I was looking at a news release. Among other things, I heard about South Korean workers struggling for their rights. Usually I don’t pay much attention to who is on strike and where, but then the host said that they were on strike because they did not want state capitalism and preferred a free market economy. This reminded me of our Ukrainian miners, schoolteachers, and other citizens working at private enterprises, but for reasons best known to themselves demanding wages from the government. Once again I marveled at Kipling’s wise phrase that East is East and West is West and never the twain shall meet. Except that I could not figure out who is where and how Ukraine fits into the pattern.
Xenophobia is traditionally part of the “Eastern mentality.” Last week our flag-waving patriots declared they opposed the idea of Russian pop singer Natasha Koroliova performing during the Kyiv Day festivities. Personally, I don’t like her songs. So what? I will not go to her concert or watch her on my TV. Is she to blame for her Russian parentage? Or maybe she is stealing royalties from our local stars? Possible, but on this particular occasion she performed free. In other words, I did not understand why they were opposed to her. Like Comrade Sukhov says in our immortal Soviet thriller, “White Desert Sun”, “the East is a pretty sensitive matter.”
Another Eastern trait is the universally acknowledged craft of eloquence, when one speaks not to convey certain ideas, but for the sake of rhetoric. Here our President is in the lead, of course. We are all used to his soliloquies, but people in the West are not, because they are used to taking key politicians’ statements seriously. While in Poland, Mr. Kuchma said that “Ukraine shall not step down from the road of economic reforms.” Maybe one should ask the Poles what he had in mind exactly.
The Ukrainian leadership discussed the possibility of setting up a bank in Ukraine with 100% Polish assets to service Ukrainian-Polish transactions. A very good idea, but we have heard a lot of good ones from the President and nothing about how any such idea has been implemented. This author made up his mind to keep record of them all and then check what happened to each and every such idea.
Speaking of a typically “Eastern” or “Oriental” policy, it is best described as embarrassing. Something always happens. Some malefactors steal into someone’s harem or a vizier takes off with the sultan’s purse. In this sense the past week was rich in events. The President came up with his notorious Odesa Edict (its embarrassing consequences are still to make themselves manifest). When electing the Speaker, Parliament “overlooked” ten votes. A ministerial bureaucrat sent forth a message on an official blank, posing as a homebred researcher, which almost caused another Chornobyl disaster panic.
Or maybe I am laying on the paint too thick? Living in the East is not so bad. They have Oriental sweets after all, don’t they?






