On politics without politicking
There was The Day of Den/The Day in Vinnytsia on February 2. The event began with a readers’ conference, Shaping Young People’s Historical Memory, at the Vinnytsia Oblast Timiriazev Library which, incidentally, has recently marked its centenary but, as we could see, is still living a young energetic life, not in the least owing to the efforts of its director Natalia Morozova. The library has been subscribing to Den for a bit more than a tenth of its lifetime. To prove that the newspaper is very popular among Vinnytsia residents, the director showed the audience a few well-thumbed Den files. But the best proof of the newspaper’s popularity was a full house.
Young people formed the majority of the approximately 150 who were present. Taking part in the debate were teachers and students of Vinnytsia State Mykhailo Kotsiubynsky Pedagogical University, the Socioeconomic Institute of the Ukraina Open International University of Human Development, the Liberal Arts and Teacher-Training College; pupils and teachers of Physics and Mathematics Gymnasium No. 17, Vinnytsia’s comprehensive school No. 1; as well as bookstore and library employees. Teachers and pupils of Zhmerynka’s comprehensive school No. 4, and other Den/The Day aficionados also came to the forum.
Some of the visitors, who had not seen our newspaper before, harbored a suspicion that such a socially important theme of the conference in fact disguised political canvassing, for the forum was taking place on the eve of the presidential election run-off. But there was no canvassing. Instead, those who took part in a debate with the Den/The Day editor-in-chief Larysa Ivshyna became convinced that independent thinking and knowledge of Ukraine’s true history are the things that should form the life philosophy of every conscientious Ukrainian. Incidentally, one can draw this knowledge from the presented Den/The Day Library books.
Among the active participants in the conference’s intellectual debate were also Natalia Morozova, director of the Vinnytsia Oblast Timiriazev Library, and Maria Skrypnyk, chief of the Vinnytsia Oblast Administration’s Culture and Tourism Department, Roman Shtohryn, acting chief of the same administration’s General Department for Domestic Policies, the Mass Media and Public Relations, compared Den/The Day with the “people’s teacher” with whom Otto von Bismarck built a strong Germany and emphasized the importance of Den/The Day’s projects for the development of a genuine and conscientious, not pretentious, society.
The range of the questions raised at the conference was, as always, wide – from the seemingly simple “Why is the newspaper called Den/The Day?” to “How come James Mace chose precisely Den/The Day?” The audience also wanted to know if the newspaper addresses the problem of bilingualism in Ukraine and if one can see on its pages hidden support for a certain political force and its representatives. One thing really eased the atmosphere: when asked whether our officials and politicians read Den, the editor-in-chief said: “Those who can read do so,” to which the audience burst out applauding and laughing.
In the afternoon Den/The Day opened a photo exhibit at the Inter Chic gallery, where it also launched another project, A Gift to My School. More than ten sets of Den/The Day Library books were gifted to Vinnytsia region schools. Handing a packet over to his home Kalyniv school, Oblast Administration Chair Oleksandr Dombrovsky noted he was presenting this gift as a grateful pupil, not an official. In his turn, Vinnytsia Mayor Volodymyr Groisman said he would like to gift similar book sets to all the city schools.
All visitors to the Vinnytsia photo exhibit noted with a pleasantly surprise that the works were multifaceted, colorful and meaningful.
Oleksandr DOMBROVSKY, chair, Vinnytsia Oblast Administration:
“We are very pleased that the newspaper Den/The Day, one of Ukraine’s most professional and progressive publications, is visiting Vinnytsia for a second time. What makes our conference important is not only the photo exhibit composed of many multifaceted and emotion-filled works but also the high level of the intellectual debate now underway here. The more the society gets drawn into political battles, the narrower is the platform of public social debates which our country’s intellect so badly needs today. Undoubtedly, there are two, quite narrow, questions on the agenda today: who shall we vote for on February 7 and what will happen after this date? Much to our regret, everything is reduced today to political talk shows, when the format of questions and the quality of answers do not exactly meet the requirements of today. So I am sincerely glad to see such colorful, profound and socially-engaged projects as the Den/The Day photo exhibition. They allow one to take a different look at life and the current day. We hope that Vinnytsia oblast will continue cooperation with Den/The Day and the newspaper’s projects, especially their social content, will be further developing.”
