NEWS AND VIEWS: Diaspora's unique opportunity (02/20/05)

NEWS AND VIEWS

Diaspora's unique opportunity

by Radoslav Zuk

Now that Ukraine has become the focus of world media, the Ukrainian diaspora has a unique opportunity to direct international attention to Ukraine's thousand-year-old history and to significant Ukrainian contributions to world culture. Part of what President Viktor Yushchenko recently referred to as national heritage, these contributions are virtually unknown in the West or usually attributed to others. The numerous dedicated observers from the diaspora who successfully helped ensure fair democratic elections in their homeland, prove that there is tremendous enthusiasm, energy and resource that could be channeled toward correcting such misconceptions and thus establishing a comprehensive, highly respected image of Ukraine in the world.

National and local community organizations, cultural institutes and professional societies, as well as student clubs (who in the university setting have access to the future leaders of their respective countries) could undertake a program of media releases, lectures, concerts, exhibitions, film screenings, distribution of translated literary works, etc. Letters to local newspapers and radio stations by private citizens could supplement these actions. If well coordinated, such a program would lead to an efficient infrastructure, which could also become an effective partner in specific cultural projects that the new government of Ukraine may decide to initiate abroad.

Centers of Ukrainian studies, research institutes and scientific societies could play a very important role in the above program by supplying authoritative, concise factual information - published in the diaspora press and/or placed on websites - as a basis for these various undertakings. This could be followed up by thematic conferences, and by more extensive memoranda addressed to radio and television networks, encyclopedias, publishing houses, museums, symphony associations, and other major national and international cultural institutions.

Music and the visual arts, which transcend language barriers and speak directly to all humanity, constitute especially powerful icons of national prestige, and should therefore receive special attention. It is probable that Dmytro Bortniansky's masterful 200-year-old choral works are performed every day in concert or on the radio somewhere in the world. Alexander Archipenko's cubist masterpieces are housed in several major museums around the world. The enduring quality of these and other such cultural monuments transcends time and political systems, and is admired by thousands among the influential international cultural elite. They bear witness to the spiritual strength of a nation and, therefore, it is imperative that they be always identified as Ukrainian.

Now is the time to act. In a few months the international media may ignore Ukraine again. Ukraine's recognized cultural presence in the world would, however, serve as a constant reminder of the nation's long history, and of its past and present accomplishments.

Radoslav Zuk is an internationally recognized architect and emeritus professor of architecture at McGill University in Montreal.

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