Ukrainians and Food

Once I invited some friends over to my parents' place. After a huge meal with many different dishes, the sated friends started getting up. "Where are they going?" asked my mother who doesn't speak English. "Tell them all to sit back down. These were just the appetizers. I also have hot sandwiches, entrées, and a dessert to serve." 

At the end of the meal people had to crawl away from the table because they were so full. "Ask them if they want a snack," my mother said. "I have a lot of snacks to offer. It isn't like I'd allow your friends to leave the house hungry."

Ukrainian National Pastime

Here is how the product looks when you
buy it

The most popular national pastime of Ukrainians (as well as our brilliant relaxation practice) is eating sunflower seeds. As you are working to liberate the seed from the shell, you forget about all your troubles and experience true nirvana. Sunflower seeds also help to lower blood pressure, which is important for Ukrainians whose national cuisine augurs early death from a stroke to people who consume it on a regular basis.

In these photos you can see the most recent innovation in the complex process of struggling with sunflower seeds. I hope that the talented individual who invented this fantastic thing makes a lot of money off it because it isn't often that people come up with something this amazing.

And this is how the contraption looks
while you are using it

The seeds are sold in a plastic cup that is located inside of another plastic cup. You join them with a red plastic clip and place the shells in the empty cup. You can easily carry the whole contraption wherever you go. When you are done, you just close the cup with a plastic lid and throw it out. Is that amazing or what?

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Is Another Chernobyl Possible?

The crater of the
Chernobyl reactor

In 1986 one of the reactors at the Chernobyl Nuclear Plant exploded. Now, a quarter of a century later, the entire area around Chernobyl that used to be a beautiful, florid place is completely dead. If you want to see what a nuclear disaster really looks like, do a Google search. You will see such horrible devastation, such terrifying birth defects that you will not be able to forget it. 

Today, we keep hearing that there is no possibility of a similar catastrophe in Japan. Of course, we are being told that while more and more people test positive for radiation:  

Japan’s nuclear safety agency said there is “absolutely no possibility of a Chernobyl” style accident at the Fukushima No. 1 plant, Koichiro Genba, the national strategy minister said, as quoted by Jiji Press. 

The minister made the comment citing the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency at a meeting of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan. 

Meanwhile, a US aircraft carrier deployed for relief efforts has repositioned after detecting low-level radiation from a malfunctioning nuclear power plants, a US statement has said. 

People around the area, already ravaged by the earthquake and tsunami, are worried at the prospects of nuclear radiation. 

“I am due to give birth soon, I want to know exactly what is going on at the nuclear plant. I am scared,” said one woman. 

Twenty people have tested positive for radiation exposure and that number looks likely to rise.

I truly hope that Japan is spared the horrors a nuclear disaster brought to my country and the neighboring Belarus by Chernobyl. Still, we will never be free from the terror that another such catastrophe is possible. Humanity is not ready for nuclear power, in my opinion. We should give it up.

We condemn tyrants like Hitler and Stalin, but what about the irresponsible scientists who shared this potentially fatal discovery with the world? How much worse are these people, who for fame and money, brought humanity to the brink of extinction?

Is Ukraine a Third World Country?

I always refer to Ukraine as a Third World country. I don't believe that this term has become outdated since the end of the Cold War. I don't even think that the Cold War has really ended, but this is a topic for a different post. In my opinion, the term "Third World" is very useful when describing a certain kind of reality, a certain way of being and thinking that is shared by a variety of countries in the world. 

So here is a list of characteristics that, in my opinion, make Ukraine a Third World country:

- our colonial past that still defines us in every way. Ukraine only achieved independence in 1991 after centuries of brutal colonial domination that destroyed our economy, ravaged our culture, and claimed the lives of millions of people. You don't get over such an experience just by declaring yourself independent.

- colonial mentality always looks for a master. In Ukraine, half of the country is eager to debase itself in any way to please the Russians. The other half, would do the same to please the EU. 

- the entire society is corrupt on every level. People insist on giving bribes even when none are solicited from them. The idea of paying one's taxes or not cheating on exams only provokes roaring laughter. The most successful person is the one who cheats the best.

