Mental Calisthenics with Uncle Il’ko (2)

By Oksana Bashuk Hepburn

I have not seen Uncle Il’ko for a few months but he’s never far from my mind when politics touching the Ukrainian community in Canada or matters dealing with Ukraine are percolating.

Dobryj den’ Vujku Il’ku,” I begin.

“De tebe chort honyv?  I’ve been waiting to talk to you.  Sit down and tell me about that insufferable letter Russia’s President sent to President Yushchenko.  And the ostentatious $34,000 watch that patriarch from Moscow was flashing to the impoverished believers on his unholy mission to Kyiv.  And I gotta tell you, I’m not happy with our Ukrainian World Congress accepting millions from Ukraine’s government.  How “free” does that make them? They’re on the payroll now.  That money is needed by the 46 million people living on less that $100 per month!”

“Can I make you some tea, before we get into all this Uncle Il’ku?”

“Dobre, and tell me what those great kids of yours are taking at university.  I don’t want them wasting time with mushy courses.  And don’t let them fall for this horse manure that the journey is more important than the prize: words to keep the hoi polloi in its place.  The leaders are those that win.  You either rule or are ruled.”

Uncle Il’ko is devoted to mental calisthenics.  That’s what he calls our discussions.  He’s got a full agenda today.  I report on the kids and offer, from the kitchen, that Russian President Medvedev’s letter with his not-so-oblique-threats of influencing the presidential election campaign in Ukraine backfired.   The international press was aghast at his presumptuousness.  And the Moscow patriarch …

“Drop everything and come back so I can hear you.  Tea does not exercise the mind,” he calls.  I return with the brew.   He gives me a few seconds to pour and sip.

“Nu scho?  It’s hard to make heads or tails of the elections in Ukraine.  I’m very concerned about Moscow’s religious war.  It’s political rather than religious, you know.  With links to the KGB.”  

“It’s FSB now.”

“Same thing.   350 ,000  agents in that bad boy Putin’s crowd. ”

There is cause for concern.  Moscow is bombarding Ukraine with media attacks calling it anti-Russian for supporting Georgia, sabotaging energy supplies, considering rent increases for Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, while preaching brotherly love and unity through the Moscow patriarch and the majority of Orthodox churches he controls in Ukraine.

Before I can express myself, Uncle Il’ko’s off.

“This Medvedev fella is very selective in his criticism.  The entire free world is critical of Russia for taking over parts of Georgia.  Yet: no new Russian ambassador for Ukraine!   What’s that supposed to be?  Punishment??   If the new one is to be as undiplomatic as the last one—that Chornomurderer…

“You mean Chernomyrdin.”

“…where was I?  Ah, … as the last one, Ukraine’s better off without one.  Remember how he told a little journalist to speak Russian during a press conference in Kyiv and she wouldn’t?  He threatened her.  Kremlin picks and picks at Ukraine - Russian passports for the Crimeans! Russian schools in Ukraine!  No recognition of the Holodomor!  Reinstatement of that Communist Ginsberg woman who runs the national archives and says there is no need to open historic records on Communist atrocities. Uuuuch!!”

He’s done for the moment and lets the angst he feels for the brave country across the Atlantic settle.   If he could, he’d be talking to politicians in Canada, phoning editors of major papers, meeting with organizations devoted to democratic principles and other Canadian groups that have been oppressed by Russia to find a concerted strategy to deal with Russia’s neo-colonial interests and safeguard the democratic advancements that have been made in Ukraine in the last 18 years and are now under threat. 

In his days he was a powerhouse and operated where it mattered; inside the Canadian political system as executive member of a major party.  He influenced prominent Ukrainian Canadians to run for office; offered up nominees - governor generals, provincial counterparts, judges and senators.  And was heard.  

“I want to be heard clearly,” he rallies.  “Ukraine has the right to negotiate terms with Russia on the use Sevastopol.  That’s point one.  Point two, the Free World must know that Russia wants to be a sea power.   That’s why it baited Georgia then doubled its Black Sea shoreline by occupying Abkhazia.  It wants to control the Black Sea, get a hold on the Mediterranean and access to the Atlantic.  It is building some fifty new vessels.  Fifty!!  I like the way our young Minister of Defence, Peter MacKay, stood up in defence of our Arctic.  He would have been a fine UPA commander.  U.S. President Obama should listen to him, not those scrap-the-missile-defence-shield fifth columnists.”

And he’s off.  Singing away in his still mighty basso profundo … from far and wide we stand on guard for thee …

And we haven’t finished Moscow’s presence in Ukraine’s living rooms via the new religion channel nor analyzed the presidential candidates.