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Where there is no law, but every man does what is right in his own eyes, there is the least of real liberty
Henry M. Robert

Readers Sound Off 

17 November, 1998 - 00:00

Dear Students and Recent Alumni:

I have been publicizing the USA/USA Program in Ukraine through the infinite
possibilities of Internet. Since early summer I have been reading with
interest the newspaper Den/Day at www.day.kiev.ua. This newspaper
has recently celebrated its second anniversary. It comes out in Ukrainian,
Russian and once a week in English. It covers many aspects of Ukrainian
society from political events to cultural events, from interviews with
Ukrainian leaders and personalities, and from economics to finance.

The importance of this newspaper is underlined by the fact that it is
the only newspaper from Ukraine that is found in the Harriman Institute
library at Columbia University. The Harriman Institute is the premier research
institute dealing with the former Soviet Union in the United States. Both
Presidents Kuchma and Kravchuk while in office Ukraine along with President
Yeltsin have paid this institute visits in recent years. Den's readers
seem to include many of the leading political, cultural, and economic figures
of Ukraine. This newspaper may well emerge as Ukraine's first truly national
daily newspaper since independence.

This is a well written newspaper with such leading Ukrainian writers
as Yuri Andrukhovych and Mykola Riabchuk on its staff. It writes about
Ukraine frankly and straightforwardly but you can judge for yourself. In
recent weeks and months I have been educating its editors about USA/USA
and what I am trying to accomplish with this program single-handedly here
from my home computer. I have professed how bright and gifted the Ukrainian
students in this network I am trying to create are. How they are conquering
America's universities and investment banks. The editors are showing interest
in doing a story about the USA/USA Program. I am not surprised with this
interest since the talent pool here is impressive. I would underline that
because of the readership of this newspaper you will be reaching an influential
and probably admiring audience.

Mr. Serhiy Holovaty, Ukraine's former Minister of Justice, told me personally
at Yale this spring that he would hope that as many students as possible
would go abroad to learn about the world and about America. He also expressed
envy at the opportunities students have here in America. So you have an
opportunity to share your experiences and the knowledge that you are acquiring
here with a truly influential audience back home. You should not underestimate
the importance of your experiences here in the USA, throughout Europe,
and even in Asia. For those of you who are interested in journalism and
in writing this is a special opportunity to serve potentially as a commentator
for this newspaper or as an international correspondent from far away.
If you are a graduate student and are acquiring technical skills such as
economics or analytic skills such as political science this is an opportunity
to share your emerging world-class expertise with an audience or local
experts that could put it to use. You can give commentary on what it is
like to work in the US Senate, at Microsoft, at a leading world class molecular
biology laboratory or on Wall Street. You can give your impressions of
student life in America, Europe, and Ukraine. You can become a commentator
on the cultural scene in New York City or on the emerging world wide recession.
You can describe your college campus. Izvestiya several years ago had a
series describing individual American campuses. Ukraine does not have small
college campuses in remote rural areas. You all have access to leading
professorial authorities on business, on the world economy, on culture,
literature who well might be flattered to give an interview to you for
a newspaper far away. I can think of such personalities you have access
to: as Professor emeritus John Kenneth Galbraith of Harvard who helped
design and run the Marshall Plan, to Paul Volcker of Princeton, the former
President of the Federal Reserve Bank, to Professor Jeffrey Sachs at Harvard,
and to Professor Edward Said of Columbia who is also an advisor to the
Palestinian Council and a leading expert on the West and Post-Colonialism.
You can even describe the industry of the Harvard Student Agencies who
even write a tourist guide book about Eastern Europe (including Ukraine)
every year.

But all your colleges have something about them that you could share
with others abroad. Perhaps you write essays and poems you would want to
publish somewhere in Ukrainian or Russian. This may be your chance to begin
to develop an audience. Perhaps you cannot contain within yourself something
you want to say about Ukraine. I am certain that there are things about
America that truly aggravate you. Such cooperation to give an interview
or to do some writing for Den could help USA/USA receive some much
needed publicity in Ukraine and help it at a time when it is undergoing
profound change and re-orientation.

If you are interested please contact me at usa.usa@ibm.net. Remember
Ukraine needs your expertise and you may well bear your largest fruit there.
I want you to go through me so that I can continue to help other students
come here from Ukraine.

Bohdan ORYSHKEVICH, New York, USA

 

 

 

 

 

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