The Ukrainian Weekly (https://www.ukrweekly.com/uwwp/author/andrew-sorokowski/page/2/)
Colonialism comes up repeatedly in cultural as well as socio-political and economic discussions. We consider it a bad thing, but we rarely ask ourselves what it really means. In fact, there are different kinds of colonialism, and their effects vary considerably. Today, we may even find it where we least suspect. Literally, colonialism is the practice of settling people from one country in another, in the form of communities known as colonies.
What prompts people to undertake the extraordinary? Mykolai-Vasyl Diakiv was born in Bachiv, Peremyshliany district, Lviv region, on May 1, 1914. His father, a cultural and educational activist, participated in the Ukrainian war of independence of 1918-1919. Bachiv was “a patriotic village,” with Sich, Sokil, and Prosvita organizations. When, in the wake of the Polish pacification of 1930, Bishop Ivan Buchko visited the village, young Mykolai greeted him with a poem of welcome.
Part II
For many of us, the late 1960s and 1970s coincided with our student years. It is natural to idealize them. But were they really a time of “peace and love”? Last month’s column dealt with peace. What about love?
The summer of 1967 was the “Summer of Love.” A barge in Richardson Bay, north of San Francisco, bore the painted legend “Love Is.” Was it an existential statement, or an unfinished definition?
Part I
Where were you 50 years ago? This is chiefly a question for baby-boomers, who have largely determined the course of the United States since the 1990s and are now gradually leaving active public and private life, but for whom 1967-1969 were formative years. In a way, the answer to this question provides a key to the social, political, and cultural condition of contemporary America. That includes our Ukrainian diaspora, and even its relations with Ukraine. What happened in the late 1960s?
Ukrainian Orthodox autocephaly may soon be a reality. According to Archimandrite Cyril Hovorun, the tomos (decree) by the Ecumenical Patriarchate has already been drafted (Relihiina Pravda, May 26). The consequences would be profound. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko called on Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew to grant autocephaly to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church last April 17. The heads of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyivan Patriarchate (UOC-KP) and the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (UAOC) joined in the request.
Will your grandchildren belong to your Church? That may be a question you’d rather not think about.
Now it may be that you don’t have children or grandchildren. Or it may be that your offspring are so alienated from Ukrainian life that the question does not even arise. Perhaps you think that it really doesn’t matter. Any religion will do, as long as they believe in something.
WASHINGTON – Ukrainians still do not have a sufficient knowledge and understanding of their own history. For while Ukrainian historical scholarship has made great strides since independence, its results have not penetrated the general population. Even the war of independence, the Holodomor, the second world war and the Holocaust are insufficiently known. Thus, there is a need for a responsible “popular history” that is more accessible than the writings of professional scholarship but more balanced and accurate than what is often presented by the media.
Is liberalism dead? It is not surprising that some conservatives think so. It could be wishful thinking. But the atmosphere of doom and despair among liberals does not bode well. Some thinkers even speak of “post-liberalism.” There is, to be sure, a problem with all these “posts”: post-modern, post-Soviet, post-truth… “Posters” claim that a given phenomenon has passed, but they don’t know what is coming after it, or they can’t give it a name.
We are all prone to stereotyping. Few areas of the world are the object of more stereotyping than Africa. Hence, the notion that there can be any connection between our ancient, venerable, European – and white – people and the “Dark Continent” may strike us as odd. But in fact, there are connections, and even parallels. We do not know when the first Ukrainian set foot in Africa.
Unlike the United States, Ukraine has more than a couple of neighbors, and they haven’t all been nice. But what is a neighbor? Is it only a nation inhabiting a contiguous space? Or can it be a people that, while sharing no borders, has exerted a strong influence? In fact, one such neighbor has been quite important for Ukraine. Known in some languages (including their own) by words derived from the tribal name “Teutons,” in others from “Alemanni,” to English speakers they are “Germans,” from the Roman Germania.