no rivals, Mr. Buffett notes a decrease in opportunities on the big investment market. Quotations often grow very rapidly, and deals worth of several dozens of billions of dollars have become extremely rare in recent years.
WARREN BUFFETT BRINGS LUCK!
The legendary trader, investor and financial analyst not only invests in companies saving them from a crisis but also makes surprisingly precise forecasts about their future business. Generally, the billionaire’s predictions are positive because his company, Berkshire Hathaway, practically never
BEST TIME TO INVEST IN RUSSIA
Other major investors, Jim Rogers and George Soros, own Quantum Foundation, which is no less influential than Buffett’s company. The entity sticks to the aforesaid strategy as well. For instance, Quantum launched extensive investment in the economy of Asian nations going through a protracted financial crisis in the second half of the
Mr. Buffett sincerely believes that any investor can make several millions or even a billion buying stock on a panicking market. makes mistakes and does not trust low-reliability enterprises with its money. The same thing happens to shares of the companies in which Buffett invests — their quotations begin to grow some time after they become property of the celebrated billionaire. Some enterprises which post gains after being ‘rescued’ offer Mr. Buffett to buy out their stock at a better price, and the guru accepts their offers often and gladly. Such deals bring good dividends as well.
1990s. Back then Mr. Rogers moved to Singapore and even brought his family together with him because he deemed that place to be more interesting for living and investment than the United States. Mr. Rogers has been saying recently (and Mr. Buffett may agree with him) that it is time to invest in Russia. The country is a total wreck. The involvement in several military conflicts, the plunging oil prices and the sanctions hindering economic growth and development are what experienced investors call ‘a
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perfect economic storm’. It is perfect because it is pointless to wait for a
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better time for investing in the economy of the Russian Federation: this moment is here and now. Moscow has turned into ‘an ugly d u c k l i n g’ hated by ever yone but this is what makes it attractive for big investment in the eyes of such financial market gurus as Buffett, Soros and Rogers. No one believes in Russia’s economic growth now, and the prices of public
and private assets have fallen to their minimum. Now, do you believe that the Russian economy will remain in stagnation for the next 20, 30 or 50 years? Successful billionaires and investors do not believe this either. Obviously, these negative factors will be gone sooner than we can imagine. The rapid economic growth stage will begin pretty soon, and capitals of interested businessmen will come to Russia within the next few years. Other, less experienced and undecided investors should take a closer look at the investment options Russia has to offer if they want to reap the real benefits of the progressive investment strategy a few years from now. Material is provided by our partner, the Russian magazine Rossiyskaya Federatsiya Segodnya (Russian Federation Today)
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OCTOBER–DECEMDER 2016
Investment in Israeli real estate Oleg Lansky
[investments] [economic situation] [analysis and research] [expert opinion] [numbers and percentages] [partners]
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hat comes to mind at the mention of the state of Israel? Ancient culture, the Bible, Jerusalem… Yet the last quarter-century has added another feature to its image, Israel as a country of innovations. Israel is an ideal place for companies operating in the field of high technologies. It has the world’s largest percentage of college-trained residents, great universities and developed infrastructures. Repatriates have enriched Israel with cultures of various countries, knowledge of languages and their connections. For instance, one million people who came from the former Soviet Union preserved
the Russian language and their connections to friends and fa mi lies. Israel has become a world center of high technologies, including those in healthcare. Nearly every leading high-tech company has opened a research center in the country. Banks and financial institutions from all over the world have their settlement centers in Israel. Numerous transnational corporations have established their offices there. Dozens of high-rise office buildings have been erected to meet the demand for office space. The Israeli population has grown from 5 million to 8.5 million people within the past 25 years. And everyone needs a residence!
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O leksandr Lysenko / S hutterstock .com
The innovative climate, professional workforce and ongoing immigration make Israel an ideal place for investment in real estate. Besides, rapid technological development of the Israeli economy and growing incomes directly influence real estate prices. Tel Aviv, the technological and financial center of the country, is the leader in this segment. Strangely enough, even wars and the complicated situation in the region matter little for real estate prices in the center of Israel. One may even say that the real estate market is the most stable sector of the national economy. Israel welcomes investors from the entire world, and Israeli banks gladly lend money to foreigners wishing to buy real estate. We recommend that you buy real estate in the Tel Aviv area, where prices are growing most. A decline in prices is insignificant even during periods of recession unavoidable nowadays.
HOW TO BUY REAL ESTATE IN ISRAEL FOR INVESTMENT PURPOSES?
Any person who is not an Israeli citizen can buy real estate with 50% funding.
WHERE TO BEGIN WHEN BUYING REAL ESTATE IN ISRAEL?
The best way is to ask professionals like our company, Investment House Home Capital. We will help you choose real estate which will be the best for you. We have been investing in real estate for 30 years and we are perfectly aware of what other investors may need. We will design a personal strategy for you and will offer investment options in accordance with your aspirations and capacities. Please, get in touch with us in advance so that we can start choosing profitable options of investment in Israeli real estate for you. We meet our investors at the airport, provide them with accommodation and render full support during their stay in Israel. Our phones: +072543329543. Email: guza37@gmail.com.ď Ž
We offer projects with annual 10% profitability and monthly dividends for your consideration. The investment period is from one to three years. The minimal investment is $100,000.
A nice apartment in Tel Aviv costs from $250,000 to $1,200,000. The cost of these apartments grows 8% a year on the average. The rental income amounts to annual 3%-4% if you wish to lease the apartment in your absence.
Inna Felker / S hutterstock .com
HOW TO BUY AN APARTMENT FOR RESIDENCE PURPOSES?
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GLOBAL INVESTMENT REVIEW
OCTOBER–DECEMDER 2016
Ben Bernanke: Why the U.S. economy needs war Alexey Fedorovich
[economic situation] [global economy] [geopolitics] [crisis] [expert opinion] [prospect]
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ike any other living financial organism, the U.S. economy is responding to crises. No.1 task is to find a quick and most efficient way out. According to former U.S. Federal Reserve System (FRS) Chair Mr. Ben Bernanke, Washington developed that kind of strategy a long time ago and has been successfully using it over recent decades. The main theses of that hypothesis were presented in his Brooklyn speech.
The former FRS chair called attention of the audience to the role of the defense sector in the U.S. economy. The defense sector’s development should not be seen as a top priority but still as a way of combating recession it has proven to be a most efficient method of dealing with financial problems. WWII is an obvious proof of this viewpoint. The U.S. economy practically got back on its feet and recovered from protracted depression in the early 1940s thanks to defense contracts. The positive effect was felt long after the hostilities had ended. In 2010, the United States chose to reduce its military expenses, which, in the opinion of Bernanke, had a direct negative impact on GDP growth. Defense budgets of recent years are incomparable to the sums spent on the defense sector in the 1940s and the 1960s but even a slight alternation of their volume influences the current
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economic conditions, mostly in a negative way. Mr. Bernanke sees military techno logies which are eventually applied more broadly in other economic sectors as the key positive effect of the defense sector’s development on the national eco nomy. This is the starting point of U.S. economic development, primarily in the long-term future. Wars enable the United States to retain its technological leadership, strength and independence as features characteristic of a totally self-sufficient state. Ben Bernanke has made a rather daring statement: only a ‘good’ war can help the U.S. economy overcome negative implications of the ongoing economic crisis. What is the meaning of his words? What gives him the right to draw categorical conclusions and how precise are his forecasts? To say that Mr. Bernanke enjoys authority on the global financial arena is to stay nothing. He was in charge of the FRS for eight years, which made him capable of a profound analysis of the U.S. economy more than anyone else. Acclaimed economists and financiers have every reason to believe that Mr. Bernanke thoroughly studied the effect of the defense sector’s development on the U.S. economy during the years of his work for the government. The active relocation of industrial productions from the United States to Asia in recent decades is a factor supporting the opinion of Wthe former FRS chair. Thousands of plants and factories were built in the East but neither cheap raw materials nor cheap workforce prompted the United States to move satellite factories or other defense enterprises to China or any other states. Hence, defense contracts not only have a favorable effect on the U.S. economic status but also, given the
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circumstances, become practically the only way to set in motion the stalling U.S. economy. Washington has a crying need for big or even huge con tracts. It is easy to give an example of the economic effect of defense contracts. Imagine a factory manufacturing popular-brand motorcycles. A new bike is a purchase affordable to an average American which can be used for at least two or three years. Weap-
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ons are a completely different story. A cruise missile costs approximately $1 million. As soon as it is attached under a fighter’s wing, its manufacturer receives a new order. Return on war-time investments in the defense sector can be paramount. Jobs and economic turnover rates will be rocketing, which is very good for GDP growth, a key economic performance indicator of every state.
Ben Bernanke has made a rather daring statement: only a ‘good’ war can help the U.S. economy overcome negative implications of the ongoing economic crisis.
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To a large extent, America has established itself as a great power thanks to the economic growth achieved during WWI and WWII years. The United States was not a very active combatant but it managed to arrange arms deliveries to the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom and even Germany. The war fought in the territory of the contemporary European Union forced many chiefs of state to move their gold reserves to the United States. The enterprising U.S. government put all available means to use, spurring on economic progress. The Middle East crisis which is likely to linger for several years or even decades has a positive economic influence on the U.S. defense sector. Alongside
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the provision of defense contracts, these events seriously damage the economies of the European Union, China and other emerging markets in Asia. The European economy is tailored for close interaction with the U.S. defense sector. The NATO mechanism is structured in a way which prevents any member-state from conducting professional military activity without the support of the United States. As soon as a new armed conflict looms, European leaders will have to procure expensive modern weapons from the United States. Many readers may be wondering why Mr. Bernanke allows himself to speak openly about such important or even secret things. Such speeches cannot be accidental, as they will be
playing a certain role in the U.S. economic development strategy in the upcoming decades. It is easy to presume that the U.S. defense budget may beat the former annual record of $600 billion pretty soon. The defense sector’s development is a powerful economic growth incentive not only for the United States. Solutions introduced in military projects play the role of a vital driver for financial stabilization in the Russian Federation as well. The same as the United States, Russia subsequently applies many technologies outside army training ranges and conflict zones. Amid the sanctions, the defense sector development seems to be all but the only factor sustaining the Russian economy.
E.Kryzhanivskyi / Shutterstock.com
International Competition of caricatures and posters
GOLDEN OPOSSUM 01.01.2016 – 15.12.2016
http://goldenopossum.com/ Artists of all countries, without exception, are invited to take part in the competition. NOMINATIONS 1) Caricature: Topics – MONEY/INVESTMENT, IMMIGRATION/MIGRATION, COWBOYS, PASSION, FUNNY MONEY. 2) Poster: Topic – MONEY WILL SAVE THE WORLD. PRIZES AND AWARDS In the nomination «Caricature»: 1ST PRIZE «GOLDEN OPOSSUM» and $2,500; 2ND PRIZE «SILVER OPOSSUM» and $1,500; 3RD PRIZE «BRONZE OPOSSUM» and $1,000; 4TH PRIZE «ENCOURAGING OPOSSUM» and $500. In the nomination «Poster»: 1ST PRIZE «GOLDEN OPOSSUM» - POSTER SIZE and $2,500 2ND PRIZE «SILVER OPOSSUM» - POSTER SIZE and $1,500; 3RD PRIZE «BRONZE OPOSSUM» - POSTER SIZE and $1,000; Details on goldenopossum.com
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OCTOBER–DECEMDER 2016
ELECTRIC POWER What shall we do to avoid staying in darkness: power industry in simple words Yelena Nelinova
[analysis and researches] [energy resources] [economic situation] [numbers and percentages] [expert opinion] [prospect] [personality]
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table operation of the whole country power system. Think over these words. The first association is the incomprehensible scale and enormous load of responsibility for uninterrupted provision of electric current to each consumer, from large manufacturing enterprises through a rural hospital or an individual apartment. One of the wide-spread nets in movies about Apocalypse is the cities plunging into darkness, district after district. Many people have heard about the August, 14, 2003 blackout in the USA and Canada. On that day hundreds of thermal power plants and about ten nuclear power plants with dozens of reactors shut down, 50 million people in two provinces of Canada and eight states of the USA remained without power supply, 10 airports were closed for more than 24 hours, 350 thousand people were blocked in New-York underground. They managed to restore power supply only in 44 hours. In the same year 2003 accidents also happed in Italy, London, Finland and Denmark. There are many examples of such black-outs over the world. Why do such accidents happen? How can they be prevented or their consequences minimized? Our interlocutor knows the answers to these questions. Rafael Idiatulin is a dispatcher of the United Dispatcher Directorate of the Mid-Volga Region Power Systems, Candidate of Engineering Sciences, Associate Professor of Samara State Technical University.
ABOUT POWER SYSTEM AND MANY OTHER THINGS
Rafael Idiatulin
— I need to warn you that my knowledge of power industry is limited to household level: there is a socket, there is current in it, and domestic appliances work due to this current. In the street there are poles with wires on them, and somewhere faraway a
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hydroelectric power plant operates. But it is difficult to imagine how this system operates in the framework of the whole country. — Then, let us start with the power industry definition. The whole power industry system is the electric power manufacture and delivery to the consumer by electrical power transmission line. There are facilities manufacturing electric power (for instance, hydroelectric power plants, nuclear or thermal power plants), there are facilities transmitting it (power grid companies – they own all the electric power economy: wires, supports, transformer substations etc.). There are bodies responsible for control of electric power transmission modes - it is a specialized organization that performs dispatching control. Previously all these functions were concentrated in the hands of a single organization RAO UES (Unified Energy System of Russia): both the grids and generation and repair. Now the market is separated. Today, each field has its owner. For instance, Public Joint Stock Company Rosseti (PJSC ROSSETI) unites all the power grids. Dispatching control is performed by the state company System Operator of the United Power System where I work. No equipment may be shut down for repair or connect to the United Power System without our permission. It is very important to understand that power cannot be put on the shelf, left in the garage and forgotten about for some time. It is being currently manufactured, and, also currently, is transmitted and consumed. Electric current has its characteristics. Frequency, for instance. In power system it is determined by the balance between generated and consumed power. In Russia and Europe the value of the alternative electric current is 50 Hertz, and
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in the USA and Canada – 60 Hertz. Power plant does not generate so much power as it wants, and power grids cannot transfer more than they are designed for. A dispatcher must provide electric current transportation with due regard to the regions consumption, repair works or accidents and provide that balance. — So, we have approached the notion of System Operator. — A system operator operates the modes of operation of United Power System of Russia. It works as follows. All over the country a certain number of dispatchers are working in the shift; they control the power current through the power supply lines, power plants loading up and own in the real-time mode, make the necessary switchovers and eliminate process disturbances. The structure of the System Operator in the United Power System (UPS) of Russia is a three-lever vertical structure with clear separation of powers. The upper level is the Main Dispatching Center in Moscow performing operative and dispatching control of the whole United Power System of Russia. It is from this level that the united power systems operation and parallel operation with the foreign power systems is coordinated, and the Russian UPS development is planned. The second level is 7 Company’s branches called United Dispatching Directorates (UDD). They control the united power systems operation modes, negating and grid objects, coordinate the third-level branches activity. The third level of the vertical structure is the regional dispatching directorates (RDD), there are 50 such directorates. They control power systems of one or several subjects of the country. I am a representative of the second level of the dispatching control, since 2006 I have been work-
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ing as a dispatcher of United Dispatcher Directorate of the Mid-Volga Region situated in Samara. — That is, United Dispatcher Directorate of the Mid-Volga Region comprises RDD, doesn’t it? — Yes, United Dispatcher Directorate of the Mid-Volga Region comprises nine power systems: Mariiskaya, Mordovskaya, Nizhnenovgorodskaya, Penzenskaya, Samarskaya, Saratovskaya, Chuvashskaya, Ulianovskaya and Tatarstan. The electric power complex of the United Directorate consists of 64 power plants of total rated capacity of 26.9 thousand MW, 688 110-500 kV electric substations and 1105 110500 kV power transmission lines of total length 35911 km. Nobody knows the number of end consumers, there are many of them. — Does the United Power System of the Mid-Volga Region have any specific features? — Its specific feature is the transit location in the central part of the United Power system of Russia. It shares borders with the united power systems of the Center, South and Urals as well as with Kazakhstan power systems. It is an interlink between the largest united power systems of Center and Urals. The main transit power flows go through the United Power System of the Mid-Volga Region by the transmission lines providing smoothing of daily load peaks in the United Power System between its European and Ural parts. The power flow direction changes twice a day, the change amplitude may reach 2000MW. At night and in morning time the flow moves to Urals because Moscow falls asleep, and in the Ural region, on the contrary, people wake up and industry starts its operation. In daytime and evening time the
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flow turns back and returns to the direction of the capital, because at that time they have maximum consumption. One more distinguishing feature is the five hydroelectric power plants of the Volga-Kama Cascade providing the current frequency control, where the main automatic current frequency controller in the UPS of Russia is Zhigulevskaya HPP. All the five HPPs constitute 15% of the total rated power of the hydroelectric power plants of the UPS of Russia. This unique feature of the United Power System of the Mid-Volga Region provides operative generation change in the range up to 4880 МW for frequency control in the UPS and for maintaining the value of the transit flows from the United Power System of the Center, Urals and Siberia within the set limits. — What does your work place look like? — A large room with control panels and telephones. The United Power System of the Mid-Volga Region wall diagram consists of 24 large intercon-
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nected electronic projectors. It displays the full information in the real-time mode: all the United Power System of the Mid-Volga Region consisting of the power transmission lines, power stations and substations equipment. Information on the electric current frequency, power flows, voltage levels, current capacity and other parameters are instantly updated. Besides, each dispatcher has two individual computers with four displays for work with the necessary program complexes and a telephone with direct communication channels. — What do you do first when you come to work? — I arrive to work 30 minutes before the acceptance of the shift. At that time I need to study the logs and instructions in the log-books and all the changes that occurred in my absence. I study the current situation, the mode of the power system operation, look through the dispatching orders for equipment, which is taken out of operation for repair or is put into operation after repair during my shift.
The person handing over the shift tells about all the problems in the operation of the equipment requiring special control. After that I accept the shift. If any accident occurred and its elimination is controlled by the personnel handing over the shift, these specialists will not leave their work place, and the shift handover and acceptance are not permitted. After that I accept the reports of the directly subordinate dispatcher personnel of RDD, personnel of the power industry objects and the duty personnel of the United Power System of the Mid-Volga Region structural subdivisions. After that I report to the senior dispatcher of the Main Dispatching Center in Moscow. — It is all so difficult. — To some extent, the difficulty and the responsibility of the united power system directorate can be compared to the operation of the spacecraft flight control center. — What exactly does the dispatcher’s work involve? — Dispatcher controls the modes of interconnected operation of the power stations generators, power grids and power consumers adhering to the planned dispatching schedule, and controls the grids switchovers. That is a dispatcher controls the integral process of electric power generation, transformation, transmission and consumption. Because electric power is a special product, which, as I have already told, cannot be touched by hands or seen by eyes, it cannot be accumulated somewhere or stored after manufacture. The amount of electric power generated over a certain period of time must equal to the amount needed by the consumer. Therefore, the dispatcher controls the balance so that the power generation and consump-
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tion is equal. If the generated power is lower than the consumption value, the current frequency in the grid will fall down. Otherwise, the current frequency will increase. Power system is like a live organism with permanent change of generation and consumption. For instance, a generator emergency shutdown has occurred somewhere, or a powerful consumer changes its consumption due to the process considerations etc. The dispatcher’s task is to prevent the frequency value exceeding the set limits using the power plant load up and load down margins. In Russia such work is controlled by a dispatcher of the Main Dispatching Center in Moscow and the dispatcher of the UDD of East in his/her operation area operating separately from the United Power System of Russia. All the functions and responsibility areas are clearly distributed, and operative cooperation of all the power industry subjects – power plants, electric grids, distribution companies, large power consumers - is set. We can maximally quickly and accurately response to the various emergency situations and minimize the negative consequences. — What can affect the power system operation mode? — Weather, for instance. If Moscow is overclouded the consumption may immediately increase by 500 МW. It is the value of an average thermal power plant capacity. To balance the mode, a dispatcher has to give command for loading up the operating power plants generators for the same value if they have the load margin. If such margins are not enough, it is necessary to put into operation the generating equipment of the “cold margin”. If it is the reverse situation, and the power supply has abruptly dropped it is necessary
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to partly unload the operating power plants generators and put them to the backup margin. — Nevertheless, we are not immune to the accidents. Many people remember the blackouts in the USA and Canada, in Moscow. Have any conclusions been made? — First of all, in my opinion, Dispatching Directorate in the USA is not quite adequate to the marker power industry conditions. The united system was operated as a set of individual elements. It is still necessary to have a common system control, have a general control of all the elements. The system did not have emergency control tools, the amount of load connected to the automatic frequency load shedding (AFLS) constituted only 25% of the total power being absolutely deficient. Generator protections from frequency exceeding were not coordinated, automatic facilities of the power plants transfer to the balanced load were not available. The global experience proves that the damage from
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major accidents is constantly growing with the growth of the power system. The same global experience proves that the reason of occurrence and development of major accidents are in most cases not the natural disasters or cataclysms but imperfect approaches to the power system reliability provision. That is why I believe that to improve the US dispatching control reliability and safety they have to adopt the national standards of operation reliability of the computing devices installed in the dispatching centers. Besides, they have to change the regulatory documents providing higher freedom and legal protection to dispatching personnel that gives commands to consumers switch-off in emergency situations. It is necessary to implement automatic emergency response system to provide power balances and maintain the stability and implementation of AFLS and voltage-determined loading down. For instance, in Russia automatic emergency response system devices make it possible to minimize consumers power loading switch-off, cut the time for
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electric grid restoration after accident. To some extent, automatic emergency response system is a kind of protection from dispatcher’s incorrect actions. Moreover, in our country dispatchers have wider discretion in the process of decision-making related to the consumers switch-off in case of an accident. In the USA, as far as I know, dispatchers are not so free, they are bound by legal risks, they are afraid of claims for compensation of damage. The main reason of the Moscow accident in May 2005 was obsolete equipment that needed substitution as well as the absence of voltage control and voltage-determined loading down devices. The conclusions have been made: the appropriate programs for electrotechnical equipment modernization and implementations have been adopted.
