LETTERS TO THE EDITOR (02/15/04)

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Golden faucets and Ukraine's elite

Dear Editor:

I have this ridiculously compelling habit of stashing seemingly pertinent stories/articles/essays inside some "really good" books that I've read. It's a "durna pryvychka," as my mom would say given that as these fattened-up books would be pulled off my library shelf inevitably a catastrophic paper volcano would erupt with papers flying all over the place. And so my bad habit hit me as I read a letter to the editor in The Ukrainian Weekly (January 4) re: Yulia Tymoshenko's golden faucets.

I tore the letter out and smacked it into the middle of a book chapter titled "Billion Dollar Woman" (a reference to Yulia Tymoshenko) in Matthew Brzezinski's wonderfully insightful real-life adventure book "Casino Moscow."

I highly recommend that the letter writer and your readers read this book. Although the book presents an unflattering view of Ukraine and Ukrainians, it reveals a first-hand account of a post-Soviet value system.

For Ukraine's elite class to have or not have gold faucets either by architect persuasion (as implied by the letter writer) or even if by intentional mail-order design, which is probably the case, is an irrelevant point.

The real issue is that Ukraine's present-day, robber baron, elite strata continues to thrive, as I've personally witnessed, in an insanely faulty and weird political/social/economic system that provides the "plumbing" that exists behind the "golden faucet mentality." Gold faucets are just the symptom.

Besides, the water available in Ukraine is so bad, who cares if it runs through gold faucets or not. That is, if you can even get water to run through your faucets.

Nancy Melnyk
Rochester, N.Y.

"Beheaded" is well-documented

Dear Editor:

Recently I had an opportunity to read the book titled: "Beheaded: The Killing of a Journalist," authored by J.V Koshiw and published in 2003 by Artemis Press Ltd. of London.

Something awful did happen in Ukraine in 2000 to a bright, young, energetic and relatively prominent journalist. Heorhii Gongadze disappeared on September 16, and was found beheaded on November 2, 2000. The book analyzes the abduction and killing of the Ukrainian journalist as part of a pattern of criminal acts by the Ukrainian president, Leonid Kuchma, and his comrades Volkov, Azarov, Medvedchuk, Lytvyn, Derkach, Kravchenko, et al.

The author presents a vast bibliography, documenting varius actions of President Kuchma issuing orders to punish his critics - journalists, politicians and businessmen - with imprisonment, beatings and kidnappings. They reveal spying by his Security Service on everyone of interest to him - from political allies to opponents.

Gongadze's was not the first politically motivated disappearance. On many trips to Ukraine, the book's author met two people who also disappeared for similar reasons: Mykhailo Boichyshyn, a prominent Rukh leader, manager of Vyacheslav Chornovil's presidential campaign in 1991, and Ihor Svoboda, assistant to Odesa Mayor Edward Hurvits, whom Mr. Kuchma ousted from office in 1999.

Despite the mountain of evidence, no legal measures have been taken against President Kuchma and his associates. The purpose of this book is to present the evidence in the disappearance and murder of Gongadze in order that justice may be served.

Mr. Koshiw published more than 70 articles on current affairs in Ukraine during 1998-1999 while deputy editor of the Kyiv Post. Under the pseudonym of Viktor Haynes, jointly with Olga Semyonova he authored "Workers against the Gulag," published in 1979 in the United Kingdom, France and Sweden. With Marko Bojcun, he co-authored "The Chornobyl Disaster" (London: 1988). During 1990-1995, he worked as a TV journalist in England.

"Beheaded" is available in English and soon is to be published also in Ukrainian.

Bohdan J. Bodnaruk, D. Sc.
Clarendon Hills, Ill.

Editor's note: "Beheaded" was the subject of a book note that appeared in The Weekly on February 9, 2003. A story about the author's presentation in Detroit appeared on April 20, 2003. The book also was the subject of an interview with Myroslava Gongadze on May 11, 2003.

A new strategy against The Times

Dear Editor:

I think that we, the Ukrainian community have overlooked one very important a venue in our attempt to have the Pulitzer taken back from Walter Duranty. We need to humble the "gray old lady."

How do we accomplish this? We need to become part owners in the New York Times. The stock is traded on the New York stock exchange, the price is approximately $46 per share. This is affordable, and it's not a bad investment. Once we own stock in our name we have all the privileges of a shareholder - this includes attending the annual shareholders meeting and confronting the "brass."

We then can organize a few dozen Ukrainian stockowners and attend a meeting where we can question or request that The New York Times correct a sorry chapter in its tarnished history. At the same time, when we write to The Times to voice our concern that our company harbors unethical awards for its employees, we emphasize that we are shareowners in the corporation.

I look at the recent event with the Pulitzer Committee as not losing the war, but only a skirmish. Now we must regroup, and use a new strategy. So my fellow Ukrainians, let's go out and buy a few shares, as little as one share makes you an owner of The Times.

Zenko Halkowycz
Teaneck, N.J.

The Ukrainian Weekly welcomes letters to the editor. Letters should be typed (double-spaced) and signed; they must be originals, not photocopies.

The daytime phone number and address of the letter-writer must be given for verification purposes.

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