- working hard has no prestige attached to it. Prostituting oneself, taking bribes, cheating and stealing are considered a lot more prestigious.

- contrary to popular opinion, people in such countries are not necessarily poor. Countries are poor because citizens steal everything they can lay their hands on. As a result, people do quite well for themselves while the state is falling apart.

- people are very resilient, cynical, harsh and unsentimental. However, they always turn a face of fake hospitality and accommodating niceness to a foreigner (who is always considered "stupid.") It always makes me feel very sad to hear a well-meaning Westerner gush about his trip to Ukraine where everybody was super nice to him.

I know that all of this sounds very harsh, people. But what can I do if I don't want to play the "let's-lie-to-the-stupid-foreigner" game any more. People from developed countries have this annoying tendency to pity those of us in the Third World. They like to imagine us as dirty, starving, piteous, and grateful for any handout. They believe they can enlighten us and improve our existence by bringing us the values of democracy, human rights and freedom. Little do they know that the very people who seem to listen attentively to their speechifying laugh uproariously behind their backs at their naïveté.

Being a Ukrainian Woman

Being a Ukrainian woman often blows. On the one hand, people perceive us as stupid whores. I can't tell you how many times people have asked me whether I was a mail-order bride or a prostitute immediately after I mentioned that I was from Ukraine. On the other hand, we make every effort to ensure that people keep perceiving us as stupid whores. Here is the most recent story that illustrates my point perfectly.

A radio station in New Zealand ran a contest titled "Win a Wife":

The Rock FM radio station ran the competition called Win a Wife, offering a 12-night trip - along with $2000 spending money - to Ukraine organised by a bride agency, Endless Love Agency, which says on its website it offers "beautiful genuine Ukraine ladies looking for love and marriage with Kiwi men". A winemaker named Greg was the winner and he is due in the Ukraine mining town of Donetsk later this month before also visiting another town called Zaporizhia. The prize does not include travel for the Ukraine woman to come to New Zealand.

Ukrainian feminists protesting
the objectification of women

Appalling, offensive, horrible. So, obviously, Ukrainian feminists decided to protest. Their way of protesting the objectification of women was to come out into the streets . . . naked. In winter. Which, in Ukraine, is a very cold season.  


That's Ukrainian feminism for you. It's doing wonders for the image of Ukrainian women all over the world.

Shame

I don't seem to be able to run far enough to prevent my compatriots from shaming me.

I was sitting peacefully in my office yesterday trying to submit an article for publication when a colleague I had never met before called me on the phone. He'd received an e-mail from a friend in Ukraine and was mystified by what it said. All he managed to get out of it was "tragedy," "horrible problems," "life has no meaning," "senseless," and "really bad." Obviously, my colleague got very worried that somebody had died or gotten really sick. So he called me to see if he could come by and have me translate the e-mail. Of course, I agreed.

The longish e-mail addressed a single issue: money. There were endless complaints about how the author of the e-mail hadn't been receiving her salary for 3 months and will probably not receive any salary in the future either (like anybody forces her to stay at a job that doesn't pay.) And her daughter had to offer bribes to pass every single course she is taking in college (which, I'm sure, nobody is demanding of her. My people love offering bribes when nobody is asking. It's our national pastime). And she had to spend all her savings on those bribes And life has no meaning any longer because there is no money. Money, money, money. The e-mail ends with this Ukrainian person congratulating her American friend on his wonderful life, filled with travel and fun. Which is something she will never have because she has no money. And her life has no meaning.

While I was translating this letter for my colleague, I was curling my toes in shame. There he was, looking like a kind Santa, this academic who spent his entire life travelling to underdeveloped countries with the goal of helping people. How could I tell him that his so-called friend was taking him for a ride? That she probably dresses a lot more expensively than he does? That, in all probability, she owes her place of abode while he either pays rent or has a huge mortgage? That it's highly likely she considers all Americans to be stupid and there to be used?

"Life is pretty difficult over there, right?" the kind colleague asked me.

"Erm. . . yeah. . . I guess," I managed to mumble.

