January
Freeze
By Walter Kish
Winter enveloped Kyiv
in a deep freeze this week. It was a brisk -27 degrees and, as I made my way to
work this morning, my breath took form as an icy crust on my moustache. Days
like these remind me that
The day before, I had
braved the elements to attend the Blessing of the Waters on the banks of the
I was not alone. Several
thousand people gathered to watch Patriarch Filaret of the Kyiv Patriarchate
officiate at this religious rite that has been a tradition here for over a
thousand years. Politicians were especially prominent, using the occasion as a
public platform to demonstrate their piety and faith. Even the discredited, and
of late virtually invisible, Petro Poroshenko made an appearance.
President Yushchenko took
advantage of the occasion to not only convey his best wishes, but to lambaste
his political opponents for the turmoil they had created in previous weeks in
the wake of the gas crisis. Although this was supposed to be about the blessing
of the waters, our troubled President seemed to mostly have gas on his mind. As
he went on with his impassioned political rant, I half expected him to pull a
canister of natural gas from under his coat and ask the Patriarch to bless it
along with the water. Apparently politics and religion are such separate
spheres here as they are in the West.
Following the ceremonies,
a handful of intrepid people stripped down to the bare essentials and took the
plunge into the frigid waters through a hole cut in the ice. Needless to say,
they did not linger there for long.
As I saw later on
television, President Yushchenko, Prime Minister Yekhanurov and a number of
other prominent ministers and politicians had earlier in the day taken a
similar plunge at a pond near an old wooden church near Kyiv. It was strictly a
“men-only” affair, with hairy backs and prominent mid-sections on display.
Regrettably, Yulia Tymoshenko was not there – her presence in a designer
swimsuit would certainly have added some interest and class to the scene.
Yushchenko’s nemesis
Yanukovych refrained from diving in with the others, preferring instead to
simply be sprinkled by the holy fathers of the Moscow Patriarchate at
ceremonies held at Kyiv’s historic Pecherska Lavra. I wonder if he thinks that
the water blessed under the Moscow Patriarchate is holier than that blessed
under the Kyiv Patriarchate? Whatever the case, I think that Ukrainian
politicians can use all the blessings they can get.
The cold spell is
expected to continue here for at least another week with temperatures not
expected to climb above -20 or so. Obviously,
A wake up call is
desperately needed. At the same time that it remains so critically dependent on
Russia for its supplies of natural gas, Ukraine continues to be one of the most
wasteful and energy inefficient countries in the world, especially in its use
of natural gas. Incredibly,
In the meantime, I am
glad that I brought my heavy-duty Canadian thermal underwear with me to