THE TURMOIL - THE UKRAINE STORY

THE TURMOIL - THE UKRAINE STORY

I received this email.

Irra Ariel 2014 Mar 14 09:36

Dear Vinay, I'm currently in Hong Kong but my thoughts and heart goes out to my beloved family and friends thousands of miles away in the Ukraine. Read my story if you want to hear the perspective of those who are directly involved in the crisis: We urgently need to raise awareness to help the people of Ukraine, so please share this story with your friends. Thank you, Irra

"Who was this Irra Ariel?" I asked myself. No, I didn't know her. So I tried to find more about her. And I found--- to put it in her own words:

 I'm a globetrotting, fiesty fashion model with a first from Oxford, speaking 9 languages (yes, really :)). I worked across New York and Hong Kong as well as strutting the catwalks of Paris, London and Milan.

I launched fashion start-up Soul of Fashion in 2009, and I'm currently working on the hardest start-up of all: raising my baby daughter, Myla. 

                IRRA ON CATWALK AFTER THE BIRTH OF HER DAUGHTER, MTLA

                                    PHOTOGRAPHY IS HER ANOTHER HOBBY

And I read her story:

The Ukrainian crisis - my story

A unique and heartfelt perspective on the situation happening in the Ukraine.

Published on March 05, 2014

Dear friends, I'm currently with family in Hong Kong but my thoughts and heart goes out to my family and friends thousands of miles away in the Ukraine. Why should you bother reading my take on it when the main news channels are already dominated by Ukraine stories?

Here's why. I have had first hand updates from old school friends and their families who are based in both West and East Ukraine. For almost a decade, I went to school together with them. Importantly, the school we all went to was one of the very few Russian speaking schools in West Ukraine and our education had the emphasis on preserving Russian culture.

This is important because the insights I hear from Ukraine come from these well educated school friends who have a long standing affinity for the Russian language and culture. Many of them now live in the capital Kiev and some are currently on the barricades in the main Independence Square.

You may ask, why listen to them? After all, they are just individual opinions. In my view, it’s important that they are. Individual opinion is exactly how voting works in the UK Parliament, for example, as well as in the US Congress and in every court case involving a jury. It’s the basis of both democracy and the rule of law - having a range of opinions to make sure you modify the extremes and get as fair and balanced a result as possible. These are normal people, who want a normal life.

So would these people choose to endanger the well-being of their families and their own life for a trifle? Would anyone? Of course not. So why is the situation so extreme? I would like to offer some detail from their perspective below but the short answer is there is no cultural limit to the need for human rights, justice and the rule of law. 

I have made a point to ask friends of many years and those on the ground in Kiev about what is actually happening day by day (having earned a 1st in Modern History from Oxford has equipped me with pure research experience and the brainpower to deduce facts from fiction). So allow me to offer a perspective on the first hand happenings inside this Ukrainian Revolution.

What’s the issue? In simplest terms, there are two.

1. Westward facing Ukraine

To be clear, westward facing means more than the geographical direction - it stands for the values and justice of the developed Western countries. The current protests kicked off a few months ago when the Ukrainian ex-president rejected that direction and aligned with Russia in the East instead.
Why is this important? Because Western Europe is host to some of the most politically stable, somewhat accountable and economically progressive countries. Who wouldn't want that for their homeland? When those in power in Ukraine voted to align with Russia instead, the Ukrainian people wondered WHY every wealthy businessman and politician would choose the West instead. It's no secret that most of the wealthy (in both Russia and Ukraine) are sending their children to schools in the UK, opening bank accounts in Switzerland, and buying up property in the south of France.

2. The issue of bribe taking and corrupt officials

Why is this important? Because it is one of the key issues for each developing country - bribes and corruption means you get heard only if you have enough money to buy someone's attention. It means your views are not represented, your taxes are spent and mis-spent without any consideration for you or your community and you have no means to change the situation.

Here in England, we get upset when an MP has an extra residence or a house they rent on the sidelines, let alone self portraits made of 1kg solid gold or a loaf of bread made of gold (while the rest of the country can't afford bread). Yet this is exactly what was found in the multi-millionaire compound of the ex-President Yanukovich. The New York Times called it 'Museum Of Corruption' . Is it any wonder Ukraine is outraged? www.nytimes.com/video

Infographic: taxes used to outfit the museum - it doesn't matter that it's not English, just look at the costs and what % of the national budget was mis-spent on this.
While most people in the West see bribery and lawlessness as a popularly accepted way of life in East Europe, my friends are showing a very different picture. There seems to be an inner moral revolution - where individual people are holding themselves accountable for their actions as well as putting pressure on each other, one by one, to be the civil and law abiding citizens who help the country change from within.

This isn't a case of people demanding something from the government - my social media is overwhelmed with examples of ordinary citizens becoming more and more demanding of *themselves*.

