Podcast Host, Professor, Writer

Month: March 2014

Why Putin Won’t Win

Lesser Coat of Arms of Ukraine

Lesser Coat of Arms of Ukraine (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

My grandfather was a Ukrainian freedom fighter in the second World War sparring with the Nazis and communists to create a free Ukrainian state. He was on the losing side, and his country was consumed by Stalin’s Soviet Union. His hope for a free Ukraine lived on, along with those in the Ukrainian diaspora who recreated Ukrainian hamlets in the East Village in New York City, in the camps of the Catskills and all around the world from Canada to Argentina to Australia. These Ukrainians who lost their nation taught my generation how to be Ukrainian – by speaking the language and by continuing the refrain:

Слава Україні! – Slava Ukrainy! – Glory to Ukraine!

response: Героям слава! – Geroyam slava! – Glory to our Heros!

He did not live to see the Soviet Union’s fall and the blue and yellow flag of the nation he so loved flying high. I am glad he is not here today to see the Ukraine that he longed for coming apart at the seams. Today’s referendum in Crimea conducted under Soviet guns is history redux. The struggle is one for the very soul of Ukraine.

Ukraine has balanced its two faces throughout its history – the two faces in opposition today. The face of Janus turning to the East harkens back millenia. My first day in a graduate seminar on the History of Ukraine, I had to answer the question – did Ukraine as a country ever exist? Its origins in  an early Slavic state called Kievan Rus are also considered the birth of Russia. Its borders have  shifted as empires suppressed minority nationalities and traded territory like baseball card collectors. Stalin’s Russification and division of Ukraine was more of the same. The country’s split behooved Stalin so that he could maintain control of Ukraine’s natural assets – not just its breadbasket but also its coalmines in the East, which fed an enormous steel-making complex that propelled the Soviet Union’s industrialization. After starving millions of Ukrainians during the Great Famine, and purging millions more, Stalin filled Ukraine with those loyal to him and forced those who weren’t to conform.

Putin is pursuing the same tactics. Taking control of assets, moving in troops, suppressing the voices of those who disagree with him. He is using propaganda to play up divisions that exist but do not have to be divisive (many people, me included, speak both Ukrainian and Russia for example so it’s not a language division). And it looks like he’s playing to shift the borders once again.

The face of Janus to the West are all who see the potential of Ukraine in Europe. Ukraine has been looking to Europe for centuries. Today, Ukrainian citizens see opportunities for Ukraine to reshape its political landscape to be more democratic and less despotic, the chance to restart the economy with a version of shock therapy like Poland did back in 1989, the ability to build social, cultural, and literary links that have already bloomed. Take for example my cousin from the south of Ukraine (near Odessa, i.e. near the Crimea flashpoint) who is now studying in Poland where hundreds of Ukrainians like her are learning how to create a new future for their Ukraine. These ties cannot be severed.

Millions of Ukrainians like me in the Diaspora (14 million or so according to recent figures I have read) are tied to the idea of Ukraine as part of the West, not East. We have come together via social media rallying around “Euromaidan” – Ukraine’s Western Janus that toppled Putin’s lackey, Yanukovich, as well as Ukraine’s new leadership. Protests and letter writing campaigns have united young and old – one pre-form letter stating it the most succinctly, “The soviet ways are not ways that these people ever want to see again in their country.”

We cannot go backwards. In our church coffee hour today, we shared news of loved ones in Ukraine and checked our phones every few minutes for news on the referendum. The consensus rising is that Putin will fail in the long-term, even if he gets his Crimean vote. He has opened a Pandora’s box, said many, who believe the protests erupting across Russia will continue to grow. The hope is that sanctions from Europe and the US will further alienate Putin from his people.

There is also the very real sense that Ukrainians at home and abroad will fight – in actions and words – like my grandfather fought during WWII. The Ukrainian spirit is something Putin can never suppress.

Слава Україні! – Slava Ukrainy! – Glory to Ukraine!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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5 Ways Women Can Find Their Voice

English: Vera Komissarzhevskaya as Nora in Ibs...

English: Vera Komissarzhevskaya as Nora in Ibsen’s A Dolls House (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Last night I saw A Doll’s House at BAM. The play by Henrik Ibsen debuted in 1879. The message is still relevant 2014. And that’s not a good thing.

Ibsen was was inspired by the belief that “a woman cannot be herself in modern society,” since it is “an exclusively male society, with laws made by men and with prosecutors and judges who assess feminine conduct from a masculine standpoint.” His protagonist Nora lives this life. She is a pet, a bird made to sing for her husband. I was so annoyed; I didn’t think I could sit through Nora being objectified. And then a glimmer, we find out Nora saved her husband by secretly taking out a loan and secretly repaying it (even though her imbecile of a husband accuses her of being a spendthrift and clothes horse because she continually asks him for money). Nora knows everyone is underestimating her, but she keeps playing the role, dancing for dollars. I am again annoyed. And then in the finale, shouted down by her husband, Nora finally looks up – and leaves him. Pump fist, “You go girl!”

Nora walks away to find her voice. It is something we women are still doing 135 years later! Over the past year, I have been listening to my female friends talk about feeling unheard. Not just unappreciated – unheard. We are losing our voice as our families grow and there are more to take care of, as our work responsibilities become more demanding with new job titles, as more people take our shrinking time. When we constantly give, we lose our voice.

So on this International Women’s Day, here are 5 ideas to get our voice back.

1. Roar.

Yes maybe listen to Katy Perry. But also give yourself a shout out – literally. Shout how awesome you are, it feels so good. Get your friends to do it with you, and definitely your kids. I was leading my Girl Scout troop this week and telling them about Women’s History month and we shouted out several times about how women rock. We talked about famous women and the contributions women have made. We celebrated each other and talked about what each girl wanted to be when she grew up. I wish all of these little girls grow up in a world where they never feel their voice is unheard.

2. Write yourself a love note.

Even when we hear thank you and praise from friends, family and colleagues, we fail to give ourselves praise. Take a minute and write down what you have done in the past day, week or month that you are proud of. You’ll see how long the list is and you’ll know that you – and your voice – is irreplaceable.

3. Spend at least one hour every week not thinking about anyone else.

I was going say give yourself an hour say everyday, but I know that’s unrealistic when we are pulled in twenty different directions every minute. Let’s start with once a week: lock yourself in the bathroom for an hour and take a bath or sit down and indulge in one hour straight of reading that book that’s been sitting on your bedside table. Just you time. These moments help redraw the outline of you because when you are constantly caring for others or working, your outline fades and you become a shadow.

4. Save up for a treat.

We put away money for college for the kids. We save up for a family vacation. But when do we indulge in something just for us? Something impractical, something totally selfish? We feel so guilty when there are other priorities. But ladies, we are the priority! I am dreaming of saving up enough money to go to Mandy Aftel and have her make me my own perfume. A scent that says Tatiana. That is mine. My voice. (and for those of you who remember Tatiana perfume from the 1980s, that is totally NOT my scent!)

5. Reconnect.

Call your mom, sister, oldest friend. Do not email or text. Call. We need to HEAR the voices that inspired us in our lives. And in that way we will know our own voice.

Happy International Women’s Day!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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