Ukraine will Have its Face

They say that Andriy Shevchenko posters were all over Milan last year and that his face became Ukraine’s calling card for the Italians. What faces symbolize Ukraine for the Ukrainians? An answer to this question will be attempted by a creative team led by noted journalist Natalia Vlashchenko and assisted by the Forests Cultural Relief Fund. They plan an annual project titled Oblychchia Ukrayiny [Ukrainian Faces] and the first one will come to fruition toward the end of the year, in the form of a 250-page book with 22 chapters representing people that had distinguished themselves in certain fields of endeavor during the year. The authors assured during a press conference, April 24, that people figuring their book will be both positive and negative characters — at least such is the team’s concept. The objectivity of selection was to be secured by a board of experts, although they will not have the final say in approving the candidacies, just a kind of deliberative vote. Yan Tabachnyk will take care of the music chapter; Ivan Havryliuk will be in charge of movies; Kateryna Serebrianska will handle sports, and Volodymyr Horbulyn will supervise politics. Natalia Vlashchenko said such publications (by no means laudatory or listing ratings) date back a hundred years in the West. The Ukrainian version will have its specifics, of course. There will be special chapters called “Ukrainian Hopefuls” (about gifted children) and “Our People Abroad” (the unfading Soviet pop star Kobzon is expected to be the chief consultant there). The materials will be informative and analytical, and every chapter will be preceded by an introduction and an analysis of what has or has not been accomplished in a given realm. When asked by journalists if there will be space in the book for, say, a brilliant bank robber, Natalia said an adamant no — not because the criminal might well want to get even, but because the very concept of the almanac rules this out. She admitted, however, that the chapter “Law” could feature lawyers, among them ones on local Mafiosi payrolls.

Promoting the project is expected to recoup it, which is especially important for the authors. Natalia Vlashchenko believes that “a journalist must learn to earn money to be independent. I mean an ability to find money, invest it in a good idea, and repay the loan.” Then let us wish our colleagues success with their dual experiment and look forward to the results of their work.