YOUNG HAVE RIGHT TO BE HEARD BY SOCIETY

Last Wednesday, The Day’s editor-in-chief Larysa Ivshyna — together with Valery Prykhodko, general representative of Air Baltic in Ukraine, and Richard Zarins, general manager of Via Kyiv, the Ukrainian representation of Via Riga — awarded prizes to winners of the Weekend in Riga contest. It will be recalled that young people were asked to justify their ideas about Ukraine’s formula for success in the twenty-first century. The finals saw five university students and one high school student: Mykhailo Zubar, Stanislav Liudkevych, Dmytro Holovko, Ihor Laptiev, Dmytro Sheremetiev, and Taras Opanasenko. Unfortunately, Sumy-based Maksym Briukhanov failed to show up for the ceremony, but he is certain to receive his prizes by mail. “Our competitors have not only clarity of purpose but also deep patriotism,” Ms. Ivshyna emphasized. “Having seen their works, we felt calmer. What we have to do is have a little patience, continuing to work, of course, and this country will be in steady hands.”

“The main thing is to keep the young from social apathy,” contest winner Mykhailo ZUBAR (history student, Kyiv Shevchenko National University) expanded on the idea. “Intellectual contests The Day conducts make it possible for young people to be heard by society.” It turned out, unfortunately, that Mykhailo himself will not be able to visit the capital of Latvia on the eve of Gregorian calendar Christmas because he will then be attending a student scholarly seminar in Germany. So the prize was passed on to other finalists Stanislav LIUDKEVYCH and Dmytro HOLOVKO. Both of them are also Shevchenko University students (incidentally, we congratulate the winners’ alma mater on having such talented representatives of their generation). The former is studying to become a lawyer and the latter a translator. In fact, The Day’s readers will see Riga through their eyes, for the young savants have already promised to send their reports to our editorial office. The contest sponsors rightly believe that young people should restore the ties that traditionally existed between our two countries. And since the twenty-first century will be dominated by intellect, according to the contenders of our contest’s grand prize, we can conclude that a blueprint for the future has already been drafted.

ONE OF THE WINNERS

...And the Doctor Will Think You a Foreigner

The Ukrainian nation has always been hospitable and grateful, which in fact determines the special national features of bribery here. Small bribes, i.e., additional payment for services, are so natural for our citizens that they consider them only gratitude for a job well done. It is considered shameful to come to see a doctor or a teacher without a box of chocolates, for your acquaintances will think you stingy, and the doctor will think you a foreigner. The more so that the same chocolates might sometimes go full circle as payment for other services and even return to the original source.

Many of the causes of bribery lie precisely in people’s psychology: after so many years of life in a totalitarian bureaucratic society we have got used to the idea that it is not bureaucrats who serve the people, like in democratic countries, but just the other way around. In most cases, bribes are initiated by the briber, not the bribee, which means we should restrain ourselves and stop bribing others on a massive scale. And those demanding bribes can be taken care of by law enforcement.