Footprint in Time: One American's controversial thoughts on Ukraine

Submitted by Terry Hallman on Sat, 2005-07-02 06:59.


Kyiv Post
by Terry E Hallman
May 22 2003

A 10 year-old girl with an infant in her arms rang my doorbell. She was barely alive, unlike the 9 year-old boy who died, frozen, on another American’s doorstep in Kherson a few months ago. The little girl was blue in the face and starved. She asked only for a small amount of food, nothing else. My wife, Olga, raided the fridge and gave her everything we didn’t need. I later found Olga in tears, not because of the little girl at our front door, but because we both knew that this pitiful girl is only one of many such children throughout Ukraine.

I find myself totally disgusted. Have Ukrainians no spine, no dignity or pride?  If I offend Ukrainians, tough! Get a grip and listen up.

There is no good reason for children to be starving and suffering in Ukraine.  The only reason it happens is that Ukrainians are all wimps who are utterly helpless to do anything other than accept their ‘fate’ likes sheep. Kids starving? Yes, that’s just how it is, and nothing can be done about it. That seems to be the prevailing opinion.

In fact, something can be done about it, but Ukrainians – every single one of you – are unmotivated to do anything that does not immediately benefit yourself, your family and perhaps your friends. Sure, I know you feel bad about starving kids. You should feel bad. In fact, you should feel terrible.

I have just spent a year in Crimea at my own expense designing a program that I believe would relieve some of the country’s poverty. The U.S. is interested in making the program a reality.

The program involves no freebies or handouts, and it would make it possible for anyone to earn a decent living. As an added benefit, it would pump funds into social programs for children like those who presented themselves on my doorstep.

The problem? Ukrainian government officials are reluctant to permit its implementation unless they see an opportunity for personal gain. I am totally opposed to graft, so we are at a stalemate. Neither Ukraine or the U.S. can implement the program without my assistance, and I have made stealing from the program extremely difficult.

My advisors say that Ukrainian officials will not budge until they are paid. In the meantime, messy details like starving children are held hostage. It seems that no matter how good your intentions, nothing happens until the dons of the Ukrainian political mafia are paid.

Because the public will not change this situation, the officials are killing the economy, people are starving or dying of neglect. At the end of the day, it seems that most Ukrainians just don’t give a damn about each other. Surely, there are exceptions, but if those exceptions exist, they are all but invisible.

I see it every day, as people scurry around like rats without giving a second thought to hungry kids. Never mind what the U.S. may do –  at some point, Ukrainians have to step up and take charge rather than roll over and play dead.

The U.S. is observing, at my insistence, how local officials behave regarding the prospect of getting a good-sized development project. As anticipated, the government officials immediately hold out their hands. They are relentless gatekeepers, unwilling to take action without payment. And the people merely concede that bribes must be paid. Change things?  No, take the easy way out. That’s the definition of Ukraine and all things Ukrainian.

Ukrainians are responsible for allowing the abomination that is your government to continue unchecked. Good projects come along, and citizens themselves concede that playing ball with the government status quo is the best way to go.

Children die due to widespread social neglect and the ineptitude of most Ukrainians to manage their own community – and this doesn’t seem to bother many people. It may be a personal curse that bothers few: Me, my wife and too few others in this country.

It will be easy for those offended by this message to suggest I leave Ukraine if I don’t like it. That’s fair enough, but what would that accomplish? My departure would mean just one less voice raised in defense of starving children, one less voice challenging Ukrainians to realize the destiny that could be, as a strong, prosperous and vibrant country. 

Do Ukrainians even know that they have that potential? I do, and I’m sure of it. 


Terry E. Hallman is a specialist in economic development and poverty relief who has resided in Crimea for the past year.


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Submitted by Sevastopolski (not verified) on Tue, 2006-05-23 22:57.

As a westerner living in Ukraine, I suppose I need to preface my remarks about Ukraine with the standard disclaimer in order to avoid the usual vile attacks of being moscali, arrogant, and so forth. My observations are based on direct experience which are the results of two years living in Ukraine with my Ukrainian wife and American born daughter, and 10 years experience as a frequent traveler to Ukraine. I also operate a business here, built my own home here, as well as several other properties for business and family needs. I have assisted my wife's family in starting small businesses and have sponsored a school for teaching English to young children, and am actively involved with my daughter's school. By profession I am an electrical engineer, and formally owned a small company in Silicon valley before coming to Ukraine to create a small start-up here. I also have a strong interest in European history, and devote some time to the study of the subject.

I am of course acutely aware of the huge misfortunes of Ukraine's past history, just in the 20the century there was Tsarist despotism, WWI, Bolshevik revolution, civil war, pogroms, genocidal famine, Stalinist purges, WWII, more genocide, and more spirit crushing Soviet rule. It takes a long time to build a 'civil society' and all of the above had the effect of repeatedly tearing down what little civil society there was.

I have noticed a trend in the media and in individuals in blaming Yushenko and other political elites for the failure of the Orange revolution as well as for the failure to make any significant progress in tackling the enormous, enormous problems that face Ukraine. However, my experiences here have shown me that this belief is not the deepest truth. There are not just 10 enemies of progress in Ukraine, or even 100, or 1,000. Instead, by latest count there are about 46.83 million ones.

By this, I mean to say, that the real enemy of progress in Ukraine, is the 'normal' social behavior of Ukrainian society. What is 'normal' in Ukraine, and how did it come about? I think dissident author Alexandr Zinoviev (who later became a Soviet apologist) summed it up quite well in his satiric novel Homo Sovieticus. During the Soviet period, the government through strong, overt coercion tried to brainwash it's citizens into being a 'New Soviet Man', a kind of selfless embodiment of Marxist-Leninist values. Instead, not surprisingly, they created something else. The cynical slang word for the new soviet man, not to be confused with 'new Russian', is 'sovok', which is derived from Soviet, but interestingly also means 'to scoop'!

The type of New Soviet Man the Soviets really created was in reality, a person who by modern Western standards would be considered socially dysfunctional, as in a person, who became totally indifferent to the results of their labor, since a laborer attained nearly the same salary (or even more!) as someone who spent long years studying in a University, taking risks to start a business or other form of enterprise, of course was not even permitted. In general human beings in almost any measure were greatly devalued, which eroded the family and trust in any institution (there was really only one institution anyway). There was great indifference to common property, and petty theft was a normal occurrence, hardly immoral, after all, all property is really communal property. The people lived in almost total international isolation, while their leaders poured the most banal, useless propaganda into their heads, and this is all they heard or understood.

When Ukraine attained it's independence through the dissolution of the Soviet Union, it did so merely by the decision of the Rada, which was later ratified by popular vote (it would be interesting to see the results if they were to re-cast that vote today!). So Ukraine did not achieve it's independence as the result of a social transformation, nor was the society totally transformed by independence. Instead there is today, a great deal of Sovok in the behavior of the people, whether expressed in corruption at all social and political levels, or a lack of accountability, or a lack of the desire to work or have any interests outside of one's self.

Submitted by Old Odessite (not verified) on Wed, 2006-05-24 09:00.

Nice post, MS. I couldn't agree more with all your points. As with all forms of brainwashing, to reverse the process will take some considerable time - possibly several generations.

An awful lot of effort was put into the brainwashing everyone but to reverse this, the people are left to find their own way back. After 3 or 4 generations, it doesn't take much thought to appreciate the difficulties.