Will We Have Time to Pay our Debts to Them?
Polls show that people living in the post-Soviet states in the late twentieth century feared most the death of their near and dear, famine, and riots. In the early 21st century, it is poverty, disease, and old age (see Den, March 24, 2004, not translated in this digest). The reasons are obvious. Unlike the middle-aged, people that have reached, or are about to reach, a certain age, are still unable to adjust themselves to the new way of life. We are aware of their suffering every day, because our parents are among these people.
Our mothers, like the women in the photo, worked for the state all their life, denying themselves everything to save money for our education (education was free, but college students living in dorms, in big cities, had to be helped with money and food) and for their old age. But then the Soviet system collapsed and all their savings became worthless. What were they left with?
Calloused hands and backs bent with decades of toil, token money as pension, and a stack of worthless papers known as privatization certificates attesting investment somewhere, with no hope of receiving any dividends, ever. Also, memories of the Holodomor of the 1930s, World War II, the postwar years, the happiest moments in their lives — childbirth and their children enjoying their first success — and painful losses. Grandmothers surrounded by relatives are envied by their friends who are solitary old women, because these elderly ladies have their children and grandchildren, they have a purpose in their lives, and help them as best they can. However, far from all can count on their relatives’ help.
The adage that society is judged by the ways in which it treats its weakest citizens remains true.
What is being done in Ukraine to make their life easier? Will they have to stand in line for hours to get their fifty hryvnias worth of so-called compensation for their lost life’s savings, or to get pension recalculation tickets in the hope of being paid something, not earlier than this summer? Does all this make any of those public officials feel embarrassed in any way? What about all those people’s deputies capitalizing on lost saving refunds in their campaign speeches?
Our society and government are greatly indebted to the servicemen’s widows, those finding themselves alone and in poverty after having worked hard all their lives. Unfortunately, now all of them can wait for the results of the pension reform. If we don’t pay our debts to them now, it may be too late afterward.
Not only the state, but the whole of our society, meaning all of us, could be too late. We have not been able to “dress them in silks and keep warm with sables,” as a poet wrote. Does this mean that we will have to look the other way in embarrassment every time we meet them and live with this, building a happy capitalist future, having committed a grave sin against our parents’ generation? The parliament passed a resolution Thursday to the effect that hearings will be held on April 9, and the subject reads, Women’s Status in Ukraine: Realities and Perspectives.
With this issue The Day launches its own public hearings on the subject, starting with those to whom we have done such wrong in denying them better perspectives.
(See also “Question of The Day” on page DAY AFTER DAY)
