Off the Rails

By Walter Kish

During the past several weeks that this paper was on a summer hiatus, Ukraine has continued to produce news: some tragic, some strange and much that just makes you want to shake your head.

The tragic news, of course, was the devastating train derailment that caused a disastrous spill of phosphorus and sent hundreds of people to hospital while contaminating vast tracts of land in Western Ukraine. The accident happened near the small town of Ozhydiv, approximately eighty kilometers east of Lviv. The place is one that I am quite familiar with since it is only eight kilometers from the village of Sokoliwka, my father’s ancestral selo and a place that is like a second home for me when I am in Ukraine. Many of my cousins still live there and they now have another stress to add to their continuing struggle for a decent life.

The authorities reacted to the disaster in typical fashion – initially denying the seriousness of the problem, then seeking scapegoats and threatening prosecution of the guilty parties. This was accompanied by the mandatory photo-ops of ‘concerned’ government leaders on the scene who promised significant financial aid to those affected, little of which, if we go by history, will filter through the bureaucracy and ‘official channels’ to reach those actually suffering.

The actual cause, according to credible reports, appears to be the fact that this dangerous chemical was shipped from Kazakhstan in railway cars and containers long past their ‘best before date.’ Old and defective infrastructure is a well-known fact of life in Ukraine and most other post Soviet countries, and it seems the government only takes serious action when disaster creates uncomfortable headlines.

The strange bit of news I referred to earlier is an article in an industry journal reporting that as of the end of June, Ukraine had 51.3 million mobile telephone users. Now, I know from living in Ukraine the past several years that cell phone usage has been exploding in Ukraine, but this latest statistic boggles the mind, considering that the total population of Ukraine currently stands at somewhere around 47 million. This means that there is not only a cell phone for every man, woman and child in the country, but obviously some left over for the pets and livestock as well. If this is true then it at least bodes well for the future of Ukraine as an open society – with this kind of communications network, it will be impossible to keep any secret for long in Ukraine.

The news that makes me shake my head is the ongoing farce surrounding elections scheduled for September 30. The latest development sees Parliamentary Speaker Oleksandr Moroz recalling Parliament for an extraordinary session to reconsider the rules and procedures for the election.  The reasons for this are fairly transparent. Moroz knows quite well that his days are numbered and that both he and his Socialist party will be history after the next vote. This is his last grasp to either sabotage the election or create conditions to manipulate his way into maintaining power and influence. Current Prime Minister Victor Yanukovich is not crazy about having the upcoming elections take place either, so we can be sure that he too will use the opportunity to muddy the political waters even further. 

Whether there will be an election or not on September 30^th remains problematic, and even if it does come to pass, the political circus that has surrounded it and will undoubtedly continue to dominate the campaign will raise serious concerns about its legitimacy and integrity. Most polls indicate that the end result will be little different from what we have today in terms of the balance of power. All of which means, that after a tumultuous spring and summer, we are in for more of the same this fall.