WE AND THEY
— Is there any other difference in American, European and Russian power systems? — In my opinion, dispatching control in Russia is more efficient. The advan-
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tage of the Russian power industry is, as I have already told, the centralized dispatching control. In the United Stated there are local system operators. There are some of them. They cover the whole power system, but there is no such centralized agency as we have in Russia (I mean the Main Dispatching Center in Moscow). Imagine an incomplete pyramid – it is the way the US system looks. However, such centralized agency is urgently important, I would say, it is of vital importance, especially in the cases of large-scale black-out during major accidents like, for example, the 2003 accident in the North America. It is one of the key moments why in Russia the emergency situations elimination takes much less time than in the USA. I will try and explain it in simple terms. Each area of one system operator service is followed by another system operator area. That service area is followed by one more area of the next system operator. However, the first system operator cannot see the third system operator. The
united centralized control would eliminate this gap. I believe that in the USA they will adopt it sooner or later. The example is the Western Europe. The Europeans also unite the state power systems. They started this process in 1960th despite the originally declared decentralization principle, each individual power system was controlled by its own dispatching center. Such centers cooperated according to the specially developed rules and regulations. For some period they operated without any problems, later, the accidents started to occur one after another. After that the Europeans made a conclusion that the existing cooperation systems in the operative and dispatching control do not provide reliable operation of the power complex, and today they pass through the process of creating a single dispatching center to coordinate the operation of the national dispatching centers and provide the reliable cooperation of all the Europe power systems in normal and emergency modes. That is only now they are adopting the principles existing in Russia for a long time. Hence, the conclusion is: for power industry centralization is a positive phenomenon, even necessity. However, correct distribution of duties among the power industry subjects must be provided. For proprietors must also be responsible for their facilities, regardless whether it is power grids or power stations. They must understand that their equipment is not only a profit-making facility but also an object playing enormous role in the provision of the whole power system reliability, provision of the country’s safety and normal life conditions of people. Once again I would like to point out that in the USA the main voltage class for power transmission lines is 345 kV. The mass power stations con-
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struction and grids development has started as early as in 1930th. Power transmission lines were built based on the necessity of power supply to the nearest to the power station consumers. Higher voltage transmission lines do not form the system-making grid as they do in Russia. There is almost no emergency control system. Some US power companies work in parallel with each other, the other part of the power companies operate through direct current inserts. In Russia power plants were built in the regions of the country where cheap resources – peat, coal, gas, fuel-oil residual, water - are available. This factor predetermines the problems of the Russian power industry in terms of power supply to large distances to the load consumer centers. Today, the system operator successfully copes with these problems. — In the recent decades alternative power sources are often discussed. Is it important for our countries? — Yes, there are alternative sources, but the point is that for Russia they are almost not important, because, as I have already told, we have many cheap power sources. Other countries do not have such power sources, therefore, they promote alternative generation – wind turbines, solar batteries, small HPP, geothermal and tidal stations. In Russia, also for the reason of the climate conditions, such power sources are not so popular but they can also be important in the remote areas where expenses for organic fuel supply to the conventional power plants are senseless from the economic viewpoint. The USA, though possessing significant raw materials sources, is actively working on renewable power sources implementation. There solar and wind power plants have been predominating in the recent years in terms of the ca-
GLOBAL INVESTMENT REVIEW
pacities put into operation. Using power from the wind turbines and solar accumulators is becoming more and more profitable. Now the price affordability will be determined by the state subsidies but later they will decrease. In any case, in my opinion, the power from the renewable natural sources will later challenge the conventional power industry. In this context the USA occupy the leading positions in the world. Being a person close to science I am seriously interested in it. Alternative power industry development gives a powerful impact to scientific and technical progress. In the Russia regions where the centralized power supply is not available, for instance in the Extreme North regions, in the insular part of the country, diesel power plants may cost cheaper than power transmission lines installation and serving in the severe climate conditions. In the Arctic areas of Russia and the USA, unlike the central regions or states, the problems of power supply are most pressurizing due to the cli-
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mate, complicated load delivery and its expensiveness, remoteness from the supply centers. Therefore, in the nearest decade the main task will be the decrease of fuel consumption at diesel power plants – there are no ready for implementation alternative power sources there. I suggest implementing a new technology of concurrent operation of the reactive power source and diesel power pants synchronous generators as a technical solution for fuel consumption decrease. The use of this source will make it possible to decrease the number of operating diesel-generators to cover the daily schedule of the consumers’ electric load, decrease the diesel power plants fuel consumption by 3-5% per day and reduce the volume of pollutants emission into the atmosphere.
THE PERSONAL SPACE
— How many accidents in average may occur during a dispatcher’s working shift? — Accidents do not necessarily occur every day. In power industry there is
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an accident definition. For instance, in the 500kV grid one accident per year or quarter may occur. The weather determines a lot, for instance, several subsequent shut-downs per shift may occur during a thunderstorm, strong wind, ice glaze on wires, during forest or grassland fire, when smoke together with the products of burning rises up, and this mass acts as a conductor, and short circuit occurs. It results in shutdown of power transmission lines and, possibly, some generators at power plants. In case of such accidents the power system provides power margins at power plants. They make it possible to avoid the negative consequences for power system - to prevent the further development of abnormalities with the damaged equipment localization, to prevent other power equipment overloading, and if there are disconnected consumers - to connect them as soon as possible. There may occur many shut-downs per shift in many voltage classes all over the UPS of the Mid-Volga Region. Speaking about the average number of accidents per each dispatcher…
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Some dispatchers have more accidents, some have less. Anyway, each of us passes through accidents. For instance, a major accident which, according to statistics, occurs in the UPS of the Mid-Volga Region once per 30 years, happened during my shift. — What kind of accident was it? — November, 30, 2010, substation 500kV Kuibyshevskaia. About 40 minutes left to the end of my shift. There were adverse weather conditions. A short circuit happened in the switchgear of 500kV Kuibyshevskaia substation during squally wind and sleet precipitation. The result is a shutdown of the both transformers and all the outgoing overhead 500kV power transmission lines. At this time due to the automatic emergency response system operation, Unit 4 of Balakovo NPP of 1000MW loading shut down, and the loading of Saratov HPP went down to almost 500 MW. Following the both transformers shutdown, a special automatic emergency response system operated at 500kV Kuibyshevskaia substation and cut off the consumers in the amount of more
than 300MW. This substation is one of the key objects in Samara region power supply, therefore, due to the accident many industrial enterprises, agricultural objects, railroads and residential buildings of the region were de-energized, about fifteen trains traffic was impaired, the number of de-energized citizens amounted 146 thousand people. Compared with the American city of Talsa, half of the city was black-outed. The situation was complicated by the fact that the auxiliary power supply of 500kV Kuibyshevskaia substation shut-down, telemetry information did not update, the channels of dispatcher’s communication with the substation disappeared from my dispatcher control panel. It took my colleagues and me two and a half hours to successfully eliminate the accident and restore the normal power supply to the con sumers. — In childhood, boys dream to become drivers, pilots, presidents, previously all to a man dreamt to become spacemen. It is difficult to imagine a boy saying: “I dream to become a power system dispatcher”. — I chose power industry, so to say, following my father. His name is Faat, now he is retired, a Veteran of Labor. It follows that we are a dynasty. My father has worked in the power industry all his life, the experience of his work at Minenergo is 34 years. It is my father who told me that dispatchers are the most highly qualified technical specialists, and this position is prestigious and honorable. Such people are the elite of the power industry of Russia. My mother Guliza and my elder brother Albert supported me. Therefore, after completion of the secondary school in Buguruslan where I had been born and where our family had lived, I went
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to Samara State Technical University to study at the electrotechincal department. And now my wife Svetlana has to accept the inconveniences related to my night shifts. Nevertheless she deeply respects my profession despite the fact that she works in another field. She is a sales support manager at Samara Metallurgical Plant which belongs to the structure of American aluminum company ALCOA and manufactures various aluminum products. — Dispatcher’s work calls for permanent concentration of attention. It is very difficult. What other qualities shall a dispatcher possess? — In my opinion, it must be a certain talent, stress resistance, absolute cool-headedness and ability to completely concentrate on the work. In the course of time a person acquires the habit of acting calmly, without unnecessary emotions. During the job interviews with the candidates for this position it is necessary to find out both professional skills and psychological abilities. However, even the most successful job interview cannot provide the ability of working as a dispatcher. I know the cases that the candidates refused this position after their visit to the dispatching control room. — For some reason it came to my mind that you must play chess well. — I used to play in my childhood and did it quite well; I even participated in the street championships. I prefer moving sports. I have been playing volleyball for many years and have even completed a youth sports school in Buguruslan, after that I played in the representative students team of Samara State Technical University. Now I play for pleasure to keep myself fit. It is a smart game, and the fixed patterns,
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just like in our work, will not do there: like any volleyball attack, any shut-down, even of the same line, cannot repeat the previous situation, therefore, standard solutions do not exist. The plan of actions is made instantly, there is almost no time for thinking. Volleyball is one of the few sports involving all human muscles, and human brain works quickly, and if you don’t have a head upon shoulders, your physical abilities and springiness won’t help you. To learn playing volleyball well one certainly needs natural abilities and time for acquiring the technique of the game. Dispatcher’s professionalism is acquired likewise. Training of the System Operator dispatcher is serious and long. This position is not appointed for no reason. Because a dispatcher is not only an analyst, it is a specialist who, sometimes within seconds must take the only correct decision and give a clear for understanding command to subordinates. Candidates to dispatchers (they are the best power industry workers with an experience of work in the special-
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ity) are provided an individual training program for preparation to the position. In average, the training lasts about 9 months. The employer must master the whole material himself and by means of the remote training. He must visit the most important power industry objects of his operation area: thermal power plants, hydroelectric power plants, nuclear power plants, electric substations. Such trips are necessary for study the process technology, specific features of the equipment maintenance, to get familiarized with the operative personnel that is the people you will further communicate with only by phone. The program provides state certification subsequently performed once per five years, on-site probation at the future working place and in the lower-level dispatching centers, training and emergency and firefighting drills. There are many other training stages completed by an examination for dispatcher’s position with clearance to work unsupervised. After that we pass such exam every year, control emergency and firefighting drills and other types of qualifica-
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tion maintenance are performed annually. Once per three years we pass refresher training courses. — I just imagine that with such job you must have cast-iron constitution. — That’s right. One must have mental and physical condition. The work regime is difficult, you must do the work in day and nighttime equally well. And the shift duration is 12 hours. At that period the dispatcher survives high loads and psychological stress. It is for this reason that the dispatching personnel pass medical examination every year. — Is scientific degree necessary for all dispatchers? — Certainly not. I am rather exception. It is necessary to have higher electrotechnical education with quite a long experience of work in the speciality. For instance, before awarding the scientific degree I graduated from electrotechincal department of Samara State Technical University to with honors. I received an engineer diploma at the speciality “Electrotechnical Systems and Grids”. After that I was a day-time post-graduate student at the Chair of “Automatically Controlled Power Systems” of SamSTU, and the scientific specialty of “Automatically Controlled Complexes and Systems”. During the day-time postgraduate study I had always been working as a half-pay assistant at the Chair of ACPS. After the post-graduate study completion I continued working at the Chair as a fulltime assistant, until I was invited to work for UPS of the Mid-Volga Region. Before the position of dispatcher, I have worked there as a specialist of Operative Planning and Mode Analysis Department, senior specialist, duty engineer for operative planning of the Operative Planning Department.
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In general, operative personnel of power stations, electric substations and power grid enterprises are the people that become dispatchers. — Do you still continue your scientific work? — I have never stopped my scientific work. Being a dispatcher of UPS of the Mid-Volga Region I have a shift work, therefore, I can carry out scientific researches. Previously I put a focus on the problems of power loads and energy-saving technologies in designing and operation of industrial enterprises power supply systems. My Candidate’s thesis, for instance, was dedicated to this problem. My scientific supervisor was a Doctor of Engineering Sciences, Professor Valentin Stepanov. The results of my thesis was implemented in the designing practice of two leading Samara design organizations, they are also used in scientific process of three Russian universities. Now I am working on research of specific features of power modes generation under reverse flows of active power by high-voltage power supply lines. My latest publications in the specialized scientific journals are devoted both to this direction and to decrease of electric power losses in the electric transmission line as well as to calculation of major electrical generation systems electric loading. Eventually, the research results must provide the decrease of errors in the calculation of dispatching schedule at the System Operator level. In turn, it will increase electric power modes cost effectiveness. Besides, I have very interesting scientific projects and researches made together with the Candidate of Technical Sciences Evgeniy Krotkov from SamSTU. For instance, everybody knows that the most industrial mechanisms have electric motor drive, and the most com-
mon drive is an asynchronous motor invented by Mikhail Dobrovolskiy in the 19th century. It is often used in various fields of industry, and the manufacturing procedure requires its soft start, and the so-called thyristor- or transistor-based soft-starters are used for this purpose. A capacitor starter is developed and probated in industry as an alternative to the soft-starter. It is necessary to decrease the start-up current thus increasing the asynchronous motor resource, decrease the start-up impact force, reduce the load on mechanical parts etc. Capacitor soft start shows good advantage in comparison with the other types of soft start reducing cost by half. Now we are developing its application for various industries. For instance it can be used for ventilation and fluid pumping systems, including oil and gas production and processing. — What other researches have you made? — To start with, in each electric system normal electric modes occur most of time. However, there are emergency modes that feature with voltage decrease by 10-15% of the rated voltage and consumers’ cut-off. To determine the minimal consumers’ cut-off power it is necessary to know the voltage static characteristics of the power-intensive or powerful consumers. The voltage static load characteristic is the active and passive power dependence on voltage. Static load characteristics are used in calculation models for calculation of the established modes, static resistance and the mode optimization by voltage level and reactive power. The use of unreliable static load characteristics in the calculations may cause the power plant excess load during electric mode control and excess consumes
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cut-off in emergency modes if automatic emergency response system operates. In the process of calculation the typical theoretic static loading characteristics are used, but they not always and not completely display the dependence of the load value in the power system unit on the voltage levels. The use of actual load statistic characteristics will make it possible to decrease the calculation error, therefore, the voltage load static characteristics research must be made every 10 years. As of today, the methods for research of load static characteristics of industrial enterprises and residential sector depending on voltage and experimental data processing have been developed and probated in the power systems of the Mid-Volga region. In particular, I as a dispatcher of UPS of the Mid-Volga Region participated in experimental research of load static characteristics together with Evgeniy Krotkov. I believe that such researches might also be interesting for US power operators. — How do you manage to do it all? You also work at the university.
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— Yes I concurrently work as an Associate Professor at the Chair of AEPS of SamSTU, I am a full member of the State Personnel Review Board and a supervisor of the graduate qualification works for Bachelors and Masters. — That is you are one of the teachers respected by students? — I hope that respected indeed. After the university examinations students present only their theoretical knowledge. When the yesterday’s students come to the power industry they will face real difficulties – the real exams with practical work are much more difficult than the university study. However, it will be interesting. Dispatcher is a brain center that will never be replaced by computer.
THE PRICE OF PROGRESS
— Today almost every family has several TV-sets, telephones, various devices. How much did the load on power system increase? Where is the limit? — After the USSR collapse in 1991, the industry output began to consistent-
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ly decrease its consumption, the plants closed. After that, from 1999 onwards and till now, household loading began to increase: people bought conditioners, multi-ovens, microwave ovens, and steam generators. However this gap between the industrial output decrease and the increasing household load is only now aligning. Electric power consumption in the UPS of Russia is slowly reaching the level of 1991. It is accompanied by the change of household loads electric characteristics and occurrence of new power consumers, for example, cell stations with customers telephone load, the systems of air conditioning and purification, powerful washing machines etc. It produces new problems in the power grid and electric power quality deterioration. The effect of such power consumers must be studied to eliminate negative factors. My scientific colleagues and I are working, among all, on these tasks solution. Today the equipment of the UPS of Russia is being modernized, there are development programs providing both optimistic and moderate forecasts of consumption growth, the state is attentively supervising the power industry.
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Shale Expansion Leonid Levitsky
[world economy] [economic situation] [analysis and research] [numbers and percentages] [prospect] [energy resources] [geopolitics] [partners]
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he debate on the end of oil, although more rare than on the end of the world, is a long-time and active one. However, the result is the same. The recent forecast – a warning about an imminent sharp decline in oil production by the middle of the century has not come true. Shale oil, according to Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak, has shattered the gloomy expectations. The minister is right - shale revolution in the United States has instilled unbridled enthusiasm in many: the world’s hydrocarbons will last for another 500 years or so. US President Barack Obama is more reserved. He has guaranteed to Congress at least a century of energy wealth and inde-
pendence. What is the difference, anyway – 500 or 100 years? This will be an absolutely different era and different life. Historians say jokingly that the Stone Age did not end for lack of stones, but because people overcame the Stone Age thinking and grew up and stepped into an entirely different era – of new materials and technology.
WEALTH UNDER OUR FEET
The development of shale deposits, in the view of many experts, is one of such unappreciated steps into the future. They give an opportunity to take the wealth under our feet. The United States and Canada have increased shale oil and bitumen oil production several
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times in the span of just a few years. The two countries now account for nearly half of the world’s total increase in oil output. It is a breakthrough beginning. However, not all scientists and analysts are that optimistic. “The so-called shale gas revolution is pure American Hollywood, it’s a well-planned PR campaign,” says CEO of Russia’s natural gas monopoly Gazprom Alexei Miller. He, like most of our experts, believes that the creation of inexpensive, safe, effective technology to develop new deposits will compensate for declining production on the traditional fields, reduce dependence of some countries on fuel imports. Nothing more. There are also more radical assessments of the shale miracle. It is another financial bubble – this time inflated in the mining sphere. The question is only when it bursts, blowing up natural gas and oil production and leaving hundreds of thousands of people jobless. It would seem that the recent events confirm the imminent end of the miracle. The first company that develops shale deposits has gone bankrupt in the United States. The number of rigs drilling them has declined by nearly 20%. Nearly 300 rigs of the total 1750 have been stopped. Nevertheless, there is no reason to dramatize the situation. A sharp decline in energy prices has hit the entire industry. In recent years, it has been rapidly increasing oil supply, the United States and Canada accounting for more than half of the growth, supplying high-tech oil, which is more expensive. The price decline has made it uncompetitive. So, quite logically, those who came to the market last have to leave it first. One of the reasons for the collapse in energy prices is collusion of certain countries against other group of countries, experts say. It is also not uncommon, this happens. However, as its initiator is the United States, which ushered in the shale era, it would be strange to suspect Washington of seeking to “close” it, laying bare its economic insolvency. America zealously guards its revolution from suspicion, criticism and ill-wishers. The CIA has
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recently called US environmental organizations “henchmen of the Kremlin” that are paid to hinder in every possible way the development of shale deposits. Sharp contradictions on world fuel market do not give an answer to the question of principle: “is it a revolution or a bubble?” Let’s figure it out ourselves, referring to the facts and figures without which polemics is a futile if not destructive job. Let’s specify the main notions for a start. Shale is the most common sedimentary rock formed in the deep sea. For geologists shale is the oil-producing, oil-source rock. It is the natural “maternity ward” in which organic matter under great pressure transformed into hydrocarbons over millions of years. Migrating from the shale rock, meeting more permeable, loose, porous sediments, under favorable circumstances they accumulated in the underground structural traps. Geologists have learned how to find them, estimate the reserves, and recommend field development methods. There are 187.2 trillion cubic meters of available proven gas reserves in the world. Another 120 trillion cubic meters are prospective, yet undiscovered reserves. This amount will serve humankind for 60-65 years. It is more complicated with oil. There are 240 billion tons of oil in deposits, which guarantees less than half a century of habitual consumption. After that, the forecasted deficit necessitates the search for new, unconventional deposits of the fuel or a substitute for it. Scientists have long proven that such deposits exist. According to their calculations, shale rock contains 2-3 times more gas and as many oil deposits as migrated to the structural traps. Since shale rock is widespread, hydrocarbons exist practically everywhere to a lesser or greater extent. We literally walk on mineral wealth. The undisputed merit of American scientists is that they were the first to find a clue to shale deposits, overturning the common belief of their inaccessibility. Certainly, it is a revolutionary breakthrough.
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SOURCES AND COMPONENT PARTS OF SHALE REVOLUTION
Pic. 1. Nature’s gas arsenal [trln cubic m].
America is lucky – it is rich in shale, filled, as has now been proved, with gas, condensate and crude oil. The US attempts to take them made in the past century were unsuccessful. This discouraged large companies that have enough conventional fields. And the small and medium businesses, the establishment and growth of which was promoted by the overall financial regulatory environment, were unafraid to take the risks. According to US law, natural resources are the property of the land owners (in Russia, as in most other countries, recovered raw materials belong to the state - Editor’s note.). Therefore, drillers could without problem take lease of the piece of land they selected, “cutting in” the owners. The risk really existed. The well-developed technology of oil or gas recovery on conventional fields did not work on shale deposits. So, it was necessary to adapt the technology to new deposits or create a new one. And it was done. Any revolution, the more so technological, is strong with creativity of the masses. The destiny of George Mitchell also confirms this. A successful entrepreneur, holding a degree in geology, he invested his personal millions in the prospecting the result of which was far from obvious. In 1981, he drilled the first well on a land piece he took on lease. After that, he was engaged in drilling for the next 18 years – but without success. He was almost ruined, and only in the latter days of his life when he was 80, he realized that it was necessary to combine horizontal drilling with multiple hydraulic fracturing – fracking. Mitchell confirmed the American dream - every man is the architect of his own fortune. At the last moment, like in the movies, everything came together – the experience, knowledge, dedication and, finally, the shale as a reward. The well hit the mark. Two years lat-
er, Mitchell sold his company for $3.5 billion. A dream indeed. In 2002, the country launched the recovery of shale gas, and in 2009 its production volume reached 230 billion cubic meters. The United States produced a total of 720 billion cubic meters of gas that year, for the first time outstripping Russia and becoming a world leader. America is in the lead also today, planning to produce by 2020 at least a trillion cubic meters per year. The country is turning from an importer to an exporter. The flow of shale oil is growing equally fast. In terms of daily production, the United States has currently excelled Russia and, actually, Saudi Arabia as well. The oil sector has started to work like in the best of times. Also, it is very important that the fuel reserves are growing, not shrinking, despite the record-high production volume - they are replenished from the shale reserve. Today, onethird of the total gas reserves and 10% of oil reserves are unconventional hydrocarbons. The longtime idea of gaining energy independence is being actively fulfilled. A very favorable situation has developed in the economy: cheap money, cheap energy, cheap labor. With this margin of safety, neither European nor Japanese competitors should be feared. The United States now has got an opportunity to oust Russia from all energy markets, first of all, the European market. This goal has always been pursued, but a lack of resources stood in the way. As soon as they appeared, the blockade of Russian companies began. Of course, something had to be offered in return, hence the shale revolution. The US Department of State and Secretary of State Hillary started an active promotion of nonconventional gas. The Guardian published last fall an article entitled “How Hillary Clinton’s State Department sold fracking to the world”. Judging by the publication, it was a heartfelt affair for her, not just an assignment. Washington announced the beginning of the “Global Shale Gas Initiative” program as early as in 2010 – it is a program of assistance in
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the development of nonconventional hydrocarbon deposits. Fulfilling it, the US State Department held several conferences, it was taking delegations to American production fields, sending its experts to work out shale gas production plans. The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) scientifically substantiated the future changes. It published the shale gas reserves rating. (Russia, countries of the Middle East and Caspian were not covered – they have plenty of conventional reserves without that. However, even without them the research authors calculated 187 billion cubic meters of recoverable gas – editor’s note). According to the EIA study, all the 32 countries under review had more than enough viable shale gas reserves that can be recovered. Naturally, with the help of major American companies and their partners. “The industry began fighting hard for access to shale fields abroad,” wrote The Guardian. Hillary Clinton’s efforts were not wasted. American companies came to Poland, Hungary, Ukraine. But alas, no shale miracle happened anywhere – first of all because the American experts highly overestimated the shale deposits in Eastern Europe. Maybe they did that intentionally or just miscalculated. Of the 50 wells that were drilled in Poland, only one gave 8000 cubic meters of gas per day. It’s next to nothing. It would be necessary to drill over 5000 more wells to meet the republic’s demand. Major problems arose with agricultural land and environmental organizations. Two of the three companies have quit Poland. They also left Hungary, having drilled two wells there. Also, no gas was found in Lithuania. Romania and Bulgaria banned using the hydraulic fracturing method in their territory. The UK, Germany, France also imposed a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing...