Clarissa's Real Ukrainian Borscht

I seem to be placing recipes in a way that highlights each part of my complex identity. First, there was my Canadian split pea soup with bacon that symbolizes my Canadian identity. Then, I shared the recipe for the Peruvian fish soup that represents the Spanish-speaking part of my identity. Now the time has come for me to offer you a recipe of the most traditional and time-honored Ukrainian dish: the borscht. (Why I seem to be stuck on soups for the moment is a mystery.)

If you only tried borscht in restaurants, then you never tasted real Ukrainian borscht. Every Ukrainian has their own recipe of borscht which can't be mass produced while preserving the quality. This is why I'm now offering you my own recipe of borscht. Enjoy!

You will need:

• a piece of meat on a bone (either pork or beef). I have also made borscht using chicken in the past, and it was a great success. Feel free to skip the meat for a vegetarian version of the borscht.
• dry white beans (1 cup). This is often skipped too but I find it makes borscht much heartier.
• 1 medium sized onion.
• 1 bay leaf.
• 2 medium sized carrots
• 1 large or 2 small beets
• 1 small can of tomato paste
• 2 large potatoes
• 1/3 of a head of cabbage
• 1/8 of a bunch of parsley or cilantro
• sour-cream to serve

1. Wash the meat and place it in a large cooking pan. Pork is normally used for borscht by real Ukrainians but I don't like pork. For me, it's a good, beautiful piece of beef. Fill the pan with water and add the onion and the bay leaf. Feel free to add some peppercrons too.

We only just started cooking and
it already looks beautiful. The
visual component is crucial in Ukrainian
cuisine. Food is supposed to look festive and fun.

2. Bring the water to the boil and reduce the fire as soon as it starts boiling. Don't let it stay boiling! Add some salt to the water and leave the stock simmering on a slow fire until the meat is ready (1,5-2 hours). Every once in a while, remove the foam that gathers on the surface with a slotted spoon. The more foam you manage to remove, the better your stock will be in the end. If you have decided to use the beans, now is the time to add them to the pan. Don't use canned beans: they will kill the borscht. It's better to add no beans at all than to use canned ones.

3. While the meat and beans are cooking, peel and cube potatoes. Wash and dice the carrots and the beets.

4. When the meat (and beans if you are using them) is ready, discard the onion and the bay leaf. Remove the meat from the pan. Let it cool. Cut some of the meat into small pieces and add them to the borscht. Reserve the rest of the meat for another recipe. Add peeled, cubed potatoes to the cooking pan.

5. In a small frying pan, heat some olive oil. Add the diced beets and carrots and fry them on medium for 5 minutes.

6. Add some of the prepared beef stock to the frying pan. Pour in 1 can of tomato paste. If you want your borscht to be of a darker color, add some beet juice. If you want it to be sweeter, feel free to add some fresh carrot juice. Leave the pan simmering for 7-10 minutes.

The choice is yours whether to use more beets and less carrots,
vice versa or an equal amount of both

7. In the meantime, shred cabbage. The cabbage should normally be green but it so happened that I only have red cabbage in the house, so I decided to use it instead.

It's up to you how much cabbage to use based on
how much you like cabbage. Some people who are really
not into cabbage have been known to skip it altogether

8. Add the tomato sauce to the cooking pan with the stock and the potatoes. Then, add shredded cabbage to the pan as well.

 

9. When the cabbage is almost ready, add fresh parsley or cilantro. Keep tasting the cabbage to determine whether it's ready because it takes different kinds of cabbage a very different amount of time to cook. The cabbage should be "al dente", so to speak. Make sure it is not mushy. As soon as the cabbage reaches the desired degree of softness, take it off the fire and let it stand for 10-15 minutes.

 

This is how the borscht looks when it's almost ready

10. Serve borscht with a table spoonful of sour-cream. True Ukrainians stick a really hot red pepper into their borscht and eat it with wooden spoons.

Borscht is served with sour cream.
I don't drink vodka, but it makes the picture
look more authentic

What Annoys Me About Ukrainians. . .

. . . is how easily they give up on their national identity to identify as Russians. Here is one example. Blizzard has announed a championship between its professional Starcraft players. Two of the top competitors are Ukrainian (which everybody who follows the championship knows because they are kind of famous). But in the list of competitors you can see here they are identified as being from Russia. (See the comment section for the discussion of where they are really from).

