EDITORIAL: The sixth anniversary (08/24/97)

UKRAINE'S INDEPENDENCE: THE SIXTH ANNIVERSARY

EDITORIAL

The sixth anniversary

In this special issue of The Ukrainian Weekly dedicated to the sixth anniversary of Ukraine's independence, we have attempted to offer readers several perspectives on Ukraine today. We have included the analyses of scholars, the observations of those who have spent considerable time in Ukraine, the comments of members of our own Ukrainian community in North America, as well as the thoughts of students from Ukraine.

This year was characterized by foreign policy successes - for example, agreements with NATO, Russia, Poland and Romania - which showed once again that Ukraine is a responsible member of the international community. But in other spheres Ukaine did not fare as well.

In what he calls "a letter to friends" written before the convocation of the second World Forum of Ukrainians, Dr. James E. Mace writes of "a land and a people deeply deformed by an experience that those who underwent it are still groping to understand." He describes the remnants of Soviet-style thinking that still permeate society and government, and continue to stymie reform.

Dr. David R. Marples notes that, economically, Ukraine is in a vicious circle: it must cut expenditures, yet it must provide for its people - especially the less fortunate. Foreign investment, meanwhile, needs a boost via laws that will make Ukraine attractive. And then there is the matter of corruption, where a hard line is sorely needed - and not tomorrow, but today.

The country's economic crisis also is responsible for the fact that Ukraine's health care system is failing, says demographer Dr. Oleh Wolowyna. This state of affairs, he hastens to add, would have hit Ukraine whether or not it became independent, as the deterioration in the populace's well-being was already apparent during Soviet times. The population has dropped to 50.9 million since 1993, when it was 52.2 million. In 1996 the country recorded more deaths (800,000) than births (500,000), and the birth rate in Ukraine today is among the lowest in the world. Ukraine's future generations are the hardest hit, as infant mortality is increasing and now is at least three times that of developed countries. Other frightening facts: there is a marked increase in congenital disorders; life expectancy is down; adult mortality is up; and the causes of death indicate a society in distress.

And yet, the young still find reason for hope: they believe in themselves and their own abilities. Given the chance, they firmly believe they will succeed. These are the thoughts of a group of students from Ukraine, ranging in age between 18 and 26, who attended the Ukrainian Summer Institute at Harvard University.

And there are signs of rebirth, like the growth of Plast, the Ukrainian youth organization founded in Ukraine in 1911 on the model of Scouting for Boys established just three years earlier in England. Plast is, in effect, a scouting for Ukrainians, as Scouting's motto of "God and Country" is replaced by Plast's "God and Ukraine."

Signs of hope also may be found. In this issue, Walter M. Wess celebrates the determination and strength of average people who've lived through hell and today, even though times are tough, see the potential for a better future.

Here in the diaspora, we have to adjust to the changing reality - a Ukraine with warts, if you will - now that the euphoria over independence has subsided - an understandable euphoria that was an appropriate response to the achievement of an ages-old dream that many thought would never come in their lifetimes. That is why our information media see the need to cover developments in Ukraine, and that is why our community members are asking themselves just how we should be involved in helping Ukraine forge a better tomorrow.

And so, dear readers, as we mark this sixth anniversary of Ukraine's proclamation of independence on August 24, 1991, besides having much to celebrate, we have much to ponder.

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