ECOLOGICAL TERRORISM
“There won’t be fracking of shale gas in Germany in the foreseeable future,” German Environment Minister Barbara Hendricks said. According to her, the protection of health and drinking water has the highest value.
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Pic. 2. World shale gas reserves: According to IAEA data – 500. According to US Department of Energy – 209 [trln cubic m].
According to experts of the International Energy Agency (IEA), the EU countries will be able to produce 15 billion cubic meters of shale gas by 2020 – a mere 9% of Gazprom’s supplies. What’s the point in risking human health in the densely populated Europe? One more unavoidable question: why at the conferences held by the US State Department, the “teachers” spoke much about the effectiveness of US technology, but did not bother to give a warning about the environmental risks?
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The American environmental legislation is strict enough. The country’s ecological organizations are strong and influential, the authorities reckon with them. Perhaps this is why Vice President Robert Cheney pushed through Congress in 2005 a law that exempted the oil companies from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) control. They were actually relieved from responsibility for the violation of the strict and costly environmental requirements, which immediately allowed them to cut production costs and increase revenue. This forestalled the shale boom the effects of which are not yet fully understood. The “Gasland” documentary directed by Josh Fox clearly and convincingly shows them. We can see beautiful farmland areas turned into “moonscapes.” We see the poisoned ground, emaciated people, bald animals, brown water streams, tap water that can be lit on fire. All this are the consequences of hydraulic fracturing, fracking. Why the technological operation that had been mastered back in the 1940s of the last century has become so dangerous? It has been and is now used by drillers to “loosen” the underground producing layer to increase production. The fracturing is made by hydraulic impact of a fluid, a chemical “cocktail” – more than 1000 tons of water and chemicals pumped into the layer. Any slightest irregularity results in the “cocktail” getting into ground waters, into permeable seams from where the fluid makes its way to the surface, poisoning everything around. Unfortunately, such emergencies have always happened and still happen. They can be managed at conventional fields. Up to 6000 tons of the “cocktail” is pumped out from one vertical well and it can be cleaned. However, orders of magnitude more wells are drilled in the shale gas production. What is more,
they are horizontal with the length of 1000 to 3000 meters, with up to 30 hydraulic fractures underground. Cemented pipes cannot resist such a massive “bombardment.” Therefore, in this case accidents happen 10 times more frequently. It is impossible to cope with them promptly: powerful plants would be needed to purify tens of millions of tons of contaminated water. Chemicals that remain in ground waters turn them into a time bomb and nobody can predict where and when it may explode. After Robert Cheney helped oil-producing companies to get exemption from the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) and the Clean Air Act and other environmental regulations, shale production became less costly and more hazardous. So, The Los Angeles Times had every reason to warn that staking on oil brings ecological death nearer. Characteristic is the position of US President Barack Obama who says that he seeks to reconcile the environment with the demand of the economy for accessible energy resources. The goal is certainly good, but even the president cannot please all. Environmental organizations have reproached him of inaction. They believe that he should not call on, but obligate the state services and oil companies to work out the standards ensuring safety of oil and gas production. However, the oil lobby argues that such standards would actually prohibit shale production. Tired of waiting for the federal authorities’ decision, many cities and states started to prohibit or impose a moratorium on fracking. The authorities in the European countries the “green” laws of which are incompatible with the appetites of producing companies have done the same. The permanent shale revolution has been deadlocked. For how long? US Secretary of State John Kerry continues the shale production development policy in Europe launched by Hillary Clinton. He is trying to solve the same problem of freeing Europe of dependence on Russian gas. However, the Europeans themselves prefer a different scenario: they want the Americans to produce shale gas in their country
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and ship the LNG in giant vessels to the European continent. The United States has only one reliable foothold of shale revolution left – Ukraine. Here the American companies are still loved and welcome. Washington’s love for the Ukrainian authorities is also well-known. “Imagine where you’d be today if you were able to tell Russia: ‘Keep your gas.’ It would be a very different world,” US Vice President Joe Biden has recently said wishfully. Notably, his son Hunter Biden has become focused on natural gas business in Ukraine. The United States knows the Ukrainian potential. The Americans are interested in the Dnepropetrovsk-Donetsk and Pripyat oil and natural gas bearing basins. Many analysts say that the bloody events in Ukraine’s southeastern Donbass region are linked with its energy resources, which had been studied very well back in the USSR period. Hydraulic fracturing of a coalbed for increasing methane output was applied there for the first time in the world in 1954. Certainly, the best Donbass deposits have been depleted. And developing the remaining ones is unprofitable, given the current gas prices and the taxation system. The US company Shell has received them for development. Of course, it will not operate at a loss. The company has signed the production sharing agreement for a term of 50 years. Kiev offered it major tax and customs privileges. It can export its share of natural gas, sell it without any quotas, without export dues, even without the VAT. It is allowed to import, export foreign goods and sell them without paying taxes or duties. It is even allowed to use water in Ukraine’s Kharkov and Donetsk regions that is in very short supply there. Ukrainian companies could not even dream of such delightful conditions. And what will Shell give in return? It will be producing conventional gas in a well explored area, but this gas will be cheap, exempt from all state charges. Will it get to unconventional gas reserves that also exist there? Let’s wait and see. However, it is absolutely clear that the American company and its Ukrainian
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partners will be able to make good money even without shale.
INSTEAD OF AN EPILOGUE
And still, “a revolution” or “a bubble”? Neither. The comparison with a “bubble” is malicious insinuation – the Americans have proven that. They have unconventional gas and they will recover it, regardless of any speculations on international markets. The United States has very sensibly arranged everything: of 19.2 billion barrels of its daily consumed oil, it buys one half of it and produces another half. So, no matter how the prices fluctuate, the Americans will sustain no losses. Also, spending somebody else’s oil that has lowered in price and saving their own oil for the future also makes sense. Why not a “revolution”? First of all because the technology has not been refined to the mass use level yet. The hydraulic fracturing technology is so far perceived by most people not as a technological breakthrough, but as ecological terrorism. And one more thing. There are some 4 trillion cubic meters of proven shale gas reserves in the United States. This potential is insufficient at all for a revolution, but sufficient for a thoroughly organized anti-Russian expansion, as we can see. And yet, the shale story is a serious warning to Russia. The development of natural deposits is becoming an increasingly complex and difficult task. They are available only to the countries that possess the superior technology. Those who cannot or do not want to create such technology are doomed to remain on the margins of development. Material is provided by our partner, the Russian magazine Rossiyskaya Federatsiya Segodnya (Russian Federation Today)
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The Ross Group Construction Corporation
Delivering Projects from Idea to Occupancy through Multifaceted General Contracting Molly Shaw
[personality] [success story] [business] [analysis and researches] [prospect] [partners]
T
he Ross Group Construction Corpor ation (The Ross Group) originated as a small subcontractor in the 1970s, but the company has since emerged as a powerful general contractor, providing facility, infrastructure and energy solutions to a wide range of industries. Today, the Oklahoma-based company offers sophisticated delivery methods and program management to public, private and institutional clients. Over the years, the company has developed a particular niche in
governmental construction, requiring great skill and expertise. In 1979 Jesse Ross founded the company as J. Ross Acoustics and Drywall (J. Ross). The small-scale contractor specialized in carpentry and interior finishes and Jesse’s dedication and years of experience eventually paid off, earning the company a reputation for quality work and professional excellence. J. Ross evolved and expanded into health care and advanced techno logy facility construction. Jesse’s son, Warren Ross, now president and CEO
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of The Ross Group, joined the family business in 1996 and the company incorporated as its current designation shortly thereafter. “By building upon one another’s strengths, Jesse and Warren took their experience and reputation to make a seamless transition into general contracting,” details Rebecca Britsch, marketing manager of The Ross Group. “Warren helped his father grow the business into what it is today.” The Ross Group now operates from two offices, with headquarters located in Tulsa and a regional office in Oklahoma City, Okla. “We have approximately 120 employees and we serve clients all over the country,” reveals Rebecca. From aviation to administrative buildings to hospitality and leisure facilities, corporate office buildings to sports and entertainment venues and LEED-certified builds, The Ross Group is involved in a diverse set of industries and facility types.
THE GO-TO GOVERNMENTAL CONTRACTOR
“Although we do a significant amount of various commercial works, our niche has been in federal contracting,” shares Rebecca. “The procedures and processes involved with these particular contracts require a high level of expertise, which we’ve developed over the years. We’re involved in interesting jobs with very interesting people.” From fitness centers to full-scale training facilities, The Ross Group is capable of a large scope of work. “We recently completed a $13.1 million fitness complex achieving LEED Gold certification in Kingsville, Texas,” reveals Rebecca.
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“We reached the certification through sustainability qualifications by utilizing renewable energy features, such as an environmentally friendly and reliable solar electric system with more than 1,300 210-watt solar photovoltaic panels installed atop parking structure roofs nearby to the fitness center. Additionally, Solatubes were installed to allow consistent natural lighting to be utilized within the facility while providing low solar heat gain and glare, reducing electrical cost. An outdoor pool, a running track, football and soccer fields, as well as many other unique features were part of the scope of work. The project received a special safety award from the owner for our outstanding safety performance on the job site.” With a highly trained technical trade staff, The Ross Group has the ability to self-perform a sizable percentage of its own work in-house, even when building large, complex training facilities. “In Kentucky, we’re currently working on a $9 million military gun range and have completed several military tactical training complexes, with the largest being $38 million in El Paso, Texas,” shares Rebecca. “The scope of
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work consists of building a city in the middle of the desert for live fire and simulation training. Our project managers really enjoy these projects, because they get an inside view of the training and feel it is a way they can give back to the troops that selflessly defend our country. We’ll be wrapping up the Kentucky project in 2014.” The Ross Group also frequently delivers aviation hangers throughout the U.S. “We were recently awarded a $20 million contract to build a new state-ofthe-art C-130 Fuels Maintenance Hangar in Little Rock, Ark., which is set to be complete in 2015,” adds Rebecca.
SETTING THE BAR HIGH
The Ross Group is well-equipped to self-perform many services; however, the company assesses the needs of each project individually. According to Rebecca, when the situation requires, The Ross Group relies on the expertise of trusted subcontractors for specific trades. “When we send the contracts out for bid we judge not just on price but mainly on safety and quality,” she explains. “We have an internal qualification process we stick to. We won’t
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put a subcontractor on a job just because they’re the cheapest; they have to meet standards.” According to Rebecca, Professional Engineering Consultants (PEC) is one partner the company thrives with, which is why the duo continues to tackle numerous projects together. “We are currently working on four design-build projects with PEC,” Rebecca explains. “The largest project is located in Oklahoma City, Okla., which is estimated at over $12.6 million for the design-build renovation of an Aircraft Engine Chemical Cleaning facility.” Luckily for the team at The Ross Group, those at PEC also enjoy the partnership. “The Ross Group relies on PEC to manage the entire design process,” says Don Provencher, P.E., project manager for PEC. “Their
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trust gives us the flexibility to bring the right team to the project. Together with The Ross Group, we interpret the project scope to develop the criteria that meets the clients’ needs for budget and delivery.” Setting the bar high has resulted in an industry leading EMR rating for The Ross Group. “Our safety program is designed with the objective of planning and prevention,” says Rebecca. “Zero accidents and zero injuries is what we’re always aiming for, which has been paying off as the company has just reach a new goal of over 1,400 days without a lost-time injury and over 1,300 days without a recordable injury.” Rebecca says The Ross Group’s government niche has certainly helped the company weather the recession. “Being involved in governmental projects has
been nice during the economic downturn,” she notes. “We’ve found our niche and we’re good at it, but we’ve had to keep a closer eye on budgets. We are all highly aware of how the government’s decisions really affect our jobs and project sites.” Rebecca notes that company does not shy away from obstacles. “We’ve seen more of a shift in the type of work being solicited; there’s not necessarily less work, just different projects,” continues Rebecca. “We are seeing a shift for more renovation/repair projects rather than new facility construction.” As for The Ross Group’s future plans, Rebecca says the company is gearing up for more projects in the energy, oil and gas fields. Additionally, The Ross Group has recently added two new company affiliates, Ross Engineering and The Ross Group Design-Build, to better support the needs of clients and the industries in which the company works. “Industrial and manufacturing type work has also taken off,” reveals Rebecca. “Our processes and approach to our current projects can easily relate to industrial work, so we’ve positioned ourselves well for future growth into these markets. One of our major strengths for growth in these areas is attributed to our highly trained project management personnel. They are able to work with and understand the goals of all types of clients, and they enjoy working in diverse markets.” For 17 years the company has served a specialized market throughout the U.S. The Ross Group Construction Corporation continues to operate as a multifaceted, multidiscipline contractor, ready to serve a range of clients. For more information about The Ross Group Construction Corporation, please visit: www.trgcc.com.
The Oklahoma State Regional Center JOBS. PROGRESS. INVESTMENT Call Us: 1–888–749–1146
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Taina S ohlman / S hutterstock .com
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The man who has found his place in life Veniamin Kovalsky
[personality] [interview] [success story] [innovation] [scientific development]
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urrently, there is an obvious tension between the Russian Federation, the European Union, and the USA. Imposed sanctions created a serious barrier to dynamic development of science and technology in the Russian Federation. In particular, Tesla electric cars that enjoy popularity all over the world have not been officially presented in Russia yet. Despite this, we have seen a high demand for modern electric cars among Moscow dwellers as well as citizens of other Russian big cities who are eager to buy one. Electric car owners are experiencing immense difficulties in terms of
maintenance and repair in the Russian Federation. Note that 250 electric cars are already being used in Russia. Over 70 % of them are found on Moscow roads and streets. Only a few Superchargers operate within the metropolis. In addition, compact filling stations are being installed through the efforts of local companies. The situation with spare parts and consumables is much worse. It is virtually impossible to get them. Lots of Tesla car owners are forced to go to the EU once in a while in order to get after-sales service. In spite of a massive number of prob l ems and a lack of information, Mos-
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cow mechanical engineers open service stations that specialize in working with Tesla so as to make lives of electric car lovers easier. These people are real heroes because they have practically nothing to rely on except for their own knowledge and enthusiasm. Thanks to Moscow mechanical engineers who are in love with Tesla, electric car owners from Moscow promptly get most of common car problems solved without having to leave their city. It is recommended to go to the EU only in particularly complicated cases. Mikhail Yefimov is giving an interview to us today. He is an experienced aviation engineer who devotes almost all his spare time to examining, maintaining, and repairing Tesla cars. He is the founder of one of the two service centers that provide maintenance for electric cars in Moscow. — Nice to see you, Mikhail! Could you, please, tell us a bit about yourself: where you were born, where you grew up, and share some of your memories about your childhood and teenage years? — Nice to see you, too. I’m a Muscovite by birth. I was born and grew up in the heart of the Russian capital. An ordinary Soviet kid. But I was lucky to grow up in a family that had a car. In those days, in our country there were few families that had a passenger car, even in Moscow. I was a small kid when my father made me eager to learn about construction of a car. He would take me along to his garage and show how to repair things. When I grew older, I started helping him a bit at a time. In the USSR most motorists serviced their vehicles themselves. Service stations didn’t use to be as common as today. Later, when I went to a summer camp, I had already been an expe-
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rienced and dedicated fan of passenger cars. Right in the camp, I received training, successfully passed an exam, and received a teenage driving license. — Mikhail, in spite of your keen interest in automobiles, you entered an educational institution specializing in a slightly different area, didn’t you? — Yes, I really did. Having left secondary school, I went to Kharkov planning to enter Kharkov Higher Military Command Engineering School. I passed exams and was enrolled on the Aviation Engineering course. I began my studies in the USSR, however, I became a graduate in independent Ukraine. Having received higher education, I worked in the aviation industry for a while and then went on to have a career in Internal Affairs bodies. — Mikhail, so, your passion for passenger cars reminded you about itself after a while, didn’t it? — Naturally. After retirement, I gradually started switching to work with passenger cars. I provided services related to repair and maintenance of vehicles made by popular foreign and Russian manufacturers.
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Mikhail Yefimov, 45 y.o. Formerly employed by Internal Affairs Agency. An aviation engineer who has been fond of passenger cars since he was a child. Without assistance, he reassembled one of the first Tesla electric cars brought to Moscow. Since then, he has been a dedicated fan of passenger cars equipped with electric motors. He never stops delving into the structure of the popular American electric car and keeps a close watch on all the latest things and innovations in the segment. He stays in close touch with mechanical engineers from Tesla official service centers in the USA, the EU, and China.
— Can you tell us about your first encounter with Tesla, please? When I laid my hands on the first electric car, I was fascinated. I had a strong desire to reassemble the car and examine its construction thoroughly. So to speak, I wanted to know it inside out, which I actually did quite successfully. Of course, there were certain difficulties. Tesla still has no official representative in Russia. A couple of years
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ago, no information was available at all. I had to spend hours on specialized Internet forums and talk to foreign engineers and other specialists. It took time to get an objective and professional idea of how and what this popular electric car is constructed of. — Where did your passion for Tesla cars bring you? — After a while, I decided to provide maintenance and repair works professionally. Naturally, there are some components such as a battery that I choose not to get involved with. Otherwise, the guarantee will become void. But Tesla's other features, mostly, are very similar to a standard passenger car, so I and my assistants are ready to help any electric car owner having a trouble. We are currently putting the finishing touches to a new Tesla service center before opening it. It will be the second service station of the kind in Moscow. — What is your position? How many people does the company employ? — I act as the founder and deal with organizational and financial matters. I advise leading specialists on work with electric cars. In my team, there are seven top-class mechanical
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engineers with extensive hands-on experience. — What’s your motto in terms of your work with electric cars? — Do not harm. It’s the main credo. We’ve been interacting with accredited Tesla maintenance companies from China, the USA, and the EU for a long time. We have a complete picture of how work in an official service center is organized. We do our best to help Russian electric car owners but under no circumstances do we violate any warranty terms and conditions. With no support from the legal manufacturer, it is often cheaper to take cars to German service centers rather than repair them in Moscow. — Do you think you have already managed to succeed in the car maintenance and repair sector? — Surely. I and specialists hired by me have earned a good reputation over the years. Every Tesla owner in Moscow knows that they may come to our service center and get their problems solved. We never lie to our customers and always try to service their cars as if these cars are our own ones. In a nutshell, we strive to provide a service of a western
standard. Apart from individuals fond of electric car, lots of law firms may be found among our customers. They entrust us with servicing their car fleets. — Do you have any suggestions to offer Tesla Company management in terms of improving electric cars? — I don’t mean to offend anyone but the first thing that caught my eye is the quality of the assembly work. The car concept is extremely well thought through. When operating a Tesla car, you get loads of pleasant impressions and positive emotions. But, as a mechanic, I can’t help but highlight the fact that electric cars aren’t assembled as well as I’d like them to be. Tesla level implies that the car is expected to be perfect in every way. Tesla assembly work hasn’t lived up to my expectations. — How do electric cars “live through” severe Russian winters? — You know, I haven’t noticed any particular problems in operation of Tesla cars at low temperatures. I’ve been repairing and servicing electric cars almost since the moment they were launched. I can assure you that they are perfectly suited for Moscow winters. — Does your repair shop have any rivals? What’s your competitive advantage over them? — Our service center has hardly any actual rivals for the time being. Apart from our company, there is one more similar service station in Moscow. If the number of specialized service stations increases, I’m not going to change my plans. I prefer healthy competition in the market when priority is given to the quality of service rather than its price. With such an approach, it is interesting and profitable to work under any conditions.
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— Are there any other electric cars in Moscow? Is Tesla facing considerable competition from them? — As far as I know, Tesla has no direct competitors for the time being, neither in Russia, nor in any other countries. But it is not going to last long. I believe that the American car maker has to hurry if it wants to corner the Russian market. If Tesla fails to do this, in the next 2–3 years a vacant niche will be filled by its closest competitor from Taiwan — Thunder Power. Performance specifications stated for the Thunder Power prototype are impressive. Moreover, its price is going to be significantly lower, in the best Chinese traditions. — Why do Moscow dwellers buy Tesla cars today? Could you, please, make a rough sketch of a Russian buyer that chooses to purchase an electric car? — Primarily, these are people who have deep pockets. But they stand out considerably even among successful entrepreneurs. First and foremost, Tesla buyers are people who think progressively, in a European way, if you like. As a rule, they are IT workers who care about their life as well as about their kids’ future life and the future of our planet. Environmental conservation is not empty talk for such people. That is why they buy electric cars. A high level of comfort is also among main reasons why people choose to buy electric cars. People's perception of passenger cars changes completely when they drive Tesla cars. For the better. The change of perception is also a powerful motivation for buying a Tesla car. — Which Tesla models are the most popular with Moscow dwellers?
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— People living in the Russian capital city are mostly conservative. This feature is reflected even in “advanced” buyers of electric cars. The majority of buyers prefer Tesla P85+ design which has stood the test of time, yet, they quite enjoy buying other models as well. — Can Tesla become the car that will supersede petrol- and diesel-powered cars in the Russian Federation in the long term? — I believe that this question must be answered from a global perspective without being confined to one particular country. It will take rather a long time for permanent and complete replacement to take place. It may never occur at all. However, we are sure to see an active shift towards the use of electric motors. In future, the amount of petrol and diesel fuel used will decrease considerably due to vast numbers of electric motors or vehicles with hybrid power units under their boots. This tendency is bound to be seen in Russia as well. — What are your plans in terms of further development of your Tesla maintenance business in the Russian Federation? — My plans depend on plans made by Tesla official manufacturer. Provided that Tesla official representation office is opened in Moscow, car dealerships are set up, and Russians start buying as many electric cars as they’d like to, I will certainly be ready to expand my business and build up the network of service centers. — Mikhail, how do you feel about immigration? — I believe that, first of all, you must find yourself and your niche in this life. If you succeed in doing this, a possible relocation will not have any seri-
ous negative implications. If you ask me, doing the washing-up in New York is as unpleasant as it is in Moscow. — Do you think you could start a network of service centers providing maintenance for Tesla cars in, say, the USA? — Surely. I’m convinced that rules of providing top class services are the same on all the continents. Plus, if apart from having the right approach to your customers you do what you love and know the ropes, you are bound to succeed. — Mikhail, thank you so much for such an interesting conversation. Good luck in your challenging job. Hope that Tesla official representation office will open in Russia soon. — Thank you. Best of luck to you, too. Mikhail Yefimov is a mechanical engineer with exceptional talent. That day when Tesla Company decides to open its official representation office in Moscow, such people like Mikhail will be the ones who will lay the foundations for organizing top class customer service for Moscow buyers of electric cars. Such a highly skilled specialist is sure to be needed in the Russian Federation as well as in any other country of the world where modern electric cars are going up and down the roads.
