NEWS AND VIEWS: Let us aim even higher (12/06/98)

NEWS AND VIEWS

Let us aim even higher

by Bohdan Hawrylyshyn

It was belatedly and while in Egypt that I read in the October 25 issue of The Ukrainian Weekly the articles dedicated to the Year 2020 Conference. I know and very much respect both Ambassador Yuri Shcherbak and Prof. Roman Szporluk. The excerpts of the text of the speech of the ambassador and the article on Prof. Szporluk were good testimonials of the knowledge and wisdom of the two personalities.

It was particularly refreshing to read the text of the opening address by Dr. Roman Vitvitsky. His analysis of the current situation of the diaspora in North America was most rigorous and objective, cutting through a lot of misconceptions with the skill of a social surgeon. There is a touch of cold detachment in his analysis, so necessary to make it credible. Dr. Vitvitsky's views about the future of the Ukrainian diaspora, i.e. whether it can survive and/or should survive, were clear, most encouraging and manifested the type of commitment that is the main precondition of our diaspora's survival. If his views are typical of the elite of the Ukrainian diaspora of his generation, then my generation which, as he rightly points out, will disappear before the year 2020, can be serene about the future.

Dr. Vitvitsky rightly argues that Ukrainians in North America should be fully integrated in their respective countries and play an important role in them because by being "voluntary ethnics" they can bring added value to their respective societies.

I would suggest that now that we are breaking through the boundaries of "involuntary ethnics," we should be raising our sights and aim even higher. Since we live in a "global village," we should - and many, I am sure can - make an impact on the world level in the fields of arts, business, education, environment, economics and politics.

The world should be our "oyster," accomplishments on the world level should be the standards against which we measure our own individual and group accomplishments. We are not any less gifted than other nationalities, and we have the comparative advantage of having either grown up in another language/culture or inherited one. Our range of experiences is broader than that of the majority of our co-citizens, be it in Canada, the United States or for that matter in Western Europe. We can view things from different angles, we can understand not just the language, but the mentality of different people. In the majority of fields most interesting breakthroughs and innovations are made between the boundaries of different disciplines and cultures.

Furthermore, we are not in danger of losing our distinctiveness by trying to get into the world's orbit. The contrary actually happens. Our specificity as Ukrainians is felt more profoundly when we take on global concerns, work with people of a multitude of nationalities, and see both our diaspora and Ukraine in the world context and therefore in a proper perspective, and give both their due. The above propositions are derived from personal experience.

I was shocked when I first landed in Toronto in 1948, after finishing my lumberjack's contract, to learn that Ukrainian Canadians of my age, who were already born in that country, led a dual life: they were Canadians during their study or work week and Ukrainians on Saturdays and Sundays, playing basketball in the church's gym, attending a liturgy, a wedding or some other Ukrainian event. Their two lives were separate. They had two different identities. They did not think they should or could integrate them.

It was thanks to a set of lucky circumstances that I discovered that one could not only integrate the two lives as a Ukrainian and a Canadian, but reach out beyond them and become a citizen of the world.

In 1952, while an active member of Plast, I was asked by SUM to represent them at the All-Canadian Youth Conference in Ottawa, where I was elected to the Coordinating Committee of Canadian Youth Associations. A few months later, though not yet a Canadian citizen, I was sent as the only Canadian representative to the World Assembly of Youth in Dakkar, Senegal. It was there that I spoke on behalf of organized Canadian youth, but at the same time raised the awareness of the delegates from some 75 countries that Canada is a multicultural society with a strong Ukrainian component.

A few years later, at a similar conference in Berlin, as head of the Canadian delegation with the late Jeanne Sauvé (recent governor general of Canada) as my deputy, I spoke on the question of colonialism, citing the case of Ukraine, its aspirations and natural right to independence. Many of the future leaders (by now some of them former leaders) participated in this United Nations-type World Youth Forum.

I sensed in the above situation that being Ukrainian was not a handicap, but rather an advantage, a plus. I experienced the same later while directing the International Management Institute in Geneva, as a member of the Club of Rome, while moderating seminars at the Aspen Institute for Humanistic Studies or lecturing to top executives of companies such as IBM and GE, or chairing international conferences in a variety of countries on all continents.

I consider the above experiences a blessing and an opportunity stemming from our heritage. It is not a question of personal ability, it is a question of attitude. Just as in Chinese the same word designates a problem and an opportunity, an attitudinal breakthrough is required to transform what many Ukrainians of different generations perceive as a handicap into a comparative advantage. This is not arrogance, it is an objective reality.

It took nearly two generations for active members of our diaspora to progress from being "involuntary ethnics" to becoming "voluntary ethnics." Our leading "voluntary ethnics" now can and should take this one step further: integrate into the world elite. Recent celebrations of the 100th anniversary of the creation of the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute and the 125th anniversary of the founding of the Shevchenko Scientific Society have reminded us that many of our forefathers were world-renowned in the natural and social sciences, as was the case for some artists, actors and singers.

Why not aspire to the same? Yes, by being different we can make a difference for our diaspora, for Ukraine and for the human community.

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