Centuries of colonial domination first in the Russian Empire and then in the Soviet Union (as well as the attendant brainwashing) have taught Ukrainians to be ashamed of not being Russian. We were constantly made to understand that being from Ukraine somehow made us uncultured, uncivilized, and stupid. Even today, 19 years after Ukraine finally achieved its independence, Russian media are filled with nasty jokes about the stupidity and greed of Ukrainians. So when Ukrainians have a chance to make a good name for their country internationally, they often forego this opportunity in favor of presenting themselves as Russian, which somehow makes them feel better about themselves. This is too sad for words.

Ukrainian Blood

I have no idea why the subject of my Ukrainianness keeps coming up today. Must be one of those days where the universe conspires to make one aware of her origins.

After I had a student paint a Ukrainian flag on my hand (see previous post), I decided to donate blood. Before you do that, you have to answer a series of questions. One of them is whether you have lived in Europe since 1980. If the answer is yes, you have to find your European country on a list they give you. Of course, my European country was not listed among the countries of Europe. A long discussion ensued between me and the members of the blood drive team on whether I'm completely sure that Ukraine is, in fact, located in Europe. I kept assuring people that there is no doubt in my (or anybody else's) mind in this respect. Still, I wasn't believed and the blood drive people started making phone calls to other people (and those, in turn, to some other people) in hopes of finding anybody who would know for sure where Ukraine is located.

Forty minutes later, we tentatively established that Ukraine is, indeed, a European country, after which I was finally able to donate blood. I count myself lucky because my Nigerian colleague was barred from donating blood altogether.

Meeting Ukrainians

I know I wrote about this before, but it still bugs me every time this happens. For some reason, people still believe that if I was born in Ukraine I must be really into meeting random Ukrainians with whom I have nothing whatsoever in common. It is as if the fact of being born in the same country somehow means that we must have things to discuss and a burning desire to discuss them.

I keep receiving gleeful communications from people I barely know, telling me that there is a group of Ukrainians coming by and why don't I join them for lunch. Yes, because I'm sitting here dying to have lunch with people I never even met.

This burning desire to bring people together based on their place of birth is as baffling as it is illogical. I left Ukraine for good 12 years ago. Never went back for a visit and have no plans to do that in the future. Ever. Doesn't it stand to reason to assume that if I were so totally into hanging out with Ukrainians, I would have never left the country? I mean, I don't have anything against Ukrainians, but what is there to talk about if we never even met?

Strangely enough, people who know that I'm ethnically Jewish don't do the same thing to me. Maybe it's because they realize how idiotic and anti-semitic it would sound if they were to say: "There is a group of Jews that is about to visit campus, so I'm sure you'd love to hang out with them. You Jews always have stuff to talk about, don't you??"

So now I have to schlep to this weird lunch with unknown Ukrainians and feel like a total idiot all the time I'm sitting there trying to get in touch with some latent Ukrainianness I'm supposed to possess.

A Brawl in the Ukrainian Parliament

I know that as a Ukrainian I'm supposed to feel ashamed about this. But, in all honesty, I kind of laughed when I saw the video of this ridiculous brawl in the Ukrainian parliament.



Here is an article about what actually happened.

Did You Know That Ukraine…

This post first appeared as a guest post at Ktravula – a travelogue.

