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NewsPresident's wife: Speeches18.06.2008 14:19
Press office of President Victor Yushchenko
Kateryna Yushchenko’s address before the conference "Diaspora as a factor in strengthening the Ukrainian State within the international community. The Ukrainian diaspora in the global context"Dear Friends, Greeting to all the participants and organizers of the Second International Scientific-Practical Conference "Diaspora as a factor in strengthening the Ukrainian State within the international community. The Ukrainian diaspora in the global context." The initiative of the International Institute of Education, Culture and Relations with the Diaspora of the Lviv Politechnic National University is an important one: to recognize and assess the role of the diaspora in Ukraine's past, and to formulate a road plan for its future activity, both in Ukraine and in the countries in which they are now living. As someone who spent the first half of my life as an active member of Ukraine's huge diaspora, and the second half as a Ukrainian living in Ukraine, I strongly feel the issues you are discussing. I am very proud of the role Ukrainians abroad have played over the decades in breaking through seemingly impenetrable political barriers to convince leaders of foreign governments and international organizations to understand Ukraine's captive nations status, and, in the 1970s and 1980s, to demand the release of Ukraine's countless political prisoners. I am proud of the many churches, schools, museums, organizations, faculties, departments in universities and institutes, created by Ukrainian emigrants, stronger than any other East European diaspora. I am proud of the success of Ukrainians abroad in organizing large scale commemorations of the Ukrainian Holodomor in 1983 and the 1000th Anniversary of the Christianization of Kyiv-Rus' in 1988, and the erection of many monuments to Taras Shevchenko and the victims of the Holodomor. I am proud of the support Ukrainians abroad provided during our Orange Revolution, organizing demonstrations in their cities, informing the media, and particularly, sending thousands of observers to ensure fair elections. I am particularly proud of those individuals in the Ukrainian diaspora who, through their quiet efforts and generous donations to key issues such as language, museums, libraries, orphanages, universities, and hospitals were able to accomplish more than the largest of the Ukrainian national and global organizations. On the other hand, I also see what crucial opportunities Ukrainians abroad missed in our Ukrainian state's infant years. To influence what in our Foundation we call Ukraine Yesterday - knowledge and support of its history and culture, Ukraine Today - the problems of its current medical and social system, and Ukraine Tomorrow - the education of its youth. Where was the diaspora when televisions stations that now cost hundreds of millions of dollars were being bought by non-Ukrainian for only several millions? Could our large organizations not have catalyzed the community to undertake this incredibly important project? How much of an impact on the consciousness of Ukrainians today could they have had with quality broadcasts about Ukrainian history, language and culture? Or, why did the diaspora not use its knowledge and contacts to create world quality films about Ukraine's history, films the likes of "Katyn" or "Braveheart"? There were some credible films, but far from enough to help our citizens understand the importance of Baturin and other battles for our independence, the Holodomor, Soviet repressions, church issues, OUN-UPA, the dissident movement of the 60s, etc. This would have made our recent decisions to honor Shukhevych, consolidate the churches, restore Baturyn and Chihirin and build a monument at Kruty, and commemorate the Holodomor much more understandable in the eyes of our citizens in all parts of Ukraine. Or why did the diaspora not send millions or even tens of millions of books in the Ukrainian language to school children desperately seeking interesting new texts that would prepare them for their future in Europe? In hindsight, why didn't the diaspora use their vast international links to send thousands of Ukrainian young people abroad for education, so that now we would have a ready cadre of well-prepared, world level, honest lawyers, doctors, managers, economists and teachers? If our international Ukrainian organizations had called for such an effort, and each community had sponsored several dozen children a year, letting them live in their homes, our nation and our economy would now be full of a new generation of leaders. Why did Ukrainians abroad not create a Peace Corps of thousands of diaspora young people and retirees to go into the villages of Ukraine to teach, to help create businesses, to improve health care? Or hundreds of Plast and SUM scout leaders from the diaspora to run weekly meetings throughout central, eastern and southern Ukraine? Further, how much did large Ukrainian diaspora organizations in wealthy countries really pay attention to and support our millions of Ukrainians in Russia and other countries of the former Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, Latin America and elsewhere? Some, but I think most would agree, very little. At the same time, despite the lack of attention, our diasporas in Latin America have been incredibly effective in convincing their parliaments and governments to recognize the Holodomor as a genocide, while our diasporas in the former USSR have fought against increasingly difficult odds to maintain their libraries, cultural organizations, schools. A few dollars or Euros provided strategically could have made their burden easier. At the very least, why did the many organizations in the diaspora not provide an example to Ukrainians about the ability to unite, to put aside differences, to overcome the complex of many hetmans? How can Ukrainians learn to be united, when their Western brothers continue to bicker and divide into hundreds of small, often ineffective groups? Or, and this has been a rare but ironic example, lobby the interests of political groups in Ukraine who give them money, ill-begotten in the first place, or awards? I hope this conference will give you the opportunity to discuss these many issues, stimulate the large