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OCTOBER–DECEMDER 2016
Keys to Promotion of Archeological Knowledge Alice Myove
[cultural development] [scientific literacy] [expert opinion] [projects for children] [initiatives] [analysis and researches]
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gnorance has a variety of forms, and it is always disliked. No one likes being offered the opinions of dubious know-it-alls instead of reasons, or belief instead of rationality. But most of all the ignorance is hated by scientists. Just imagine yourself working tirelessly with materials or excavations, and meeting a passer-by who stops and says that your archeology is nothing but pure mystification. “Look, there’s a writing that our planet has been in existence for less than a million years, and I have no reason to distrust it”. Of course, you may pay
no attention to this stranger and prefer a more sense-bearing discussion with your colleagues. However the integration of scientific knowledge in public consciousness is deeper than it may look at the first sight, because it is not limited to a matter of individual culture only, but is often a touchstone indicating a certain civilization level of a society. Hence, there are at least two questions that arise in this regard: whether the researchers should strive to repudiate the views of many popular pseudo-scientists, and what should be done to draw the attention of com-
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mon people to the exciting content of a truly scientific knowledge. The demand for quazi-scientific theories is so old that it is rooted in the human mentality itself, which prefers to seek and accept simple answers to difficult questions. For example, it is very easy to accept positions of quazi-scientists and religion in the areas where the official science is unable to offer any straightforward and final answer. To change this situation, the scientist should elect either to deny the dubious ideas (and thus enter discussions with pseudo-scientists), or merely disregard them. Electing the first option means raising this type of work or their doers to the level of scientific dialogue, which is obviously not the right way to treat them and creates a kind of vicious circle for scientists... By this reason, many of my colleague archeologists do not event try to change this situation in any way but immerse themselves in their own developments and discussions of their narrow field issues. As a result, the “non-archeological” people have a very limited access to the information about contemporary studies and even fundamentals of this science to understand what is it needed for and what does it try to explain. However my strong belief is that the responsibility for the fact that the results of our work remain partly hidden from wide public is with the representatives of scientific community. Therefore, one of the ways out of the current situation is the promotion of scientific knowledge. Let’s start by saying that each of us has learnt about archeology as a science in his or her own way. However we should recognize that when we were children we had much less opportunities to obtain information which would not only tell us about this “dig-
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ging science” but provoke a strong interest in it – not so much to make us to elect this profession in future as to explain why the things have been developing as they are and not otherwise, and where do we know it from except for direct written sources. This article will address the diverse ways to publicize archeology which I has had an experience to deal with and consider the most attractive and feasible of these ways. Within the so called “Western world”, a popular science is widely promoted in variety of ways including museum sessions for children, school classes, and special events designed to publicize the scientific knowledge. The first place which was, surprisingly to me, offering the lectures for children was the National Archeology Museum in Warsaw. One of its booths displayed pottery items, woven belts and models of medieval Venetian beads made of colored clay (which allows to imitate a glass effect) made by children during the classes of this crafts – pottery, weaving and glass work respectively. The museum has allocated one of its premises for such classes and posted the information about their range and schedule for different age groups at its website. Those impressions in-
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spired me to think about the relevance and accessibility of, and the most suitable ways to publicizing archeological knowledge. An expression “a children entertainer” usually makes us to imagine a person playing various games with children or merely attending them. It could hardly be expectable that one of primary schools in Prushkuva (Poland) will invite archeologists to introduce pupils in experimental archeology during a school festival. They came to show the children how to break stones in the way the ancient people were making it during the stone age, and a number of ways to obtain fire, and to hold a master class in tabletop games of the ancient world and the initial weaving techniques. It was a welcome surprise for me that the classes were not limited to detailed explanation of ancient technological processes but allowed children to live the part of an ancient human being and achieve the desired result in practice, by burning fire or splitting a firestone for subsequent creation of a job tool. Although only natural materials were used during the master classes as being relatively safe, the safety measures were given an important attention too. For example, the areas which could be reached by sparkles were protected with canvas mats, and the eyeshields were given to
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those participants who were engaged in splitting the firestone. There is a lot of ways how such archeological classes can be taught, depending mostly on the imagination of their designers and their target groups. Also, I’d like to draw attention of readers to the platforms of such events. In addition to conventional museum classes and lectures, I was lucky to visit the Piknik naukowy (Scientific Picknick), an annual festival held in the central stadium of Warsaw. It presents the discoveries made in all fields of knowledge, from physics to underwater sports. Hundreds of interested children and adults join the festival to spend quality time. The participation in it is free like for many similar events addressed to families. Another good example of such initiatives is provided by the Archeologist’s Days (Dni archeologa) annually held in the National University of Warsaw (Uniwersytet Warszawski). They target both children and adults – parents, school graduates and even the employees of the Institute of Archeology who want to know what their colleagues from other departments are currently focused on. The offerings there go beyond mere master-classes and allow participants to taste some extraordinary ancient foods, like those of Sumerian people. This kind of events does not require high costs, except enthusiasm and professional skills which their arrangers are always able to offer. Let me warn my readers against a wrong perception that I’m calling scientists to “go to the streets” with promotional activities instead of delivering their direct occupational duties. No, this is not my point. Any of these events can be arranged by students or museum employees,
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but an expert guidance is needed to ensure that the experiments they demonstrate are genuine and scientifically flawless. There is much more to tell about the types, relevance and effectiveness of such classes, because in practice they attract adults no less successfully than children. People are showing the increasing interest in many areas of knowledge which they remember just as meager facts from their schoolbooks. The events designed to popularize the archeological science help children to learn more about our world and its structure, give them an opportunity to try hand in exploration and experiments. To my mind, however, this is not the most important effect of such classes. Their key importance is that even at a school level the pupils can (and need to) master the search of rationale for the acts of nature, learn the basics of archeological profession and its goals. With this background, there is much less probability that such a child, when grown up and looking at your excavations, would say: “Are you digging here for gold? No? You must be retaining it, I bet...» Master classes have some hidden pitfalls which should be noted however. One of the most common mistakes is to try talking about serious things in a plain language. It is very important to mind a border between science and pop culture. First of all, it is necessary to make the schoolchildren aware that the real archeological work is very distinct from the adventures of Indiana Jones or other movie characters whom we wished to follow when we were young. By trying to stick the broken ceramic item, an entertainer shows the desk work of an archeologist. The demonstration of an aquarium with layers
of colored sand imitates the stratigraphic work which should not be omitted during the exploration of an archeological artifact. However, over the post-Soviet space, the promotion of science to public remains underestimated. It is often limited to enthusiastic efforts of a single person, mostly a teacher who strives for comprehensive development of his pupils or a head of a local museum. The events and classes described above are generally inaccessible by children from province. However, as one of surprising exceptions, there is a young archeologist club in Kiev which has been working since the Soviet era and fostered several generations of candidates and doctors of science already. I’ve been always holding the view that we should thank the people who have evoked our interests and right motivation (for future occupation or other activities, for instance) no less than the teachers whom we owe our professional excellence. Just in a single last year, a number of master classes in field research methods were held for children on the platform of the Medzhibizh Castle, where the senior pupils could take part in exploration of an archeological site full of the stone-age and bronzeage artifacts. In one of the former national protected areas of Crimea I had a chance to see the mistakes made during such presentations and master classes. The initiator was repeatedly stressing that the workshop in weaving may be of interest for womenfolk, while a master class in Roman martial arts may attract men. In the context of today’s civilized world, it sounds like an expression of intolerable sexism… Fortunately, all master-classes were attended both by girls and boys.
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Finally, it should be noted that the initiatives intended to publicize sciences (including archeology) which the writer has ever faced are very far from being limited to the examples described above. The latter represent just a small portion of everything which would worth sharing with our readers. Today, nu-
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merous organizations try to promote science worldwide, and there is a lot of ways to tell children what is done by scientists and for which purpose. Also, I would like to emphasize that this article was not written just for the sake of criticism in any respect. It rather attempts to highlight the potential areas
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of improvement. To conclude, I would say that we often mistakenly treat our children just as children (or unskilled students), while we should remember that it won’t take a decade for them to become our full-value colleagues who will have to do their work better than us.
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OCTOBER–DECEMDER 2016
Moving the World Interview with Ievgen Sydoruk
T [Ukraine] [economic situation] [international cooperation] [trucking] [analysis and researches] [logistics] [projections]
he economic situation in Ukraine leaves something to be desired. The key reforms falter at the highest branches of power under mysterious circumstances. While oligarchs divide their funds, powers and impose additional taxes on the population, small- and medium-size businesses develop in the country against all odds. It is much more difficult to start one’s own business in Ukraine than in the USA or in the EU. Proper work is actively prevented by corruption, bureaucracy and deficient legal system. Therefore, starting a business in this country is equal to a feat. Considering the above, if one succeeds in developing the company, navigating it through
Tatiana Tsikavaya
the crisis with minimum losses and implementing innovated operating procedures, one cannot do without extraordinary entrepreneurial and organizational skills. Ievgen Sydoruk is a prominent representative of a new generation of Ukrainian businessmen. Being just 33 years old, this man is a successful entrepreneur. In 2010, Ievgen founded SE Trans, a freight transportation company that serves customers nationally and internationally. Over the years in business, Ievgen has perfectly mastered the art of transport company management. During the economic crisis that due to a number of reasons has been lasting in Ukraine
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INTERVIEWEE’S BACKGROUND:
— Good day, Ievgen! Please, tell us about yourself. Where were you born? Where did you grow up? Tell us about your childhood and youth. — I was born and grew up in the beautiful Ukrainian city of Vinnytsia, in an ordinary Ukrainian family, one of the millions. My mother held a senior position at a communications company. My father worked in the construction. Ever since I was at school, I became interested in cars. I attended model-car construction and aeromodelling study groups. I repeatedly participated in numerous competitions and gatherings of young designers. Regularly, as part of a team, I placed high at such events.
diploma for gaining the lead in a scientific military contest.
— What was your life after high school? — After school, I entered Kyiv Military Institute of Control and Communication which I successfully graduated from in 2005. During the studies, I was engaged in research and technology along with other cadets who were fascinated by science and military affair
— Ievgen, before starting your own business, you were pursuing a career in the public service. Could you, please, tell us about this part of your life? — After graduation, being a young and promising specialist, I received an offer to stay in the capital. That’s what I actually did. I started my career at the Security Service of Ukraine (SSU). Over the years, I rose through the ranks to senior lieutenant, but then I understood I was not ready to dedicate all my life to work for the state. The work for the SSU is quite specific, therefore, suitable to far from everyone. Many young professionals eventually go into business or choose another civil specialty. I always wanted to found my own company and try myself in business.
as much as I was. The results of my academic pursuits which, inter alia, are described in my research paper, were later adjusted to and implemented in my transport company. I also have a
— What came next? — I submitted my resignation which was signed without any problems. My old dream came true. Now I was left to my own devices, understood very
Ievgen Sydoruk, 33 years old, founder and CEO of SE TRans transport company. Anti-crisis manager with extraordinary business management abilities. Develops transport logistics for his own enterprise all by himself. Uses innovative technologies for optimization of freight transportation operations.
since 2014, Ievgen has proved himself to be an anti-crisis manager with outstanding abilities. While a lot of transport companies went bankrupt, Ievgen’s enterprise is still actively operating and bringing income. During the crisis years, none of the employees has been dismissed, the vehicle fleet has been increased, new innovative methods of work for optimization of transportation costs have been implemented. Read a detailed interview with Ievgen Sydoruk about his life experience and outstanding abilities in our magazine.
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even several years ago the economy of our country wasn’t predictable either. Those turned out to be boom years that we took for granted. In times of crisis, I learned to squeeze the most out of my business. I am sure the experience of anti-crisis management will come handy in the future more than once.
well what I wanted in life, so everything went the way it had to go. My friend and I started a transport company that I lead and develop up till now. Whereas many great businesses started in a garage, my company actually started in a truck cabin where I moved from a cozy official cabinet. For a long time, I was a driver myself, so I know my business from inside. I’ve managed to gain a lot of knowledge in the automotive activity from the lectures on «Automotive Engineering», as well as other disciplines at the University. — Ievgen, today you’ve got quite a big company, your own vehicle fleet, drivers, administrative personnel. How did you learn to manage such a complex organization? — I assume I was initially disposed to organizational activities. Moreover, the relevant attributes are stated in my performance report from the University. When it was time to abandon my work as a driver and hire my first employees, I immediately felt much more comfortable. I like people management, doing it efficiently and fairly; therefore, I’ve been gladly performing
numerous managerial functions in my company up till now. — Ievgen, many people heard that starting from 2014, thing were not going well in the Ukrainian economy. The unstable situation continues through present. Freight transportation field is among the first to feel the negative financial consequences of what is happening. How is your company going through this period? — Since before the crisis, we developed an effective logistic system based on the work with additional goods. Switch to a new operating model for the transport company has significantly increased the efficiency ratio of each car in particular and return on business in total. We’ve managed to install hydrogen generators on some vehicles. This allowed lower expenses for purchase of fuel without sacrificing any performance. Of course, we also felt the effects of the crisis on ourselves. However, the above know-how of anti-crisis management allowed us to stay afloat. Today the company business looks relatively well. We have adjusted to working under unstable conditions, although
— Ievgen, all businessmen, especially Ukrainian ones, are very talented people. Each entrepreneur, however, has the important, the strongest attribute which is placed stake on. Do you have such an attribute? — Of course, I have such an attribute. It is not easy to describe it in one word but I can tell you about it. I believe my chief asset is the lack of fear of starting new businesses. I can easily sell my company in order to, let’s say, start a similar business in another country. Apart from freight transportation, I am also planning to develop a construction business, and I am not afraid of difficulties or obstacles that may arise along the way. I just do and start something worthwhile whenever this appears necessary. Without putting away for later and without hesitating. I live up to the principle: «just do it» — that’s my strongest attribute. Super ability, if you wish. — Ievgen, what do you think about business abroad, in particular, in better economically developed countries than Ukraine? — I am very impressed with the rules of business in the USA and in the EU. Unlike our country, they have transparent rules, practically no corruption and more loyal attitude of the state to entrepreneurs in general. If I had to leave for, let’s say, the USA tomorrow, I would start a similar, or
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rather much more successful freight company. — Ievgen, to which level would you like to scale your business up? — I am absolutely sure I don’t want to rest on my laurels. I am sure that in the next few years my company will grow to the level of a national freight operator. I would like to create a successful, well-recognized brand on the market, like FedEx or something like that. I am sure, advanced freight operators utilizing new principles of work will be useful in every country even with the highest level of economic development. — Ievgen, how much do you think a businessman is useful to society as such? It is believed that entrepreneurs bring great benefit to the country, because they create jobs and raise GDP. What do you think? — I absolutely agree and share this point of view and I would also like to add something. Businessmen have always provided and still provide a powerful impulse to the development of scientific and technological advance. Just look at the things around — they are good things. Laptops, cell phones, cars.
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They are all invented by inventors-businessmen, businessmen-inventors or by inventors in cooperation with businessmen. Therefore, I personally believe that any entrepreneur is, first of all, a person who makes a positive contribution to society and to the state, serves as a good example to people and carries out lofty mission. — Ievgen, business is certainly not all your life. After all, the secret to a happy life is in harmony. Do you have a family, interests or hobbies? — I do. I adore my wife and three children (daughter Katia is 7 years old, son Vania is 2.5, daughter Ania is 6 months old). They always inspire me to new feats and achievements. In my free time, I like fishing, hunting and tourism. And… I cross-stitch pictures. Yes, such an uncommon hobby to a man. I have no bad habits; therefore, I have to sublimate energy and calm nerves in such an original way. And I’d like to admit that it is more than suitable to me. — Ievgen, thanks a lot for such an interesting and rich conversation. I wish you new victories and achievements.
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— Thank you. I am always happy to talk. Ievgen Sydoruk, a person with extraordinary abilities in business, opens a new series of interviews with successful entrepreneurs who have achieved success by their own efforts and do not wish to rest on their laurels. One can tell more and more about Ievgen’s outstanding abilities since this young man keeps pace with everything and everywhere. Apart from business and numerous hobbies, Ievgen is publicly proactive. He is an associated member of the International Automobile Transportation Association of Ukraine, participates in numerous workshops, repeatedly participated and won in contests. He also used to be in an award panel at various competitions and contests. He is an award winner in his field of activities. The young entrepreneur is an active member of the organization for road control in Ukraine, fighting corruption among law-enforcement and other officers. Ievgen is also a member of several business communities where he actively participates in the law drafting and tries in every possible way to guard private sector interests in his country.
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OCTOBER–DECEMDER 2016
Facebook Live for business. How to win sales Oles Timofeev
[personality] [interview] [online business] [internet marketing] [business incubator] [success story] [expert opinion]
A
re you using broadcasts to promote your business? If not, start doing it now with Facebook! Why this is important. Take a look at the experts‘ forecasts: 80 % of all Internet traffic before the end of 2019 will make a video. You may think «so what? 80 % OK». Now try to feel all the power of these figures: each month Inter-
net will fly around 5 million years (!) video content for 1 person. Impressive? With the video in general is clear. Why Facebook? 1. Audience of social network has almost 2 billion users from around the world. 2. 8 billion times watch online videos per day.
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Oles Timofeev The leading expert in Internet marketing in Eastern Europe, a founder of the education company for entrepreneurs of Genius Marketing, an organizer of the largest summit in the CIS on Internet promotion «Laboratory of Online Business» (2015, 2016). More than 30,000 customers in 52 countries around the world.
3. Live webcasts Facebook Live have been commented 10 times more often than normal video. 4. People watch 3 times more live webcasts. 5. Facebook Live is available in 60 countries. And another important fact for the introduction of live webcasts in a promotion strategy of your business in this social network — after updating of the algorithms of the news feed TOP places take at first namely live standups.
HOW DOES FACEBOOK LIVE WORK
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To start broadcasting from your phone you need to click on «Live» in the news feed and allow the application to use the camera. Then to make a small description, choose an audience and start live broadcasting. When you start the broadcasting, your subscribers are notified that you are on the air. Why is it important to conduct live broadcasting not from personal but business page After the completion the live broadcasting is stored, and you can change its description, add references and save as a video on the page. Your air will be seen even those who didn’t visit it. In addition (and this is important!), you can invest a couple of dollars in advertising of this video, and it will be seen at least 2 times more people. On the personal page so it won’t work. Last month we conducted a series of experiments on our business page on Genius Marketing. Result: 1 minute of attention of a person
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can be bought for only $ 0.01. Only for $ 0.01! For comparison, 1 minute of attention in YouTube is many times more expensive (this despite the fact that there is one of the cheapest). And 1 click in Google Adwords — minimum of $ 0,10 despite the fact that 80 % of clicks are then not converted.
5 IDEAS OF HOW TO USE FACEBOOK LIVE FOR YOUR BUSINESS
1. Show them what awaits them For example, you can give a tour of your store or office, give an opportunity for viewers to dive into your work environment. You can tell about the merits of some specific goods/services, show how to use them. You can answer questions and even take orders during the broadcast. 2. Host online courses Show what you can be done with your product/goods. For example, you produce cameras. You can teach clients how to make cool pictures and videos. I think if subscribers see the result that can be achieved thanks to your product, they will buy it (even if they doubt).
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ly birds». So do you give a client to feel himself exclusive, to be one of the first.
3. Let himself be supervised Especially it is actual if you are doing something to order. You can show the preparation process. For example, a bakery may use the live broadcast to show the client the process of preparing his cake. Starting from surface preparation of kitchen to delivery of the ready order to the door. How do you think does it not be credible and will not add clients on guidelines?
broadcast, tell us about the models and take pre-orders for «ear-
5. Conduct online broadcasts of events For this you have over 1.5 hour. Do live broadcasts of performances, conferences, and trainings. It will be appreciated by those who could not visit the event alive. It is not necessarily that the broadcast should be available to all. You can restrict an access to them in the settings and hold confidential online meetings.
4. Sell piping hot Have you just finished your new collection of swimwear? Make a
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Showing a backstage, you get on the right side of more and more people. And this is not the whole list. Think about how you can attract attention to your business with Facebook LIVE. In our blog geniusmarketing.me we tell detailed not only about the promotion in Facebook and other subtleties of Internet marketing. Visit it to learn more.
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Film and theatre actors of older generation in Russia are known by many people who have grown up on their films and performances. They were (and still are, despite the fact that some of them are no longer alive) the bearers of a special culture, special approach to the profession. Watching them plaing, we don’t percieve it as a play — we believe their heroes and empathize them. Who replaces the older generation? How to save that genuine and sincere feeling, that the old Russian theatre school has and that we used to call ‘classics’? There are many questions and no clear answers to them, but we can try to comprehend and understand the issue. Our today’s guest is a rising star of the domestic scene, the young representative of the old Russian theatre school who advocates for preservation of traditions, revival of the classics, sincere conversation with the audience — in defiance to what today’s film industry offers in the form of one-time sequels, action movies loaded with visual effects, but not sense, and near miss reality shows. Admit that you need to have courage to follow your own principles, openly oppose the mainstream, abandon uninteresting and superficial roles.
A Witness in the Thick of Things
Russian actor Vadim Davydov on classic and modern theatre Yelena Nelinova [personality] [interview] [success story] [innovations] [scientific development] [cultural life] [projects for children] [literature and art]
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ince his childhood, Vadim Davydov had no choice: he dreamed of becoming an actor. This love started up during the play ‘The Scarlet Flower’, which was put by his grandfather in the Youth The-
atre in Volgograd. But the fulfillment of the dream was not that easy. Vadim persistently tried to enter the theatrical universities for several years, being hurtfully ‘cut’ on the last tests. Destiny rewarded the guy from province
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with masterful teachers, successors of the Stanislavsky school. Today Vadim is an actor of classical Russian theatre.
BLOOD TYPE
— Why theatre after all? — From the early childhood I felt the burst of energy in theatre and intuitively understood that namely the theatre can shape me as a versatile person. In theory, we know a lot about what the previous generations went through, about wars, hunger, slavery and other horrors which got at mankind. I believe that man was created for happiness, and the path to this coveted happiness is always difficult. Theatre hints and tells you how to find joy, retain self-possession, and recover with body and soul. Theatre offers to look, think and most importantly — feel what is happening, it gives the audience the opportunity to find assonance between their life and the story of the hero or heroine by living the role with them. Theatre praises personality, looks at human nature under magnifying glass, shows treasures that are hidden in absolutely every human being, what a huge potential is put behind it. I have always been interested in mechanisms of perpetual conflicts, which have been in all ages, motives of actions. That’s why I had chosen theatre. It just happens that in my family everybody took one or another profession to investigate these conflicts (including domestic), to understand what the man is, how much passion he has, how much love or hate is in him. Grandfather was a great man for me, he was the master of his craft. I saw a good strong man, and I found the same qualities in two other masters, my teachers — Vsevolod Nikolaevich Shilovsky and Sergei Nikolaevich Artsibashev. It’s like they have the same blood type.