• Is the second largest country in Europe? (If we don’t count Russia, which is located in Asia for the most part, anyways.) Even among my blog visitors, I have had people who refer to Ukraine as “a tiny country in Eastern Europe.” One look at the map, however, is enough to demonstrate that Ukraine’s territory is large and its population is 1,5 times larger than the population of Canada.
• Has the most fertile soils in Europe? Ukrainian soil is so fertile that people have been known to remove the top level of soil and sell it to other countries simply because everything grows and flourishes on it.
• Has a tradition of democracy that dates back to the XVI century? This makes Ukraine a country with the most longstanding tradition of democracy in modern Europe.
• Started a sexual revolution around 1910? While people in the US and Western Europe had to wait until the mid-sixties for their sexual revolution, a famous Ukrainian writer and the future prime-minister of the first independent Ukrainian Republic Volodimir Vinnychenko dedicated his career as a writer to promoting the ideas of sexual liberation, free love, and the rights of women. His books were hugely popular all over Europe in the first half of the XXth century.
• Has a strong anti-imperialist tradition? In spite of being surrounded by fiercely imperialist countries, Ukraine never followed their example and absorbed the imperialist way of thinking. Even when Ukrainian troops would repel the invaders and enter the territory of the invading country, they would turn back and leave without trying to retain foreign territories.
• Had slavery until 1861? Under the name “serfdom”, the tradition of slavery existed and was very wide-spread in Ukraine until 1861.
• Was the site of one of the greatest modern genocides? In 1932-3, over 10 million Ukrainians were exterminated by the Soviet government in an attempt to wipe out any resistance to the imperial subjection of Ukraine by the Soviet Union. Today, the government of Russia is engaged in endless propaganda that denies that Ukrainian Holocaust ever took place.
• Has recently elected a convicted criminal to be its president? Viktor Yanukovich, a recently elected president of Ukraine, was incarcerated for robbery and assault in 1967 and for assault in 1970. It is said that his second crime was a rape that was eventually pleaded down to assault.
• Does not require a definite article before its name? Many people still say “the Ukraine” instead of “Ukraine.” Not only is this grammatically incorrect, it is also kind of annoying.
• Has one of the most melodic languages in the world? According to a study by the French Academy of Fine Arts, Ukraine has the world’s second most melodic language after Italian. I’m not sure that I agree about the entire world, but it’s definitely one of the most beautiful sounding languages in Europe. Sadly, the language is disappearing because centuries of colonial domination and propaganda cause many Ukrainians to be deeply ashamed of their cultural and linguistic heritage.

Ukraine's Presidential Elections: The Evil of Two Lessers

Today Ukrainians have to choose between their two last remaining presidential candidates. The most popular choice seems to be the Pro-Russian "let's-go-back-to-the-Empire-and-let-Russians-abuse-us-some-more" Yanukovich.

The other candidate, Timoshenko, looked kind of better. At least, she is a woman, which is always a good thing to see. She also looks a lot less like a Soviet-era dinosaur than her opponent.

For these reasons, I hoped she would win. That is, until she organized a disgusting religious event, which was a kind of a huge public prayer. I understand that she only did this to score points with some of the more obtuse, uneducated voters. Still, this quasi-religious posturing is really unattractive. And understandably scary.

I feel truly sorry for the Ukrainian voters who now have to choose between two almost equally lousy candidates. Ukraine just doesn't seem to be able to catch a break for the past 350 years.

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Elections in Ukraine

It has become pretty obvious that the candidate most likely to win Ukraine's upcoming presidential elections is the pro-Russian Viktor Yanukovych. The elections will be held on January 17. If Viktor Yanukovych wins, this date might signal the end of independent Ukraine. There is, of course, nothing more dangerous for Ukraine as an independent political and cultural entity than going back under the influence of Russia, but the majority of Ukrainians are incapable of realizing this.

As the leading Spanish newspaper El Pais astutely observed, while the economy of Ukraine is in shambles, there is at least no doubt that Ukrainians enjoy their democratic freedoms. Freedoms of expression, association, and belief are - for now - available to all Ukrainians. This will obviously end if Ukraine turns into a dominion of Russia. No political or ideological dissent is tolerated in Russia, where the old habits of a totalitarian state have come back in full force.

The imperial mindset of Russian politicians has suggested to them a great way of distracting their citizens from their poverty and lack of democratic freedoms: contempt and hatred towards everybody who is not Russian. People in Russia are indulging in their hate of everybody else - from Ukrainians to Americans - with a vengeance. Those Ukrainians who are likely to vote for Yanukovych will do that because they want to identify with Russia. They are blind to the fact that being Russian wannabes does not convince actual Russians to suspend their contempt towards everybody who is Ukrainian.