organizations to design and implement effective, large-scale programs, and the individuals and small organizations to find their place in Ukraine's development. Ukraine - as a state, but more importantly, its people - are waiting for your involvement. I know that my husband, President Victor Yushchenko, has already called for Ukrainians abroad to become very involved in organizing the commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the Holodomor. I would like to thank Stefan Romaniv and other members of the International Holodomor Committee of the World Ukrainians' Congress for his tireless work on this past year. While financial contributions to the building of the memorial complex, museum and research institute would be desirable, that is not what we are asking of you. We will find those ourselves, even if the parliament and government are reluctant to provide them. But there are many other things you need to do to ensure that the 75th commemoration is appropriate. We would like to ask you, first, to use your well-developed contacts to ensure that the top leadership of each of the countries in which you reside attends the commemoration in November - it is essential that presidents, prime ministers, kings and queens are there to light the candles and lay the flowers. Our murdered forefathers deserve this highest level of recognition and commemoration. Furthermore, it is essential that the United Nations, and European, Asian and African countries join the list of twenty nations that have already recognized the Holodomor as a genocide. We trust that those relationships you have built over the decades in your respective countries and in the international organizations will make this a reality. Third, we ask that you launch a world wide effort and provide an official list of victims that you can learn of through those witnesses that are still alive in your countries, or the testimonies you already collected in the past. Over the past year, through the joint efforts of our authorities, SBU, Institute of Memory and scholars, we in Ukraine have already compiled a list of 1.5 million names. We know that Ukrainians abroad will be able to provide us with the names and facts about tens of thousands, or maybe more, of other victims. Fourth, we would like to ask you to take responsibility for organizing the film festival during our commemoration, ensuring the addition of dozens of films made abroad to those made in Ukraine. Our Foundation will be contributing a film currently being made by well-known director Serhiy Bukovsky. We are certain that there are dozens of other films made internationally and in your communities - documentaries, testimonies, dramas - and hope that your organizations could take this portion of the commemoration schedule upon yourselves. Further, the Ukraine 3000 Foundation has committed to creating a library of publications about the Holodomor, which we will donate to the Institute of Memory and which will eventually be in the Holodomor complex that we are building. We plan to collect the 10,000 publications about the Holodomor in Ukraine by this Fall, and request of you that you donate all the publications - books, articles, citations, novels, poems, songs, etc. - that have been published abroad, in all languages. Eventually, we hope you will also be able to translate all these into Ukrainian. My Foundation has already translated and published Robert Conquest's "Harvest of Sorrow". We are also working on English and other translations of the six books on the Holodomor that we have published over the past three years. Together we must ensure that all materials are brought together and then translated into all languages. Finally, I commend the efforts of Ukrainians in the US, who are building a monument to the Holodomor in Washington, D.C. I truly hope and expect that it will be up by the 75th commemoration in November of this year. I guarantee that we will provide high level participation from Ukraine at its unveiling. We strongly believe that our other communities throughout Europe, particularly in Germany, France and the UK, can also erect monuments in their respective countries. Here I have only named the projects on which we can cooperate this year, during the commemoration of our nation's, and possibly humanity's, largest single tragedy. But there are dozens more projects - historical, cultural, social, educational - that we must work on together - the Ukrainian state, Ukrainian NGOs and citizens, and the diaspora - to ensure that they are done well. I also would like to take this opportunity to call out to you - return to Ukraine, help build our country from within, not observe and judge it from without. Ukraine is our mother, and as much as we justify to ourselves that we can help her more from afar, that is not the case - she needs us close and involved, not pining from a foreign land. I am truly sorry that I cannot attend your important event. However, I would like to take this opportunity to announce today that our Foundation is initiating a new grant program for the Ukrainian diaspora called "Flourish, Ukrainians". This program will be similar to those we run for Ukrainian culture, Ukrainian schools and for rehabilitation institutes for the disabled. The program will be open to any diaspora organization outside Western Europe, the US, Canada or Australia who make interesting and effective proposals to build Ukrainian programs abroad. Grants will be in the amount of 2500 to 25,000 hryvnia, and can be for books, instruments, costumes, films, technical equipment, internships, exhibits and other projects. The award process will take place two times a year and a total of up to 300,000 hryvnia will be provided annually, depending on the quality of the proposals. Details will be on our website, and we will announce the winners during the Independence Day commemoration in August. Also, I would like say that I was impressed with your project, "Children of Emigrants about Themselves". I congratulate each of your winners, and would like to give them a gift of the books "Kozak Shweik's Djura", "Taras Bulba", "The Image of Women in Contemporary Art," "Ukraine on Ancient Maps" and MP3 players. I wish you fruitful discussions and the formation of a road plan for successful projects in the future. Slava Ukrayiny!Print version |
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