What humiliates Ukrainians?

Lately, the top-ranking government officials got to using the word “humiliation.” On May 7, Prime Minister Mykola Azarov complained during his meetings with the veterans, “They tell us they are going to boycott Euro-2012. Will this do? How should we treat it? Who are they trying to humiliate? Do they want to humiliate us, our whole nation, our country?” And a few days ago President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych made a similar statement in Donetsk. “It is utterly important that we are not humiliated,” he said while discussing with journalists the position of the international community concerning the Tymoshenko case. Naturally, it is essential for the government’s position to possess some substantial self-respect and healthy statist egoism. However, a question arises: how is humiliation defined? Are the government officials not humiliated by the corruption level in the country, their own offshore accounts, demographic crisis, environmental problems, ruined justice system, lawlessness at all levels of government, and country’s bogging in crimes?

The Day asked Ukrainians: what humiliates Ukraine and you as Ukrainian citizens?

Aider EMIROV, director of the Choban-zade Charity Foundation:

“I am the citizen of my country, aware of my responsibilities, and everything that humiliates my country, humiliates me as its citizen as well. The most humiliating thing is that the ruling class, who during the past 20 years got hold of all Ukrainian wealth and resources that belonged to the whole nation before, used their power during these two decades to steal this wealth instead of improving the nation’s well-being. I am humiliated by the indifference of each single representative of the ruling class, their disdainful attitude towards people, towards the population of Ukraine. I would like the word ‘nation’ here, but we are nothing more than just a population to them! They became richer at our cost, they do not strive to bring our country to a higher level of development, they use the country as a source of power, means of further enrichment. They do not intend to implement something new, progressive in our lives. Why would they? When the people are in a constant struggle to survive, it is easier for them to gain wealth. This results in other aspects: the absence of democracy, that is a desire to take counsel from the society, the absence of reforms, the mere appearance of taking care of the economy, the low level of politics, the detrimental legal system, the laws that do not meet the international standards, the prosecution of dissenters, the judicial persecution of their political opponents, the isolation on the international stage, the slowdown in the development of the civic society institutions. Ukraine as a state and I personally as a human are humiliated by our government representatives, who treat us like rubbish, like we are nothing more than electorate whose votes can be forged, like the source of their enrichment. Such government cannot exist long, neither can the nation put up with such a humiliating position for a long time.”

Mykola HORDYCHENKO, Docent at the Social and Humanities Disciplines Chair, Glinka Conservatory of Music, Dnipropetrovsk:

“Ukrainian nation is humiliated the most by its inability to self-organize itself. It lacks the aspiration for consolidation, joint solving of problems without interference from the government and officials. This inability can be seen everywhere, at all levels. Our people can drink and play dominoes together, but they are unable of keeping the courtyards and apartment buildings clean. The real labor union movement at the enterprises ceased to exist, bureaucracy is there in its stead, and labor union meetings are no more than a formality. People who come to those meetings rush to get home sooner instead of solving the problems they have. Basically the same is happening at the village meetings. It is unbelievably hard to motivate our people to start acting, and when it does finally happen, it never lasts long. This passivity was noticed by the foreigners long ago. Though, it was not like this before. At cossack villages, which were divided into sotnias, a lot of matters were settled with the help of self-government. People themselves solved the problems of tax collecting, fulfillment of public works, they divided meadows and pasture lands, supported schools and hospitals, village teachers and doctors. In my opinion, all the beginnings of the self-government were destroyed during the Soviet period, when they were replaced by the party organization headed by the party secretary. They acted in accordance with the instructions given by the higher authorities, and initiative people were isolated or eliminated. Even during the war this system was preserved by the German occupants. The only difference was that the communists’ placement acted in their stead. But the most interesting thing is that even now the self-organization skills of our nation are practically non-existing. The owners of private enterprises are not interested in forming effective labor unions, it is easier to exploit the work force without them. The role of non-governmental organization in the political life of the country still is of no real importance. The development of local municipality does not move any further than the conversations about it – the situation is kept under the control of the executive branch and the authorities that are subordinate to it. The very state of the economy in the country does not contribute to the creation of the middle class, people who earn their living without being dependent on the state budget or big employers. If we want to live according to the European standards, first of all we have to learn the ways of self-government. In Europe, the movement towards democracy and well-being started with forming cooperatives, mutual aid funds, labor unions, and often the church helped with the creation of those. We will have to walk the same road, but as for now, unfortunately, all we feel is cooperative and humiliating powerlessness.”

Dmytro TKACHUK, head of Zhytomyr regional branch of the Democratic Alliance political party:

“I can not only express my opinion or guess on this matter, but provide a certain position of the European community. The NGO Democratic Alliance, which recently became a political party, while communicating with the representatives of the European People’s Party, received a letter saying that on May 12 in Lisbon (Portugal) at the congress of European youth political organizations which are a part of the Youth of the European People’s Party (YEPP), a resolution ‘On Support of the Free and Democratic Ukraine’ was adopted. Young European politicians made an emphasis on the collapse of the democratic processes in Ukraine, the increase of the corruption level and the bias of Ukrainian judicial branch. In their resolution YEPP supported the political fight of the Democratic Alliance against the political persecutions aimed at disabling the party’s participation in the political processes in the country, and appealed for the European Union and its member states to take decisive measures to prevent the non-democratic and illegal destruction of Ukrainian opposition democratic parties. In other words, civilized politicians are shocked by the Ukrainian government’s actions, the tools it uses while ‘interacting with the people,’ and public statements made by our ‘elite.’

“First of all, the separation between government and its people, incompetence and high level of corruption that prevails in every field of Ukrainian life are disturbing. Our high-ranking officials know nothing of the problems of ordinary citizens, since those who live in country estates, do not know what it is like to have water cut off, or to face another increase in the heating tariffs, or to ride a bus for two and a half hryvnias during the rush hour. They play their business and political games, adorning them with the words about Ukraine’s interests. It is impossible to change the economic situation in the country, when corruption is everywhere. Its level at the highest stages of power is especially impressive: the more power authority has, the more ‘politically protected’ its heads are, the more insolent is the level of abuse and theft of state funds – funds of citizens of Ukraine. All these things affect both the well-being of Ukrainians, and the international image of our state. It humiliates me.”

Illia KONONOV, head of the Department of Philosophy and Sociology of Luhansk State Pedagogical University, Ph.D., associate professor:

“I am humiliated by the inadequate government in our country at all levels. Unfortunately, this is a systematic disease. Management occurs as a part of the interests of the elite, not the majority of the population. We must act through civil society in order to do away with this. The most important threats for our country are the internal ones, it would deal just fine with all the other ones.”

Yurko PROKOPCHUK, actor at the Taras Shevchenko Academic Musical and Drama Theater, Cherkasy:

“Ukraine is humiliated by Russia under Putin, Donetsk mob, and the laziness of the citizens. And I personally am not humiliated by anything or anyone. I do not let anyone do that.”

Prepared by Mykola SEMENA, Simferopol; Vadym RYZHKOV, The Day, Dnipropetrovsk; Yulia HUZ, Zhytomyr; Serhii STUKANOV, Donetsk; Viktoria KOBYLIATSKA, Cherkasy