Links:
Free Burma!
Leave a reply
Category Archives: Culture & Society
Weblog about Ukraine
There are a lot of websites and links ot ther, of course. I found this today: Krusenstern from Switzerland with many links to english sources.
Maybe someone is interested in these links.
Links:
Political Situation in Ukraine
Of course, everyone can go to the news sites to read what is going on in Ukraine. The point of view changes if you have friends there, if you can imagine how and where and who…
Ok., I asked our friend about the situation which seemed to be critical to me – and about life when spring is coming… That’s what he wrote:
30.3.2007
Hello Reinard,
I’m fine! Just reread once again my story on your blog. It seemed to me rather sad, no? But in all other respects it’s ok…
The situation in Unkraine is getting more and more confusing with every day 🙂
Not only we had new ministers, we also may have a new out-of-schedule parliament election 🙂 Yesterday I heard that today is going to be a hot day in Kiyv. A lot of strikes and demonstrations are going to happen. Many people are getting tired of the government again and think that something must be changed. This something, as Tymoshenko said, must be a parliament reelection. I don’t know if it’s a good idea, but it would be definetely a something better than just following our prime-minister on the way back to Russia.
But the weather is really great. It’s a bit cold in the early morning yet, but is getting warmer fast. The city is getting green reminding that it’s not so bad in the end 🙂
That’s it. Say hello to Lis! 🙂
xxx
About Education in former Soviet Union (II)
Hello Reinard,
How you doing? Nice weather today, eh?
Here’s some more about the education in Ukraine. To be continued…
When I was a pupil
As you already know, I studied in a secondary school in xxx. It wasn’t a difficult time for me as I’m more or less inclined to science. My parents, being teachers, gave me the ability to understand complicated things easily. I could afford myself not to do my home assignments of many subjects, because I could answer questions by simply recalling what the teacher told on the lesson before.
Most times it was enough to earn a good mark. However, sometimes it wouldn’t do and I was caught knowing almost nothing about the subject when it turned to some more profound questioning. It made me feel myself horrible and irresponsible. Few days after the occasion I studied as good as I could. After that, I returned to my usual custom of listening but not studying at home :—)
To be honest I wasn’t a very good pupil, or to say more precisely a student who cares. The reason – most times it was too simple to me. But it wasn’t so for many others who worked harder to have good marks.
The educational system in secondary schools of my country was pretty simple. The educational year was divided to four periods. Each period started with joy and happiness of the pupils and ended with fear of not having good marks on examinations. This periodical exams were not really hard. Though they should be prepared for 🙂 And they were conducted for most subjects. So, it wasn’t funny :–) But, the reality was that you couldn’t be thrown out of the school when you didn’t pass. You stayed. So, the phenomenon of our schools is many many guys who don’t study at all. Or almost. They’re simply not afraid :—) Their age is so young that they don’t understand the importance yet, but on the other hand they are not controlled by the school. This leads to smoking, drinking, stealing and other unpleasant things.
In the end of educational year we had real exams. Often we had two or three, and we had about eight when we graduated. It was a lot harder than any before. But what with the guys who didn’t study, you would ask! Nothing special. The corruption was already there. You could feel yourself comfortable knowing that you can have very good marks if your parents bribed the commission. (The examinations were conducted in written form) It was one more reason why many pupils chose not to study. And really, why study when I can have good results for only few hundred bucks? :—–)
The corruption was not so widely spread as today, so many pupils passed the exams with their knowledge. Myself included :-))))
XXX,
Ukraine.
About Education in former Soviet Union
As before, here is another email from our friend in Ukraine. What is very interesting is to read from young people who nowadays try to understand their parents, try to understand them, how they (still – of course they were educated under SU conditions) are thinking and on the other hand, how these young people try to see their new world which changed completly but – as our friend tells us very often – »nothing changes at all«.
These letters will be continued as I receive them and as far as they are convenient…
Hello Reinard & Lis,
Thanks a lot for the postcard. It was funny to receive it with “respect” in Russian. I’m sorry I’m a bit late, but I hope you had happy Valentine’s Day!
And now, as I promised I’ll tell you about the educational system in Ukraine.
Soviet Union times.
It’s a pity I can’t tell you in detail what was happening in my country when the SU was, but I know what my parents are telling.
Of course I know that parents most often don’t understand their children and think that the time when they were young everything was much better, prices – lower, health – better, people – nicer, air – fresher, sky – brighter etc. :)))))
But to some extend they’re right. The education was much better. The science was one of the leading in the world, many important inventions come form SU or Russia. We had many plants and factories where our professionals were working.
Now I can see a good example of the skills that were trained that time. It’s my father. Educated in a pedagogical institute in Kamyanets Podilskyi he has really nice skills of a vast range. He knows a lot of physics, chemistry, electronics, mechanics and so on. For example he can really easily repair a TV-set or a car. He knows in detail how transistors, transformers, capacitors and other digital elements are working. He knows how to place them together to make some working circuit. Few weeks ago he was busy repairing an old small TV by replacing its CRT from an old Macintosh monitor with no documentation. Some time earlier he did a hand-made welding apparatus. He did necessary calculations of magnetic fields, electrical currents and other related thing…
In fact my father is fan of all kind of technics but, god, he knows how to do so many things that I don’t know so many words :-)))
So, that’s what the education was in SU. :-)))
Okay, have to work now. Will tell you some more later.