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I’ve been trying to enter metropolitan theatrical universities for several years. The first time I went to Moscow I was 16 years old. I was nobody, no protection, no money, just a boy from the province. I changed my speech, conduct, everything, in a manic desire to conquer all. And every institution refused me. During one of the attempts I was even clearly hinted that I shouldn’t even try, because all the places were already taken. You know, it’s a kind of fetish for many wealthy parents or people from art circles to enter their child into theatre school and then into theatre. And yet I entered Russian State University of Cinematography (RSUC) by myself. And to prove to everyone (and to myself) that I’m here for a reason, I worked very hard, literally plowed both through my studies and theatre work balancing actor’s work with the work of a stage decorator and stage-setter. At the At RSUC we were studying round the clock. — Was it worth the effort? — Yes, it was. Everyone has their own price. This is mine. Through my first teacher Vsevolod Shilovsky I found a complete harmony with myself.
THE LINK OF TIMES
— It’s a bold statement, sometimes people look for this harmony for their whole lives. — But it’s really true. Shilovsky reconciled me with myself. For me he is a living classic. He opens the door for you and you enter it by yourself. He will be kind with you on a professional level, but only if you’re a fan of this profession, otherwise he will not give you a hand or help you in any other way. Only at the end of study Vsevolod Nikolaevich gave me the opportunity to assign the roles for the artists and arrange the set by myself. He realized
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that I worshiped the profession, that I’m devoted to it. — Where did he get such an attitude? — Shilovsky is a student of a student of Konstantin Sergeevich Stanislavsky. As a director, he staged performances with the ‘old men’ of the Moscow Academic Art Theatre (MAAT). This is a man who honors and preserves traditions of the great theatrical treasure of Russia. He is devoted to his case. As you look at him you involuntarily want to learn everything from him. This man makes every student much better in all respects and directions. Thanks to him, I received a full-fledged profession, became more intelligent, stopped being afraid of conflict in affairs of any complexity. Now I’m 28 years old, and I can survive anywhere, because I can gather performance, perform it, and disassemble it. Actor’s profession is like a poem “Height” by Vladimir Vysotsky. You can’t let yourself be confused either by word, or by look, you have to be perfect internally, ready for the battle, otherwise you will be toppled down. — There is a lot of pathos in your words. — I have more to say: I am a hard worker and a fanatic of my work. I adore theatre, cinema, sense of delicacy, I respect cultures of all countries, and herewith I realize how many things I’m yet to learn, and what I need to work on. — In your ‘track record’ you have roles from classic performances exclusively. You don’t play in modern productions on principle? — It’s good to have both classic and modern theatre — for any view-
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performances. It’s perfect to work together, it’s a full-fledged workplace romance if you trust each other and if you are friends. Theatre of Artsibashev is a small ‘Maly Theatre’, it has all the classical repertoire. As you understood, this is mine. What is a classic today? It’s a desire to restore the decayed link of times, when heroes of books and plays, which were written centuries ago, are becoming our contemporaries. In all these performances there is everything — comedy play, grotesque, tragedy of Russian nature. Artsibashev incorporated the system of Stanislavsky and experience of the whole world theatre. Recently the art director of the theatre died. One classic fewer. er. But I am a fan of the classics. I grew up on it. Since childhood I’ve been reading a lot of different literature that explored the human soul, primarily classic. Especially I fell in love with Dostoevsky. All of it was very useful for me in the profession. Before the start of training Shilovsky gave us a huge list of literature and old films that and we had to know all the heroes and all the plots from them. This way the master made us more educated and knowledgeable. From year to year in Russian theatrical circles there are less and less followers of true, classical, old Russian school of acting. Instead of this there are a lot of modern obscure productions that don’t leave a trace. Same in cinema, there are more and more ‘popcorn’ films without deep plot and plan, — just to entertain the masses. And classics, whether it is music, literature. or theatre — is an immortal notion. — How did you get into the theatre ‘At Pokrovka’ to Sergei Artsibashev?
— The theatres of Moscow make examinations once every few years, and just in year of our graduation there was intake in the theatre ‘At Pokrovka’. Crowds of graduates were looking for a job. My wife (her name is Anastasia) and me passed through the sieve of examinations. There were four stages: I showed excerpts from graduation performances, read a lot of poetry, then there were three rounds with the director’s assignments — I had to disassemble pieces, while the material was always different, and the time for preparing the scene was declining. That way the director examined how much the person is able to work in a force majeure. My wife and me were studying in the same course, and, by the way, we were the only ones from our course who found a job immediately after graduation. Nastia played more than me, she plowed every night. In the theatre ‘At Pokrovka’ my wife had a huge amount of main roles. Ophelia in ‘Hamlet’, Sofia in ‘Woe from Wit’, Ulenka in ‘Dead Souls’… And we were taken as pair, were put in the same
— You are good at fencing and even entered competitions. Fencing is a compulsory subject in theatrical high schools, but many people are content with only academic hours, and you went on. Why? — Already during the first lesson with an épée I understood that this subject requires great seriousness, full self-control and discipline. You must listen to the teacher, you are his soldier. If you disobey, your épée will be taken away. Épée is a sacred thing, it reminds that millions of people killed with exactly the same weapon, but also they defended their lives with it. When you take épée, you understand how much you are imperfect, how sore are your feet and arms, how much are you out of tune with yourself. You fall in love with fencing, start to move miraculously, become dangerous, and it is fascinating. This university hobby of mine resulted in a serious role in the theatre — Laertes in ‘Hamlet’. Laertes is unthinkable without épée, he is a master of fencing. Moreover, I was given an assignment in performance to put
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up a fighting for four. In this performance my wife got the role of Ophelia, and lessons of fencing were also useful for her.
ONE METER ABOVE THE GROUND
— You have mentioned that classical theatre school is getting lesser demand. What’s happening? Why the familiar works are being remade in a new way or their action is being put to other, modern decorations? Why is this so? — Without these modern fancies certain part of the audience will not go to theatre. There is such a thing like epatage. It is necessary to draw an attention at any cost, so that people would talk about you — no matter good or bad. Epatage is the enemy literary and stage aesthetics. What do modern theatres do? They take classical material (I cannot say that they spoil it or look at it in a different way) and exploit the beauty which is incorporated there, add things which are ugly at the background of this beauty. Of course, this is not always happening, sometimes nice things are produced. But I’ve seen maybe five percents of decent performances. Everything else for me is a mystery. Let’s take naked people in theatre. For the sake of what there are naked genitals on stage? In modern theatre people undress physically, not being able to undress mentally, to open the most hidden corners of their soul. So that audience would come for dressed highly educated people, playing the classics, the artists should be much better prepared and the director should be 10 heads above them. These creators — d irectors, actors, composers, artists involved in theatre — should be the elite. But it is never enough. And
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it turns out that the classics are for minority, but not for the masses. The viewer for touching the classics must also be initially prepared, informed, be able for self-improvement. The more educated is the reader, viewer, the thinner he feels. In modern theatre, these skills are not as much in demand, but even this theatre has its audience, and this is as it should be. There should always be an option.
What attracts me in the classical theatre? It is based on tendencies. This is the precise work — to trace a tendency, but not complete it on obvious thing. For example, the tendency of love: this is art — to complete the action not fruity kiss, but at a distance of 20 centimeters to the lips. If you come near and grab the woman’s breast, you just break the story, tendency, and then you’re a cad. Remember ‘Nostalgia’ by Andrei Tarkovsky: the divine chest appears in the middle of the film, and man did not pick it up. In this picture is clearly shown the man’s mind, the director’s mind, the performer’s mind.
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When things are not so obvious, we have time to think, to feel, to understand where it goes. — You can’t blame all the modern theatre in its superficiality. It must have some advantages. — I agree. For example, contemporary dances managed to break away. They are surprisingly entertaining, spiritual. There is plastic, there is beauti-
ful body, constant internal and external movement and indomitable will of the performers. And about the theatre, many people have doubts where does it move, whether it exists at all. — In modern Russian cinema, if we generalize, does the same thing happen? — From many of my colleagues I’ve been hearing the same thing for a long time: ‘such a standstill!’, ‘such a horror!’. — I’m judging very subjectively. One of the best examples is 2015 movie ‘The Dawns Here are Quiet…’.
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not get in any serial. You’re just not right for the job like this: you are sick with vocabulary, lack of depth, it’s not working out for you, you fail at the trial stage. Of course, there are good serials, but very few of them. As for full-length movies, I can say that there are fabulous directors, but they film once in a few years, it’s difficult to get to them, because they look for a particular type. I was on trial at Chukhray, Zvyagintsev. It is pleasing to be there, it is nice in all respects.
Maybe because I grew up watching 1972 movie by Stanislav Rostotsky I couldn’t watch the new film. I did not see that shrillness that was present in the earlier version. Firstly, why bother with a remake? Secondly, why make it worse than the original? — You provided a good example. In film ‘The Dawns Here are Quiet’ you should think about the soul, about the girls who go to the battle because they were left high and dry. But if already in the early stages (I am talking about today’s ‘Dawns’) an actress should be filmed naked in the bath, will she really think about the soul? She will go to the gym once more and make depilation. The new drama doesn’t appear, but it should dictate what to do to other crafts. For some reason in Russia script writers cannot write so that you would like to play, and if it is suddenly turned out well, it will not be allowed on television. If there is no new drama — there are remakes, which exploit the old great drama. And ex-
ploitation is slavery. First of all, in their own minds. Russia is now despite the fact that we have many talented poets, artists, filmmakers, composers, actors. — You have a number of roles in serials. Are you ashamed to act in serials or not anymore? — Actors go to shoot in serials to earn for a living. In my opinion, it is not an art. I played in serials a little, and I did not get more than lead role in episode. But in those roles there were text and logic. I had to give up repeatedly, because it was poorly written, it not interesting. Serial is a race. Sometimes during 12 hours shift I had to play in seven scenes. That’s a lot. For me it’s very difficult to talk to those who shoot serials. They don’t need your school, don’t need in-depth analysis of the image. Russian TV serials often neglect even cause and effect relationship. They need faster, faster, faster. If you as an actor is committed to something huge, classics, you will
— How far can an actor go while working? — For example, be ready to die, like Leonardo DiCaprio, and decide to make hundred doubles in icy water. But actor must have enough intelligence and skill to stay alive. There was a case when I received main role from Shilovsky at the very moment when I had severe form of hepatitis, which fortunately was not contagious. I was of yellow-orange color, made decorations, rehearsed, produced performance with temperature 38. In this regard, master believed me and let a lot. — It is widely believed that Russian theatrical school is one of the best in the world. In what lies its strength? — In true respect and worship to art. The discipline here is not even iron, but diamond. You can be a genius, weep at the click of director in the context of role, but if there is no discipline, sooner or later you’re going to explode, like on minefield. By the way, the most talented, as a rule, are the most lax, they believe that everything will come anyway. Half of our course was expelled due to several delays and lack of respect for the pro-
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fession. Shilovsky said: ‘You are not allowed to come to me late’ And that’s correct. If you don’t overcome your disciplinary troubles — you will never become anybody, you will not actualize yourself. Discipline is the internal culture. And without culture people are doomed. Vsevolod Nikolaevich is a real actor, and besides he taught us: actor must preserve his nature, he should smell good, look good, and even if he is a genius, he must plow every day, because he understands, what price has this spotlight. Another few phrases of Vsevolod Nikolaevich: ‘If you don’t work in the profession more than 12 hours a day, you are nobody’, ‘You need to work very hard and than — maybe (!) — something succeeds’. Our master paid great attention to the speech, what it should be: without words-parasites, idiocies, without swearing in the presence of women. He taught us to speak with own voice, by ourselves, to be attentive to details, to have own point of view, to hear the partner not only on the playing field, but also outside the theatre.
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The strength of Russian theatre, certainly, is in Stanislavsky school: you don’t play anybody, you play yourself in the given circumstances — and this is the beginning of a great teaching. Here the knowledge is important: it is necessary to understand who you are, where you are, what do you want, not being afraid of diving in circumstances, specified by the playwright, staying by yourself upon that, switching on intuition and logic. You must take these circumstances with all your nerves, skin, intestines and brain. If you analyze, get to the essence, it turns out a true work of art. At the same time, we were taught to step on our own throat, to give up our low interests, to worship our craft fanatically. Another important difference of classical theatre. The performance is collected, it is already in the repertoire, it is already coming to the viewer, but there are still constant rehearsals, the performance is being polished, is becoming bigger and more accurate. This principle — to do bulkier what you did yesterday, to become stronger than you were, more intelligent than you were — is fundamental.
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Big ideas, culture of reproduction, hope and beauty — all of this must be in the theatre ‘one meter above the ground’. There is such an expression about true art.
PROFILE
Vadim Davydov Born on November 24, 1987. All his childhood he lived in the same house with his grandfather Vadim Ivanovich Davydov, Honored Artist of the RSFSR, theatre actor and director, and grandmother Larisa Viktorovna Davydova, Honored Artist of Russia. At RSUC he studied in the studio of People’s Artist Vsevolod Shilovsky, a representative of old classical Stanislavsky school of acting. During the studies, he played in three diploma performances: ‘Wolves and Sheep’ (Goretsky), ‘Zoya’s Apartment’ (Chinese Cherubim), ‘Butterflies are Free’ (Don Baker). At the same time he worked on decorations of these performances. Among the roles in the theatre ‘At Pokrovka’: ‘Hamlet’ (Laertes), ‘Tartuffe’ (Valère), ‘Star Boy’ (Yan), ‘The Government Inspector’ (Mishka), ‘Arbenin’ (Player), poetic play ‘Alarm Bell’ (the main role).
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Art on Wheels
On “fast” paintings, women’s life and happiness Elena Nelinova
[personality] [success story] [investment in art] [contemporary art] [cultural life] [aerography]
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alented people are many and finding them is an easy job in the Internet age. Thanks to the website www.autotattoo.kz site, a link I was sent by a friend, I got acquainted with Yuliya Mulsimova from Kazakhstan. A picture, another one, someone’s portrait, an abstraction, surrealistic paintings – all of this would be more appropriate in
a gallery but for one slight problem: these are pictures on cars! Veritable paintings on wheels. Me and Yuliya conversed via Skype, the vibe being most creative. The camera was conveying a bright picture – the open face of a charming young woman with a shiny smile, and a lot of paintings in different styles, from realism to abstractions
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Yuliya Muslimova, 34, born in Alma-Ata, the capital of Kazakhstan (this city is called differently in Kazakh – Almaty, the last vowel stressed). In 1999, she enrolled at an academy of arts to become a theater and cinema art director and stage designer. She cooperated with Kazakh film in the Nomad project. When the project ended, she started painting on stuccowork, imitating natural stone and wood, making interior paintings, participating in the decoration of the residence of Kazakhstan’s president, working with a private company making columns. Ten years ago, she completed her training as an aerography artist in Moscow. She has been managing her art workshop for the last five years. Yuliya is married to a Tatar and Tatars often take her for one of their own despite the fact Yuliya’s ancestors include Russians, Caucasians and Lithuanians. Yuliya thinks it is the Lithuanian genes that may help balance her temper and prevent her from “screwing up”. However, there is always a risk of “screwing up” because an artist is a creative person first and foremost. They live by feelings and perceive the world around them differently from other people.
and landscapes resembling works by French impressionists, in the background, behind Yuliya’s back.
A CAR WITH AN ATTITUDE
Judging by your site and what I see, you do aerography in different styles and your pictures don’t resemble each other either. Do you
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have no preferences when it comes to art movements, do you like everything? All of this for me is a way of self-expression, this can be done differently. Yet aerography is the love of my life, and when the opportunity to do what you like best is denied to you, the soul suffers. Unfortunately, aerography was officially banned in Kazakhstan five years ago under the pretense of the fact that the pictures inconvenience drivers on the roads, distracting them from the traffic. Before that, traffic policemen started stopping painted cars, started denying registrations, without even explaining the reasons. May be there’s something in this ban? A driver gets carried away, distracted while looking at a picture – and here you are, an accident. Well, it may be so. But I believe that banners, the brightly flashing advertisements on billboards along roads
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is far more dangerous. The hotties wearing shirt skirts and going along the sidewalk pose a danger, too. So, drivers just have to be more attentive. A car may be an objet d’art, it may be admired, it may be viewed and one may drive it. After the picture is applied, 50 percent of its surface is its main color, 50 percent being the picture. One could specify in the certificate that the color is combined, and better still – consider aerography as a type of tuning rather than state that it is a change of color. However, the legislators decided it was unacceptable. There is a ban on aerography in several countries, for instance, in Belarus. It is permitted in Russia and the US. Moreover, this market has big prospects – one can apply not only pictures but also advertising on the car, promoting one’s projects. Aerography is quite costly. Many people try to save money nowadays.
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Thus, my customer is a well-off person, ready to pay for an opportunity to stand out radically and qualitatively. But it’s not just about money. It’s important for me that the customer is content, important to see this joy in one’s face when the person gets the car of his or her dreams, jumping and crying with excitement like a child. Paintings also bring joy, of course, but the scale here is on a somewhat different level. The level of ambition is different. It is important for me that people understand what art is, that they enrich themselves culturally. Today, it’s too complicated to think about art, people became deeply concerned with their future, stopped paying attention to spiritual stuff. They are looking for the meaning of life, but it’s all simple: you have to start with bringing joy to others. A benevolent attitude opens various potentials in a person. That’s why it’s so important for me to see a smile, that’s why I try hard to surprise customers. When I man-
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age it, I understand that I don’t work in vain, that this occupation doesn’t just bring money but also helps me make someone happy. Do you copy the pictures that already exist or do you make up images on your own? The customer often says: “I don’t know what I want – something space-
themed or animal-themed.” I offer the sketches and collages I make in Photoshop. It is proprietary work, I do something of my own, something individual rather than just copying. When I do aerography, I feel like I’m merging with the car, it’s a living organism for me rather than a piece of metal. The idea of the animate is presented in a narrow sense in our culture – even animals are inanimate in certain nations, and in the Russian language, the animate includes all living being, while, for instance, plants aren’t. When you approach the car, it’s a living thing for you, you apply a picture that exactly suits it, that constitutes a whole with it, being a continuation of it, on it. I even talk to the car: “Well, let’s work a bit?” If the work fails, the choice of the picture may be incorrect, not reflecting the character of the car. If the picture doesn’t suit, what to do? Repaint it? I pay attention to signs, and if I see from the start that the picture doesn’t go down well, I change the concept while I actually work, take other colors intuitively. The main thing is the
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owner’s consent. Aerography allows trying a wide array of effects. Moreover, it is a very painstaking work that requires particular accuracy. How much time does it take? Everything depends on the fact what part of the car the customer wants to paint. Artists have different speeds; for me, working with the hood takes 3-5 days. If the car is painted whole, it takes three weeks. After all, it’s more than just painting. You have to remove super fluous parts and cover those that can’t be removed with paper to hide them from the paint because it is very acrid. Then, you have to wipe out the varnish and prepare the surface. This is the job of an auto lacquerer. Then is the time when I start, diluting certain colors, starting with the background, then displaying the main details, covering them with color, giving a shade. Then comes the elaboration – the volume, painting small details, the texture. When the picture is ready, the lacquerer covers it with varnish, removes the protective elements, paper and tape, puts parts into place. Then comes the polishing. You said a car is a living thing, which means it has a character. Is it different from car to car or a generalization can be made for each brand – for instance, Fords are this way, and Mercedes are that way? This doesn’t depend on the brand of the car. Each car is individual. And it has nothing to do with its technological peculiarities – speed or design. I don’t know where it comes from. It may be of importance where the car in question rides, in what territory, in what country. For instance, people in Kazakhstan like eating delicious stuff, buying expensive things
and showing them off, like simple pleasures and entertainment. And it makes an impact – the car should be bright, eye-catching. There is an energy field over each country, it dictates a person’s character, interests, the attitude to the world around him or her. Furthermore, the car as one’s favorite toy reflects a person’s inner world.
There is a portrait of Marilyn Monroe on your site, where your aerography works are exhibited. Why it is this image that you chose? We wanted to put a car as an objet d’art next to one of the malls (and it stood there for a time). When I was just a beginner, I had to establish myself somehow, show what I’m capable of. We took an old Volga no
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longer drivable, your tuning specialists made something resembling an old foreign car out of it. And what can be associated with it? America of the 50s. I made an aerography: black-andwhite Chicago and New York on the left and on the right, and Monroe’s portrait on the hoods. This is character and beauty. If she had lived to an old age, I think she wouldn’t have been this famous. Monroe is a symbol of beauty one should be capable of catching. An image of an eternally young woman.
WHEN THE NAME MATTERS
If not aerography, not painting, then what? What occupation would you like? I’m interested in many things. There are things I want to try out. For instance, I also like the technique of props. It is a very interesting work. I worked as a props woman in Kazakh film, on the set of Nomad from 2002 till 2003. All the books in this film are made with my hands. I had to invent technologies along the way. For instance, people bring you a piece of raw leather two by three meters, and you have to cover wood-
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en bars with it so that they look like old books. I had a bath where I soaked the leather and pull it over the bars; when it dried, it would fit the bars closely. But you also have to make up the décor, the straps and stuff. I used wax, laid patterns in gold thread. I also had a machine with which I imposed the books – a frame with threads to which each broadside of paper had to be tied. I would get full-blown old books, only without any text. However, it’s not just books that I had my hand in. There was a lot of work for props people, there were different props shops – weapons, household items, clothes, furniture… A whole city was built for the filming, we would paint the tiles with which the entrance gate is decorated and make adornments for the yurts every day. At least 30 people of us worked to create the old things, supervised by our Italian colleagues, who taught us a lot.
