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Borys Kosarev: Modernist Kharkiv, 1915-1931 at The Ukrainian Museum thru May 2, 2012
Posted by lesia on March 29, 2000 at 03:59:03:
In Reply to: Re: The problem of languages in another countries posted by Habelok on March 28, 2000 at 11:18:36:
: Dear Lesia,
: First of all, I am a Ukrainian. Secondly, I think that Ukrainian language must be in the official use. Then, I prefer to speak Ukrainian, and it is my primary language. I haven't begun speaking Russian until I was 18 years old. In my small town of 10,000 everybody speaks Ukrainian only. But it is not the point. The point is that we as Ukrainians must be above the resentment we acquired during the years of foreign dominance of the Ukraine. That is past, this is present. The present is a result of the past, but still the past is irreversible.
: What are Ukrainians? There is a possibility that you will disagree with me, but on my humble opinion we are those Scythians who rode the steps for five hundred years, we are those "black hats" that settled in the Central Ukraine in the 12th century, we are the Lithuanians, we are the Poles, and the Russians, and those Slavs whose language became Ukrainian language, and those peoples that is a part of us but who vanished without a trace and whom we may never will know. We are the Ukrainians not by the blood, we are the Ukrainians by the belonging to the same land, to the same country.
:
: Russians of the Ukraine the same Ukrainians as YOU ARE, Lesia they are the part of the people and the same nation - Ukrainian, they ARE part of us. (I know you don't like this idea. Do you?). As the Ukrainian citizens they are, as any Ukrainian citizens of ANY background, entitled to the expression of their political opinion and will. They are entitled to desire, demand, or simply to whim to have Russian as one of the country's languages. It is their constitutional right to do so. But every time, when this discussion comes up some people simply can not distinguish b/w past and present, oppressors and their relatives, or people that have the same background as the oppressors. Dividing our citizens into categories is against my beliefs and my conciseness. If it doesn't bother you, it is fine with me. YOU ARE entitled to your own opinion, Lesia, though your ideas disguise me very much.
:
: I know, Lesia, it is impossible for us to agree on this. See, I have no ability to hate or to resent "others". We are one big family. All Ukrainians are "us" for me. I love all and each of them. I hate our politicians, though, same as those people who turn one citizen against another.
: Take care, wish you well,
: Habelok.
Habelok, if you are Ukrainian, to yakogo bisa muchaete mene angliyskoyu :)))
I'm not 100% Ukrainian, my father was Bielorusian. I live in Ukraine the first 6 years of my life. Now I speak Ukrainian, I speak and write Bielorusian, Russian, English, Spanish, Italian, some of them perfectly, some not at all, and a little Basque, if it has some importance.
I never thought about who nation is oldest. If we speak about old nations, only Basque and Irish are European... Spanish are not any nation. 500 years ago they was Arabs, there are a great quantity of Judish blood, and the language is Romanian with a great influence of Basque.
If we are speaking about human rights, Ukrainians now only ask their rights. Eg, in Georgia or Armenia in the formet URSS you must learn the language of mayority. Why in Ukraine you defend another practice? Why in Ukraine still now is possible not to respect the human rights of Ukrainians? I don't want Lugansk to speak Ukrainian, if they don't want. But if they live in Kiev, in Vinnica, etc., why they don't want to speak our language? It isn't a matter of blood! You can be Hungarian, live in Uzhgorod and speak Ukrainian, or Polish, live in Lviv and speak Ukrainian. Where you see the problem?
Now, I don't hate Russians or Polish. The people I don't like is like the Ukrainian woman, who, listening to my conversation with my children say me with scorn: how you can speak this sh... language. She speaks with her mother in Russian, and despreciate her mother because the old woman cannot speak perfectly Russian. She said me that all her life she say lie, because she is ashemed to be Ukrainian. This people I really hate. But I don't like Indians, eg, who are ashamed to say they are Indians, etc.