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Music and Art at the Ukrainian Institute of America
Posted by Alex on December 03, 2005 at 10:37:40:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Linguistic preferences... posted by Lesia on December 03, 2005 at 09:24:06:
You know, if there is anything I learned from fallacies of the Soviet regime is that everybody has their own truth, so to speak. You claim, that Ukrainian is being marginalized in Ukraine, from personal experience and that there is still a low level of proficiency in the language. I agree with you on that, Ukrainian literacy should be promoted more. But going back to Canada, yes by all means or government workers need to know English (and in many cases French), however if they know another language as well, they are FREE to interact with the public in that language especially if there is a barrier language. In fact this policy is encouraged. In Ukraine however (and just like you I am talking from personal experience having been to the country this past summer), it becomes a matter of not using Ukrainian (which I believe every state official in the country must know fluently, no questions asked) in some state places the use of Russian is prohibited even though these officials can speak it! So what happens: An 80-something babushka who speaks little or no Ukrainian comes to collect her pension, send a parcel or pay her bills because the person at the counter(s) pretends not to understand her. Even Yuschenko himself has said that he would oblige state officials to interact with people in either Ukrainian or Russian in places where large amounts of Russian-speakers reside, however the bill was not signed into law, and from what I understand it was tabled. The fact that Russian-speaking schools (bad enough) are being closed down (again from talking to people who I met during my trip both in Kiev and elsewhere), and even worse, in many places Russian is no longer being taught as a second language and even despite the parents' protests, nothing is done to bring it back (my fiancee's school in Kiev as an example - It was a Ukrainian school). When people complain, the administration comes up with the lamest excuse: "There is a lack of teachers who can teach Russian"! What???? That's in a country where Russian proficiency is about 90% and half the population consider Russian as their native language? Give me a break! The situation is even worse with Tatar, Polish and Hungarian schools, their number I can count on my two hands. Russian institutions such as the Russian Drama Theatre, the Puppet theatre in Kharkiv, were threatened with shutdown two years ago. Musicians from Eastern Ukraine cannot get their music produced in Kiev, because it is in Russian. All these aforementioned grievances are real and not pulled out of nowhere. In addition they constitute a direct violation of Articles 10, 11 and 53 of the Constitution of Ukraine which guarantees various aspects of the protection of rights of national minorities. To sum up: Does what happen in Ukraine towards Russian-speakers constitute "atrocity" as you call it? Of course not. But is this policy discriminatory? Absolutely. Ukrainian language and culture MUST be developed and promoted in Ukraine however this cannot be done over the backs of the country's linguistic minorities, who are guaranteed the same rights and priveleges as the Ukrainian-speaking portion of the country. So now, answer my question please: How does promoting the rights of linguistic minorities in Ukraine, a key aspect of the future democratic development of the country, constitutes "an agenda"?