[Mb-civic] NYTimes.com Article: Op-Ed Contributor: New Kids on the Bloc

[michael at intrafi.com]

The article below from NYTimes.com 
has been sent to you by michael at intrafi.com.



/--------- E-mail Sponsored by Fox Searchlight ------------\

SIDEWAYS - NOW PLAYING IN SELECT CITIES

An official selection of the New York Film Festival and the
Toronto International Film Festival, SIDEWAYS is the new
comedy from Alexander Payne, director of ELECTION and ABOUT
SCHMIDT.  Starring Paul Giamatti, Thomas Haden Church,
Sandra Oh and Virginia Madsen. Watch the trailer at:

http://www.foxsearchlight.com/sideways/index_nyt.html

\----------------------------------------------------------/


Op-Ed Contributor: New Kids on the Bloc

November 26, 2004
 By VERONICA KHOKHLOVA 



 

Kiev, Ukraine 

A family friend who has a 17-year-old son told me this last
week: "Young people today are so different from what we
used to be, or even from what your generation is. They
don't have our fear - they don't know it. But they know
their rights, and they know how to defend them. They aren't
scared to." 

With Ukraine now gripped in a political crisis stemming
from the disputed results of Sunday's presidential
election, I can see what that friend meant. 

For example, I have a 20-year-old friend, Tanya. When I was
16 and the Soviet Union collapsed, she was 6. Monday night,
Tanya returned to Kiev, where she is a history student in
college, from her hometown, Zhytomyr, where she had been
observing the election. 

On Tuesday morning, she, along with half a million other
people, was at Kiev's Independence Square, protesting the
declaration by Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich that he was
the winner. From there, together with thousands of other
students, she marched to Shevchenko University, whose
leadership had refused to allow its students to join a
growing nationwide strike. 

They weren't letting anyone out of the university, Tanya
told me when I ran into her that evening at a huge rally
outside the Ukrainian Parliament building. The students
were locked inside, she explained, but they opened all the
windows, and the protesters were passing them orange flags
- the symbol of the opposition candidate, Viktor
Yushchenko, whom most everyone feels was cheated out of
victory. One guy climbed the drainpipe to the second floor
to deliver the flags, Tanya said, and the students pulled
him in through the window. Soon after, the administration
relented, the students were liberated, their classes
canceled. 

By the time of the rally that night, Tanya had been up and
running for 10 hours in the freezing cold dressed only in a
thin green coat, an orange scarf around her neck and orange
ribbons tied into her braids. She didn't look tired or
cold; as we set out in search of a quick cup of coffee, she
made us stop by a loudspeaker and listen to Mr. Yushchenko
addressing Parliament inside the building. 

Then, as we moved again, she and her friend started singing
the Ukrainian national anthem. They didn't sound phony;
they were singing for themselves, not loudly, and in
beautiful voices (both are members of a Ukrainian choir),
and it moved me to tears. 

An hour later, around 7 p.m., we were at Independence
Square again, at another huge rally, listening to Mr.
Yushchenko on the loudspeakers again. Tanya, along with
everyone else, was shouting "Yushchenko! Yushchenko!" and
I, standing next to her, found myself shouting too, with
confidence and inspiration I hadn't felt before. 

And over and over one hears the chant, "My razom, nas
bagato, i nas ne podolaty!" ("We're together, and there are
many of us, and we can't be defeated!") Three weeks ago, I
would have probably said that this was what students
shouted at their rallies, but now everyone does, and so
many people mean it. 

When opposition party leaders asked the crowd to stay in
the square through the night, taking turns in order not to
get too cold, Tanya started making plans for the next day.
She intended to return at 6 a.m.; she must have been very
tired and cold by then, but it still wasn't showing. 

The past four days have taught me something valuable: when
I'm watching the situation unfold on television, I grow
tense, fearful that it's not going to end well. But when I
return to the crowd, I feel elated, thanks to people like
Tanya, tens of thousands of them, and to everyone else
who's out there, people of all ages, hundreds of thousands
of them, fearless. 

And our international support has heartened us as well.
Almost every international observer - including experts
from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in
Europe and from NATO - has accused the ruling party of
widespread voting fraud. On Wednesday, Secretary of State
Colin Powell said that the United States "cannot accept
this result as legitimate." The only foreign leader who has
sided with Mr. Yanukovich has been President Vladimir Putin
of Russia, which, needless to say, hasn't done much for the
prime minister's credibility. 

Which brings up a joke I've heard a few times recently: a
Ukrainian man shows up at work, all his clothes rumpled.
When his colleagues ask what happened, he replies: "I turn
on the TV this morning, and there's Putin praising
Yanukovich. I switch to another channel, and there's Putin
again, praising Yanukovich. So I switch the channels again,
and there's again Putin praising Yanukovich. I turn on the
radio, and Putin is there, too, praising Yanukovich. So I
figured there was no use turning on the iron." 

I'm not sure if it's a remake of an old Soviet joke. It may
be. But it fits November 2004 in Ukraine beautifully:
there's little use watching TV, what's happening now is
available to everyone firsthand, out there in the streets
of Kiev and other Ukrainian cities. And if the students
have no fear in defending their rights, why should the rest
of us? 

Veronica Khokhlova, a Ukrainian journalist, writes Neeka's
Backlog, a Weblog. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/26/opinion/26khokhlova.html?ex=1102491748&ei=1&en=18622036fc00c404


---------------------------------

Get Home Delivery of The New York Times Newspaper. Imagine
reading The New York Times any time & anywhere you like!
Leisurely catch up on events & expand your horizons. Enjoy
now for 50% off Home Delivery! Click here:

http://homedelivery.nytimes.com/HDS/SubscriptionT1.do?mode=SubscriptionT1&ExternalMediaCode=W24AF



HOW TO ADVERTISE
---------------------------------
For information on advertising in e-mail newsletters 
or other creative advertising opportunities with The 
New York Times on the Web, please contact
onlinesales at nytimes.com or visit our online media 
kit at http://www.nytimes.com/adinfo

For general information about NYTimes.com, write to 
help at nytimes.com.  

Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company