1996: THE YEAR IN REVIEW: The noteworthy: people and events (12/29/96)

1996: THE YEAR IN REVIEW

The noteworthy: people and events

Some notable events and people defy classification in any of our yearend categories. For that reason we have this section.

So, here goes: the noteworthy of 1996.

Two Ukrainians were among the 68 persons awarded the Order of Canada, the country's highest civilian honors system which recognizes outstanding achievements in diverse fields. Dr. Walter Curlook, a metallurgist, is the inventor of several patented process innovations in mining and metallurgy; he pioneered bulk mining concepts and automation, and helped improve the industry's efficiency and safety. Walter Podiluk served as superintendent of schools for the Saskatoon Catholic Board of Education, where he helped develop French-English and Ukrainian-English schools; he served as deputy minister of health for Saskatchewan, as deputy chairman and executive director of the Saskatchewan Commission on Directions in Health Care and as a special consultant to the provincial Ministry of Health. The citations were presented in February by Governor General Romeo LeBlanc.
Nestor Burtnyk, 67, the "father of computer animation technology in Canada," and his longtime associate, Dr. Marcelo Wein, were hailed on February 9 as pioneers at the Festival of Computer Animation at the Ontario Science Center. Then, in November, our Ottawa correspondent, Chris Guly, reported that Mr. Burtnyk and Dr. Wein are among the 22 scientific and technical achievements nominees for the 1997 Oscar awards (scheduled for March 1). Mr. Burtnyk headed the team, which included Dr. Wein, that developed the technique of key frame animation. The team used that technique in a 1974 National Film Board of Canada animated film called "Hunger" - the first computer-animated movie to be nominated for an Oscar. It won a jury prize at that year's Cannes Film Festival.
During 1996 the North American TV program "Kontakt" seemed to be expanding into new markets all the time. On February 28 the Ukrainian community show's Metropolitan New York producers traveled to Washington along with other members of the Coalition of Ethnic Broadcasters to protest the sale of city-owned station WNYC-TV (Channel 31) to ITT-Dow Jones. The sale, they argued, would leave ethnic broadcasters homeless and the cable TV station would reach only 20 percent of the current audience, thus ignoring the needs of ethnic communities. "Kontakt" premiered in the New York City area on WNYC in September 1992 and can now be seen on Channel 63 (WMBC) in New York/New Jersey and Channel 73 (Crosswalks) in New York City. In addition, it is broadcast in Ottawa, Toronto, Edmonton, Vancouver, Winnipeg, Saskatoon, Thunder Bay, Sacramento and Chicago, and is soon scheduled to be shown in Montreal, Washington, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Detroit and Florida.
Our former Weekly staffer Natalia (Dmytrijuk) Warren reported from Florida that the idea of the Ukrainian pavilion at Walt Disney World's EPCOT Center had advanced as Jason Harper, president of the Ukrainian Project Fund, had met on March 4 with the executive VP of EPCOT, George Kalogridis. As a result, Ukraine was added to the list that includes two other countries vying for a site between the Chinese and German pavilions. Mr. Harper was also given the go-ahead to discuss the Ukrainian pavilion project with other Disney officials.
A seminar called "Examining New Realities in Ukraine" was held on March 24 in Washington under the joint sponsorship of the American Jewish Committee, as part of its Project Ukraine, and the Embassy of Ukraine. The all-day event brought together 50 experts representing the governments of Ukraine, Israel and the United States, as well as representatives of non-governmental organizations, and community and religious leaders from Ukraine and the United States. Topics covered included the blossoming of Jewish life in Ukraine, emigration, Ukraine's proposed new Constitution, inter-ethnic relations and foreign relations.
In April it was reported that the U.S. Court of Appeals would hear the case of two Ukrainian Americans who had petitioned the Federal Communications Commission in a move against CBS for its broadcast on "60 Minutes" of the segment called "The Ugly Face of Freedom." Alexander Serafyn of Troy, Mich., and Oleg Nikolyszyn of Providence, R.I., had filed petitions with the FCC to block transfer of CBS licenses in their hometowns because, they argued, CBS had failed to meet its public interest obligations. The court was scheduled to hear oral arguments in October of this year, but the case was postponed due to an unrelated matter (a challenge to CBS in Detroit which was awaiting an FCC decision). It now appears, according to attorney Arthur Belendiuk, that 1997 will be the year in which the Ukrainian Americans' case against CBS will be resolved. Mr. Belendiuk told The Weekly that the court will issue a new briefing schedule and that he expects oral arguments could be heard as early as spring, or perhaps in the fall. "We're still in this," he advised.
Julian Kulas and Dr. Myron B. Kuropas were among the 11 ethnic leaders presented the first annual David Roth Community Relations Award on May 22 by the Illinois Ethnic Coalition (formerly the Illinois Consultation on Ethnicity in Education). The two Ukrainians received the award as "goodwill ambassadors" in relations among ethnic groups.
Frances Swyripa, director of the Ukrainian-Canadian Program at the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, University of Alberta, was the co-recipient on June 20 of the City of Edmonton Book Prize, inaugurated in 1995 to mark the 200th anniversary of Fort Edmonton. Dr. Swyripa and Bob Hesketh were honored as editors of "Edmonton: The Life of A City" (NeWest Press), a collection of more than 30 articles, poems and photos highlighting people and events from Edmonton's fur trade past to its professional hockey present.
