Slavery Begins with Indifference and Cynicism

A wise man once noticed that nations become wiser when they have no other option. In Ukraine, in spite of everything, there still are such vantage points of wisdom: you can make sure of that if you read letters of The Day's readers. Especially when you feel between the lines that, for a person who has never written to a newspaper, to state his/her civil position in public means to "clear" a certain barrier.

Today, in our chaotic, embittered and disillusioned political field, true "power lines" are drawn not between ideological adherents but between those who do not intend to furnish their freedom of choice as raw material for pre-election "technologies" and those who agree to play in October the role of a patsy (it does not matter if the patsy is cynical and disillusioned or indifferent). This is what our readers think over.

"LET ME EARN MYSELF MY DAILY BREAD AND PANTS..."

You publish a European-class newspaper, which is very unusual in today's Ukraine, which is more democratic than Mozambique but still thoroughly totalitarian. However, I somewhat doubt whether you should preserve such an intellectual and even academic style. An election campaign requires teeth. I am writing this because I know you will never stoop below a certain level. I read everything you print, especially readers' letters. A clever newspaper has equally clever readers. I was struck by the slogan "Fight poverty, not the poor!" Can there be anything simpler and more urgent for our state? Many politicians promise social security. But, for example, I am safe and sound, have a trade, and do not laze around. Please don't protect me, give me a chance to work and earn myself my daily bread and pants. At our factory, everybody cuts, rivets, and grinds something into shape - but all this is moonlighting, for the factory is practically dead. But what will happen if work is not considered moonlighting but is encouraged? It will be small business that keeps afloat the greatest powers. Incidentally, our former Communist Party organizer has become a barber: he walks all over the shop floor, cutting and shaving hair (and he does it for free if you are short of money). Still, he earns his living. Is this bad? Foreign countries give us money to develop small business, but where is that money? Our director does not like visiting the shop floor, for there is very little to feast his eyes upon. When he goes out he says: "We are good guys, but we need a clever and resolute manager."
Yours faithfully,
Serhiy KUTSYK, gage maker, retired major,
Kyiv

GIVE PEOPLE WORK AND THROW THE BOOK
AT BUREAUCRATS!

I don't have much time to read newspapers, but I read The Day regularly. I began doing so when I got interested in Yevhen Marchuk. By all accounts, I am indifferent to the top bosses. I live in a different world, in the world of business taken care of by small and medium officials who are ready to cooperate for small and medium bribes. But I once saw on television footage about Premier Marchuk's negotiations with a Russian delegation and immediately understood: this is serious. Just in case, I imagined speaking with him on the I-will-pay-you-back topic and guessed what he would do to me afterwards. In general, it is disgusting to bribe anybody. The money is lost, and conscience is guilty... But what is to be done? All business rests on this. An ordinary man can hardly imagine what kind of money flies around bureaucrats. Now about election slogans. "Fight poverty, not the poor!" is a very correct one. Poverty is humiliating both for the poor and the rich who live next to them. To fight the poor means either to starve them to death or give them a social pittance for some bread and tears. To fight poverty means to create jobs for people and throw the book at bureaucrats. According to our stereotypes, I am a rich bourgeois and capitalist. But I have not come out of the blue. I was at college living on my parents' meager wages, and now I can see my former fellow students living on their own meager salaries of engineers, masters of science, and instructors. Once a month, I invite to a party whoever I can find. We shoot the breeze, get drunk, then everybody gets a food packet. But then I feel sleazy: they used to be doing better than I. I do not want to dish out packets, I want to pay normal honest taxes. I want but I won't, for in any case the money will not reach the right destination. "Fight poverty, not the poor!" - yes! "Our president Marchuk!" - yes! I would also like to put my last name without fear under each letter I write, but I cannot do this now. My firm is registered in a good district of the good city Kyiv, and our tax officers are fierce and itchy-palmed.
With respect, Anatoly
Among other things a master of sports in the biathlon