On this busy week, why I'm behind on posts

Readers,

I have been unusually busy these last few weeks, and am running behind on several stories. I wanted to let you all know that I am fully aware of the problem and am, by no means, going to become lax and a "once a week blogger." I am making up the missing posts and will continue to post every day with new photos, videos, stories and multimedia presentations as long as there are readers. 

The arrival of my grandmother and father in Lviv, giving my first test, moving out of my apartment, the election, and many other factors have contributed to my missing posts. Not to worry, I'm not welching on you! 

Thanks for reading,

Mike

Why we don't vote for communists

Before this historic election in America(which I covered in Lviv, photos to come with slideshow), I was out wandering around, taking photos on a sunny afternoon like I always do. Sometimes I forget that I'm living in a post-soviet bloc country that has been devastated by communism. Then I look out my window at the identical, concrete, human-filing cabinet across the road and I realize "hey! There's no creative expression in a totalitarian society, in fact, there's no expression/dissent/freedom at all! Yippee!"

This is why we don't vote for communists. I'm not making a political comment on the American election, please don't misinterpret me. Instead, you should know that this week I have never been prouder to be an American than these past few days. Words cannot describe what I've seen here, how devastated this country is because of secular communism, and how cynical the people are about change, politics and any sort of freedom in their lives. 

As Brett picked up a book on the history of Lviv a student had gifted me, he flipped open to the page from 1992, shortly after the Iron Curtain fell and Ukraine won its independence.

"Hey, look at this," he said. "This is the first store opened in Lviv in 1992."

Let me say that again. The first store was opened in 1992. Before this time, there was nothing to buy. Nothing. You waited in line everyday to collect one loaf of bread, one piece of meat and one piece of cheese to feed your entire family. That was it. People went nuts here when the hot dog vendor was introduced. The first signs of capitalism were people sitting on the sidewalk with an umbrella, a few thermos' full of lemonade and coffee, and some cheap hot dogs served on a slice of bread. It was like Beanie Babies and Tickle-Me Elmo walked into a preschool and handed out Skittles. People went nuts, they had never experienced free enterprise before.

A colleague described how his father was a miner, a well-paid position in the Soviet Union. he made a very good wage, but realized that there was nothing he could use the money for, nothing at all. There was nothing to buy, there were no stores for groceries, clothes, electronics, etc. Everyone had the same thing, everything was provided by the government. He put all his money in Soviet banks, and when the Union dissolved, so did his bank account and he lost everything.

It shows in the city. Looking at the pictures above, you can see a few examples of the dilapidated structures of the city. Lviv is the most western city in Ukraine, in fact many Ukrainians tour here because they literally think it is Europe. Yet, the sidewalks are falling apart, completely broken with bits of concrete strewn about. Everyday, the little old ladies have to navigate stairs like the ones above, stairs that haven't been repaired in 50 years and are practically wheelchair ramps now because they've disintegrated. There are abandoned buildings, like the one above, that were built by the soviets, never developed, and left to become ghosts of a failed regime lurking in the past.

The infrastructure is nonexistent here, evidenced by the lack of proper roads, transportation, healthcare, fire and police safety and numerous other deficiencies. Yet, Ukraine has been free for 16 years. But it will live with the scars of communism for lifetimes to come. 

Welcome to the Neighborhood

Above, top to bottom: Somebody's goats chained up in front of the neighborhood complex, next to the road; a man offloads cars near the avtovoksal(af-toh-volk-sahl) bus terminal near my neighborhood on October 2nd; near the front of my neighborhood; boys play with toy guns on an unusually sunny and warm day; a brother and sister make their way home not too far from the prison adjacent to my neighborhood.

I asked a friend which part of my blog he likes best(see the poll on the upper left) and he said the pictures were the biggest help.

"I have no idea what the Ukraine looks like," he typed. 

In answer to his request and your prayers, I am including a project on my neighborhood in the blog. I am labeling my posts, so if you ever need to look for posts on my "neighborhood," you can just type it in and search. 