AN ENDURANCE RACE
Now you have an artistic workshop of your own. I guess not all artists will dare to make a business out of
their occupations. Many either stop creating or fail at business. We (my husband and I) originally thought of a family business that would allow using my skills. We got interested in the fresco technology – an image printed on a paper base is stuck on a wall, which results in a fresco-like effect. However, if we had started doing it, it would only be as dealers of a Moscow-based company, it is pure sales and not exactly what we wanted. The same company had paper-based paintings strained on a stretcher. These are easy to make, but such pictures also tear quickly. We started thinking about the technology, how to make pictures so that they look like oil paintings but aren’t so costly at the same time (“oil” is costly and takes a long time to dry). We invented a technology of our own that facilitates the artist’s work: we apply mastic on the canvas, a solid base is formed, the paint doesn’t soak in and dries more quickly. An intermediate option is printing on canvas, a sketch for an artist. Printing itself cannot be named full-fledged painting, it’s an imitation, and with our technology, we get painting, but in a different form, a different shape. At the same time, you get a unique product, each work is individual. The technology is of use to designers if you have to quickly decorate a large hotel, restaurant or cafe. We give the artist an opportunity to create more paintings with no enormous energy and time input, as it is this input that makes the works very expensive, they aren’t for a common customer who wants to have an objet d’art at home. If a common painting takes at least a week, with our technology, it takes three days. We use this technology in our workshop and the pictures are in no way inferior to oil
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painting in terms of quality. We are currently planning to file a patent for our invention. What do you get commissioned most often? There are many portrait commissions. A real portrait boom. There were days when I would even spend my nights at work because I was over whelmed. I didn’t want to upset people because many make commissions as anniversary gifts. I try to use various techniques in each specific case. Before taking a commission, I learn as much as I can about the person, what is his or her hobby, what character does he or she have in order to reflect the soul. You can, for instance, take a common photo and make a surrealistic portrait. You’ll get an objet d’art rather than just a portrait in the classical sense. Can one do one’s business without thinking of survival? No. At the moment I’m working to survive. I spend days and nights in the workshop. I complete current commissions, prepare for large-scale projects, plan to train youngsters in aerography, wanting to show them what a tremendous, interesting path for self-expression it is. My husband is extremely helpful in all matters and his parents help as well. We have two daughters, 6 and 3 years old, they are very creative and despite the fact they are still little, I think they could keep my ball rolling. In order to sell your paintings, you have to make your name. There is a joke: “If you want to perform whatever occurs to you, you have to become Grebenshchikov first.”[Boris Grebenshchikov is a well-known Russian poet, musician, singer and composer, founder of Aquarium, one of the
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oldest rock bands]. Sometimes people with names do whatever sells well, the art level being low. I don’t judge, it’s everyone’s right to earn money with commissions. Creation must not be stopped and converted to money. If I could arrange the work in the workshop, I would get down to working on my creative project. For instance, relax pictures not complicated in themes and putting in the right mood to free one’s consciousness, feeling-oriented. I would like to make a series of such paintings, put all my powers and soul into them.
THE CLASSICAL LEGACY
What is the main distinction of modern painting from classical painting? Modern painting is bright, garish, sometimes lacking in the elaboration inherent to classical painting, such as Dutch painting, for instance, when an object is so real that you want to touch it. There is more abstraction now, the method of execution being combined. All of this stands for a fast pace of life. What is it that inspires you? Whose paintings you could look at endlessly?
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First and foremost, Vrubel. I like all his works, his Demon is one of my favorite paintings – despite the fact the painter had a sad fate, and the paintings were affected by his mental condition. The person has a subtle worldview and this affects his works. I like Van Gogh’s manner of execution – his circles, cosmogony. When I made a copy of his Sunflowers, I understood how fast he painted, mixing multiple colors on the canvas, creating a blend. This results in freshness of painting and lightness. I could look endlessly at these vibrant colors and riches of coloration. I studied the details of his biography – he painted in such a pastose and cyclic style when he had a mental disorder, and when he was stabilized, he painted in a more conventional manner, which makes you feel sorry for the artist. Whatever happened to him, he created for eternity. As for Degas, I like the lightness and airiness of his materials, he is amazing at painting ballet dancers. I also like Monet’s and Manet’s emotional components, the luxury of their color palettes. Each of them delights main his own way. I like pre-revolutionary art,
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I’m a fan of it – I like Petrov-Vodkin, Aivazovsky. They all paint not just to entertain people, it’s their inner world. How they pore dove reach painting is admirable. You gave examples from the classics. However, mustn’t there be those whose paintings you like among modern artists? There is the artist Vladimir Volegov, he paints children and family portraits in a delightfully sincere manner. I also like the sunny works (mostly still-lives) of Mariya Pavlova. These paintings inspire me, give me a good mood. Can one learn to understand art? For instance, experts at an exhibitions talk about the conceptuality of an exhibit of rusty nails and wire with sophisticated faces. How to figure out whether it is a creation of genius or no? If it is done for the audience’s fun, it has no value. How to feel it? You have to synchronize yourself with
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the object, try to understand whether this touches your subconscious. You must live everything. If there is a vibe coming from a work, if something catches, then it has not been done in vain. I never criticize: I don’t like it, but someone does. A thing should please, bear information. Yet… After all, there are shocking things in art, but they also should trigger emotions. Paintings with no spirituality and vibe are deprived of a personalized approach and cease to be art objects. Many follow fashion and it breaks the concepts of beauty and art. The audience is spoilt, waits for impressions, and one can try standing out. For instance, I cannot call Malevich’s Black Square art. Did he seize the right moment? Yes, maybe it was something special at that moment, it intrigued people.
ON STEREOTYPES
What’s your attitude to the widespread idea that men are better cooks, hairdressers and artists?
I don’t agree with it all. As far as cooks and hairdressers are concerned, there may be a grain of truth – where it’s not about the emotional state (and you cannot but agree that women are more emotional), men do it better. There were times when women occupied a certain position in society – their rights were limited. A woman could not aspire to a higher status, equal to that of men. Have you watched Big Eyes? A female artist could not fulfill herself because it was the general understanding that she had to be a homemaker and submit to her husband financially and emotionally. But she made extremely unusual paintings and she managed to gain recognition – but only because she sold her works in her husband’s name. Women’s liberation is a relatively young phenomenon, the age-old habits of “a woman owes this and that” are hard to erase and the male population of the planet has a condescending attitude to the fight for equal rights: “They’ll play a little and come back to the hearth.” And it’s new for a woman to be not just a wife, mother or daughter but also an artist, a creative person. These times are yet ahead. There is a strong stereotype about women at the wheel as well. Dividing things and occupations into masculine and feminine ones is a misconception. If a woman is more emotional than a man, she has to learn how to control herself. There are no bad women drivers, there are bad drivers in general. There are extremely daring women, they manoeuver and cut off people on the road. You draw level with the car exactly in order to look who’s at the wheel, and there’s a woman! This destroys all the myths. I have a very warm
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relationship with my car, but my driving style is masculine. When a person is flexible, he or she is given an opportunity to grow. Men and women shouldn’t be compared. The alternative point of view should be respected. I don’t agree with derision of the way women think, allegedly being more naïve and light-minded. I don’t agree with stereotypes of men and women in general. Every person regardless of gender is individual. You can’t do aerography, so you’re going to develop your studio? In what direction? My dream is to gather talented people, artists, sculptors, woodcarvers, specialists working with metal, fabrics and crockery around me. So that a person comes to us and chooses whatever interests him or her, so that everyone can fulfill his or her needs in our studio. There should also be charity. Every month I do some kind of charity
project – bring some of the paintings to orphanages and give some away to my acquaintances. Once, while being on my maternity leave, I painted the walls in a kindergarten for free. I did a bright picture, 3 by 6 meters, on the wall. That was how I decid-
ed to thank the universe for what I have. You don’t have to look for happiness intangible things. You need to do what you get right, what you like. What makes me happy is my work, whether it is a commercial or creative project.
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Live in Jazz Style Svetlana Kogan
[personality] [success story] [investment in art] [contemporary art] [cultural life] [painting]
S
ooner or later there is a moment for all the real artists when the number of their meticulously counted exhibitions and the list of their works presented in more or less prestigious museums and collections cease to be the key acknowledgement of their success as an artist. The relevance and sense of their works are determined by the works themselves – quality becomes more important than quantity. The state of search gets to a
new stage of confidence in the fact that the right art strategy has been selected. I believe these are the things that characterize Sergey Mosiyenko’s creative work today. The artist has always stood out due to his pronounced creative manner. Over the recent years, he has remained one of the leaders in Siberian art and has been widening the range of his interests (posters, caricatures, scenography, book and magazine illustrations, easel graphic
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Sergey Mosiyeko works, graphic design, etc.). Today, his work mainly involves painting but he manages to preserve those stylistic features of his art language which make his works modern, relevant, and fascinating. He incorporates some features and methods typical of graphics into painting together with his own ironic attitude towards things happening around us and, as a result, creates a kind of new “virtual reality” which reflects a complex outlook on the world by a millennial who is, as a rule, torn between confidence and doubt, information overload and the necessity of analytical asceticism for making up his mind, etc. This might have predetermined Mosiyenko’s desire to turn to biblical scenes which have become the key motif in the recent years. Such paintings reflect “pilgrimages to holy places”, to “places of art where it is still possible to make archeological discoveries and experience sublime emotions or intellectual meditations”. This must have enabled him to move over from his initial period, largely bred by pre-perestroika situation of bans, to the present period which is defined by artistic and technical features of his works. Contact with contemporary western art has resulted neither in pessimistic ideas, nor in desire to turn to more radical practices of artistic selfexpression. On the contrary, such contact made Mosiyenko convinced that he’s chosen the right art strategy. The paradox around Mosiyenko’s paintings is that, on the one hand, they generally fit in the context of contemporary European art in terms of their artistic and technical features, style, exceptional technical
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completion, however, their informational and intellectual framework is bred by Russian culture. Aesthetic environment of his thoughts imprinted in his canvases is rich in the finest subtleties that can be perceived only in an attempt to decipher the logic of artist’s design. The artist has no intention to be liked by the beholder. He is engrossed in his own game of art. Yet, this continuous presence of artist’s personality interwoven with virtually perfect technical execution weaves its own special magic, which accounts for neverending interest in artist’s works shown by audience comprised of many and various people ranging from highbrow intellectuals to rosy-cheeked housewives, from worldweary bohemians keen on provocative things to rationally thinking art dealers. I could now try to name five core factors shaping Mosiyenko’s creative path. They must be intellect, irony, eroticism, technical perfection, and virtuosity. The outcome depends on prevalence of one factor or combination of several of them. But the main thing is beyond all that. No matter how often critics try to “dissect” artist’s works, there will still remain something intangible, magical, and elusive that the artist has held back. It is this “to-be-continued-effect” that makes us look forward to a new encounter, a new exhibition, new discoveries…
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for the devoted musician to identify the great Armenian musicians and composers who have made contributions to the world of music and have been unfairly forgotten. Mikael, who was born in Armenia, studied in Moscow and shares his professional skills with young musicians of China, will be giving a concert through the Secrets of Armenia musical project and has dedicated this concert to renowned Armenian composer and People’s Artist of the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic Haro Stepanyan. “Of course, I have come to satisfy my longing for my birthplace, my Homeland and enjoy the sun in Armenia, but I am mainly in Armenia to give a concert at Cafesjian Center for the Arts on August 3. I am dedicating the concert to renowned Armenian composer Haro Stepanyan. Unfortunately, few people talk about that talented composer and don’t reflect much on his works. This makes me sad, and I want people to remember all talented musicians and often remember them and reflect on their works. Haro Stepanyan was born
Mikael Ayrapetyan: «Let us live, create and be the devotees and advocates of our Homeland, our culture and our arts» Karine Avagyan
[personality] [success story] [international projects] [cultural life] [music]
W
hile hosting Diasporan Armenian pianist Mikael Ayrapetyan and his wife, pianist Yulia in the editorial office of Hayern Aysor electronic newspaper of the RA Ministry of Diaspora, we talked about the purpose of Mikael’s visit, which is a sacred duty
in Gandzak, the native land of 12th century renowned historian Kirakos Gandzaketsi, fable writers Vardan Aygektsy and Mkhitar Gosh. At the age of 17, Stepanyan participated in WWI. In 1919, he studied at Tbilisi State Conservatory for a year and met Romanos Melikyan. In 1923, he studied at the Gnessin Music
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Eduard Abramian’s 24 Piano Preludes Review by: Jed Distler
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Eduard Aslanovich Abramian (19231986) played a central role in modern Armenian musical life as a teacher, pianist, and composer. Although his creative output was not particularly large, his 24 Preludes from 1958 add up to an hour’s worth of keyboard music. Unlike other composers whose 24-prelude sets are systematically ordered and feature one prelude in every key, Abramian is less doctrinaire about tonal relationships, and in fact omits D major and A minor while offering two preludes each in D minor and E-flat minor. More importantly, the music is both accessible and well written for piano, frequently using folkloric motives and gestures to launch more intricately-wrought textures and ideas. No. 2 in C major begins with a curvy melody supported by a lilting left-hand ostinato, building into a full-bodied
climax that suggests a great pops virtuoso like Roger Williams sweeping through Nacio Herb Brown’s 1933 hit song “Temptation”. No. 6’s spiraling passagework recalls Rachmaninov, while the melodic twists and turns are pure Borodin. For all of No. 8’s Russian-tinged modality, the rhythmic snap and fanciful right-hand flourishes could have walked out of Falla’s Three Cornered Hat. Annotator Malcolm MacDonald calls No. 11 “the skittish dance”, but its brooding opening pages dominated by the lower registers and impassioned repeated chords suggest a dark, necromantic outing in Scriabin land. It contrasts to the lyrical No. 18 in G minor characterized by gentle chromaticism. Imagine Rachmaninov and Scriabin collaborating on a Prelude, and you’d probably get something like the concluding B minor. Mikael Ayrapetyan’s assured technique and
School of Moscow and was a student of Mikhayil Gnessin. In 1926-30, he was a student of Shcherbakov at Leningrad Conservatory. In 1927-29, he participated in the folk music gathering campaign that Kristapor Kushkaryan organized in different regions of Armenia and wrote more than 350 Armenian and foreign songs that were later adapted. In his memoirs, Haro Stepanyan wrote that that campaign helped him better recognize the beauty of Armenia and he confessed that he had written most of his songs under the influence of his impressions of those days, particularly the song “Hey, Aragats!” This great composer created five operas, three symphonies, several romantic songs, chamber and
instrumental music and a concerto for the piano. Haro Stepanyan also helped enrich and enhance Armenian classical music. From 1930 to 1934, he was the chair of the creative class of Yerevan Komitas State Conservatory. In 1947, he chaired the Union of Composers of Armenia. In 1938, he was elected Deputy of the Supreme Council of Armenia. Gnessin said the following as he expressed his unique opinion of Stepanyan: “Stepanyan’s delicate taste, poetry and stylistic glimpses deserve to be admired.”
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natural flair for his countryman’s aesthetic result in performances that effortlessly fuse poetic nuance and high-octane virtuosity. My one halfquibble concerns loud passages where certain high notes slip out of tune and the engineering turns strident and congested. Thanks to Grand Piano for continuing to uncover rare and previously unrecorded repertoire such as Abramian’s Preludes. Well worth hearing. BUY NOW FROM ARKIV MUSIC Recording Details: ABRAMIAN, EDUARD: 24 Preludes for Piano Mikael Ayrapetyan (piano) Grand Piano - 665 CD
We don’t have the right to forget or rarely remember the musician who has made such great contributions. Through the “Secrets of Armenia” musical project, I have decided to reflect on such worldclass musicians. I am always supported by founder of Armenian rock music, director of Ayas Group Artur Metinyan,
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REVIEW
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Support us financially by purchasing this from Armenian Piano Music Komitas (Komitas VARDAPET) (18691935) Six dances for piano (1916) [15:41] Aleksandr SPENDIARIAN (Spendiarov) (1871-1928) Crimean Sketches, Op.9 (1903) [10:00] Arno BABADJANIAN (1921-1983) Prelude (1947) [1:43] Melody (1973) [2:09] Humoresque (1972) [1:51] Impromptu, ‘Exprompt’ (1936) [2:39] Vagharshapat Dance (1947) [1:47] Elegy (1978) [4:06] Eduard ABRAMIAN (1923-1986) From 24 Preludes (1948-1972) [10:15] Eduard BAGDASARIAN (1922-1987) From 24 Preludes (1951-1958) [8:11] Robert AMIRKHANIAN (b.1939) In Front of a Portrait (2009) [3:52]
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Children’s Images (2009) [8:21] Spring Drops (2009) [5:15] Mikael Ayrapetyan (piano) rec. 2012, Grand Concert Hall of the Moscow State University of Culture and Arts, Moscow NAXOS 8.573467 [75:51] Recently someone criticised me for saying I had been pleased to be introduced to the music of Albania which I described as “...this little known corner of Europe...” implying I was being condescending. I fail to see how and I’ll risk it again by saying that it’s a privilege to be educated in the music of Armenia which, to me at least, is not well known. The disc begins with six marvellously melodic dances for piano by priest composer Soghomon Georgi Soghomonian, known as Komitas who
was, like Bartók, a great collector of native folksongs and tunes which he helped preserve by using them as a basis for his compositions. A gifted singer himself he crafted many of his collected pieces into a state in which they could be presented for performance. These short pieces have a disarming simplicity and a feeling that they could go on forever. They could easily be woven into the fabric of a symphony. These are the stuff of which earworms are made though in my ears each of these six vies with the rest to take precedence. Aleksandr Spendiarian (known in Russia as Spendiarov) concentrated more on orchestral music in preference to the vocal music that formed the majority of Komitas’ output. He is credited with helping develop an Armenian national sound that kept its own distinctive voice and set it apart from the ‘domination’ of Russia whose musical influence was understandably strong. Most would-be composers from Armenia and for that matter from all the other countries that were eventually to become republics within the USSR naturally ended up in either Moscow or St. Petersburg/ Leningrad for their musical education. Spendiarian was no exception, having
who is my stepfather and good friend. Spiritual values have always been highly appreciated by my family of musicians and art lovers (my grandfather, Hrant Dmitryuk played the piano, my mother, Katya Dmitryuk also played, my grandmother is Merited Artist of the Republic of Armenia, actress of Stanislavsky Theater of Yerevan Irina Marchenko). My family taught me to love music, appreciate and learn from our greats and never forget all the people with great talent and who have
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lessons from Rimsky-Korsakov (18961900) and spending most of his creative life in Russia, hence the other spelling of his name. His Crimean Sketches were inspired by the melodies of his homeland and were premièred in 1903. As with the Komitas pieces these bear the recognisable imprint of folk music but use a more complex style and as the note-writers explain show an influence of Chopinesque figuration. There is no doubt that every piece on this disc is captivating due to the rich nature of the source material. These are no exception with a frequent mesmeric feeling to them.
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merely that they were all drawn to tap into the rich vein of folk melodies from their homelands.
The same influences exerted themselves on all the composers represented here and there is a collective feel that stretches across from the earliest pieces (late 19th century) to the most recently composed, dating from only a few years ago. Arno Babadjanian whose works here date from the 1930s to the 1970s also incorporated these folk-inspired melodies. Sometimes it is only the more modern style of writing that gives away the fact that you are listening to a different composer to the two previous ones. This is not to imply that there is little that distinguishes the music of each from another but
Eduard Abramian and Eduard Bagdasarian were contemporaries and of Babadjanian. Each was born within three years of each other and died within four years of each other. Both Abramian and Bagdasarian wrote collections entitled 24 preludes and the disc presents four of the Abramian and three of Bagdasarian sets. Abramian’s do not present pieces in major and minor keys as did Chopin - some keys appear more than once others are omitted altogether. This may be explained by the fact that they were composed over a long period of almost 25 years and only after completion were they arranged as a set. Bagdasarian’s on the other hand follow Chopin’s lead in concept while echoes of Rachmaninov are most evident in the writing. They are all brilliantly inventive and infectious works and it is nice to know that each composer’s complete collection of these is available on Grand Piano discs GP665 (Abramian) and GP664 (Bagdasarian). Having heard them I am sure listeners will feel encouraged to explore them all which is well worth doing.
made their contributions to Armenian music throughout history. We have given many concerts through this musical project. In June 2015, we organized a classical music concert dedicated to the Centennial of the Armenian Genocide at the Large Hall of Moscow State Conservatory, performing the works of Komitas, Armen Tigranyan, Aram Khachaturian, Arno Babajanyan, Eduard Mirzoyan and Robert Amirkhanyan. We advocate Armenian classical music and the composers whose works
are rarely performed. We organize world premieres, record and release albums of Armenian academic music at Armenian Music Records. In October 2012, we organized the concert featuring performances of the chamber music of pianist Eduard Baghdasaryan, who was a very unique musician of the 20th century. This will be ongoing. This is a job that is pleasant and binding, but I do it with pleasure. After the August 3 concert dedicated to great composer
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The sole composer of the music presented here who is still among us and composing is Robert Amirkhanian (b.1939). Even though the three works of his date from only six years ago they embody the same compelling folkloric motivation as do all the other 23 pieces on the disc. Completing a full circle we read that Amirkhanian was a teacher at the State Conservatory in Armenia’s capital Yerevan which institution bears the name of Komitas in that composer’s honour. Once again the threads of Armenian folk melodies are detectable in his music though through a more modern prism. This incorporates elements of French impressionism with whiffs of the dreamy nature of Debussy and of jazz that adds a touch of ‘spice’. All the music here is highly enjoyable and draws one back for repeated listening. Pianist Mikael Ayrapetyan is the perfect vehicle to drive these pieces. Yerevan-born himself the music inevitably runs through his musical veins and all the nuances inherent are subtly illuminated by this skilful musician. This is an extremely enjoyable disc. Steve Arloff
Haro Stepanyan, we have a lot of things to do. Let us live, create and be the devotees and advocates of our jobs, our nation, our Homeland, our culture and our arts. This is the mission, and I am ready to invest my professional skills and potential to accomplish that mission. I thank all those who support us. I also thank the Armenian people, Armenia and all art lovers in general.” ….And we are grateful to you, patriotic Armenian! We thank you for your exceptional efforts and dedication.
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[IT] [investment] [expert’s opinion] [books] [publishing business] [projects for children] [book’s market] [innovation]
Interactive books — are a new format Kanstantsin Strausau
B
ooks are generally thought to be at stake. Different electronic devices are becoming increasingly popular, animation is rapidly developing and children prefer watching TV and playing computer games to reading. The question of how to promote a love of reading for children and at the same time to vary letters and lines and thus to make the process more interesting is current concern now. One of the ways to find a solution is the interactive books. It is a transitional stage between a book and an application: the reading process is still dominant, but animation joins it, some parts of the screen “come alive” as pictures in fairy tales.
ANIMATED PICTURES
Speaking about the creation of such a product, we should admit that it’s actually a kind of an intermediate element between a usual electronic book, adapted for reading from the screen, and a fully animated application. The development costs of such project are lower in comparison with the application,
because the screen is animated only partially: for example, a character opens the window, hangs up the washing on a line, crosses the road. The focus must be exactly on the text that is illustrated in such an unusual way. The text (that is always large with white background) is hidden behind a big button and absolutely doesn’t prevent artists from painting fulllength pictures.
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It should be noted that such technologies are used not only for creation children’s stories, but they also help achieve absolutely different goals: for example, a baseball book can be designed in this way. As a rule, similar products are not big in order to view them all at once without interruption, otherwise the effect will be spoilt. Analyzing success of such projects, it should be pointed out that the innovation didn’t revolutionized the software market (as well as augmented reality books) — probably, because it is little-known — but it is an attractive solution. By means of partial animation not only completed stories may be shown, but also, for example, one can illustrate physical processes or chemical reactions, demonstrate the technique of golf swing and so on.
