Maidan

Almost everyone has a favorite list this time of year-- best movies, books, person of the year. For the fifth year, here is my BEST and WORST comprising governments, individuals, publications, and organizations which made the global Ukrainian community in 2007 the way it was.

BEST

1/ The Ukrainian people who made a free choice to give the Orange forces a slight victory in the snap elections; Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko who cobbled an Orange government despite internal and foreign intrigues; and President Victor Yushchenko who took 80 days but ultimately respected the will of the people and called to Orange forces to form the government.

2/ The Polish government for being the first to recognize the Soviet perpetrated famine of 1932-33, which starved 10 million, as genocide against the Ukrainian people.

3/ The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine for telling Russia’s Ambassador to Ukraine Victor Chernomyrdyn—possibly for the first time-- to cease his undiplomatic behaviour of criticizing Ukraine for making strides in declaring the Soviet famine (above) a genocide; and for recognizing the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, which battled Russia’s occupation, as a legitimate military force of WWII.

4/ YOUTUBE for giving universal access to such footage as http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrRhtbLQ5pA and http://resources.ushmm.org/film/display/info.php?file_num=855 which haunts and motivates to ensure that injustices committed in Ukraine during WWII are viewed and passed on to people with a heart, and acknowledged by the world community.

5/ The Canadian government for ensuring the citizenship rights of Wasyl Odynsky and Volodymyr Katriuk after a prolonged probe into alleged war crimes during the Nazi occupation of Ukraine.

6/ Premier Ed Stelmach’s Alberta government for following the initiative of Manitoba and undertaking a program to bring workers from Ukraine to meet provincial labour shortages.

7/ The Embassy of Ukraine in Canada and the Ukrainian Canadian Congress (UCC) for proposing former Prime Minister of Canada the Rt. Honourable Brian Malroney for the Yaroslav Mudry award, Ukraine’s highest. During his term, 1991, Canada became the first western country to recognize Ukraine’s sovereignty.

8/ Ukraine’s media, in particular Ukrayinska Pravda, Unian and Maidan for continuing to bring news and analyses from Ukraine to readers around the world.

9/ International media, in particular The Washington Post, and the Financial Times for more coverage of Ukraine than seen in most other outlets (which remain silent despite its size and importance in the re-emerging cold war and world peace).

10/ Britain’s Maria Lewycka for introducing, in great numbers, the literary English speaking world to Ukrainian characters, history and issues through hilarious best seller A History of Ukrainian Tractors.

Worst

1/ All politicians who impeded the voters’ choice for an Orange parliament with Yulia Tymoshenko as prime minister before acknowledging the supreme will of the people in a democracy.

2/ Russia’s President Alexander Putin for interfering by telling Ukraine’s former Prime Minister Victor Yanukhovych, weeks before the outcome, that he would remain Ukraine’s prime minister.

3/ Russia’s Ambassador Alexander Chornomyrdyn for interfering by declaring 2 days before Ukraine’s parliamentary elections that the cost of energy there will depend on who gets elected.

4/ Russia’s government for “finding” a $1.3 billion energy debt owed by Ukraine days after its people elected a slight Orange majority in parliament.

5/ Olga Ginsberg, Head of Ukraine’s State Archives Committee for denying access to materials dealing with USSR’s oppression in Ukraine and questioning, sarcastically, the need to know; her boss, Vice Prime Minister Dmytro Tabachnyk for not firing her for inappropriate statements; and his boss, Prime Minister Victor Yanukhovych for not censuring both.

6/ Again, Russia’s Ambassador Alexander Chornomyrdyn for calling the Memorial Museum, devoted to documenting abuses of the Soviet era, an affront to the Russian people, rather than apologizing for the heinous crimes committed by the Kremlin against Ukraine and Ukrainians.

7/ UNESCO for refusing to recognize the Soviet Famine of Ukraine 1932-33 as an act of genocide undertaken by USSR’s Joseph Stalin, Lazar Kaganovych et al against Ukrainians by not taking into account the precedent that the Nazi Holocaust of WWII did not strictly conform to the definition of genocide as the exclusive elimination of one group. Non Jewish opponents of the Nazi regime perished as well.

8/ UCC and UCCLA (Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association) for failing to obtain government funding commensurate with the internment of Canadians, mostly Ukrainians, as foreign aliens during WWI; and Canada’s government for pursuing political ends here rather than justice. Some 25 million dollars will be distributed to any group meeting funding criteria.

9/ Men, who demean Ukrainian women by calling them djevuska, a derogatory moniker as unacceptable as calling a Black person nigger; Ukrainian women, who allow such name calling.

10/ Russia’s ultra-nationalist youth movements, for destroying Tryzub, and other national symbols in Ukraine, hacking the President’s website and, allegedly, those of key news carriers, including Maidan.

By Oksana Bashuk Hepburn

Oksana Bashuk Hepburn is a commentator and President U*CAN Ukraine Canada Relations Inc., a consulting firm.