On the Scale of Measurements

Den’/The Day has a not-so-simple but very interesting life story. Five years is quite a considerable period for our ten- year-old state. There were some bitter moments in the history of our newspaper, which we in no way try to hush up or deny. It is this that enabled me to say after the 1999 elections, “They have won, but were right.” And all subsequent developments in this country proved us correct. The following phase in the newspaper’s lifetime was perhaps even more complicated than in the period of fierce struggle. It is unbelievably difficult to do the routine work of weeding out stereotypes and asserting new things because of the shortage of builders (as our long-time contributor, Professor Serhiy Krymsky, has rightly noted, today’s Ukraine experiences a shortage of qualities, not ideas).

Another difficulty in the building of our state, which makes it look like Babylon, is absence of a common language — not only in the sense of the national, Ukrainian, tongue but also in the sense of common priorities and principles. In this context, I think our newspaper strives, together with its readers, to be the custodian of the standards of measurement. When some quite influential forces in society continue to claim day by day that a meter has only 20 centimeters, somebody has to keep reminding them that it does in fact have 100. This applies both to the condition of society as a whole and to the activities and potential of certain individuals, even if the latter are portrayed as very promising. Of course, this job will not call forth applause or have an immediate effect. Yet, we will fail to regain our bearings unless we set a modern scale of values.

Society has outgrown its old clothes. The style of celebrating the tenth anniversary of independence was especially vivid testimony to this. That spectacle quaintly intertwined the pride in being able to build our state on our own, because the decades-old idea of independence has come true still in our lifetime, and the embarrassment over the pomposity and eclecticism of how it was held. Another cause of embarrassment is that a host of our compatriots cannot say, “Yes, I am far better off in my own country.” To change this, we must take an honest look at ourselves. This is why our newspaper is trying to lead people away from the state, orienting them toward self-sufficiency, personal initiative, and responsibility for themselves. This is why we pay so much attention to sociological polls and expert opinions, conduct social monitoring, and make forecasts with the aid of this country’s best experts. We would like these to be also heard in the corridors of power.

Most importantly, Den’/The Day is currently unthinkable without a wide dialogue with its reader, conducted in most diverse forms, such as photo contests, public forums, and polemics. Those who converse with and contribute for the newspaper are not only brilliant world-class scholars, Ukrainian and foreign, but also rank-and-file readers distinguished for their analytical mindset and acute awareness of the current moment.

Immodest as it may sound, it is a proven fact that our newspaper has bred a special school of journalism (I hope the readers will support my opinion). And I feel pleased when some of the young editorial employees, discussing a piece with his/her colleagues, says, “This is not The Day’s style...” ’s style implies quality, the ability to think independently, and respect for the readers.

Another feature that distinguishes our newspaper from the overwhelming majority of other print media is the so-called multivectoredness, i.e., comes out in Ukrainian and Russian, and The Day, our weekly digest, in English. In addition, Den’/The Day is always available on the Internet, with our site having a stable readership and the newspaper having contributors from Canada, Australia, and the Americas. In this way we are building the image of Ukraine, so to speak, privately, on a nonprofit basis.

I congratulate all those who were at the inception of Den’/The Day and have been writing, printing, circulating, and made the newspaper our common cause. I invite everyone to work together with us. For it is going to take very much time and effort to modernize our society.