Overwhelmed

By Walter Kish

Of late, I have found myself increasingly overwhelmed by the demands that Ukrainian organizational life is imposing upon my time.  Of course, I have no one to blame but myself for belonging to no less that five organizations in some official executive capacity, as well as being on more distribution and invitation lists than I can cope with.  That is the price I pay for placing a high value on being active within the Ukrainian Canadian community.  However, it is becoming obvious that I will have to become a lot more realistic and practical in what I commit to.  As well as the amount of time involved, being Ukrainian is becoming an expensive proposition, as hardly a week goes by where I am not being asked to fork out a donation or attend a hundred dollar a plate fund raising event.

It seems almost paradoxical that even as the number of Ukrainian Canadians involved in organized Ukrainian Canadian community life is dwindling and succumbing to the inexorable effects of assimilation, the number of Ukrainian organizations seems to be going up.  As an academic exercise, I sat down last week and began to create a list of Ukrainian organizations that I am either aware of or have had some dealings with, and was absolutely stunned with how the list never seemed to end.  Let’s take a quick tour.

Within the organization that I am most involved with, you have the Ukrainian National Federation (UNO), the Ukrainian Women’s Organization (OUK), the Ukrainian National Youth Federation (MUNO), and the Ukrainian War Veterans’ Association.  On the other side of the nationalist divide you have the League of Ukrainian Canadians (LUC), the League of Ukrainian Canadian Women (LUC-W), the Ukrainian Youth Association (SUM) and the Society of Veterans of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA).  I am told that our “friends” of the Bolshevik persuasion, the Association of United Ukrainian Canadians is also still alive and kicking.

On the religious side, aside from the churches proper, you have the Ukrainian Catholic Brotherhood of Canada, the Ukrainian Catholic Women’s League of Canada, the Ukrainian Self-Reliance League, the Ukrainian Women’s Association of Canada, and Ukrainian Orthodox Youth. 

On the more secular, non-political front, you have the Ukrainian Canadian Student’s Union (SUSK), the Ukrainian Canadian Professional and Business Federation, the Ukrainian Association of Visual Artists of Canada, the Ukrainian Library Association, Association of Ukrainian Journalists of Canada, the Canadian Lemko Association, the Ukrainian Genealogy Group and the Berkut Ukrainian Canadian Hunting and Fishing Club.

On the special causes front, you have the Canadian Ukrainian Immigrant Aid Society, the Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association, the Canada-Ukraine Chamber of Commerce, the Canadian Friends of the National Olympic Committee of Ukraine, the Children of Chornobyl Fund, the Help Us Help The Children Fund, Pomich Ukrayini Fund, the United Ukrainian Charitable Trust, The Ukrainian Canadian Taras Shevchenko Foundation, and the Canada Ukraine Foundation.

In the academic sphere you have the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, the Centre for Ukrainian Canadian Studies and the Ukrainian Canadian Research and Documentation Centre.

On top of these you have a number of “coordinating” umbrella organizations, namely the Ukrainian Canadian Congress, the Ukrainian World Congress and the World Federation of Ukrainian Women’s Organizations.

I could go on, as the above is by no means an exhaustive list.  While one could make a case that diversity and variety is a positive thing, there is also the reality of the law of diminishing returns.  We need to take a serious look as a community at the inefficiency and competition caused by such fragmentation.  Would it not make sense to coordinate, consolidate, share and prioritize the resources of our Ukrainian Canadian community in a more efficient and cooperative manner?