Archive for September, 2007
Thursday, September 27th, 2007
I apologize for the serious breaks between my posts. Surprise, surprise my schedule has gotten a little out of control, particularly in this week before the elections. As it turns out I will be stationed in Odesa, which should prove to be interesting. But I’ll obviously post more about that later. This is my first post from my fantastic digs at the IOM Mission in Ukraine (as I still do not have internet in my apartment). I finally have a permanent office for the duration of my research! Before I have to run to another election-related event, I wanted to post about these extemely important developments in Burma as the government of Myanmar has turned to violence to suppress the tens of thousands of monks who are at the heart of the protests of the military junta in power.
From the NY Times:
On Wednesday, in a chaotic day of huge demonstrations, shooting, teargas and running confrontations between protesters and the military, many people were reported injured and half a dozen were reported to have been killed, most of them by gunshots.
Beginning the second day of their crackdown on nationwide protests in Myanmar before dawn today, security forces raided at least two Buddhist monasteries, beating and arresting dozens of monks, according to reports from the capital, Yangon.
The BBC is reporting that now there are more regular citizens protesting on the streets 1) in a show of solidarity with the monks and defiance to the government and 2) because so many monks have been arrested already.Two members of the National League for Democracy including Myint Thein, the spokesman for the party led by pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, were also arrested last night. Reports coming in have indicated there have been as many as 70,000 people filling the streets against government orders to disband. This is the largest uprising against the military junta since 1988, when at least 3,000 people were reported to have been killed by the government in response to the protests.
This time again, as the crowds have continued to grow over the last few weeks, the military has become more and more violent. Military vehicles, fire trucks with water canons, and riot police armed with (and using) tear gas have been dispersed throughout Rangoon, mostly targeting the Buddhist monasteries. The BBC Article has an easy-to-read Q&A about the situation with some background information.
And China could not make its position more obvious, even if it tried. There is no way to hide behind diplomatic language on the position of your country on this crisis. Some of the official statements of China read:
According to participants in the closed session, Wang Guangya, the Chinese ambassador, told council members that the conflict in Myanmar was a domestic one that had to be settled by the people of Myanmar and that even a statement by the council would “not be useful.”
Addressing reporters outside the council chamber, Mr. Wang said, “The situation there has some problems, but does not constitute a threat to international and regional peace.” His words were carefully chosen since the council can become involved in only those crises that are deemed threats to international security. -NY Times
“China hopes that all parties in Burma exercise restraint and properly handle the current issue so as to ensure the situation there does not escalate and get complicated,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu
Complicated? There’s a word. I think the violent repression and murder of protesters and monks has already brought this situation passed “complicated.” China is also the country that blocked a Security Council Resolution condemning the current violence on Wednesday, as well as a Resolution last January with a similar effect towards violent government suppression, specifically towards ethnic minority regions and calling on the government to begin a substantive political dialogue that would lead to a genuine democratic transition.
Russia’s hands are dirty here as well, as another of Burma’s major trading partners with the military regime. There are even plans to sell Burma a nuclear research reactor from Russia. Both are responsible for vetos on Resolutions directed towards Burma. Both are also major inhibitors to a response in Darfur as well, also claiming the conflicts represent internal matters. Pattern, anyone?
Unfortunately, although the U.S. has taken a strong response through sanctions, the support Burma receives from China and Russia will probably be able to keep the government afloat for a while. The U.S. was, in part, responsible for helping to bring the situation in Burma to the formal agenda of the UN Security Council a year ago.
THAT is in part because of people like Myo Thant, who served as an assistant to Aung San Suu Kyi until he was able to gain refugee status in the U.S. and came through Journey’s End Refugee Services, where he and I were working before I left. Myo is one of the hardest working activists I have ever met. Myo was there during the 1988 uprising and subsequent crackdown. He, and the monks, citizens, and activists in and from Burma have a dream for their country. This may be the time they will be able to realize it.
More after my return from Odesa…
Posted in International News, Locally Global | No Comments »
Friday, September 21st, 2007
I am so excited about the outdoor Sabres game! I was worried they were going to have to move it until later in January. But I will be home for the game and I cannot wait! Hockey isn’t as big here as you would think so I know I will be experiencing major withdrawal by then.
So this personal update I promised earlier: Things are shaping up quite quickly here. Actually, I just got back from a conference in my old city of Chernivtsi on Ukrainian-Moldovan-Romanian relations, which was pretty interesting (from what I understood, of course). What was really great though was being able to spend my 22nd birthday with my very good friends from Chernivtsi on Wednesday. I still missed being with family back home, especially my annual meal with Mom, Scott, Brendan, Jena, and my grandparents.
