Walter Kish

For the past month or so, I have had the personally rewarding experience of playing host to two cousins from Ukraine. One of them was a young lady in her early twenties from a typical selo or village in Western Ukraine, who came here to take part in the Catholic Churchs World Youth Day festivities. The other was a Ukrainian Orthodox priest (Kyivan Patriarchate) in his early thirties, struggling to build a new church and parish in the decaying, industrialized and very Russified heartland of eastern Ukraine.

It has been particularly interesting to watch their reactions to being exposed to the seductive benefits and wonders of the Western world. To be sure, they were impressed by the abundance and choice of virtually every material good imaginable. They marvelled at our stores, shopping centres, highway system, cities, and incredible variety of sports, culture and entertainment choices.

Nonetheless, it was not any of these things that truly impressed them the most. After all, since Ukraines Independence, most of these have already begun to make their presence felt in Ukraine as well. Kyiv boasts some dozen or so McDonalds restaurants. Supermarket has come into common usage in the Ukrainian lexicon in most of the major cities of Ukraine. You are as likely to find as many Mercedes and BMWs in Odesa and Lviv as in Toronto or Hamilton. You can buy ketchup in the mahazyn of the smallest selo. The excesses of Hollywood are to be found on videocassettes everywhere.

What most impressed my cousins was the fact that here in Canada, we have what they call poryadok or order. Here, the various infrastructure systems social, political, educational, financial and economic, work with a high degree of honesty, integrity, fairness and justice. By contrast in Ukraine, mistrust, corruption, inefficiency, selfishness and greed are the predominant characteristics of virtually every facet of day-to-day life.

Money and connections are the only things that count. Most of the countrys wealth and power lies in the hands of a small clique of oligarchs and politicians who are primarily concerned about their own welfare and have little sense of empathy or duty to either their country or their countrymen. They control the media, the justice system, and government bureaucracy. Ten years of this has left the majority of the population living in conditions of chronic unemployment, declining quality of life, poor health, reduced lifespan, and a pessimistic view of their future. Few believe that things will genuinely improve within their lifespan.

It is not hard to understand their sense of fatalism and hopelessness. While the free enterprise system has indeed come to Ukraine, it is a perverse and mutant form that leaves many wishing for the security of the old days under communism, when at least everyone had a job and a future, limited though they may have been. As a result, crime, corruption and alcoholism have become endemic.

These days in Ukraine, it matters not how smart or hardworking you may be. The only thing that counts, is who you know and how much money you have. If you want to get a higher education, decent medical care, a good job or government approval for almost anything, money will have to change hands unofficially. This type of petty corruption is pervasive from top to bottom of virtually every organizational structure, public and private. Average salary levels are laughable, and most people earn more under the table than officially. Virtually everyone avoids paying taxes, since few people believe that tax revenues go anywhere but in the pockets of the politicians and bureaucrats in power. The whole system becomes a self-perpetuating vicious circle.

The current crisis in Ukraine is not only an economic and political one, but also a spiritual one, as evidenced by the disappearance of basic morality, ethics and integrity among the general population. Few people trust any of the official symbols or representatives of authority, be they elected officials, government functionaries, police, judges, teachers, doctors, or businessmen. Although this has brought about a significant resurgence of people turning back to faith and the churches, even they have not been immune to the spiritual malaise that encompasses the country, with political infighting and financial scandals touching even the religious sphere.

The biggest challenge in reforming and re-engineering Ukraine will not be in modifying and rebuilding its economic and political structures, but in rebuilding the spiritual and moral values of its population and in reviving their hope and faith in a better future in their lifetimes.