On Capitalism in Ukraine: the Rant
Last weeks in Ukraine have been filled with work, partying, and last-minute running around. As a result, I did not have a chance to write some thoughts on my experience being in Ukraine that I planned to write a while ago. I am doing it now. This part of "My Adventures in Ukraine" is not supposed to be funny. It is written in a rant mode. It is a free flow of my thoughts and observations on modern Ukraine and changes brought by perestroika.
When former Soviet Union republics embraced capitalism the leaders of the Soviet Union had no idea what they were doing. When Gorbachev started the perestroika, all he knew that the country couldn't go on like that. Something needed to be done. He thought that small cosmetic changes would do the trick. He was so wrong. One stone thrown in the dunghill of Soviet economy left us all in a lot of dung. No one knew what to do and where to go. All we knew that "we want changes". When someone asks me what the perestroika is for me, I always remember Viktor Tsoi's concert in Moscow in 1988 (or maybe it was 1990) and thousands of people singing with him: "Our hearts demand changes. Our eyes demand changes. In our laughter, in our tears, in the pulse in our veins there are changes. We wait changes." This song symbolizes the perestroika for me. We knew we wanted something to change – we did not know what.
After the launch of perestroika, Soviet Union as a country began to stumble somewhere in an unfamiliar future. We could see other countries on TV but we knew very little about them. We wanted to build capitalism and democracy from scratch without having a history of building them and without knowing what they are. When I left Russia in 1997, I could already see that what is being born here is not what capitalism and democracy is in the West. The little mutants of democracy and capitalism born in the former Soviet Union had little in common with what the West expected us to produce.
Coming to Ukraine in 2002 I found the more or less developed forms of so-called post-perestroika democracy and capitalism. What I see here scares me. The capitalism in modern Ukraine as it is in modern Russia exists in its most vicious form where everything has monetary value. Everything has a price tag and can be bought and sold, and is being bought and sold. I AM exaggerating to make a point, but the reality is so close to the exaggeration it is heartbreaking. Nowhere else the transition from the poor but more or less equal state to lawlessness combined with a huge gap between rich and poor was so fast and so apparent.
People feel their powerlessness in everyday life. They do not live; they exist. Amartya Sen's theories of human development make painful sense here. People need choice, need the ability to realize their dreams. Here to realize your dream you often have to step over your principles. I could not deal with it. The country of Leo Tolstoy and Dostoevsky is gone. The newborn mutant is ruff, rude, vicious, street-smart, initiative, inventive, and agile. It will do anything to realize the promise of better life brought by perestroika.
It is very visible when looking at service industry. The service industry in the West is interested in your money, but they want to provide you with something in return. They provide you service for money. In Ukraine, the service industry is interested in your money. Period. They are interested in providing you with as little service as possible for your money, and best with providing you with no service. Cheating is a praised trait – it is called inventiveness. You are a hero if you find a way of skimming money off someone.
To illustrate my point I want to tell a story of my friend getting sick in Ukraine. After coming back home from Canada she got a flu and since she does not speak either Russian or Ukrainian she asked me to help her to call the doctor. I had no idea what we are getting ourselves into. After the first visit from a doctor she got medications against cold, but two days later she was getting significantly worse, and we had to call the doctor again. First of all, each visit costs 100 US dollars. The medical center sent 4 (!!) doctors to examine her one after another "to make sure the diagnosis is correct". They wanted to put her in a hospital. Terrified, she refused and she was getting medical attention at home. Every day they would tell her horror stories about how dangerous her "disease" is and that she really needs to see another doctor/ to do another tests/ to do another injection etc. – and obviously to pay for each of it. I was in the middle of it – feeling that half of it is not needed, but being afraid to refuse in case I am wrong and it is needed. Thank god our medical insurance covers it, but there is no way local person can afford the medical treatment. When I read the statistics about the decrease in life span of local people, I can understand why. One of the reasons is the poverty of state-run medical system and absence of affordable private medical care. It might be better in Kyiv but outside of it the free medical care does not exist at all.
When my grand father had to have an operation, the family had to pay for every little thing used in the operation – for cotton pads, for gloves, for doctors' time, syringes – everything. My relatives were telling me that the nurses sell part of the things people pay for to have an operation to substitute their income. My relatives had to come to the hospital everyday to bring food and to feed my grandfather, to bring and change the bed sheets, to wash him etc. The nurses would not do anything. I would really like not to get ill in Ukraine. I can't really blame nurses and doctors for trying to make money from desperate people, they also have families to feed. The bleak reality breads the vicious circle of survival. Darwinism has prevailed in the former Soviet Union – "survival of the fittest" is the way of life.