Yoram Sheftel, the courageous Israeli lawyer who defended John Demjanjuk and secured his acquittal by the Supreme Court of Israel on charges that he was the notorious "Ivan the Terrible" of Treblinka, was honored on June 30 by the Ukrainian American Justice Committee with its Humanitarian Award. Also in 1996, Mr. Sheftel's inside account of the strange case of Mr. Demjanjuk, "Defending 'Ivan the Terrible': the Conspiracy to Convict John Demjanjuk" was published in the U.S. by Regnery Publishing. The book had previously been published in 1993 in Israel and in 1994 in Great Britain as "The Demjanjuk Affair: The Rise and Fall of a Show Trial."
The Arkan Dance Company of Toronto took the art of Ukrainian folk dance to Taiwan in July, performing at the International Folklore Festival on that distant island. The group's artistic director, Danovia Stechishin-Stefura, commented: "We were told to expect that [the Taiwanese] would be restrained." But, the group took the extra effort of learning how to sing "It's a Small World" in Mandarin, and the audience loved it. "People sang with us. They went nuts. We were one of the few groups who were always asked back for encores." The dancers also endeared themselves to the local audience because in one number they carried the Taiwanese national flag.
During fifth anniversary celebrations of Ukraine's proclamation of independence, a special awards ceremony was held at Kyiv's Mariyinsky Palace on August 23. On the eve of Ukrainian Independence Day, President Leonid Kuchma presented special state medals to activists in various fields, ranging from politics to the arts and humanitarian endeavors. Thus, the Order of Yaroslav the Wise was awarded to National Deputies Leonid Kravchuk (the first president of independent Ukraine) and Ivan Pliushch (former chairman of the Verkhovna Rada) and academicians Yurii Myropolskyi and Volodymyr Frolkis. The Order of Bohdan Khmelnytsky was presented to Col. Gen. Viktor Bannykh, chairman of the state committee on borders; Lt. Gen. Mykola Yoltukhovskyi, commander of the northwest border troops; and Lt. Gen. Volodymyr Ostapenko, first deputy to the general inspector of the President's General Military Inspection. The Medal of Courage was presented to soldiers and workers of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Volodymyr Hryshyn and Lidiya Kondrashevska of the State Opera were named national artists of Ukraine; Iryna Dats and Tetiana Kuzmyn, also of the opera, were cited as merited artists of Ukaine. A highlight of the program was the presentation of Presidential Medals of Honor to several foreigners for their contributions to Ukraine: Erast Huculak of Canada, Zenon and Nadia Matkiwsky of the United States and Yaroslav Shurkalo of Slovakia. A special posthumous Presidential Medal of Honor was awarded to Zina Botte of Australia, Ukraine's honorary consul in Australia, whose husband was present at the ceremony.
In September, at a meeting at the State Capitol in New Jersey, Dr. Paul Winkler, executive director of the State of New Jersey Commission on Holocaust Education, advised officers of the Ukrainian American Professionals and Businesspersons Association of New York and New Jersey that the commission had adopted the study guide on the Great Famine of 1932-1933 that had been developed in New York state. He noted that the guide is available to any school district in New Jersey upon request, adding that about 30 districts had already requested them. Furthermore, Dr. Winkler promised that if persons or organizations in the Ukrainian community were to provide the commission with 30 copies of a film or other audio-visual materials relating to the famine, which killed between 7 million and 10 million in Ukraine, his commission would have these distributed to the state's 30 regional source centers on the study of the Nazi Holocaust and genocide.
"Malarek writes again" was the headline for a book review written by Marta Dyczok. It referred to the newly published book by Ukrainian Canadian journalist Victor Malarek, co-host of the CBS's "Fifth Estate," an investigative TV news program. Titled "Gut Instinct: The Making of an Investigative Journalist," the book attracted much attention and, in fact, was published on a best-seller run by Macmillan Canada. The book was released in the fall, and a book launch was held on October 22 in Toronto at the Ukrainian-owned Future Bakery Cafe.
In November, The Weekly carried a story by Dr. Michael J. Kozak of Minneapolis focusing on Lt. Cmdr. Heidi Stefanyshyn-Piper of the U.S. Navy, who had just been chosen for the astronaut training program of NASA. She told a Navy publication that she had joined the space program for the same reason she became a diver: "I was looking for something challenging that would broaden my horizons." She said her work as a diver gave her a chance to work in a foreign environment, adding that "space is the ultimate foreign environment, and it really is the final frontier." The new member of the NASA Space Training Program is a member of the Ukrainian community in the Twin Cities.
To our knowledge, there were two Ukrainian of the Year awards presented in 1996 - both in November. One, presented by the Ukrainian Graduates of Detroit and Windsor (Ontario, that is) went to Rep. David Bonior for his support of Ukrainian issues and causes in the U.S. Congress. The other was awarded to Nickolas G. Kotow by the Ukrainian Technological Society in recognition of his work as a chronicler of Pittsburgh Ukrainian community life and his longtime involvement in many of that community's organizations.
At year's end (December 8 issue), it was reported that the Petro Jacyk Educational Foundation had initiated a campaign for the nomination of President Leonid Kuchma of Ukraine for the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of his active support of global nuclear non-proliferation and his prominent role in combating and reducing the threat of global nuclear catastrophe. The foundation's nominating letter to the Norwegian Nobel Committee was co-signed by seven prominent professors representing prestigious universities in North America, Great Britain and Japan. The scholars agree that President Kuchma had played a pivotal role in the process of Ukraine's ratification of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and the Verkhovna Rada's decision to surrender and destroy Ukraine's nuclear arsenal.

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