Election season is almost at its peak. We’re down to the last week before the elections, and it now looks like I will be observing through the Solidarity Center here in Kyiv. We have training on Monday so I’ll know more about how this specific organization operates then. Political commercials have pretty much consumed the TV channels. Some of them are a little outlandish, and it’s hard for me to believe this election is going to make a huge difference as far as numbers in Parliament are concerned. But it is also a chance to create a fresh coalition, and hopefully, a more effective combination of President and Prime Minister. Javier Solana, the EU High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy, was in Ukraine for the EU-Ukraine summit that took place recently, and there is a fantastic interview with him on the Dzerkalo Tizhnya site (don’t worry, it’s in English), where Solana gives his answers to issues related to the elections, constitutional reform, and of course, developments in EU-Ukrainian relations. His answer on the possible impact of the early elections was brilliant, and I could only hope to be as clear and eloquent as he someday:
Ukraine has had a series of political crises in the past years, largely stemming from a lack of clarity on the basic ground rules of political life. The constitutional reform of December 2004 was necessary to find a political solution to the events following fraudulent presidential elections. However, it left many questions unanswered and perhaps did not spell out sufficiently clearly the division of competences between various leaders. We have seen a power struggle, facilitated by the weakness of institutions. Overcoming this and moving on with policies and reforms is what these elections need to help happen. This should be the priority for Ukraine’s leadership.
Elections alone will not solve everything. They are a good method of consulting the population on where the country should go and who should govern. In an ideal case, they would bring sufficient clarity enabling all key political forces to work together to build a functioning framework within which crucial reforms can be pushed forward.
Right, so this was supposed to be a personal update. Well, I am officially in my apartment on Prospekt Pravdy with my landlady/roommate, Tanya. Despite the “modesty” and serious distance from the center of the city of the apartment, Tanya is absolutely fantastic. It reminds me of living with Grandma and Grandpa Pietraszek because she is constantly asking if I’m hungry and I am not allowed to walk around the apartment without my slippers. Except Tanya doesn’t speak English, and prefers to speak Ukrainian. Although by now, I’m sure she’s sick of speaking like a five-year-old just so I can understand her.
A classic morning conversation:
Me (in broken Surzhyk): Ok, Tanya, I have to go to the city. I’ll be back later.
Tanya: Elise, have some tea or coffee and bread?
Me: Oh no thanks, I really have to go.
Tanya: (Puzzled look)
Me: I have a meeting in an hour.
Tanya: I don’t understand, you have to eat something before you leave.
Me: Tanya…
Tanya: No, no, come on. Have at least some coffee!
Then it ends with me finally giving in and being fifteen minutes late for my meeting.
Meetings! Yes, those have been going well, and I’m not being sarcastic. So far both the International Organization of Migration and La Strada - Ukraine have both offered me positions within their offices to allow me to do my research. The IOM even gave me office space, which is fantastic because doing work at home has been a bit frustrating. My research has even taken a stronger focus. Now, what I will be looking at is the proliferation of domestic NGOs and how their activities and coordination with IGOs are affecting governmental response and action. What can I say, I’m living my dream :-).
Shopping has been an interesting experience here. If I ever tell you, “I think I’m going to go to Tsum (the central mall-type center on Khreshatik) to buy some shoes” and it’s a beautiful Saturday afternoon, just say, “Elise, you remember what happened last time.” Absolute chaos. It was like Black Friday at the Galleria. Even better, I couldn’t quite figure out the conversion from US shoe sizes to European. And they don’t stack the shoe boxes under the shoe advertised so eventually I just gave up and started opening up boxes in my size until I found a reasonably-priced pair I liked. And don’t get me started on trying to find clothes hangers here.
Well, now that you’re done laughing at me, I think I’ll end it here. Tomorrow I’ll try to get on and post some more, particularly on the protests going on in Burma. I’m constantly thinking about my friend, Myo Thant who lives in Buffalo and is a strong activist for human rights in his home country.
Nastrovya!
Posted in Experience Abroad | 3 Comments »
Saturday, September 15th, 2007
Well I was going to post a little update on what’s been going on with me here, but I’ll do that tomorrow. This is much more exciting! Unfortunately, it’s about two weeks old, but I just received an email about it from Citizens for Global Solutions. Here’s a link to the Post article about it:
An unprecedented gathering this week of international war crimes prosecutors — those seeking justice for recent atrocities and two who made history at the Nazi trials at Nuremberg 62 years ago — issued a joint appeal to the world community to arrest war criminals still at large and turn them over to stand trial….
The general thrust of arguments Wednesday during day-long public and private meetings was that certain war crimes suspects remained free because of politics and that arresting them would end a culture of impunity.
“To turn these over is a political decision now, not a legal one. We have done our job,” Crane said of the suspects. “Let the word go out to warlords and leaders all over the world. However powerful, however mighty, however feared you may be, the law is above you. The law will bring you down,” said Desmond de Silva, deputy prosecutor at the Sierra Leone tribunal.
