WEEKLY ROUNDUP 

Monday was an official day off throughout Ukraine, with most bureaucrats resting on their regional laurels, except, of course, for law enforcement, firefighters, and emergency medical personnel.

Tuesday marked the formal start of all bureaucratic activity. The city came to life. I heard two housewives discussing the latest retail price jump on a bus: buckwheat is a hryvnia up per kilo a month and flour 30 kopiykas. Prices are on the rise, the ladies observe gloomily.

I called an old friend. He is a food wholesaler. I asked him to explain the price rise. He said I should take a guided tour. I did. We drove around almost three hours, stopping to view huge suburban warehouses. "See, they're empty because we lack circulating assets. Once they pay something to schoolteachers, pensioners or doctors, they rush out and buy everything they can afford. In hours our shelves are empty, given our meager inventory. We must have good reserves and this calls for significant circulating assets. Almost none of us has any, so we have to sell what comes our way immediately," he explained, adding, "Everything you see at the stores or bazaars does not come from prosperity, but from poverty. If our people received wages, salaries, and pensions on time, they would buy up everything."

Individual poverty, that of society, and that of the state are all interrelated.

Thursday was Career Day for Ukrainian students. Hundreds of graduates with university and institute diplomas were seeking jobs. I asked a member of the organizing committee which occupations seemed in demand. Practically none, he said, except for computer programmers and insurance agents. Finding a job for a young higher school graduate is a big problem. Most enterprises are idle, and budget-sustained organizations are laying people off.

Young men and women haunt established firms and their help wanted stands, eyeing the lists hungrily, believing that the knowledge they obtained over years of study, is still needed by this society. In Rivne oblast alone, official statistics point to 5.5% unemployment of the able-bodied populace, and the figures are going up, with the arrears on local wages and salaries being over UAH 150 million.

The week ended in Journalist's Day. Congratulations to all those using their brains to make newspaper/magazine/television stories and programs, I wish them less financial travails and that in general the people become masters in Ukraine. We all deserve no less.

Volodymyr KONEV, The Day