LETTERS TO THE EDITOR (02/09/97)

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Kuropas is voice of Ukrainian diaspora

Dear Editor:

I am getting tired of reading all of the anti-Kuropas letters in your letters section, especially from writers who have never lifted a finger for the truly challenging aspects of "the Ukrainian cause," e.g. justice for Demjanjuk (it's still ongoing), the Myroslav Medvid case, the Polovchak case, the "60 Minutes" "Ugly Face" case, the Famine-Holocaust debate, etc. I'm not talking Easter eggs or calendars here.

Dr. Kuropas has been in the thick of battle on the real issues and fights when our "Liberation Front" leaders were nowhere to be found.

Dr. Kuropas is truly the main voice (heart and soul) of the Ukrainian diaspora in the United States! If you don't agree, then please name someone who's been there more on the issues that count. Consider this a challenge!

Jaroslaw Sawka
Sterling Heights, Mich.

Trofim Lysenko lives - in Kyiv

Dear Editor:

Trofim Lysenko lives - in Kyiv!

Not long ago I found out that, finally, in Ukraine the problem of suicides will be resolved in the near future. Local scholars have found a way to sharply decrease the number of so-called self-aggressive acts of its citizens. "The war on suicide!" - with such slogans the government of Prime Minister Pavlo Lazarenko is apparently ushering in 1997.

And they are winning! Judge for yourselves: "Kyiv psychiatrists ... have developed new, never before employed, non-traditional methods of helping people with self-aggressive tendencies. The minister of public health has permitted the use of these methods which use uncomplicated physical therapy procedures."

On November 23, 1996, in the Kyiv daily newspaper Zerkalo Nedeli (Mirror of the Week), I quoted the author of this extensive article. The author is Anatolii Chuprikov, the head psychiatrist of the Ministry of Public Health in Ukraine and the director of the Ukrainian Scientific Research Institute of Social and Legal Psychiatry.

The procedure is also described in the article. It is reasonably simple. "In the evening the director issues a brief (not longer than two minutes) and extremely gentle (so that it is not even sensed by the patient) electrical shock to the left hand." But "on the following morning the person is calm and a bit lethargic upon waking. He will think about his complicated situation and contemplate suicide, but he won't follow through with it. Thus, it is easy to assist a person who is aspiring to leave this life."

It is indeed simple, just as it was simple for the Soviet academic Trofim Lysenko to make oats from grains of wheat. ...Or to make apple juice from oranges...

Surely, the Nobel Prize in the area of medicine for 1997 is guaranteed to go to Kyiv scholars. I hope that the prime minister of Ukraine also is given the appropriate consideration by the Nobel Committee.

Another aspect of this is unfortunate. I received the Zerkalo Nedeli, a newspaper with quite interesting articles, from a well-known German pharmaceutical firm. I had asked this firm to provide assistance to the Ukrainian mental hospitals that are truly in need of medical supplies. With the copy of the newspaper was enclosed the following letter: "Unfortunately, our firm is unable to collaborate with Ukrainian psychiatrists; the reason should be clear when reading the article in the accompanying Kyiv newspaper."

Robert van Voren
Amsterdam

The writer is general secretary of the Geneva Initiative. He has been working to reform the field of psychiatry in post-Soviet Ukraine.

Where will military train interpreters?

Dear Editor:

Capt. Paul K. Baumann's article in the December 15, 1996, issue was excellent. The University of Kansas and the Ukrainian track within the Russian/East European studies are crucial not only to our community but also to the military.

The number of missions to Ukraine is increasing every year. Interpreters need to know the language and the historical perspective of Ukraine. Currently, the U.S. military has over 100 Ukrainian interpreters. Over 70 are very fluent and can do simultaneous interpretations. Most of these interpreters learned the language at home and in the Saturday language schools throughout the country.

The Defense Language Institute (DLI) in Monterey, Calif., trains future interpreters by intensive submersion in a given language. The institute also trained soldiers in Ukrainian; however, that program ceased to exist in December 1996. Where will future interpreters come from?

The current group of highly proficient interpreters will be retiring from the military within the next five to 10 years. At this point we do not see younger people making a choice to join the military. If they do, the language skills they posses may not be optimum. Further cadres of interpreters would have to come from DLI, and train at the University of Kansas.

At Peace Shield 96, I met Capt. Lee Gabel from South Dakota, who attended DLI and the University of Kansas. His Ukrainian was quite good and his ability to understand Ukraine came from his training at the University of Kansas. His thesis dealt with establishing a chaplain corps in the Ukrainian military. In Ukraine he met Father Zeleniuk, who is attempting to convince the military to initiate the chaplaincy corps. It was an interesting meeting for everyone.

Roman G. Golash
Schaumburg, Ill.

The writer is a major in the Army reserve and participated in the first medical mission to Ukraine (1993) followed by Peace Shield 95 and Peace Shield 96.

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