Village heads study national security issues
“Ukraine’s National Security and NATO” is the name of the training course for village heads from Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, and Cherkasy oblasts, which took place recently in the city of Dnipropetrovsk on the initiative of the Chernihiv oblast organization Siversk Institute of Regional Research with support from the Renaissance Foundation.
Over 30 heads of territorial communities gathered to study national security issues and the problem of European integration. They all had differing views on Ukraine’s foreign policy but were united by one desire — to learn more about the prospects for their country. The training was conducted by Dr. Volodymyr Koriak, a historian from the National Defense Academy, and historian Volodymyr Boiko, the director of the Chernihiv Retraining and Re-qualification Center for Government .
At the end of the two-day training session the participants took part in a survey which revealed that what they lack most is information about NATO-its advantages and shortcomings, and what Ukraine needs to do to join the alliance. If this is a problem for heads of territorial communities, then it is even a greater one for the general population.
Similar training sessions will be held in Sumy, Cherkasy, and other cities, said the organizers.
Dr. Volodymyr BOIKO, director of the Chernihiv Retraining and Re-qualification Center for Government Personnel:
“We have had an independent country for so many years and so much has been said about informing the population, but information about NATO is still hard to find. After the workshop we polled the participants with the question: “What did you learn from this workshop?” “Information and knowledge,” they said. In other words, it looks as if our population either does not have information or what they have is not to the point, just beating around the bush. Insightful things are few and far between.
“Ukrainian citizens, in this case village heads, easily accepted the things we were trying to convey to them. There are hardly any grounds to say that the majority of the population is strictly opposed to European integration. It is difficult for me to say whether the attitude of our participants changed in a fundamental way, but I can assure you that they got rid of their negative emotions, and this is the main thing. It takes very little to change the population’s attitude-you just have to work at it.
“We had a great time communicating with each other. The atmosphere was very warm, sometimes emotional, perhaps, but that’s good too.
“There are probably many holdovers from the Soviet period left in all of us. That is why we also recounted some history, not just about today: how the North Atlantic Treaty came into existence, why the confrontation with the USSR began, etc. Unfortunately, many people still identify us with the former Soviet Union. What is lacking is the understanding that we now live in a different country whose national interests are vastly different from Soviet interests and objectives. Naturally, this identification problem has to be taken into account.
“On one Internet blog I read the following thought or, rather, question: is it worthwhile talking about an informational and educational campaign about NATO if the problem reaches far deeper and lies in people’s ideas about our history and traditions? As long as our citizens perceive the NATO issue from the standpoint of the former Soviet Union, it is difficult to talk about any fundamental changes. Global changes are possible only if the Ministry of Education and Science joins this campaign. We need to begin with schoolchildren and college students.”
