Tremont Walk for Chornobyl

(tremontwalkforchornobyl.org)

Saturday, September 29, 2007

Walk starts at 10:00am

This is Tremont, Suburb of Cleveland, Ohio

Go to Google.com, maps, search Cleveland Lincoln Park

Please join us on September 29^th for a 5k walk through historical Tremont to benefit the Children of Chornobyl Relief and Development Fund (childrenofchornobyl.org). This organization is dedicated to providing food and medical help for the children of the Chornobyl nuclear accident.
 
Registration for the walk is $25.00 and sponsors are welcome. The walk will end with an exhibit on Chornobyl at the Ukrainian Museum-Archives located on Kenilworth in Tremont. Please help us help the children.

Hope you can make it!  click http://tremontwalkforchornobyl.org for complete information.

David

Be Careful What You Ask For

Because you might get it!

There is a season for all things it is said and we did celebrate the independence of Ukraine. Now we are witnessing the democratic process of approaching national elections in Ukraine.

My observations are about the children. Since declaring independence the population of Ukraine has steadily declined. Over the intervening sixteen years it has dropped from about 52 million to between 46 and 47 million.

People are leaving for better lives elsewhere. While the economy has been improving the productivity per person is so low that the average monthly wage is about $250.00 US. Many people are struggling, and paying bribes to get medical treatment, enter universities, and so on.

In a proposal to promote population growth the President in his political campaign has stated that cash sums will be paid to people for having a first child. The Prime Minister countered the President’s promise by promising even more money, especially for a second child.

The director of at least one orphanage in Ukraine has spoken out against this – simply put the nation and the people aren’t taking care of the children they have. She expects to see a growth in demand for orphanages’ services if these proposals are carried out.

Be careful, you might get what you ask for and it might not be what you wanted.

David

August 24, 1991, Ukraine Parliament Declares Independence

December 1, 1991, the Ukrainian People Ratify the Decision

Those were remarkable days in Ukraine. Monumental days. Days never before seen in Ukraine.

The people declared independence from the Mongols of old, from the Lithuanians, the Poles and the Hungarians, from the Russian Tsars and the Communists occupying Red Square in Moscow and Ukraine. It was a huge day but the Ukrainians forgot one thing. They forgot to declare independence from their dependence on Tsarist and Communist corruption.

It’s sad; in December 2001 the people took to the streets in the temporarily successful Orange Revolution – “When the people stood up for their rights”. Now their rights are being attacked by the same clan that caused them to take to the streets that cold December.

The trouble is, many people became disappointed in the results of their Orange Revolution, wanting an instant fix to all the ills that beset the young nation. They seem to have become lethargic in accepting corruption as a way of life. Liberty is a fragile thing.

For compelling reading about the situation please click on this link to a popular Kyiv news blog, http://blog.kievukraine.info and read the following:

Tuesday August 14, 2007

Democracy is Once Again UnderThreat In Ukraine

Sunday, August 12, 2007

Opposition Erects Tents In Ukrainian Capital To Protest Denial Of Election Registration

Saturday August 11, 2007

Ukrainian Election Commission Refuses To Register Opposition Bloc’s Candidates

Special Symposium in Ukraine announced:

Yuri Pavlenko, Governor of the Zhitomer Oblast, is sponsoring a special symposium for individuals and NGO representatives working with orphans, orphanages and street children in Ukraine. 

In Ukraine there are reported to be over a hundred thousand children living in orphanages and perhaps as many as 150 thousand more children who are homeless, the “Street Children”. Numbers vary according to which governmental agency is reporting.

David

A review of what portends to be a timeless book. Recommended reading and with thanks to Cynthia Snelling. David

The Sky Unwashed

-Irene Zabytko

How is it that I graduated from high school in the late 1980's, and I knew nothing about Chernobyl - or "Chornobyl" as described in Irene Zabytko's novel, The Sky Unwashed?  I must admit that most of my fellow classmates in the small town of Dresden, Ohio, were completely unaware of the explosion, thousands of miles away, which sent deadly amounts of radiation into the Ukrainian countryside. 

Maybe society can expect that I would be in the dark about this tragedy.  However, the world certainly wouldn't expect the same unawareness for people of Chernobyl Village - and for those actually working at the nuclear power plant.  In The Sky Unwashed, we quickly learn how the Soviet Government minimized the terrible disaster, hiding the truth from the people within their country and beyond.

Zabytko's writing walks us in and out of the tragedy, through slow and steady footsteps of Marusia Petrenko - an elderly grandmother and life-long native of Chernobyl. We experience her pain, as local authorities evacuate her and her family from their home under the false pretense that they will be able to return in a “few days.” (In reality, the year 2007 offers no hope for a safe return.) We witness Merusia’s separation from her grandchildren who flee to safer territory, and read on as she loses her son to the harmful effects of the exposure. 

We sense the carelessness and irresponsibility stemming from a greedy government who focuses on the production of fuel over the protection of lives. Isn’t it easier to imagine and remember a history through the telling of one family’s personal losses, struggles, and strengths? Zabytko, throughout her pages, brings to life the Petrenko’s unexpected experiences, providing something truly memorable. 

Cynthia Snelling