Something Smells in Ukraine

By Volodymyr Kish

News from Ukraine these days mostly centers on the upcoming election, the failing economy, the jailing of political opponents, or President Yanukovych’s latest hedonistic excesses. While these are all no doubt worthy of serious attention, there is much other news that may not be quite as important but which has piqued my interest, nonetheless.

For instance, there is a high-level gathering currently going on in Yalta involving political leaders and experts from Ukraine, Russia, and many European countries (Yalta European Strategy Conference) which is producing no end of comments that will no doubt raise a few eyebrows if not outright giggles. For instance, on the opening day, Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov in his remarks was quoted as stating that “he was not satisfied with the results of measures being taken to tackle corruption”. As my cousin Hryts from Pidkamin would say, that is like the fox complaining that the measures being taken to protect the chickens in the henhouse are inadequate.

My favourite quote from this conference though, was by Andrei Kostin, one of Russia’s leading bankers, who commented that “Europe offers love to Ukraine with strings attached, whereas Russia’s love would be unconditional”. How he could say that with a straight face is a miracle to me, considering that he is surely aware that Russia’s “love” for Ukraine over the past century has led to the untimely extermination of some tens of millions of Ukrainians. I guess his ilk have trouble differentiating between love and hate.

There were some even more interesting comments coming out of an economics strategy meeting held in Dnipropetrovsk recently involving President Yanukovych and his government ministers. It has been reported that when Economics Minister Petro Poroshenko pressed the President to undertake measures to regulate certain aspects of trade with Russia, the President lost it and threatened to “tear off” the heads of ministers who engaged in political intrigue in the run up to the October parliamentary elections. When Poroshenko continued, Yanukovych replied with an old Russian aphorism that essentially says that “a poor dancer always blames his testicles as getting in the way.” Such is the state of political wisdom according to Yanukovych.

In other news, some 25,000 Hasidic Jews of the Breslover sect from all over the world are descending on the town of Uman (population 85,000) to celebrate Rosh Hashannah in the birthplace of their spiritual leader Rav Nachman of Breslov who died here in 1810. Although this annual pilgrimage is the only significant event that takes place in this otherwise unremarkable and sleepy town and is the major income source for some townspeople, most of the town’s predominantly Ukrainian population look upon this invasion of devout and traditionally garbed Hassidim with some unease.

A three-acre tented catering compound is being set up to feed the pilgrims (kosher food of course). Some 20 tons of meat, including almost 14,000 chickens, as well as mountains of bread, rice and vegetables have been stockpiled. Ritual slaughterers have been imported from Israel to insure that the meat is certified “glatt kosher”. It is estimated that some 192,000 challah rolls will be consumed during the celebrations.

Lastly, Radio Free Europe is reporting that the city of Lviv has been afflicted of late with a serious olfactory problem – i.e. the city stinks. In recent months, the smell in certain parts of the city has become so bad that residents are wearing facemasks and keeping children and those suffering from asthma indoors. Apparently the smell, a combination of sulphurous odours, chemicals, pollution, and the smell of sewage has been getting worse. City dwellers are getting increasingly angry and frustrated by the lack of any government action to remedy the situation. There have been growing demonstrations in front of Lviv’s City Hall by residents anxious to “air” their grievances.

Experts say that the problem is being caused by the lack of any controls on industrial pollution as well as an old and crumbling sewage infrastructure. Apparently, the city authorities have engaged Polish experts who have in recent years dealt successfully with similar problems in several of Poland’s major cities. No doubt, they will bring some common “scents” to bear on the problem.