Was anybody present for any of the public meeting? Totally fantastic. The document itself was signed by nine international prosecutors- Whitney R. Harris and Henry T. King Jr. from the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg; Luis Moreno-Ocampo, from the ICC; Jallow, from the tribunal for Rwanda; Crane, de Silva and Stephen Rapp from the Sierra Leone court; David Tolbert from the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia; and Robert Petit, from the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia. The actual text of the Declaration is quite short, but it makes its point clear.
The Post article has some great quotes from the participants of the gathering. I particularly liked the one from David M. Crane, the first chief prosecutor of the Special Court for Sierra Leone about coping with the difficult and horrific material from the Charles Taylor case, which has been dragging on.
Crane recalled how, after three years in Sierra Leone, and still decompressing from the horror of atrocities, he asked Nuremberg veteran King what it took to cope with the pain.
“About a coupla glasses of Scotch” was the answer. With Nuremberg’s Grand Hotel serving it at 20 cents a shot, it was the cheapest remedy, said King, 88.
Ha! That’s great. More seriously, it goes to the incredible difficulty these prosecutors go through in order to acheive success in cases on crimes against humanity. More personally, these are the people I look to for inspiration in my field. It’s an area I would seriously like to become involved in eventually, and it is part of the reason I took up the topic of human trafficking for my Fulbright reasearch.
Posted in International News, Locally Global | 2 Comments »
Saturday, September 15th, 2007
There has been so much going on in the time I’ve been adjusting to life back in Ukraine. Just caught the BBC article on the earthquake in Indonesia. The 6.2 quake has effected over 200,000 people on the island of Java with the death toll surprassing 3,000 (two-thirds of which were in Bantul. The article offers photos, video footage, and interviews from victims, however depressing it may seem. Thankfully, officials are saying the quake is not likely to cause a tsunami. However there is the possibility of volcanic activity from Mount Merapi, where there has been some debris from the volcano already.
I think the thing to keep in mind is that disasters like this in places like Indonesia affect people even more than they would in a wealthier country capable of banding together and affording to rebuild (the case of Katrina notwithstanding). I remember before I left for India in May, I was reading about the response to the Tsunami versus the response to the Gularat earthquakes that had hit three years or so before. Depending on the development of the local government and economy, it meant the difference of months versus years of living in makeshift housing, especially for the poor. This is the case even when there is foreign aid involved.
In the case of the recent quake in Indonesia, they seem to be having particular problems with medical staff.
Local radio said there were not enough doctors to cope with the numbers of injured.
People were ferried to hospital in lorries and buses, or made the journey on foot, because of a shortage of ambulances.
Aftershocks have forced medical staff to move injured patients outside.
Orlando Guzman says people here, who have been living in fear of a volcanic eruption for weeks, are very much still on edge. Many are still afraid to go back to their houses.
Mosques, churches and hospitals have been housing people who have fled their homes.
There are, of course, direct ways you can help ease the pain of the victims of this latest quake. International Medical Corps is in an looking for assistance to fund their efforts.
Something to keep in mind if you hear about international disasters and are looking for information or ways to help, Relief Web has a continually updated site with everything you need to know about the response by international organizations and who is appealing for funds. The link above will take you directly to the Indonesian quake site, but it’s easy enough to navigate through to get back to the homepage.
Posted in International News | No Comments »
Sunday, September 9th, 2007
Yes, I might be in Ukraine, but that doesn’t mean I’ve stopped paying attention to the events in my hometown. This Tuesday night, the Mayor’s office is holding the 9th Annual Sister Cities Dinner from 5:30 to 9 PM at the Larkin at Exchange Building’s Chautauqua Café, 726 Exchange Street. Oddly enough, the release doesn’t stipulate how much the tickets are. If anyone else knows, please post it. It does say they can either be reserved ahead of time or purchased at the door. Anyway, this is a good opportunity to meet with other people that have a connection with Buffalo, even if they’ve never lived there. It promotes international understanding, which I think if we had more of, I wouldn’t have been suggested to eat at McDonalds the other day. At least at this dinner, they’re offering fine food, wine, door prizes, and music provided by Neville Francis & Riddim Posse.
I saw that one of our sister cities is in Ukraine- Drohobych. To be honest, I had never heard of it before, which means it is probably pretty small. Apparently close to Lviv in the western region of Ukraine, it has some importance to oil-refinery. I went to the city’s website, which, of course, is only in Ukrainian (although there are little language icons for English and Polish that don’t work). The photograph page doesn’t work at the moment. Or the About the City page. But at least the news posts are up-to-date. Actually, it kind of looks like a charming little city. I might have to go check it out. TryUkraine.com has some nice photos of the highlights of Drohobych.
There’s also a wooden church here- St. George, which like every other church in Ukraine, has an interesting tale of construction, destruction and rehabilitation.
