Fellows - Sergiy Shtukarin

Human Rights Officer - UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine 

LFP/PFP Intern in Fall 2012, based in Honolulu, Hawaii (American Civil Liberties Union of Hawaii)

Graduate of the Central European University, Budapest (International Relations and European Studies)

Survival Hawai'ian: Aloha

Decided yesterday - the idea came to me in the train from PDO to Donetsk - to start posting Hawai'ian words. 

Definitely, the first one is Aloha!

Aloha in the Hawaiian language means affection, peace, compassion and mercy. Since the middle of the 19th century, it also has come to be used as an English greeting to say goodbye and hello. Currently, it is mostly used in the sense of "hello".*

International Book Week - what are you reading now?

"The warriors would set bonfires to see and fight by, driving off the cold of the desert night, but there would still be great pockets of shadow where the demons, which could see in the dark, would hold every advantage."

It's international book week. Grab the closest book to you, turn to page 52, post the 5th sentence in the comments. Don't mention the title!

Dustin Hoffman and other famous Ukrainians. New Exodus post-2012?

During the PDO, the 3 fellows were taken on a tour of the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv, and shown the gallery of photos of famous Americans with Ukrainian roots.

Oleksandra Iegorova, Cultural Affairs Assistant, who was hosting us at the Embassy, told that this gallery was their favourite exhibition.

LFP-2012 Pre-departure Orientation took place in Kyiv

Took part in the PDO for Ukrainian participants of the Legislative Fellows Program - Fall 2012.

First day of the PDO took place in the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv (hence no photos), where we met with the American Councils' Country Director Yarema Bachynsky and Assistant Cultural Affairs Officer at the U.S. Embassy Arthur T. Evans.

Educating colleagues to use online tools in learning

iTeach - Art of Teaching in the XXI Century: Donetsk team educates colleagues to use online too...: Members of the Donetsk team were teaching their colleagues from the Deparment of International Relations and Foreign Policy of the Donetsk...

- this is a short update on the Swiss-funded project on state of the art teaching.

Aloha!

Finally, I received the confirmation - I am going to Honolulu, Hawai'i! (hence the recent change of the blog's name)

The hosting organization is American Civil Liberties Union of Hawai'i, available @ acluhi.org.

"We are civil servants - we don't travel abroad!"

Was giving a lecture to local civil servants on Ukraine's European integration for the second day in a row. 

At the end of the talk played the game "Euro-Bingo" with the audience, and when discussing the correct answers touched upon the issue of Schengen visas...

Civil servants perceive European integration with growing scepticism

Today I was teaching at the Regional Center for In-Service Training of Civil Servants. The seminar was on Ukraine's European integration, the audience included administrative officers from local self-government bodies of the Donetsk Region. 

Less than half of my audience today - when asked if they want Ukraine to join the EU - raised hands without hesitation, the share got up to almost 3/4 when the question was phrased as "Do You want Ukraine to join the EU in the future, for your children and grandchildren?".