Hit the Patron with “Patronage!”

A traditional ceremony was held in downtown Lutsk on August 1, the day of Lesia Ukrainka's death, next to her monument. Writers and cultural figures laid flowers at the monument and spoke about the literary genius and immortal glory of the famous poetess. However, the said words were full of not so much passion as of pain. Still not fittingly honored in the native land is Lesia Ukrainka's mother, Olena Pchilka, also an outstanding figure in Ukrainian culture. Lutsk still does not have a museum of the Kosach family, although this is a decades-long subject of talks. And the area of Nechymne, where the poetess conceived Forest Song, a work of genius, is now totally neglected. What kind of a state do we live in?

A well-known Volyn-based journalist Mykola Velma says to the newspaper Volyn , as if answering this question: “I have always had great doubts that Ukraine has built a full-fledged democratic state. The arbitrary rule of officials has gone so far that you are sometimes terrified. You even think occasionally that no laws are written at all for some of them. Bribery, sleaze, and embezzlement have assumed dangerous proportions. And nobody seems to actively combat these. And if we add to this the poverty and hardships of so many people and rampant lawlessness, you feel sad indeed.”

The journalist's opinion was eloquently confirmed last week by the Kovel city court. In the dock here was Police Major Mykola Baichuk. He is being accused of personally “covering” the smuggling of 40 tons of illicit alcohol into the oblast. However, the court again failed to make a decision in the essence of this 2-year-long case. And over this period, the major, even being a defendant, has continued to serve as none other than chief of the economic crimes squad at the Kovel city police department.

Meanwhile, hardships and extreme poverty continue to clamor from every populated area. Chairman of the Manevych district administration Leonty Krychkevych has made public the following mind-boggling fact. The law on the status of the population living on the territory that suffered from the Chernobyl disaster (Manevych district being a territory like this) provides special funds intended for public catering in schools. Last year it was UAH2.6, and this year UAH1.7 per schoolchild per day. If a child, for some reason, does not attend school, this money is to be paid to parents as compensation. So now parents keep their children out of school on purpose in order to get a life-saving “live” penny at least in this way. For they have in fact forgotten what a wage is.

And wage-related statistics are all but depressing: in June, the Volyn oblast allocated UAH182 to public-utility employees, UAH160 in transport and communications, UAH149 in the industry, UAH128 in public health, and UAH80 in culture and art. The lowest wage in agriculture is UAH60, with only UAH49 paid in the first six months of the year. Moreover, 70% of it was not paid in the countryside. Totally in the oblast, 248,000 people, i.e., 8 out of 10 gainfully employed, have not received what they earned. This is what we have in the run-up to the elections.

By the way, the following joke has become popular lately in Volyn: “There is an election going on in Ukraine in the fall. The election is being held under Leonid Kuchma's patronage.” This jocular forecast might as well not come true. For the sooner the elections, the stronger the President “main rival,” the presidential candidate.