COMMENTARY: The chutzpah of orange (03/20/05)

COMMENTARY

The chutzpah of orange

by Paulette Macquarrie

What is it about the color orange that gets people's attention? Until the "Orange Revolution" it's rarely been a color of choice for corporate logos, political campaigns and the like. More "conservative" colors are inevitably chosen. It seems few of us have the courage to fly in the face of tradition.

There's a word for that courage. Jews call it "chutzpah," and it is very prized in that culture. We Ukrainians, on the other hand, tend to consider it highly immodest. Webster's unabridged dictionary defines chutzpah as a slang word of Yiddish origin meaning "unmitigated effrontery or impudence." So, neither the Ukrainian nor the English language has a word for the good-natured, unrelenting confidence required to pursue one's goals.

Yet the Jews do. Perhaps that's why so many well-known entertainers are Jewish. Showmanship requires chutzpah. Who wants to witness a display of painful timidity on center stage? Whether that "stage" is in a theater, the business world, or daily life, an audience admires, and appreciates, chutzpah.

It took chutzpah to pull off the Orange Revolution. Of course, it also took planning and coordination. But it was the chutzpah - the cheerful determination and gutsiness - of the Ukrainian people that the world applauded. Those displeased with the revolution no doubt agree that central to it was indeed "unmitigated effrontery" and "impudence." Gee, too bad. How many of us have lived, and how many have died, for this moment in time?

But did we, as a community and as individuals, catch that orange ball and continue the play? "Ta de" - but no!

While Ukrainians in Ukraine get down to the work of building a democracy, those of us in the diaspora, who have been living in democracies for the last century, have returned to our mind-numbing distractions. We'd need chutzpah to catch the ball and run with it.

I recently tried some chutzpah. It took some arm-twisting, though. Never mind that I have long complained that the entertainment and media industries have become stagnant and boring. Never mind that I have a solution. I am a diaspora Ukrainian. I don't dare say something so bold.

So, timidly, quietly, I produce my bilingual English-Ukrainian radio program in Vancouver. It is due primarily to propinquity, timing and government regulation that "Nash Holos" (Our Voice) is celebrating two milestone anniversaries this year. Never heard of it, you say? Of course not. I am a diaspora Ukrainian. Promoting it would risk being labeled a show-off. Never mind that people who find my program by default rave about it. To share such accolades would be boasting. ("To ne chemno." - that wouldn't be nice.)

Nevertheless, despite my characteristic Ukrainian reticence, "Nash Holos" has been slowly building a presence in Canada's ethnic broadcasting industry. Although after my last appearance before the government's broadcast regulating body, the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), it may speed up at bit. If so, it would be due more to the chutzpah of my station's owner than to me.

James Ho is a conservative-looking but creative-thinking Chinese Canadian. I am a creative-looking but conservative-thinking Ukrainian Canadian. It was he who suggested I take some liberties in my presentation supporting his license application at a recent CRTC public hearing. He encouraged me to talk about my community and the impact of the Orange Revolution on it. OK, I could do that. Then he suggested I give out oranges to the commissioners on the panel as a symbolic gesture.

Give out oranges? At a CRTC public hearing?? Omigod! The commissioners would croak! They'd throw me out! It would leave a bad taste in their mouth (sorry) and ruin his chances for getting this license. I ran the idea by trusted friends. They didn't say that, exactly, but I was sure they meant it.

Personally, I really liked the idea. I even went along with it at first. But, I am a diaspora Ukrainian. Good heavens. So on the day of the hearings, I made a clumsy attempt to back out of it. Mr. Ho listened, expressed surprise at how "conservative" the Ukrainian community was, and left the decision to me. So there I was. I liked the idea, but did I dare? Noticing my angst, he told me that whenever he can't make up his mind about doing something, he just does it. In a word, chutzpah.

I'm glad I took his advice. As it turned out, I didn't get thrown out. The commissioners didn't croak; as usual they were attentive and good-humored. Dressed conservatively in green and black, I placed one large navel orange, fresh from Chinatown, in front of each commissioner. Then I sat down and read my presentation. When I got to the part about the Orange Revolution, the light bulbs started going off. What fun!

I wish now I'd been more daring. Others, more sophisticated than I, later ad-libbed about those oranges. One young East Indian woman with a competing applicant said she was going to call her mom to bring in tea and samosas, but saw they already had oranges. Everyone laughed. What chutzpah! And here I'd stuck to my script, too nervous to ad-lib lest my earnest message be lost.

I hadn't realized that my message had become, essentially, "Shche ne vmerla Ukraina." But times have changed; the Orange Revolution has spawned new life. And I hadn't fully appreciated this opportunity to brazenly take advantage of the attention it attracted, the powerful symbolism of orange and a captive audience containing influential members of government and the broadcasting industry.

Still, I was handed that opportunity on an orange platter. And was it fun! Whether it will have influenced the application I supported, one way or the other, is hard to say. But whatever the outcome, a lot of people will likely remember my orange presentation. OK, maybe they'd remember it better if I'd been less timid. But hey, I'm a novice at this chutzpah thing. So I should maybe try to get better at it? As we say in Radioland stay tuned!

Paulette MacQuarrie is a Vancouver-based freelance writer and broadcaster. She co-produced "Nash Holos" when it first aired in 1990-1996. It resumed broadcasts in 2000, when she became the sole producer and host. "Nash Holos" currently airs on AM 1320/97.5 Cable FM in Vancouver and is archived online at www.nashholos.com.

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