Ukraine was a despised and looted colony of Russia for centuries. Our people were exterminated by the million in horrifying acts of genocide, our culture and language were destroyed. We have been taught to hate ourselves and to feel hugely inferior to the Russians. The propaganda techniques that Russian leaders employed in order to make Ukrainians feel ashamed of their non-Russian origins have been wildly successful. Many Ukrainians, especially from the Eastern part of the country (which is incidentally the place where I come from), hate being Ukrainian and are eager for Ukraine to return to the role of a bullied and exploited colony of Russia.

The prospect of seeing Ukrainians heading for national and cultural self-immolation saddens me beyond what words can express.

Being Ashamed of Your Country

During their occupation of Kiev, the capital of Ukraine, the Nazis exterminated over 100,000 people in a ravine called Babiy Yar. 33,771 Jews were killed in Babiy Yar in a single operation on September 29–30, 1941. It is a site of one of the most horrible mass murders in the history of humanity. No human being who has preserved even a shred of simple decency can walk by without being moved to tears. Or so I thought until recently.

It turns out that talks have been underway about a plan to construct a hotel on the site of this mass grave. Several political parties in Ukraine support this idea and voted in favor of desecrating this place of sorrow with a luxurious hotel. I haven't been so disgusted by my native country in a while. I hate being ashamed of being Ukrainian by origin but today I am. Building a hotel in Babiy Yar is like building an amusement park in Auschwitz, a bar in Treblinka, or a skating rink in Buchenwald. The country that was so incredibly victimized by the Nazis is now celebrating fascist massacres. There are now words to describe how disgusted I feel by this.

I want to end this post with a poem by Yevgeni Yevtushenko, a Russian poet, about Babiy Yar.

No monument stands over Babi Yar.
A drop sheer as a crude gravestone.
I am afraid.
Today I am as old in years
as all the Jewish people.
Now I seem to be
a Jew.

Here I plod through ancient Egypt.
Here I perish crucified, on the cross,
and to this day I bear the scars of nails.

I seem to be
Dreyfus.
The Philistine
is both informer and judge.
I am behind bars.
Beset on every side.
Hounded,
spat on,
slandered.

Squealing, dainty ladies in flounced Brussels lace
stick their parasols into my face.

I seem to be then
a young boy in Byelostok.
Blood runs, spilling over the floors.
The barroom rabble-rousers
give off a stench of vodka and onion.
A boot kicks me aside, helpless.
In vain I plead with these pogrom bullies.
While they jeer and shout,
"Beat the Yids. Save Russia!"
some grain-marketeer is raping my mother.

0 my Russian people!
I know
you
are international to the core.
But those with unclean hands
have often made a jingle of your purest name.
I know the goodness of my land.
How vile these anti-Semites-
without a qualm
they pompously called themselves
the Union of the Russian People!

I seem to be
Anne Frank
transparent
as a branch in April.
And I love.
And have no need of phrases.
My need
is that we gaze into each other.
How little we can see
or smell!

We are denied the leaves,
we are denied the sky.
Yet we can do so much --
tenderly
embrace each other in a darkened room.
They're coming here?
Be not afraid. Those are the booming
sounds of spring:
spring is coming here.
Come then to me.
Quick, give me your lips.
Are they smashing down the door?
No, it's the ice breaking ...

The wild grasses rustle over Babi Yar.
The trees look ominous,
like judges.
Here all things scream silently,
and, baring my head,
slowly I feel myself
turning gray.
And I myself
am one massive, soundless scream
above the thousand thousand buried here.
I am
each old man
here shot dead.
I am
every child
here shot dead.
Nothing in me
shall ever forget!
The "Internationale," let it
thunder
when the last anti-Semite on earth
is buried forever.

In my blood there is no Jewish blood.
In their callous rage, all anti-Semites
must hate me now as a Jew.
For that reason
I am a true Russian!

Ukraine is Weird

Sometimes, the things my native country is doing are too ridiculous to understand. A student just told me that a relative of hers has been living in Ukraine and dedicating a lot of time and effort to establishing non-profit educational programs for the young people of the country. God knows, such programs are sorely needed in Ukraine. Recently, however, the Ukrainian government introduced limitations on the number of days in a year that a foreign national can spend in Ukraine without asking for a citizenship status. So now my student's relative has to discontinue her activities and leave the country.