SILVA AND UNLOVED HORN
“Silva and UNloved horn” is an interactive book, created by the electronic publishing ActivePads in 2014. The main character is a little unicorn Silva who lives in a fairy town Shansvil among other animals. He is very concerned about one fact: all the animals have two horns, but he has only one. He is the only one! Silva thinks that it’s something wrong with him and his second horn had been lost at some point and it is actually difficult for him to cope with it. Nevertheless Silva has friends. Once upon a time one friend, a giraffe named Pierre, invites a little unicorn to his birthday party. He arranges a carnival and wants everybody to come to congratulate him. There are
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no problems with a present but what costume should Silva choose? By the way, a little reader has an opportunity to try on some options for him. But all of them are not suitable! Silva is completely upset, he firstly decides to stay at home but finally comes to the party. And …someone put the costume of a unicorn on and glued the same silly horn on the forehead! Silva finds his friends and completely forgets about his “awful trouble”. Since it doesn’t matter, whether you have big ears or small, a tail with a tassel or without it — friends are not those with particular ears or tails. Pleasant background music, charming drawing (looks like children’s “art”) and a happy end as in any fairy tale. In the course of the narration Silva finds himself in funny situations — every screen is animated. The action mechanism is the following: at first, you have to read a passage (to touch the icon with an open book), then — also by touching — to animate a page. It is impossible just to look at the pictures — you won’t understand what the fairy tale is about.
INVEST IN THE FUTURE
Generally speaking, the format of “an interactive book” looks attractive and has great potential but it requires popularization as all innovations in the initial stages of the introduction to mass consumption. By the way, speaking of mass consumption, it’s no secret that any product (electronic, cultural or any other) is a tool of influence
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on public opinion. The current stage of the multimedia and animation development is when multiplication is still possible as an art, but not as a transmission channel of a certain impulse. Meanwhile, a publisher decides on his own what message he’d like to put to his product. According to the director of ActivePads, Konstantin Strausov, cartoons and all the variety of products for children in the first place should form the belief: the world is not scary. Of course, it’s not always fair and loyal but truly not scary. The one who acts, finally succeeds. So, speaking in a scientific manner, products for children should form an active life position of the younger generation and the ability for independent critical thinking. Investing in the products for children means contributing to the future!
ActivePads — the entire world at your fingertips. • E-books for children and adults • A non-standard product: interactive animated books! • Good old-fashioned classic: fairy tales by Hans Christian Andersen • «The Dragon Stone» — an e-book of new generation • Editor’s choice in USA from Apple • Children’s games, the London Guide and a host of other things • It’s beautiful, like on paper, only better! Because you can take it all at once! www.activepads.com
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Need for Child Life Services Rises Internationally
[personality] [interview] [success story] [innovation] [health] [medicine] [projects for children]
— Good Afternoon, Vitaliy. It is always interesting to find out why someone decides to go into the stressful, rewarding and challenging medical field, especially nursing. Why did you chose this path? — Good Afternoon. Not to sound as a cliche, but I knew I wanted to be a medical professional since childhood. I completed the nursing degree right after high school and during my Army service I was a Nurse Corp Officer and Instructor for the nursing unit. This gave me first professional hands on experience in the field. After the family move to Israel in 1996, I have
Yelena Nelinova
been working in my field first at the private clinic of Assuta (City Rishon le Tsion), and since 1998 at the renowned state hospital Assaf Harofeh Medical Center as a Registered Nurse and later as Nurse Manager for the Surgery Department. — Working at the Surgical Department is considered to be one of the most stressful positions. What keeps you going for so many years? — I chose Surgery because I was fascinated with the OR and what happens there. Surgery Department is a place in the hospital where all of
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moral satisfaction from the knowledge that the patient is now better.
Vitalii Reznitskiy is doing some thing about it through a unique training program for nursing staff at one of Israel’s largest hospitals. Read about the study, the successful implementation, hi tech and other methods helping young patients with special needs to communicate their needs cope with stresses of medical procedures.
the latest and cutting edge technologies are utilized, the stakes are high and you must be alert and ready at all times. Often a situation calls for a very quick decision making not only from the Doctors, but also from the medical and nursing staff. Besides reaction time, the job demands deep knowledge in several spheres, for example, when patients are admitted who are victims of terror attacks or gun shots, (unfortunately in our parts we see it often). In addition, I like to help people. It is in the operating room people are most vulnerable and in a state of stress, anxiety and this is where they need proper care and support the most. Nursing staff can utilize all their skills in one room with one patient to provide best quality compassionate care. Aso, working in the OR is one of the most rewarding experiences professionally because you can see the result of you work and the successful outcome often brings
— Vitaliy, based on your unique for Israel research and the wealth of hands on experience as a clinical Nurse and Nurse Manager in the Surgery Department, what do children experience when admitted to your hospital? — I can say, that anxiety is the most commonly reported emotion of children when confronted with surgery or stressful medical procedures and a risk factor for pre-, intra and postoperative complications. It is estimated that 60 % of children suffer from anxiety in the preoperative period. Excessive anxiety and stress can affect children’s physical and psychological health and it has been associated with number of negative behaviors (e. g. agitation, crying and spontaneous urination), also it hinders their ability to cope with surgery and may also inhibit their postoperative recovery. Hospital stay itself is a source of fear, confusion and emotions that are hard to process for young children and those with communication or developmental delays. Exposure to hospital environment, operating room, being
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away from the comfort of the familiar, new sensory triggers, new people, observing others in pain, will have a significant impact on a child’s mind and emotional health. Unfavorable experience in these circumstances can result in fear towards medical staff, feelings of mistrust and betrayal towards family members and sometimes leads to severe consequences like post-traumatic stress disorder. Understanding and minimizing some of these potential sources of frustration can greatly improve a family’s experience and minimize anxiety level of the young patient, therefore leading to a more favorable psychological outcome of the procedure and improving the process of recovery. — In your opinion, who in the hospital experience the highest psychological stress and why? — While any child admitted for surgery is obviously in a lot of stress and experiences a high level of fear, confusion, pain and anxiety, these experiences are amplified and further complicated for children with Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and other behavioral, language and communication disorders manifested by developmental de-
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lay. Children ages 2–7 and young patients with ASD face many physical, psychological, and social challenges which affect their ability to cope with the routines of hospital-based care. They may exhibit high levels of anxiety when faced with hospital treatment, and may have difficulty conforming to the usual pattern of care in a different environment. Because of the underlying medical problems across many organ systems of the special needs patients, routine procedures such as MRIs, endoscopies, colonoscopies and ear tube placement are all common medical procedures that cause great distress and may require anesthesia. In extreme cases, children may become so uncooperative that their procedure is postponed or abandoned, or can only be undertaken with the use of heavy sedative premedication or restraint, which raises the risks of serious complications such as massive developmental delays and loss of psychological gains, and in severe cases even death. Please note, the term ‘special needs’ I use here encompasses learning disability (IQ<70), language and communication disorder and any physical and emotional disability that
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prevents a child from coping well with new experiences. — Is there a program in place for provision of the much needed social and psychological support for pediatric patients in general hospitals as part of the healthcare system in Israel? — Unfortunately there is not. At least not yet, I am very hopeful. While extra psychological and social aspects of care are required in order to protect the wellbeing of these young patients and patients with behavioral and cognitive disabilities, yet the medical and social systems in Israel and other countries are often forced to overlook this need and resort to drastic measures such as premedication, sedation and restraint due to a number of factors such as economic, financial, administrative oversight and lack of advocacy on behalf of these patients and their care givers. Despite research in this topic which found play therapy and visual aid communication to be effective in reaching the goal of decreasing psychological stress in pre and postoperative children and those with developmental and cognitive delays, such methods are commonly ignored and
not utilized by the Hospitals throughout the country. Surgery departments are often understaffed and overwhelmed and there are no extra state subsidies to cover the costs of a Child Life program or a comprehensive program that trains the Hospital staff on identifying the special patients and providing the proper perioperative and postoperative care to this underserved patient demographic to minimize the risk of complications and maximize the standard of care. Most prevalent social and medical inadequacies seen in Israeli Hospitals today include: • Lack of procedures in place for preoperative special care which includes antianxiety techniques such as role play therapy, music therapy, sensory demonstrations and when possible, building of trust relationship during outpatient care before an elective procedure; • Lack of staff knowledge and understanding of the specific challenges faced by families of young children and children with special needs who have to be hospitalized; • Heavy reliance on family caregivers in hospital when caring for young and special needs children; • Difficulties in ensuring young and special needs patients are adequately supervised when family members are not present; • Consideration of the impact of the child’s hospitalization on caregivers and families; • Difficulty in coping with the routines or unpredictable nature of the hospital setting; • Difficulty addressing the challenge of managing the activities of daily living, including feeding, moving and handling, entertainment,
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and hygiene needs when outside of the familiar home environment. — Which medical procedures cause most fear in children 2–7 of age? — My experience and research shows the following major areas where these services are needed the most: preoperative and post-operative preparation of children ages 2–7 and children with learning disabilities including routine diagnostic and investigative invasive procedures (MRI, Anesthesia, blood draw). This requires focus on minimizing a child’s anxiety without adverse and drastic sedation methods to maximize care and outcome by employing a number of alternative techniques and enforcing the implementation of the process throughout the hospitals. — Are there any examples of work with this category of children in clinical settings in other countries? — Yes, there are examples of outstanding work in the US through the Child Life Services. Both the child’s and the public interest is served by implementing Child Life Services training in all hospitals that provide surgical services to children. In absence of full time staff therapist or child life specialist, nursing staff of the surgery department must be trained in the basics of providing the higher standard of care for these pediatric patients and their families. Child life programs facilitate coping and the adjustment of children and families in 3 primary service areas: 1) providing play experiences; 2) presenting developmentally appropriate information about events and procedures; and 3) establishing therapeutic relationships with children and parents to support family involvement in each child’s care. Although other members of the health care team share these responsi-
bilities for the psychosocial concerns of the child and the family, for the child life specialist, this is the primary role. The child life specialist focuses on the strengths and sense of well-being of children while promoting their optimal development and minimizing the adverse effects of children’s experiences in a hospital setting. Special care must be taken for preparing pediatric and special needs patients for invasive pre and post-operative procedures and anesthesia. More care must be taken to find effective ways to meet their individual needs, particularly in areas such as information, communication, and pain assessment in order to minimize distress and create a calm and positive experience for the child and family. — What ways do you see to improve the provision of hospital care for children and patients with special needs? — State support needed to establish Child Life programs staffed by qualified personnel at major Hospitals that provide pediatric surgical services that will shift certain care responsibilities to
a dedicated team of child life specialists. Based on the experience of our western colleagues, to succeed, these programs must be implemented and enforced by the Hospital’s Administration and embraced by all involved in the process at every stage. — In your opinion, if it is not feasible to introduce a full-scale Child Life program, what can be done by the clinic or hospital management? — Where a dedicated Child Life program is unattainable for a surgical center or Hospital, the Nursing staff must be thoroughly trained in provision of child life services and must be able to: (1) Identify a patient in need of special care; (2) Identify the level of understanding and developmental cognitive abilities of young patients and communicate accordingly; (3) Intervene and advocate on behalf of patient and family to provide coping strategies and education; (4) Provide safe and effective pre and post-operative support and employ alternative methods prov-
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en to reduce the anxiety and improve outcome; and (5) Educate a patient and family thoroughly using developmentally appropriate content and delivery methods to deliver successful and positive surgical experience. Wherein, documentation and training materials and alternative communication aids must be available for the Nursing Staff. Hospitals should have dedicated child life areas where play and alternative therapies such as play, role play, visual aids, video games and other distraction and refocusing activities would be available for pediatric patients. Distraction kits and other aids should be available for the Nursing Staff. Parents must be provided counseling and informed of their care options throughout the entire hospital stay. — Well, let’s look at situations that often arise in hospital settings. When do you think it is best to start working with children and patients with special needs? — The preoperative period is particularly important because it is very difficult to manage an anxious and fearful child posted for surgery and facing
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procedures like MRI and anesthesia prior to the surgical operation. It is of utmost importance that the antianxiety measures should start pre-admission in cases of an elected procedure or immediately after admission in urgent cases and all involved are properly informed, trained and conscious of the challenges. Staff must be trained to identify circumstances that call to employ necessary behavioral cognitive techniques to minimize the psychological effects on the child and maximize effectiveness of care. — What are the difficulties faced by the nursing or even the medical staff during admission process and during preparation for procedures? — Patients may be unable to describe symptoms or give an account of their medical history; the objective view and history from the parents/caregivers is therefore very important. If patients also find it difficult to accept the physical contact of an examination, it may be necessary perform an examination under anesthesia and make an on-table decision on surgical management. Although it allows some flexibility, this approach may complicate the consent
process and require the surgeon to speak to parents while the child is anaesthetized. Patients may be unable to understand the instructions required to perform investigations (e. g. pulmonary function tests) and may have difficulty cooperating with more invasive investigations (e. g. blood tests, MRI scans, ultrasound). The role of Child Life Specialist and Nursing staff in using alternative techniques such as play role therapy, visualization and other refocusing techniques are needed to minimize stress and anxiety. In severe cases, compromises may also be required (e. g. opportunistic blood sampling while anaesthetized). — Could you expand a little bit and provide more concrete examples? — For instance, during preparation for the procedures, young children and special needs patients have limited understanding of the reasons for being in an unfamiliar environment and for the necessity of procedures, which may be uncomfortable and even painful. Complicated by the fact that patients may be unable to communicate their distress in a way hospital staff can understand, and may demonstrate uncooperative or even disruptive behavior. Besides, young children and special needs children often depend on a familiar, sometimes rigid, daily routine, and find the alteration of this routine in hospital difficult to tolerate. Particular issues in the Hospital include waiting for long periods in crowded, noisy areas and prolonged fasting before a procedure. — If no measures are taken, does the fear, anxiety and worry lessen by itself? — No, unfortunately, the symptoms and their manifestations will not lessen or disappear on their own. In the
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preoperative period there are also certain time points when the anxiety reaches the maximum. These periods or the ‘stress points’, if not appropriately taken care of, the children try to put maximum resistance to the caregivers. The stress points include separation from the parents and trusted adults, placement of the child on the operating table, visualization of medical equipment, attachment of monitors, placement of IV, getting into the MRI machine, etc. Hospital personnel must be able to identify and address these stress factors on a level and using tools relevant to the cognitive development of the pediatric and special needs patients. — During the postoperative period, are there any difficulties in care for small children or patients with special needs? — Yes, of course. They are, once again, directly related to the specifics of the age and mental state of these patients. Children under age of 5, children with low IQ or language and communication disorders may not be able to describe the location or nature of their discomfort or use self-rating pain scales. Validated observational scales such as the FLACC score or scales based on knowledge of individual pain behavior may be required to ensure adequate pain management. More often than not we see situations where patients may be able to comply with passive forms of treatment, but may not be able to undertake self-motivated exercise and therapy that would otherwise enhance recovery. — To minimize anxiety and concern for the children in the hospital, one needs to identify, understand and address the factors that cause them, correct?
— Yes, in order to minimize the level of anxiety, it is necessary to identify and address the factors that evoke anxiety in children about to undergo surgical operations in a hospital setting. The research has shown that in the operating room, the child’s exposure to new surroundings, people in control, new sensory experiences and their fear of painful physical stimuli result in the exaggerated sense of helplessness that takes over the child’s emotions. Parental absence, anxiety or reduced control over the situation cause further frustration and fear, which overshadows the efforts of the healthcare providers to soothe the child. Researchers have found several factors which contribute to the preoperative anxiety in children which includes: • Fear of physical harm or bodily injury in the form of pain, mutilation, or even death; • Separation from parents and absence of trusted adults, especially for preschool children witnessing parental anxiety;
• Unknown and unfamiliar place, persons and routines, hospital food, clothing, and play; • Uncertainty about “acceptable” and normative behavior in a hospital setting; • Loss of control, autonomy, and competence; • Exposure and touching by strangers/feeling of shame; and • Medical jargon. — What can be done to overcome the existing issues in preparation for the treatment of children with special needs in clinical settings? — Firstly, Behavioral interventions starting with preoperative interview: This is the most important step to build trust and develop rapport with the child and family. Explanation of details of OR, surgery and anesthesia in age and education appropriate terms not only helps to alleviate anxiety of the parents but also develops a sense of self confidence in the child. Secondly, Preoperative information program: Сhildren and parents should
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be informed adequately regarding the perioperative incidences beforehand through any or multiple communications appropriate to their age, education and intellect in preoperative clinic within two weeks of surgery. Modes include printed leaflets, children’s books, pamphlets, videos, play, tours of the facility, etc. Thirdly, Behavioral education program: Several behavioral interventions have been used successfully to reduce preoperative anxiety and among them development of coping skill was found to be most effective. Other modes include modeling, therapeutic play, operating room tour and visual aids, music therapy, dance therapy, clown nurse or clown doctor therapy. Coping therapy may include deep breathing, counting, watching a video or handheld game. Distraction is very effective form of coping for young children. FOCUS ON THERAPEUTIC PLAY AS A SOLUTION FOR PEDIATRIC AND SPECIAL NEEDS PREOPERATIVE CARE: Play is a primary form of communication for younger children and provides an effective method for the pre-
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sentation and exploration of medical concepts while permitting insight into the child’s understanding of the situation and level of coping. Play can be spontaneous or recreational, expressive or therapeutic. Spontaneous or recreational play is play activity in which the child chooses the items and activities, and it can provide distraction from stressful circumstances. Expressive play provides a means for expression of feelings, release of energy, and relaxation. Medical play combines spontaneous and therapeutic play to prepare children for medical or nursing procedures through the use of hospital-related “props” such as syringes, masks, and dolls with intravenous lines, incisions, and chest tubes. These items are used to convey information and give children opportunities for “handson” learning. During the play session, concrete simple explanations can be offered, and misperceptions can be corrected. Medical play using a beloved doll or stuffed animal often works well, because it allows the child to be in a position of con-
trol as the doctor or nurse and play/ act accordingly. Medical play sessions offer an ideal opportunity for assessment of children’s current level of coping, medical information, and areas of misperceptions. This technique involves directed play and thus requires the involvement of a trained health care provider such as a nurse, child social worker, or child life specialist. — Children learn the world and perceive reality around them through and during play. How much is play therapy utilized when working with children in a hospital setting? — Several studies have shown that therapeutic play is effective in decreasing anxiety and fears for children from the time of admission to immediately after surgery and to the time of discharge. One of the defining features of therapeutic play is its ability to elicit emotional expression leading to greater psychological well-being for a child in the hospital. Accordingly, in studies where children were offered therapeutic play, they exhibited greater cooperation during stressful procedures and were more willing to return to the hospital for further treatment. Results showed that children who engaged in therapeutic, non-directive play showed a significant reduction in self-reported hospital fears in comparison with children from other groups. — And any physiological data is available, indicating the effectiveness of the use of games in children during their hospital stay? — In addition to relieving psychological stress, therapeutic play is also effective in reducing apprehensive physiological responses, such as palm sweating, excessive body movement, escalating pulse rate and high blood
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pressure. Children who are provided opportunities for therapeutic play show less physiological distress, as indicated by lower blood pressure and pulse rate and shorter time between surgery and first voiding. — What role does nursing staff play in the process of reducing the fear and anxiety in children and their parents? Pediatric Nursing Staff plays a Key Role in Child and Family Assessment and identification of all affecting factors in order to provide age, development and situation appropriate standard of care. Procedure preparation in a Hospital setting begins with assessment of the children’s and parents’ current level of understanding and emotional response to the planned procedure. The real, imagined, or potential threats to personal well-being are dependent on many factors, including developmental level, temperament, previous medical experiences, knowledge/information about the experience, family coping patterns, and social support. Identification of support systems for children and parents/caregivers, including spiritual beliefs and practices, is important. Assessment of cultural background, including health beliefs, culturally specific health care practices, and culturally valued ways of expressing care, is also needed. Careful planning and utilization of resources is indicated for the child with special developmental and communication needs. Assessment of the child and parents/caregivers can occur in the context of either a long-standing outpatient relationship with the surgical team or a newly developed relationship that is primarily procedure focused. In either situation, key areas to assess and explore with families are (1) the child’s developmental level and coping style; (2) the patient’s and caregiv-
er’s understanding of the medical condition and planned procedure; (3) previous hospital experiences, particularly adverse ones; (4) current emotional, cognitive, and physical symptoms and perceived health of the patient; (5) general and procedure-specific fears; (6) family composition, including language, cultural, and religious factors; (7) the method in which information is best processed by the patient and the caregivers (verbal, visual, written, sensory); (8) other family stressors (financial, transportation, social, and other health issues affecting family member); and (9) family/ caretaker coping styles and modes of decision-making. — What should the nurses pay attention to in particular when communicating with their young patients? — In order to provide the proper assessment, Nursing staff must be knowledgeable in the cognitive Development of the patient in the tar-
get category. Understanding the stages of cognitive development in children is fundamental to understanding children’s perceptions of health-related events and information-processing abilities. Age ranges identified reflect rough approximations only. Sensorimotor Period (Birth to 2 Years) During the sensorimotor period of cognitive development, the infant learns of the external world through the senses (e.g, sucking) and motor actions (e.g, shaking a rattle) as opposed to internal mental representations of the world. The infant develops awareness that people and things continue to exist even when out of site (object permanence). Because of limitations in children’s conceptual abilities, preprocedure preparation at this developmental stage focuses on the parents/caretakers. Minimization of pain and other physiological stressors (such as duration of preprocedure fasting times) and minimization of separation from parents is of paramount importance. A transitional ob-
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ject, such as a blanket or stuffed animal, can be very effective in soothing the infant during times of separation from parents. Preoperational Stage (2 to 7 Years) The preoperational stage of cognitive development is characterized by egocentric and concrete thinking. At this stage, children view external events as the cause of illness, cannot conceptualize internal body parts, can use symbols but have single interpretation for words, and think in absolutes (good/ bad). Although they are eager to please and curious about their environment, their coping strategies and concept of time are limited, and they usually have limited attention spans. Fantasies tend to dominate, and children at this stage cannot think logically, so they learn through their senses and by trial and error. Separation from parents creates considerable anxiety. During the preoperational stage, learning is concrete and primarily experiential, best achieved through “hands-on” play experiences. Children in this stage can generally assimilate only limited amounts of information (approximately 15 minutes) de-
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livered the day before the procedure, although this is a general recommendation and some children may benefit from earlier exposure to preprocedure preparation. Language needs to be simple and reassuring, without use of medical terminology. Picture books about “going to the hospital” and doctor play kits are excellent tools to promote the children’s understanding before hospitalization as well as after discharge to process the experience. — As far as I know, there is another quite sizeable population of patients who encounter difficulties when interacting within a clinical setting. I am referring to patients on the autism spectrum and those experiencing other cognitive, behavioral difficulties and difficulties in communication. Are there any special approaches for interaction with these patients and, if so, what are they? — One of the groups of patients which may require the greatest flexibility of approach is those with autistic spectrum disorder. They exhibit difficulty with social communication; difficulty with social interaction and dif-
ficulty with social imagination. Patients with ASD may have a lower than average IQ, but they may, in contrast, have normal or even high intelligence. There are many psychological theories which attempt to explain the altered social functioning in people with ASD, including lack of ‘theory of mind’; this may help Nursing Staff to understand some of the challenges faced in providing pre and post-operative care to patients with ASD. People with autism have a theory of mind deficit — they have difficulty seeing another’s perspective, difficulty in determining the intentions of others, and lack understanding of how their behavior affects those around them. Pediatric Nursing Staff must be trained to consider the following intricacies in providing care to pediatric patients with ASD or other special needs. Ideally, a checklist should be completed before admission to explore the child’s physical and psychological needs, including information on mobility, communication methods, likes, dislikes, and phobias. Measurement of weight, height, and baseline observations can be obtained in the community setting if necessary. Gathering such information in advance is invaluable to help plan the logistics of the day of surgery. For example, provision of a quiet waiting area, and placement first on the operating list to minimize the fasting time. Families should be encouraged to bring to the hospital any activities, toys or other familiar ‘comfort’ objects which they know will calm their child and keep them entertained. If the child has a ‘communication passport’ listing information about their needs, routines, and communication strategies, it is very helpful to have this available during the admission. For children with low cognitive ability, the presence of a familiar caregiv-
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er and maintenance of physical comfort are particularly important. Patients with limited spoken communication may already use a form of augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) and providing information using their familiar communication method can aid the child in navigating the steps in the anesthetic process. One of the most important aspects of high quality healthcare is good communication. Many strategies are available for communicating with unimpaired children, to provide explanations, or influence behavior, including descriptions, stories, training in coping strategies, distraction, metaphor, imagery, and modelling. Some of these options may be appropriate for children with lower IQ, but alternative methods may be more suitable for children with language and communication disorders, for whom conventional communication is difficult or impossible. Patients with limited speech may benefit from the use of sign language while patients with ASD and limited social understanding may benefit from practical coping strategies, concentrating on how to manage a new situation as well as role play. Examples would be symbol timelines, social stories, and behavioral management programs. Some familiarity with the communication aids used by patients at school and home can help in providing information and encouraging discussion in hospital. When speaking to a patient with special needs, it is helpful to use simple words and language, to speak clearly and directly, to make eye contact if possible, and to avoid complex forms of language such as jargon, abbreviations, acronyms, sarcasm, or metaphor. For patients with little receptive or expressive language, various alternative forms of communication should
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be available to the hospital staff in special cases. — Tell me please, are there any time frames in which it is best to carry out certain procedures and how many days in advance should the preparation begin? Also, how will the performed procedure affect the healing and rehabilitation process? — The timing of pre procedure preparation is another important factor to consider. In younger children (age 3 to 5 years), anxiety levels are managed most effectively with preparation the night before surgery, whereas older children (age 5 to 12 years) respond optimally when the information is presented 1 week before surgery. Preprocedure interventions attempted within 24 hours of surgery may actually increase school-age children’s anxiety levels. When only limited preparation time is available, refocusing techniques or distraction may be more effective than other methods.
