Of Chemistry And Slavs

Before I get to today's round of things going on, I would like to relate an observation I made about First Son Hunter Biden and myself with regard to his former position on the board of the Ukrainian gas company Burisma.  I've come to believe that I'm unqualified for the position he held, but less so than he was.  Please note my terminology.  I'm not saying that I'm more qualified or better qualified than Biden, but that I'm less unqualified than he was.

The reasons that I regard both him and myself as being unqualified to sit on the board of directors of any Ukrainian gas company is that neither he nor I have had any previous experience in the gas production or distribution industry, and that neither he nor I speaks, writes or reads Ukrainian.  However, my college degree is in chemical engineering, which means that I know something about chemistry, which might be useful when dealing with fossil fuels.  His degrees, on the other hand, are in history and law.  Thus, my training is closer to the gas industry than his is.  

While I don't know Ukrainian, I have learned some Polish, the two being members of the Slavic branch of the Indo-European language family.  Because the Slavic languages diverged from each other relatively recently, they still share a good amount of common vocabulary.  This means that if I were to read some very basic Ukrainian, I might be able to make an educated guess as to what some of it means.

Interestingly enough, the election of Joe Biden to the presidency removed two Slavic speakers from the position of First Son, now occupied by Hunter Biden.  Former President Trump's oldest son Donald Jr. (whom I like to call "Donald Trump the Younger") speaks Czech, which he learned from his maternal grandparents.  His youngest son Barron speaks Slovenian, which he learned from his Slovenian-born mother Melania.  To show how similar Slavic languages can be, the name of her hometown Novo Mesto probably means "new town" because it resembles the Polish phrase nowe miasto.  Due to their respective proficiency in Czech and Slovenian, the two Trump sons would likely have an easier time reading or understanding Ukrainian than would yours truly.

Having said all that, let me assure everyone that I do not seek, nor will I accept, any position with Burisma or any other business based in Ukraine.  However, due to my Polish and Slovak heritage, I wouldn't mind visiting the country.