Ukrainian drivers normally park as they please. What we now see is people re-educating themselves. The three leaflets left on this car's dashboard above read: "Changing the country begins with YOU", "If you park here, you create a hazard" and "dedicated parking is over there - don't be a scrooge".
In line with that, someone actually left money under the screen wiper to pay for the parking, which is amazing! This truly is a conscious (self) revolution. It seems people have decided to draw a line under years of loose morals and values and it's exciting to see this driving a greater political change.
So, why now? I feel I can try to speak for my generation as the first to grow up in Eastern Europe without the Iron Curtain. This means my school friends are, more than ever before, free to travel, experience other countries and cultures and come back to compare them with their own.

You may have heard that 10 years ago in 2004 there was an Orange Revolution with the same issue at heart - West facing Ukraine. So what's different?
Let's remember that in 2014 we are the Facebook, Twitter and YouTube generation. The people have largely been organised on smart phones, social networks and mobiles. Support from volunteers as cooks, drivers and doctors has been sought online. Evidence of aggression against unarmed protesters is posted within minutes - people can be heard, regardless of whether they have the money to buy official attention (see issue 2 above). More than that, people can be heard beyond the borders of their country and the international community has been united in supporting the Ukrainian drive for justice and democracy.
On Sunday 23rd February here in London we had thousands of people marching in support. Just two examples out of hundreds of others around the world - candle-lit vigils held in Morocco and Washington, DC (below). Surely this shows human rights transcend any differences we all have, whether cultural, political or religious:

What’s next? Two things:

1. WAR of Information

This is a war of INTEGRITY. Ukrainians have come to a peak of an inner revolution for example to stop bribes, stop corruption and stop parking illegally.
The War of Integrity has it's counterpart in the Russian PR machine, which (from what I have seen) seems to use Any Means Necessary to create chaos and division through misinformation. Examples below:


Fake shot of cars leaving for Russia, when in reality live webcams show they aren't. It's a shot used from the Polish border instead - this has been verified.

Image: Facebook
Russian sympathisers flown in, a social media rally to fly in fake tourists from Russia to Ukraine and have them pose for foreign media with Russian flags - this has been verified.
It followed on with hundreds more examples. I have two aunts and several cousins in Moscow and so far they report up to two dozen Russians jailed for protesting against the decision to go to war with Ukraine.

2) WAR of Aggression and the balance of world power

Ordinary citizens in both Russia and the Ukraine don't want an invasion, don't see the need for it and want to avoid military violence at all costs.

Image: Facebook - Sole Russian protester outside Russian Parliament during their voting 'for' invasion of Crimea
Despite the pressure on international powers, Russia has a veto in the United Nations, who are effectively powerless to protect Ukraine from Russian troops. It makes a mockery of the UN ‘peacekeeping’. Further, Ukraine isn’t a member of NATO's international protection agreement. So the NATO countries also aren’t obliged to come to the aid of Ukrainians against Putin’s invasion.
Let’s spread the word and watch - very carefully - as to what the world leaders - and USA in particular - do next. While the powers that be decide on political actions, we can all do our part in the Information War. There's plenty of sources of material to research. I've tried to verify information and then share it with friends, colleagues and most importantly - journalists. In their number is Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia, who I have had the privilege to have met. We can all do our part.

Why should you care? Don't take my word for it. Here's why:

"If you don't stand for something, you will fall for anything" - Malcolm X
"If you stand for something, you will have people for you and people against you. But if you stand for nothing, you will have nobody for you and nobody against you" - Maurice Saatchi
"To the parents that raised children to take stands where they must, I salute you. And to those standing in the cold and putting themselves in the gap for the future of our planet, I say BRAVO!!!" - Washington DC protestor

Spread the word

Please share this story with your WAYN and Facebook friends. We need your help to spread the word and to raise awareness and help the people of Ukraine.
We’d also like to hear what you think? Perhaps you have a different perspective? Share your comments below and join the debate. Thank you.

 An open letter to Irra:

Dear Irra,

I quote this from one of the speeches of Martin Luthar King, " How long will it take? I come to say to you this afternoon that however difficult the moment, however frustrating the hour, it will not be long, because truth pressed to earth will rise again. How long? Not long, because no lie can live forever. How long? Not long, because you still reap what you sow. How long? Not long, the arm of the moral universe is long, but bends towards justice."

Irra, you being a student of history, you should know that the whole history of human progress is born of earnest struggle. Without struggle there cannot be progress. Men who want freedom and yet deprecate and openly disapprove agitation are men who want fruits without taking efforts of sowing seeds. How can there be rain without clouds, thundering and lightening? So struggles are inevitable, be them physical or moral, but struggles nevertheless!

As an educated person you should know that one should sift and weigh evidence, discern the truth from the false, the rear from the unreal  and the fact from the fiction. True education  not only enables us to get power of concentration, but gives us worthy objectives upon  which to concentrate. Socialism may not have worked but Capitalism is also not a complete success story. After all, the governments are run by politicians with the help of the bureaucrats. So as there are vested interests around we can not have good governance in any form of government. So we should not have a change just for the sake of a change! We should not just adopt 'Western' or 'Eastern' culture / thoughts, thinking that is the best culture. Have a close look in their back yard. It may not be all that 'GREEN'!

  

Good wishes to your daughter.

Regards,

Vinay 

VINAY TRILOKEKAR