XXX.
Ways out of Iraq…
… are discusseed mostly as a big political job. Withdrawal, when, how?
But there are also very private kinds of withdrawal. You can read about them but you have to seek fort them very thoroughly: Besides refusing to take part or desertion suicide is too often a way out. 22 from 846 cases of death in 2005. Are 2.5% a relevant figure? Is it allowed to ask such a question?
We know from many contributions which kind of victims besides »normal dead soldiers« i.g, in Vietnam these big american ventures took their toll: Unadequately supplied soldiers and veterans, left-alone disablede cripples, chronic invalids, mental disordered people, drugs…
And we learn about rehabilitates beeing »cured« in molded rooms. But this seems to be only a
Und wir erfahren, dass aktuell Rehabilitanten wieder »zurecht gebogen« werden. Das gilt gilt wohl als heimatlicher Kollateralschaden.
Selbstmord…
…ist sicher ein Zeichen für absolute Verzweiflung, für den Druck aus Erlebnissen und Erfahrungen, die ein Weitermachen oder auch »nur« Weiterleben unmöglich erscheinen lassen. Die Geschichte des Colonel Westhusing sollte kennen und verarbeiten, wer derzeit locker für den Tornadoeinsatz plädiert – und nicht hinmuss…
- Dann: es wir nicht nur mit Worten erzählt. Manche tun es durch Handeln und Leben und durch den Tod. Selbstmord ist eine Art, eine Geschichte zu Ende zu erzählen, und das Riskieren des Lebens ebenfalls. «
Sten Nadolny: Selim oder die Gabe der Rede
Links:
Talking about Corruption…
This is a translated version of the german version.)
…here an E-Mail from Ukraine. There it’s really much more bad than here in Germany. But that doesn’t mean we should rest. The letter describes the situation in a drastic manner. Mostly just young people who want to change things but can’t (the writer is 23):
Hello Reinard,
I’m fine in general 🙂 The job is okay, the iMac is great and serves me a good job by replacing PC and Mac at the same time ;) Yep, things do not seem to be getting any better. However it’s not noticeable at the local scope of my village. It’s just that nothing changed at all. The problem is that it never changed to the good here even after the Orange Revolution. So it’s not so bitter for the people now 🙂
Perhaps some people (maybe even the majority) understand that membership in NATO is the ticket to EU, but that the majority of our politicians do have their business (mostly illegal) that can exist as long as we’re not in EU or any other union. It is sure enough that they’re not keen to loose it. So, my frightful prediction is that we’re not going to enter any union until the politicians of my age (who have no business at all… and all they have is maybe an iMac or iBook in their pocket ;)))))))) ) come onto the stage.
Yet another problem is our people. It is a really the most difficult problem that is placed on our way toward any development. Take a look at the situation… I think you remember that building of the officials’ in my village (Big gray construction on the square. I remember you told it has a lot of mortar and small windows 🙂 ). So, if for example I wanted to find a job in this building, I would have to bribe our authorities. The most curious is the sum of the bribe :-). It’s not a secret that the price is about few thousand dollars/euros!!!! Just think about how long would it take to get this money back by means of so low salary rate. And I’m not joking that it would take a YEAR OR MORE! And there’s actually a queue for the positions in this organization. It turns out that the question is not simply the money. You’ll have to wait some time because there’s a lot of ladies and gentlemen ahead of you in the queue. Perhaps some of them are ready to pay even more to take the job.
So what is the reason for all this, you would ask. I think that it’s the mentality of our post SU nation. The job of this type seems to be protection and a guarantee of the future, even despite of the low salary. I asked some young men about their reasons for the positions in state organizations. Some of them told me that having this job means to be close to the most important people in the region and thus to be able to solve any problems with their help. Other told me that it’s a good choice to be in the position to take bribes by their own hands… It seems natural for them.
Personally I’m not longing to get a job of this kind. And I never longed. I know my real abilities and I know how to turn them into some reasonable income that’ll allow me to live without being afraid to find myself in a jail some day 🙂 I like to be independent of this system. But it turns out that the majority don’t. They’re simply used to live without any developing. The look for the possibility to pull strings instead.
So that’s the problem of Ukrainian people. Sometimes it seems that they want to enter EU and change their lives for better, but on the other hand they would like stay with their regime.
I would describe it like “I don’t want to EARN more, I simply want to be PAID more” ;-)))))))
I think that the situation is really difficult. And it’s not going to change until we tear the strings and start living in a normal way. But I don’t know how can we achieve this goal.
That’s it. I hope was honest enough 😉
X.X
For all who are interested in the cultural environment, »somewhere in Galicia«: Here are pictures and annotations (Attention: big HTML file).
And a comment about anonymisation: It could be possible that the writer or his family would get into difficulties if he could be identified …
Nix - Nothing - Nada - Τίποτα 