From these measures one could infer that there are crowds of Americans dying to move to Ukraine and the government has to stem the tide of immigrants. The reality, however, is very different. Many people leave the country every year in search of a better life elsewhere. The Ukrainian government definitely doesn't have to beat Americans who want to work for the country's benefit off with a stick. Maybe the Ukrainian government prefers to imagine the country as a target of massive American immigration but that is simply not the case. While our authorities indulge in these fantasies and act accordingly, the population fo the country suffers. But who cares about regular citizens and nice people like my student's relative. All that matters is that the government can keep indulging in its wishful thinking.

"Resetting" the US-Russia Relationship

The only thing I liked (or I should rather say loved, admired, and was ecstatic to hear) about McCain's campaign was his unwavering dedication to defending Ukraine from Russia's imperialist politics. In the second presidential debate, McCain said in no uncertain terms that Ukraine was now in Putin's sights (a great insight that I'm yet to hear Obama replicate) and that any aggression against its neighbors coming from Russia needed to be penalized. I never heard Obama take a position that would even come close to this dedicated anti-Russian imperialism stand.

In the aftermath of Obama's visit to Russia, I feel that he has forgotten about Ukraine and the constant danger that Russia's dream of imperialist expansion still represents for all its former-USSR neighbors. All talk about stopping the NATO expansion as a sign of goodwill towards Russia once again leaves Russia's smaller neighbors out to dry. Of course, Russia is big, scary, and unpredictable. It has a huge number of nuclear weapons that it will never let go. The question is whether the Obama administration will give up on Ukraine's independence in order to placate a much stronger Russia.

Russia's entire national identity is constructed around its imperialism. Of course, the US also have a strong imperialist agenda. If you take imperialism out of the US national identity, however, there will still be a lot left. Not so for Russia. In the recent years, Putin and now Medvedev have been promoting an agressive pro-imperialist ideology. Talking to the Russian leaders about democracy, goodwill towards its neighbors, and respect for their national sovereignty is a waste of time. They are not going to stop. They will keep trying to meddle in Ukraine's affairs and nothing less than the restoration of the Russian Empire will be enough. Remember, the empire always needs more.

I truly hope Obama understands this even though he isn't saying it out loud at the moment. I have to believe this because it's the only thing that can save independent Ukraine.

Ukraine Outlaws Porn

Every time I want to start feeling marginally optimistic about my country of origin, it goes and does something stupid. Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko signed a law today making the possession of porn a criminal offense. It's still ok under this law to keep pornography for "medicinal purposes." I guess this means that if you bribe your doctor to give you a note saying you will die a painful death unless you watch a certain amount of porn every day, it will be acceptable.

Ukraine faces very grave problems at this moment. The hopeful momentum created by the Orange Revolution was betrayed by lack of real change that Yushchenko 's government was supposed to bring to the country. Instead of working on laws that the country so desperately needs, Yushchenko wastes his time and energy on these senseless, unenforceable and utterly ridiculous statements.

The only reason for introducing such a law in Ukraine that I can think of is the need to mobilize massive amounts of popular discontent for more street protests. You keep the people's sexuality repressed long enough and they will sublimate it into other areas of their lives. The only real consequence of this law, however, will be an ever greater level of corruption. Now there will be a black market that will manufacture proof that people need porn for medicinal purposes.

"Communism = Soviet Power + Electrification"

In the past 18 hours, I've had the chance to get in touch with my Ukrainian identity. The electricity suddenly went off in my apartment and we haven't been able to resolve this problem in spite of numerous efforts.

As a post-Soviet Ukrainian, I can't say I'm all that unaccastomed to living with no electricity (which means no air conditioning and no refrigerator in this sweltering heat). However, I'm not enjoying it any more than I did in my country.

To make the nostalgic experience complete, we should also have our water disconnected. Then, it would definitely feel like home.

P.S. For those who don't know, the title of this post comes from a famous quote by Lenin.

P.P.S. The electricity mysteriously went back on. This experience taught me two important things. First, overconsumption is the devil. Second, I don't miss Ukraine. I miss my real homeland, Canada, though. And not because there are no power outages there (sometimes, there are) but because it's an amazing place.

Ukranians Rule! (Los Colorados Video)