Brett had described this place as a "Soviet *expletive*-hole" before I had come, and the term couldn't be more accurate. Bulldozing outlying villages, the communists erected giant concrete boxes that were the equivalent of filing cabinets for people. Most of the apartment are designed the same way or look exactly alike. The building are in terrible condition and many of them, built with slabs of concrete, are falling apart. The electricity goes out often and at random(sometimes in the middle of my wash cycle) and electricians come at their convenience(sometimes never). 

There are piles of rubble and trash scattered about, water trickles from unknown sources down the roads, and the 'sidewalks' are sunken-in concrete pieces covered in mud. There are a number of mangy stray dogs that wander the block and a few soviet fountains(also concrete) that no longer work and are covered in vegetation. They make good playgrounds for the kids. 

All-in-all, it's not exactly the ritz, but it ain't bad. The neighborhood seems very safe and I feel comfortable walking around at night. It's mostly families and old people, so the number of rowdy drinking parties and male hooligans(5 or so drunken guys, the only group I really consider a threat) is pretty low. My neighbors are nice, but people don't like to be photographed. 

A week on 19 cents

I will continue my update on Krakow, but I have a special post. This week, I will continue to survive on exactly 19 cents, US. That's exactly 95 Kopecs, or Ukrainian cents. I haven't any money left and I have to get through the week till my paycheck.

I bought a loaf of bread yesterday,  and walking to work everyday(the bus costs either 10 or 30 cents a ride) has helped. I've been cooking what's left of the pasta in the cupboard and eating toast and tea in the morning. Besides that, I don't have any expenses. 

I'm out of potatoes, and am left with a mutated carrot(similar to the chernobyl pepper), mustard, rice, pasta, olive oil, 1/10 a bottle of wine, 6 lemons, a smidgen of pesto, a dollop of sour cream, and very sorry looking apple that appears to have been leftover from the breakup of the Soviet Union. 

Today, I almost walked to the grocery store and got money out. I thought twice about it, and have decided to stick to my guns. I would pay another exorbitant ATM fee, and my paycheck comes later this week(no one seems to know exactly when, not comforting). Until then, I'm countin' Kopecs. 

A walk through Strisky Park

Chernobyl Peppers

Well, not really, but these are really strange peppers. A common myth is that Chernobyl, which is in the center northern region of Ukraine about 12 hours away from me, affected everything in Ukraine. Not true. In fact, much of Ukraine was untouched, and Belarus received the brunt of the radiation. 

Still, these peppers looked like they have been through a nuclear disaster, the one has another pepper growing inside of it. Weird, but I ate them anyway. Maybe that explains the extra finger I'm growing. 

Anti-Semitism in Ukraine . . . from Seminarians?

