Litmus test for society
Snowfall that lasted for two days in Kyiv displayed both positive traits of the residents of the capital and their weaknesses, and also became a good lesson for the future
Bad weather with consequences of bigger or smaller scale is always a test and a challenge for any society. Test for organization, sensitivity to other people’s troubles, willingness to help. Snowfall that lasted for two days in Kyiv displayed both positive traits of the residents of the capital and their weaknesses, and also became a good lesson for the future.
LESSON No.1 LACK OF RESPONSIBILITY
UkrainianHydrometeorological Centerannounced storm warnings for the weekend a few days prior to it. Drivers were asked to leave their cars at home on Friday. Snowfall began early in the morning. But despite this the city was filled with cars. As a result, on Friday night there were long traffic jams in which people stood for hours and then they were forced to leave their cars on the streets. Due to traffic chaos the roads were blocked for snow cleaning machines, ambulances, and public transport. According to The Day’s journalist Anna Khabarova, on Vadyma Hetmana Street two ambulances got stuck in a traffic jam and nurses went from one car to another providing medical assistance.
“Why and where did people, who have no winter driving skills, no cars adapted to move in the snow so deep, or even tires appropriate for the weather condition, go that day?” rightly observed Oleksii Mochanov in his blog on Korrespondent.net. “You grind ice under the snow even on a small slope and block the entire road. Is it really that difficult to go outside and on the way to your car make the only right decision: leave it until the better times?”
LESSON No.2 INABILITY OF SMALL RANK OFFICIALS TO THINK OUTSIDE CLICHED SCHEMES OF WORK
The same Oleksii Mochanov reports that during the rush hour on Friday Metro station “Vokzalna” suddenly was blocked because they ran out of plastic tokens. This was done when the metro remained the only public transport capable of moving around the city! One can say a lot about how the Ukrainian authorities, even of the smallest ranks, do not realize that they primarily served the society and, thus, their main task is to help people. But how could they not understand that the lack of tokens should not be a reason not to let people in the subway in bad weather? The same applied to the police, who went around the city and did not even think to stop and help pull cars from traffic jams. Many examples of such situations can be found in blogosphere. The explanation is probably simple: letting people in the subway without tokens is not provided for in the job descriptions of metro employees and it is not a duty of the police to pull the cars from traffic jams. But is it really that difficult to go beyond the job descriptions, take on more responsibility and help others?
LESSON No.3 LACK OF SENSITIVITY
On March 23 journalists reported that Kyiv taxi drivers raised prices for their services by 5-8 times. They published a story about a woman with a child, who needed to get to Troieshchyna from Kontraktova Square (there is no metro connection between the two locations) and was charged 400 hryvnias by taxi driver. Sure, one can take into account the bad weather conditions, greater fuel consumption, but even these factors would not justify such spike in prices. Clearly, these people simply used the situation to make money. And taxi drivers such as those that quietly passed people in trouble or filmed what they saw on their phones are vivid evidence that empathy is not yet a familiar concept to our society, we still must work at it. The ability to empathize with others in Western societies drives people on streets because of a car accident involving officials, rape, bribery, in order to force the system to punish the guilty of the crime and change the system for the better.
