Perpetual Change

...the ugly

We are supposed to be very culturally sensitive in our blogs, so sometimes I think it all comes out a little too rosy (and them in my private journal, I write what is left and it seems a bit pessimistic). So I have written this entry for a bit of balance. Usually when I think everything here is so normal, I hear a story that makes me stop and think. I have heard the following stories about close friends or family

My host dad's brother died in prison after one year of his two year sentence. Officially, the cause was a heart attack (at 30) but my host dad said he had been beaten many times on the head when he went to visit him before his death. He was in a regional prison for stealing a jacket, although he had had other previous, small altercations. Ukraine's human rights violations have been sited as an obstacle to EU consideration.

A friend was denied a visa to the United States. He wants to travel for a month. Unfortunately, he fits a profile (young, divorced with a daughter) of illegal Ukrainian immigrants to the USA. The whole process was conducted by an American consulate official in the language of his choice, after he paid the processing fee of $100, which is more than an assistant principal's monthly salary here. The average length of these interviews, as specified to me personally from a embassy employee that I asked, is 3 minutes.

Speaking of teacher salaries, they weren't paid this week, which is a somewhat normal occurrence.

I met an American agricultural consultant, who has worked in developing countries all over the world including South America and Southeast Asia; he thinks this may be the most corrupt country he has been in. I have heard many stories of Americans and Ukrainians who were expected or forced to pay off doctors, surgeons and police. Not to mention that in my quiet little training village, a very prominent business man was killed the third week we were there. The funeral was huge. The story is that he took money from his business partners; I can't confirm that. Another story that we didn't see in the news, but I believe, is that a store owner of a rival two shops in town was killed along with her son and his wife, in their home, by shotgun.

These aren't pretty stories, and I don't wish to scare you. I fear not at all for my safety and security, and Ukrainians are extremely hospitable and friendly, but every time I think it is just like home, or my time in Italy, I pass a statue to Lenin, or I have a conversation about a story like these or about how better things were during Soviet times.
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Editorial note: Soviet times hold a very different mental image here than for us, obviously, but they also hold a different place in different areas of Ukraine. Where I am now, Soviet problems were mostly remote and everything else was mostly stable, even during Stalin's orchestrated famines, goods flowed to this area from the nearby porous borders. The EU has hardened those borders, and that has had a substantial effect on these people.

posted by jjs @ 7:23 AM