"President Bush is disliked by many," said Brett, giving an example of the past tense to his English class of Ukrainian seminarians.
This prompted a student to assume "and Bush, he is Jew?"
Brett, my lifelong friend and roommate, explained that no, Bush isn't disliked because he might be a Jew. And no, he wasn't surprised by the response. Having been a seminarian in America himself, Brett's very attune to the religious scene and general attitudes toward faith. To illustrate the Ukrainian attitude towards Judaism, Brett just explained to me the Vertep(which neither of us have actually seen, fyi), a Ukrainian Chistmas play tying the birth of Christ to Ukraine's attitudes and culture. The only Jew in the story is the best friend of Satan.
I should preface all of this by saying the American understanding of anti-Semitism and where it comes from is entirely different from the Ukrainian experience, much of which is steeped in pre-WWII history(we Americans are, I admit, in the dark here). How much do you know about the Polish-Soviet war of 1919-1920, the Holodomyr Famine in Ukraine, or Old Europe(pre-1940)?
To give some background, Ukrainians don't have a lot of exposure to faraway cultures, ethnicities or varying points of view. Mostly everyone here is of Ukrainian, Russian or Polish descent. Few people travel out of the country, those that do go somewhere in Europe or to the USA. I have seen one African in L'viv and, I kid you not, some people stopped in their tracks and stared, mouths agape, in shock. There have been a few chinese tourists here, and they stick out like Boy George at a Catholic funeral. It's a matter of exposure.
My friend nearly wet his pants last year during a discussion of religion when one student, innocently unaware, asked, "the (n-word)s in your country, they are religious?" This spawned a 10 minute explanation of what that meant, why it's the most innapropriate word in the American vocabulary, and what the proper reference was. If English is your 4th language, you've never been outside Ukraine, and you've never seen someone who wasn't pale in your life, you'd probably make the same mistake.
Back to Judaism. According to the American Holocaust Museum, there were some 200,000 Jews in L'viv(then L'wow or L'vov, the Polish or American names, respectively) in September, 1939. After Operation Barbarossa, the Nazis took control of L'vov and sent many Jews to Belzec concentration camp. Post-Holocaust, there were only 200-300 Jews left. I'm having trouble finding reliable sources in English about the current Jewish population/culture in L'viv, but as I understand it, nearly every synagogue in L'viv was destroyed, some 40 buildings. L'viv had the third largest Jewish population in Poland before the Holocaust.
Today, there are no markers, monuments or signs to speak of that recognize Jewish cemetaries, synagogues or the ghetto. In contrast, Krakow also had a large Jewish population and ghetto, not to mention Plaszow, the concentration camp featured in the movie "Schindler's List." Just about everything is marked well, and tours are regularly given. Judaism is part of the city's identity, and Krakow to L'viv is about the distance from Madison to Chicago. So how come Krakow is so friendly to Judaism and L'viv isn't?
Judaism in L'viv or Ukraine, as I understand, is still a very touchy subject. I just edited a story about a Jewish Rabbi in an eastern Ukrainian city that was publicly assaulted in broad daylight by a gang a few weeks ago. Obviously, this isn't everybody, but I find it really interesting it is such a hot-button issue. Circa WWII, there was a lot of ill-will in Europe towards Jews, it wasn't just in Germany(this is too complex to elaborate on here).
Before, I thought anti-Semitism to be so neanderthalic and trivial that is was laughable. My aunt studied in Tel Aviv and often indulged us with Jewish food. I still love eating at Ella's Deli, a Kosher restaurant, in Madison, WI. So I was a bit taken aback when Brett caught me up with Ukrainian affairs, but I've come to realize it's part lack of exposure, part historical context, part something I don't understand.
I leave you with Brett's story from his class yesterday, a policy I will adopt as my own:
"I was explaining the conflict between 'Secular America' and Religious America' by dividing my class in two teams for a mock debate. Not wanting to generalize, I started naming people 'you represent Catholicism, you're fundamentalist, you're Lutheran, you're Muslim, and you will be a J- . . . But I let it go."

Wuv, true Wuv

Trapped inside for a week by the rain, the sun finally came out on Sunday and I went for a walk with my camera. Again, I saw some 10 brides(no exaggeration, I counted) in about 2 hours in the city center, and took a few frames. The last one is of the part across from my apartment, and this gigantic Orthodox church that looks like a bizarre bee-hive. 

Orange flags vs. White; Ukrainian politics explodes in downtown L'viv

I was walking downtown a week ago and saw this rally for Prime Minister Tymoshenko's party. If you read my previous post, then you already know about the breakup of the coalition and how the once cordial Tymoshenko and President Yushchenko have suddenly become bitter enemies. So have their supporters. I managed to work my way into the center of the crowd, just as the Yushchenko supporters(orange flags) were staging a major upset of the rally of the Prime Minister's party(white flags). Minutes after this video, I was standing next to someone carrying a white flag when a orange flaggie charged him and tore his flag down, tearing it to shreads. The cops formed a human wall at that point and the Yushchenko supporters took over the main square.