The church was built sometime in the late XVI century in the village of Nadiyiv. (Nadiyiv is about 40 miles south-east of Drohobyc). In 1657 the church was purchased for a barrel of salt, taken apart, transported and erected in Drohobyc on the site of an earlier church which was destroyed by tartars in 1499. The bell tower was built in 1670. The church is officially labelled as a “three-room log constructed church with three levels”.
The church was repaired and improved during the period of 1820-1830 and then again in 1974-5. The church has been labelled as an architectural monument for a long time and has been used as a museum during the Soviet period.
Yes, I’m sure you’re all fascinated. The point being, even cities that may seem insignificant in the grander scheme all have their own stories and mysteries. Buffalo’s Sister Cities (Dortmund, Germany; Kanazawa, Japan; Horlivka, Ukraine; Lille, France; Rzeszow, Poland; Tver, Russia; Kiryat Gat, Israel; Cape Coast, Ghana; Drohobych, Ukraine; Siena, Italy; Torremaggiore, Italy) represent, as the Sister Cities International website puts it, our chance to “promote peace through mutual respect, understanding, & cooperation - one individual, one community at a time.” Behold, we actually have another city in Ukraine. Horlivka? Not too far from Donestk in the eastern part of Ukraine. What else? Ruslan Ponomariov, the chess champion, was born there. Hmmm. Anyway, this dinner is definitely one of the more obvious ways to gain some international friends and contacts in Buffalo, so give it a shot.
Posted in Events, Locally Global | No Comments »
Sunday, September 9th, 2007
So where am I officially? One week? Ish? It feels like I’ve been here forever. This is probably because today will be the first day I move into a real apartment and stop living out of my suitcase. And by real apartment, I mean I will be renting out a room in an apartment from an older woman who doesn’t speak English. I said I was determined to improve my language skills, right? At the moment, I’m living off of the couch and generosity of one of the women in the Fulbright office here in Kyiv- Vava. Actually, the apartment is owned by another woman who served as an interpreter and photographer for the first National Geographic special on Chornobyl. It vaguely resembles a museum with all sorts of icons and Ukrainian arts and crafts. Anyway, the daily-rent apartments were bleeding me dry and she offered to let me stay most of this week while I awaited the return of my landlady from her dacha (summer house). I haven’t seen the apartment yet, which may or may not prove to be a fatal mistake on my part, but at this point, I’m kind of desperate.
Flats in Kyiv, especially those close to the center, are ridiculously expensive for what is still not technically considered a developed country. For a one room studio-type deal, you’re easily looking at around $1,000 US per month. Kyiv’s real estate market has been making leaps and bounds, and is in a big way responsible for making the cost of living in Kyiv more expensive than that of Munich and Los Angeles. Moscow, of course, being the most expensive city to live in.
I’ve met some fascinating characters here over the last week. Not many of the Fulbright students are here yet so I’ve been taking advantage of some quality time at the office. Dr. Alexander Merezhko has been serving as my pseudo-advisor for the last month by email and now in person. His advice has led me to switch my affiliation to the Diplomatic Academy in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs due to the difficulty I may encounter at Kyiv University. He’s one of those Ukrainians that’s rather critical of Ukraine, and his comments tend to be both harsh and hilarious at the same time.
Me: “It’s actually been interesting staying with Vava the last few days. She’s worked most of her life with refugees, and the topic is of great interest to me.”
Alexander: “Well, you know, Ukraine is like a country of refugees. Refugees from Hell that is. They didn’t want us anymore.”
I’m sad to report he’s going to be leaving for Lublin next weekend to teach international law at Catholic University for the year.
Anyway, as I’ve reported in emails back home, this week has been kind of frustrating between not having an actual place to unpack and switching my affiliation and waiting for my stipend check to clear and so on and so forth. In all honesty, it doesn’t look like the Academy will be of all that much help to me either. Of course, I planned on spending most of my time researching with the international and domestic organizations involved in combating human trafficking anyway. As comes with frustrating experiences in foreign countries, I started thinking about some of the things from Buffalo (generally, the States, I guess) that made life so nice:
- My friends and family, of course
- Public libraries that I can view the collections myself
- Peanut butter
- Open container and littering laws
- Salad with lettuce (the Monsoon salad from Panos, mmmmm…)
- Dryers
- Supermarkets (although those are growing here)
- And yes, Alan, real toilet paper, especially in public places
But, of course, it’s all part of starting a new life here, and other than the first thing I listed, you learn to live without the perks of a Western standard of living. To be honest, Kyiv is much more modern than Chernivtsi, and I loved living there. So, once I settle down, start working, develop a better grasp of the languages, I think the rest will follow. But I’d still love some peanut butter….
Posted in Experience Abroad | 2 Comments »