When I was writing a final report to the organization managing our internship, there was a question on how my personal views changed after being here. All I can say, that if anything, I appreciate Canada a lot more. It might be less adventurous and a bit boring, but the education is good and the medical services are free and accessible. The social infrastructure is developed. One can live normal life in Canada even if one is not rich. One can live normal life in Ukraine only by getting an expat salary and only in Kyiv. Outside is a murky world, which I don't understand and I don't belong to. I had a great time in Kyiv getting my relatively comfortable living allowance, hanging out with other expats, and knowing that I will be gone from here in 6 months. I don't want to be an ordinary Ukrainian. Getting miserable salary of less that 100 dollars a month, being helpless from government abuse, being harassed every time I want to travel abroad.
There is almost no chance for a single Ukrainian girl to go abroad – she will be branded a prostitute and denied visa on the spot without explanation and reason. I have seen a number of people who were. A friend was trying to get a visa to visit another friend in Germany – she had to bring the documents that she is leaving a 1-year-old son; that she has a job, an apartment, a husband, a mother, a cat, and a university to return to. And it still took her number of trips to the German embassy standing in line on the street waiting to get in, than returning for the interview, being harassed just for wanting to get a five-day visa to visit her friend who invited her. I am glad I have a Canadian passport. All I need is to buy a ticket.
The further writings are the somewhat-modified parts from my final report to our Canadian organization.
On the Reverse Culture Shock
Going to Ukraine I experienced something that can be described as Reverse Culture Shock. It is expected that the interns will have one going back to Canada, but I had one coming here. Having lived in Canada for last 5 years, I had already forgotten how complicated life could be. It is very easy to take for granted the pleasures of life such as hot water and heating. It was very stressful to be back to the post-soviet lifestyle and mentality. I appreciate Canada more now than before this internship.
On the Language Issue
As a person who was born and grew up in the former Soviet Union I did not expect to have any problems coming back to one of the former Soviet republics or to have any difficulty in adjusting to life in Ukraine. There were many things I did not expect.
Russian is my mother tongue. It is different from Ukrainian. When I was a child, Soviet Union was still in place and Russian language was dominating throughout the country. After the independence there has been a revival of Ukrainian language. I read about it, but I did not expect to see the extent of this revival.
Surprisingly, the language presented a problem. Since the majority of local people grow up with good knowledge of both, Russian and Ukrainian, languages, they often do not understand that someone who speaks Russian might not be able to understand Ukrainian. While Russian remains the main language of every day life in Kyiv, Ukrainian is the language of the official communication. It is the language of all official documents, media, and pubic officials.
On What I Actually Did in My Placement
Overall, I have been participating mostly in the research and analytical work. My research activities have been concentrating in a new (for the Project) development areas: cooperatives, grain marketing, retail and wholesale markets, and weather-based index insurance.
With regard to research questions, I have been mostly working with, and under supervision of, the Regional Deputy Manager and with the Marketing and Supply Chain Development Specialists. With the Marketing and Supply Chain Specialist I worked for the Grain Marketing Seminar where I presented the Canadian grain marketing system.
My analytical work has been mostly supervised by the Monitoring and Analysis Specialist. I participated in the organization of the in-house Consumers’ Behavior Survey and in the analysis of its results. I also contributed to the analysis of the results of the Marketing Survey done by Ukrainian Marketing Group for the Project. The list of the respondents of this Survey has included a wide specter of agribusinesses such as processors and sellers of agricultural products. I presented the section on the sellers of fresh and processed agricultural products (supermarkets, grocery stores and wholesale markets) at the Project’s presentation of the results of the Survey to Ukrainian journalists, representatives of businesses and government officials.
In addition, I participated in various activities of the Project such as the Green Tourism Seminar and visits of foreign experts. Moreover, I have been included in all internal project activities such as “Marketing in Agriculture” training organized for the Project by the International Institute of Business and the Project's Retreat workshop. From the beginning I have been treated as a part of the team and have been included in all aspects of work and social life of the Project.
Conclusion
The past seven months I have been enjoying Kyiv and my internship there. It has been challenging and exciting. I am sad to move on. Kyiv is a nice to live in and it is always hard to move once you get settled and comfortable somewhere. I am happy to reunite with my husband again even though I have no idea what lays ahead. Whatever new adventures my life brings I will keep you posted.
©Lidia Bhaskar, 2003