Been to a great concert of Rihanna. But the most important I had a great and fun company to go with. So it was another cool day with Ivanna. Despite it was snowing and cold.



Photos are here.

Great weekend we have been up to:

• Have met a girl, who I was thinking was my classmate visiting from Kiev, who has contacted me via odnoklassniki.ru community site, and later on I have figured out that we actually have never been a classmates before, but she has just got on my friends list by chance. Interesting and fun, huh?!
  
• But we had a great fun climbing to the Petrin Hill Tower, that offered a best city overview in the sunny weather. Definitely it is my favorite tower location in the city now.
• Been to the Birthday party of a friend Aisa. Congratulations, darling!
• On Sunday: Iva's friend Nadia took us by her lovely little silver Skoda Fabia to a nice town neighboring Prague - Teplice. We were very surprised by the picturesque areas around it and the noble history of this spa city itself.
  

Photos here.

During the last weekend we have been up to:

• Angelka, sister's friend from Kiev was on a biz training here in Prague and stopped by our home.
  
• Motorbike exhibition at Vystaviste.
• Checked the dentist emergency service, since Iva has a "wise tooth" appearing.
  
• Saw the Japanese movie, within OneWorld festival -Mechanical Love.

Photos here.

• Yesterday seen quite a cool move:

Mechanical Love / Mechanical
LovePhie Ambo / Denmark / 2007 / 79 min.
The ability to love and be loved is one of the basic definitions of humans. Nevertheless, as modern technology increasingly encroaches upon people's everyday lives, this idea might need to be redefined, i.e. how does artificial intelligence fit into this concept? Director Phie Ambo follows the story of Professor Hiroshi Ishiguro from Osaka University who creates a Geminoid – a remote–controlled duplicate of himself – and prepares to introduce him to his wife and daughter. Another Japanese scientist creates an artificial baby seal called Paro, who keeps lonely and mentally handicapped people company and demonstrably increases their brain activity as a result. The animal–robot responds to the voice of its owners and can even "remember" its name with the aid of sensors. Naturally, these innovations necessarily give rise to some ethical questions: Is it right to allow someone to live under the illusion that they are "loved" by a machine, which does not have the same feelings for them? And then there is the old question about robotics itself: If machines can replace us, are we therefore not totally redundant?

• Today is preparing myself to see quite a difficult one. But I prefer to see the reality how it is even if it is something very, very unpleasant.

On the Edge. Six Episodes on AIDS in Ukraine / Am Rande. Sechs Kapitel über AIDS in der Ukraine
Karsten Hein / Germany / 2006 / 105 min.
Ukraine has one of the highest rates of AIDS in Europe. According to the official statistics, 26,000 people in the country are HIV positive. In reality 200,000 to 300,000 Ukrainians are infected and experts from non–governmental organisations describe the situation as a rising epidemic. This alarming situation has probably also been facilitated by the changes of the past two decades, which robbed people of their certainties and stable social order, leaving many lost in the process. In six chapters, this film examines the issue from all possible angles and pays attention to the other problems that are connected with the spread of HIV, particularly drugs, prostitution and infected children. The director not only presents several people suffering from this insidious disease, but also shows workers from non–profit organisations who are striving to temper the consequences of the illness for both individuals and society as a whole.

• OneWorld photos.

With Ivanna we were on the opening of the 10th One world / Jeden Svet documentary film festival in Lucerna, Praha. Very unusual presentation with toy theater, founders speeches and very emotionally strong movie The Greatest Silence: Rape in the Congo story about consequences of war resulted in raped and assaulted women in Democratic Republic of Congo that was pesented by it's director of the film Lisa F. Jackson. I have been working in Kinshasa, DRC for 6 month and I felt the movie is objective in showing this narrow problem, but the move does not show and analyzes the much bigger problem of a social catastrophe resulted by the civilian war. I would say the situation in DRC is similar to 1945 in Europe, when some places were completely devastated by war and building of a new social society has to be done from zero.

Yesterday in small hall of Svetozor seen Czech documentary Pul Ctvrte (http://www.pulctvrte.cz) about the simple live of people in the Ukrainian village in Carpathian region, close to the highest Ukrainian mountain Goverla. The film is said to be about the "rich live in poor region". Either it is only a story about one region and does not compares the regions of the countly for example with modern and wealthy capital Kiev, or advanced Odessa or Lviv, I still found it funny and interesting, very realistic from insider point of view. It made me think were Ukraine and myself are now and were I want myself and Ukraine to be and how to get there. Which values are really important to me. Recommend to watch.