LETTERS TO THE EDITOR (05/28/00)

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Congratulations on Weekly 2000

Dear Editor:

It was a wonderful surprise to open the mail from The Ukrainian Weekly to find, not an almanac for the year 2000, but a historical anthology of the Ukrainian diaspora in North America.

We tend to think that history starts and ends with us, but in fact the Ukrainian American community struggled for years with various political and socio-economic questions concerning its own status and that of Ukraine.

This is a history not digested by historians, but raw material as seen and reported by journalists. This book should be part of every school and private library.

Congratulations to you and your staff for this extraordinary achievement. I'm looking forward to the subsequent volume.

Olya Paluch Stawnychy
Rutherford, N.J.

Florio deserves N.J. voters' support

Dear Editor:

With the string of presidential primaries running its course, New Jersey has a contest for U.S. senator that is drawing a lot of interest. The League of Ukrainian Voters (LUV) is endorsing James Florio in the June 6 primary for the nomination to the U.S. Senate on the Democratic party ticket. The reason for this endorsement is his long record of supporting Ukrainian issues of substance while in the U.S. Congress and as New Jersey governor.

He was one of the primary initiators of the bill that established the U.S. Commission on the Ukraine Famine created in 1986 in order to study the causes and effects of 1932-1933 Famine in Ukraine. Therefore the LUV encourages all eligible voters to give him their support.

Walter Bodnar
Newark, N.J.

The writer is public relations director of the League of Ukrainian Voters.

Re: entrepreneurs and aid to Ukraine

Dear Editor:

Anna Anderson's letter to the editor (May 7) in response to my article "Aid to Ukraine and why it doesn't work" (April 9) is so misguided that it begs a proper response lest someone think that silence equals affirmation.

Either Ms. Anderson has never lived in Ukraine or has been there for a short visit, because her comments have little to do with reality.

First of all, no nation in the modern world can do without aid. This fact was recently made most evident by the salvaging of the Indonesian, Thai and Korean economies by the International Monetary Fund and/or the World Bank. Similarly, where would Europe be today without the Marshall Plan? Also are we to forget aid to Mexico, Brazil, Argentina and countless other nations that has enabled them to at least partially compete in the present-day economic world? But let's not go even that far - what about the aid to Chrysler that enabled it to not only survive but to transform itself back into a powerhouse?

Aid in itself is not wrong, it is only the way it is distributed that makes it effective or wasteful. Ms. Anderson loses sight of the fact that my article addresses the same concerns that she points out - namely that most aid does not get to the recipients that can make the best use of it. In market economies, it is business and enterprise that create jobs and help the countries' economies grow. How can one expect the bright Ukrainian software and web development geniuses to compete in a technical world against Microsofts and Oracles without having so much as enough money for their own computers?

Ms. Anderson may be under the misguided notion that the entrepreneurs (whom she so readily condemns) who came to Ukraine are the "carpet-baggers" of the old South. The fact, is that most of those who came to Ukraine (myself included) did so with substantial investments to help build businesses and enterprises. This we did because we saw emerging countries like Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Taiwan, India, Vietnam and yes, even China, grow from post-war ashes into modern economies.

Without entrepreneurs like Bill Gates, or Ford, or Bezos, or Marc Andreseen, or Steve Jobs, or countless others, would we have what we have today? I think not. I can also say with certainty that the "red foxes" (bureaucrats) Ms. Anderson seems to want to protect would definitely not be the ones to create the wondrous technologies that we now take for granted.

As to Ms. Anderson's statement that I am ignorant of history and allegedly I did not know that the "forces" of Bolshevism and despotism came uninvited and forced themselves on Ukraine: may she be equally bathed in such ignorant bliss.

Perhaps I have forgotten that my father lost all his brothers to these "forces" or that my father's and mother's families lost all their substantial wealth and holdings to these same despots, or that our immediate family was bounced around Europe for 11 years in conditions that leave much to be desired even for today's poorest.

But one thing that I have not forgotten is that people make their own destinies. If a people are truly tired of their despots, or if they really want change, they always have the means to do so. At a sacrifice, yes, but they always have a choice. The daily papers are full of circumstances where people are willing to make sacrifices and to demand change.

I still cannot clearly see the reason for Ms. Anderson's abusive remarks, since on most issues we seem to be in agreement (except for her anger with entrepreneurs). A valid suggestion would be for her to come to live in Ukraine, as many of us did, and to try to make an honest living by either working within the present system or by starting a business and nurturing it to a level where she could employ and assist the very people she wants to protect.

Walter Prochorenko
Kyiv, Ukraine

The Ukrainian Weekly welcomes letters to the editor and commentaries on a variety of topics of concern to the Ukrainian American and Ukrainian Canadian communities. Opinions expressed by columnists, commentators and letter-writers are their own and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of either The Weekly editorial staff or its publisher, the Ukrainian National Association.

| Home Page |