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— Can parents of the young patients provide the staff with the essential help in reducing their child’s anxiety before a certain procedure? If so, what should they do and how should the parents behave in such cases? — Parental participation is integral to the preprocedure preparation process, starting with parental agreement to their child’s involvement. Children’s adjustments reflect a mutual and richly dynamic interplay of child-parent environmental factors over time. Therefore, goals for procedure preparation include addressing parental concerns and needs so that parents can be more emotionally available to their children. Interventions aimed at facilitating parental coping are be of particular importance for younger children and children with developmental and behavioral delays because of their limited ability to use internal coping strategies. Interventions aimed at addressing parental concerns regarding children’s hospitalizations have been effective in decreas-
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ing parental anxiety and enhancing child behavioral outcomes. Thus, engagement of parents in the preparation process is effective and offers practical benefits that are particularly important given the limitations of available preparation resources. It is important to remember that information processing is affected by multiple factors, including anxiety and developmental/cognitive level; thus, ongoing validation of the child’s and parents’ understanding is needed. — What exactly do you use to solve such complex problems as the interaction and preparation for medical procedures and interventions in children at your workplace? — In my work I try to adhere to the principles of the Child Life Programs. We successfully use interactive books, which allow children to independently show the localization of their pain, as well as its intensity level, express (draw) their feelings which they experience at the moment. We also use elements of play therapy, quite successfully I might add. For example, some studies have noted is the fact that video games make it easy for the preoperative period and reduce the stress level
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in patients (Patel et al., 2006). Based on the evidence based research, we also added video-play/video-game therapy to our approach. As part of our research, we tested on the closed focus group of adults and children, a modified version of the game on the tablet called “Give a gift to a friend” to reduce the level of anxiety and stress in children. — Can you provide a brief summary of your research that was carried out. Did the methods you used to reduce anxiety in these patients prove effective? — Our current study has evaluated the effectiveness of preoperative work with children on postoperative anxiety. This study is unique in the Israeli population and has not been performed up to now. In addition, few studies are available using this kind of interventions for the children who are candidates of a short-term day surgery. The findings of this study can be used in future planning to prevent perioperative anxiety and distress in children. According to the results, no statistically significant difference was observed between the two groups in demographic variables except for age, which was higher in
the control group than the intervention group. According to the results, the level of anxiety has increased in the both groups after surgery. This increment, however, was not statistically significant. The comparison of the anxiety scores including state trait anxiety, children manifest of anxiety, pre and post operative anxiety shows that there was not a resemblance between the sex groups except for state — trait anxiety scores in the intervention group. Differences in other parameters between boys and girls were not statistically significant. The comparison of mean differences of anxiety score before and after surgery showed no differences between the sex groups in the intervention and the control group separately. Although the elevation of anxiety in each group was not significant, after controlling the effect of age and the baseline anxiety scores as covariant between the groups comparison was statistically significant; this shows that our intervention may reduce the trend of increment in anxiety level. — Which version of the game seems to you the most effective? — Suggested is a method of pretend play which in experience has proven to be immeasurably helpful to relieve preoperative anxiety and very easy to conduct in any setting on a low budget. Although there is currently not a comparative model to support its usefulness, this technique was developed and employed by the author with patients under the care of the Pediatric Nursing staff: At the end of preoperative clinic session, the children posted for surgery in the next two weeks are taken to the preoperative preparation room. Each of them is assigned a role to play (e. g., surgeon, anesthesiologist, patient, nurse, or assistant depending on number of
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children). The anesthesiologist guides them by preparation of a script and the parents help them to follow their roles. A bed as an OT table, an unused anesthesia machine, face mask without attached circuit, empty saline bottles, infusion sets, venous cannulas leads are used to mimic a perioperative situation. The cannula is attached (not introduced) to the child (playing the role of a patient) with adhesive tapes. Fake injections are administered through tubing. The end point of the play is regaining consciousness in recovery room. The primary target of this play is to make the children aware of the perioperative environment and thereby reduction of anxiety at several stress points, such as, separation from the parents and/ or trusted adults, entry to operating room, placement on the operating table, visualization of syringes, attachment of monitors, placement of mask and to some extent intravenous cannulation. This period also helps in development of rapport with the child as well as the parents and creates a feel good effect on the child’s mind. In a study on 203 school age children, Ho Cheung et al used a kind of therapeutic play one week prior to the surgery and compared the results with using traditional information (2008). They reported that these kinds of interventions might be effective to reduce the anxiety level during pre and postoperative periods. Most of these interventions were used several days prior to the operation and necessitated the admittance of children in the hospital days before the surgery. In a study, Golden et al. (2006) determined whether giving a small toy to a child would decrease anxiety. Using m-YPAS, they found that the value of anxiety is lower
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in toy groups than no-toys group. The results of these studies are the same as our result. — To sum up our conversation, what problems and what prospects do you see in your work with children in the hospital setting? — Special preoperative care is needed for children under age of 7 and those with special needs. State and private support is needed to establish and implement Child Life Programs and services in Hospitals that provide surgical care to children. Pediatric Nursing Staff plays a critical role in providing higher standard of care which leads to better clinical outcomes. Pediatric Nursing Staff must be effectively trained to identify the need for and to provide appropriate level of care for pediatric patients, patients with special needs and their families. Cost savings can result from using individual management plans with children ages 2–7 and children with special needs undergoing surgery in collaboration with parents. Also, attending a playroom and using play activities may reduce the trend of increment in anxiety level induced by surgical procedures in children. — Now imagine the best case scenario and tell me what can help your young patients feel at home in a hospital setting? — Individualized strategies incorporated in a care plan can optimize quality of care and achieve the healthcare goal. Pre-admission planning and awareness raising improves the patient experience from family and staff perspective and can optimize access to health care. Play sessions offer an array of benefits on every stage of the child’s hospitalization. It provides an ideal opportunity for
assessment of children’s current level of coping, medical information, and areas of misperceptions during the initial interview and admission. It also provides coping and anxiety relieving strategies for young children ages 2–7 and children with special needs and communication problems. Research provides evidence for the effectiveness of therapeutic play in reducing psychological and physiological stress for children facing medical challenges. Therapeutic play offers long-term benefits by fostering more positive behavioral responses to future medical experiences. Since childhood play transcends cultural barriers, play opportunities should be provided for children of all ages and backgrounds. Despite a large amount of literature purporting the value of play, research gaps exist regarding the evaluation of therapeutic play in healthcare settings. Future research must address the play preferences and perspectives of children if evidence-based practice is to reflect the needs of pediatric patients. Since therapeutic play embodies the essence of the child life profession, it should remain the focus of ongoing critical analysis and empirical investigation through maximum utilization of this often ignored strategies at every stage of surgical care.
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Can Your Food Prices Go Down? Sandy Fox
F
or the last 25 years food prices have risen at 2 %-3 % per year. Drought, oil, increasingly scarce farmland and growing world population all affect grocery prices. So while wages stagnate, food costs increase.
IS IT POSSIBLE TO GROW MORE FOOD AT A LOWER COST?
[agriculture] [economic situation] [international cooperation] [analysis and researches] [projections]
Innovative Crop Solutions (ICS) holds great promise to increase plant production for lower costs. It works to make nutrients more bio-available to plants. “This is not genetic modification. These are not GMO plants,”
says Corey Park, CEO of ICS. “Rather the technology helps regulate nutrient uptake and photosynthesis. It simply adjusts the organic intake of the plants.” This novel approach to plant production is reaping amazing results. Seeds germinate faster, grow lusher, and yield per plant increases by up to 100 %! Researchers saw 42 % more ears per corn plant and 25 % more pods per soybean plant. The technology has been tested in the lab and on plants in a greenhouse setting. Lab tests proved seeds
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germinated faster and more of the seeds germinated. Treated soybean seeds sprouted at double the rate of the control seeds after just three days. 25 % more corn seeds sprouted in just six days.
GREATER PRODUCTION PER PLANT SAVES MONEY
Faster germination means a better start on growth. More germination means farmers need fewer seeds — a savings to them… and ultimately to the consumer. But the big savings come in im-
INNOVATIVE CROP SOLUTIONS TECHNOLOGY INCREASED PLANT YIELD 63–100% Innovative Crop Solutions proprietary technology remarkably increases plant germination, growth, and yield. Studies showed the following flowering improvements: 25% more soy pods per plant 42% more corn ears per plant 100% more tomatoes per plant proved production from the same plant. Greenhouse tests showed the robust plants flowered more, produced more seeds, and those seeds weighted more than the control group. The plants treated with ICS’s formula grew 89 % more corn per bushel and 63 % more soybeans per bushel! Farmers have the potential of doing the same amount of work, but gaining 63 % to 89 % more yield to show for it! Imagine the cost savings that could come to the consumer. This increased crop production could compensate for drought or other devas-
tations of nature. It could reduce the impact of cities encroaching on valuable farmland. And it could mean better food for your table at a cheaper price. Innovative Crop Solution can be used as a seed coating or as a solution included in the watering system. The next step for ICS is to conduct field testing. They are currently seeking industry partners to assist with that testing. While it’s not yet available for public distribution, it’s good to know innovation may bring down your grocery bill.
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New Predictive Tech Reduces Maintenance Delays 25% Jackie Aguilar-Montalban
[economic situation] [international cooperation] [trucking] [analysis and researches] [logistics] [projections]
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break-through technology uses current sensors and Flight Data Records (FDR) to predict maintenanceissues with high schedule impact potential, in time to take corrective action and minimize impact to flight schedules. Trials on regional jets reduced flight delays caused by maintenance issues by up to 25 %. Maintenance Delays Cost The U. S. Airline Industry over $ 9 billion Per Year. Predictive Aviation Will Improve Passenger Safety and On-time Performance while Substantially Reducing Maintenance Delays. Predictive Aviation Analytics, Inc. uses advanced analytics, smart computer technology with learning algorithms, and data mining to analyze post-flight data. It checks for
aircraft equipment in need of maintenance action to keep the flight readiness of aircraft. It can predict the potential for failing components in time to schedule repairs get parts in hand. It can also identify unsafe system anomalies that show a high probability for a catastrophic event. The new technology also helps airlines avoid unneeded maintenance by indicating parts are still working within normal parameters. While the diagnostic will not identify the exact failing part, it gives mechanics enough data to narrow the issue to a short list of potential problems. This saves diagnostic steps and may reduce repair times. This novel technology far outperforms current evaluative software. Predictive Aviation
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used less than 2 % of the data available to FDM/FOQA models and outperformed them by up to 70 %. As it continues to mine data, the success rate is likely to keep improving. Flight delays cost the US domestic airline industry about $ 9 billion a year in direct costs plus another $ 17 billion in passenger costs.
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shortly before landing, the Captain saw needle fluctuations in the N 2 gage. No one saw that the N 2 needle had been displaying imperceptible and increasing vibrations over the last 50 hours. The Captain continued to monitor the needle. It stayed in the green until they landed.
DIRECT COSTS
In 2015, the cost of aircraft block (taxi plus airborne) time for U.S. passenger airlines was $ 65.43 per minute, nearly 16 percent less than in 2014. Fuel costs, the largest line item, declined 39 percent to $ 22.62 per minute. Crew costs rose 12 percent to $ 19.54 per minute, followed by maintenance and aircraft ownership ($ 11.63 and $ 8.80, respectively) and all other costs ($ 2.85). Maintenance delays are a leading cause of flight delay. Airlines can look to this tech to improve on-time flights, increase safety, and save on MRO costs. Predictive Aviation Analytics offers the best cost and safety predictions for airplanes. Using existing airline sensors and data from the Flight Data Recorders (FDR) its software more accurately predicts outlying indicators before they become problems. Predictive Aviation’s unique artificial intelligence software, “learns” as it gathers more information. It used only 1.33 % of the data available to the current leading predictive models (FDM/FOQA models) and still outperformed them by up to 70 %. The more data it gains, the more accurate it will become. Commercial, Military and General Aviation will all benefit from Predictive Aviation. They will see their safety record improve, their customer satisfaction grow, and their maintenance costs substantially decline. Even a single plane has a huge impact.
CRISIS AVERTED: THE TALE OF TWO PLANES
The Boeing 777 had been in the air for 13 hours on its way to Dubai. It had just come out of routine “A Check” 125 hour inspection. The smooth ride had no irregularities. Then,
Direct Costs In 2015, the cost of aircraft block (taxi plus airborne) time for U.S. passenger airlines was $ 65.43 per minute, nearly 16 percent less than in 2014. Fuel costs, the largest line item, declined 39 percent to $ 22.62 per minute. Crew costs rose 12 percent to $ 19.54 per minute, followed by maintenance and aircraft ownership ($ 11.63 and $ 8.80, respectively) and all other costs ($ 2.85). As they taxied, the fluctuations spiked into the red. The pilot shut down the engine and immediately radioed maintenance. Dubai had no spare 777 engine. The airline suffered extensive costs and delays. It had to: • Cancel the outgoing flight D mitry Birin / S hutterstock .com
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Pavel L P hoto and Video / S hutterstock .com
• Fly in a Boeing 777 spare engine, maintenance team and test pilots. • Pay the steep cost of extensive maintenance in a high-priced country • Lodge and feed the crew, maintenance team and test pilots until the aircraft could fly again. • Add a second Boeing 777 to fly the daily Dubai route for the duration of the repairs.
LOWER RISK
• Reroute passengers to other airlines and Potentially lose future business from passengers who experienced travel disruptions and delays.
Another Boeing 777’s airline used Predictive Aviation Analytics’ Patent Pending Artificial Intelligence Software. It had also just come out of routine “A Check” 125 hour inspection. Predictive Aviation downloaded and analyzed data from the plane’s Flight Data Recorder each day. The software algorithms noted an imper-
Maintenance Delays Cost The U. S. Airline Industry over $ 9 billion Per Year. Predictive Aviation Will Improve Passenger Safety and On-time Performance while Substantially Reducing Maintenance Delays. Fingerhut / S hutterstock .com
ceptible increase in engine vibrations over a series of flights and tagged it as upcoming bearing failure. It sent an alert message to the airline’s maintenance department. The N 2 bearing check was added to the scheduled “A Check” preventative maintenance inspection. At the “A Check” inspection the bearings showed irregular wear and were replaced. The plane returned to the scheduled Dubai route without delay. Operations continued seamlessly. No maintenance delays. The airline saved millions of dollars in time and materials than if the bearing had failed. The good name of the airline was maintained and its customers continued to safely arrive at their destinations.
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Something about polymers Yuri Yemelyanau
[personality] [interview] [success story] [scientific knowledge] [expert’s opinion] [projections] [analysis and researches]
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HE GREATEST ACHIEVEMENTS OF ALL TIME — POLYMERS AND SUDDENLY “THAT’S VERY MUCH NOT THE CASE, GUYS”
In the mid‑19th century practicing scientists announced the start of entrepreneurs’ race for giant booty in such comprehensive global sphere of human activity as structural materials, at that time the first artificial polymer material “Parkesin” was created on the basis of earlier polymer (nonorganic celluloseester). Thousands of entrepre-
neurs whose companies manufactured hundreds of polymers, hastily devised by famous scientists including the super brilliant (D. I. Mendeleyev, etc.), took part in that race. The word “polymer” was invented after the event and theorist’s scientists the same as everything was explained by theoreticians. As a result, as in everything else, a hundred years later by the middle of 20th century entrepreneurs trying to get out of the polymer manufacturing played out, many of them went into bankruptcy and only a few of them
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Yemelyanau Yuri Grigorievich Synthesized polymers for redox processes, immobilization, stabilization, transport, sorption, infusion, protect, display, as described in the patent, (со) author of inventions protected by copyright certificates of the USSR №№ 642319, 696027,
who managed to survive began to produce a limited number of very valuable for people base polymers. These were for the most partpolydienes, polyolefins, polyamides, polyesters, polyurethanes, organopolysiloxanes, polyoxymethylene resinsand aldegid and epoxy resins, including modified. Researchers, in turn, after a countless number of theoretical investigations already ceased to create new, based on large-capacity polymers and, satisfying the needs of highly worn down in industry competition few giant industrialists’ corporations, zealously start to improve produced polymer goods trying to straighten a notoriously crooked and fob off the right one but not necessary on the buyer, in such a way encouraging throwing hundreds millions of tons of polymers in all spheres of human’s life annually. Here is what originated the first glimmers of doubt — whether the polymer trash is not harmful in such quantity. That fact was confirmed by ecologists and people pondered where does this polymeric miracle leads them. The work had to be started again along with serious pondering over consequences. Let us make it out what it is taking into account the fact that finances in 1971 suddenly annihilated during economic scientific experiments of paper in metals transmutation, going solely in spiritual essence, and as a consequence, they — finances — could no longer be directly converted into knowledge, and in polymer area we
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787415, 1096282, 1140430, 1142480, 1150253, 1151542, 1159320, 1159924, 1162818, 1214672, 1280876, 1288184, 1293614, 1325853 1338413, 1382836, 1412787, 1426974, 1432061, 1435578, 1471532, 1496235, 1600308, 1620440, 1684291; patents US 8227024, EA011116, BY 15847, BY 16030, BY 16326.
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Tel. in Minsk: +375 17 2999165 Mobil: +375 29 3067494 E-Mail: yemelyanau@gmail.com Adress: Republik Belarus 220037 Minsk, ul. Kubanskaya, 21, Yemelyanau Yuri Grigorievich
Scientists have developed a biodegradable polymer production monoprocess for packaging with the same properties as the polyethylene, polypropylene, polyvinyl chloride, polystyrene and polyethylene terephthalate. This will bring benefits to society not less than $0.2 trillion and protect the world from the accumulation of dangerous waste. just have to seek out carefully wisps of truth which certainly will be able to dispel the darkness of the intellectual confusion materialized in mountains of plastic rubbish.
What do we see: First, inadequate replacement of chemical harmless metals and silicates (rocks, concrete, ceramics, glass) by solid polymers produced from tox-
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ic phenols, aromatic amines, chlorine, carbon monoxide, carbonyl dichloride, low olefins and dienes, including their much more dangerous substitutes gradually stops. Second, biodegradable polymers for polyethylene replacement, polypropylene, polystyrene, polyvinyl chloride, polyurethane, polyethyleneterephthalate and polyamide primarily in packaging industry, where the harm of polymer packaging manifests itself within 24 hours from the moment of packaged good spur chase are intensively developed, produced and offered. The first process mentioned above is irrational, not only, it cannot be taken into account, but also easy to explain. It brings benefits only for the environment, entrepreneurs are not interested in it: leads to losses, if made — only at the expense of others. In the second one with its tempting simplicity the most cunning ones smell long time booty: the cost of base polymers produced annually is about $ 0.5 trillion- third goes to packaging, that is at stake, at least $ 0.1 trillion a year. Entrepreneurs, duped by a mirage of gain, have decided to take a chance, not sharing with others, and scientists, they learn the philosophical is unimportant, anyway, before you know it, pay and do not ask stupid questions
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afterwards. The enthusiasm of both parts is understandable, about $ 0.01 trillion was invested in scientists’ ideas from the 90’s of the 20th century. As a result, replacement of polyethylene, polypropylene, polystyrene, polyvinyl chloride and polyethylene terephthalate appeared the most bizarre features: modified starch, amylose, polyhydroxypropionate, polyhydroxybutyrate, polyhydroxyvalerate, polycaprolactone, synthetic imitations of pigskin materials, bovine bubbles, insects and crustaceans’ skeletons, different composites and many others. Huge funds are spent and continue to be devoted, but the necessary performance benefits, unfortu-
nately, have not yet been declared: all proposed substitutes are 5–10 times more expensive than the object, and their physical-mechanical properties — in 2–5 times worse. Today’s consumer is not ready, as in the good old days, to buy «new polyamide» at the price of silk yet. He has to get a decent polymeric proposal and it exists — contained in countless scientific publications of the foreseeable period. The essence of this proposal on polymers for packaging reported by scientists is in the following: • the primary circuit and deputies should participate in metabolism, • all polymers are transmutes, but they need to be produced individually just because the existing shared processes are factorially more expensive, • monoprocess of production of biodegradable polymer for packaging with the same properties as the polyethylene, polypropylene, polyvinylchloride, polystyrene and polyethylene terephthalate exists and can bring benefit of at least us $ 0.2 trillion to the society and protect the world from poisons accumulation.