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Ukrainian never smiles vol.2
"Wait a minute. I think Ukrainians hardly to smile indeed" All
of a sudden, I noticed.
In such a routine days, they smoke and drink. You may see lot of people
walking on the street drinking beer in Ukraine. It's free world. Nobody
can restrict it.
However I think "There must be much better drinking style than holding
the beer bottle on the street" Compare to that, drinking some beer
with colleagues after the work or drinking in the bar watching a football game on TV must be the better way
to drink a tasty beer, I think.
"Everybody looks so gloomy" Once I got the impression, even their drinking style looks unhappy. This is some ... "Sorry to folks in Ukraine. I didn't mean that, It's your life."
However if I actually get problem with the boozer, I couldn't ignore it
any more. I think the situation in small city which has industries is better
than small local town which doesn't have any industries or working places.
In those town, I felt danger of serious alcoholic problem.
East of Chernobyl, near border to Belarus, the town called Chernihiv was
one of them. Actually, Chernihiv was beautiful town which had historical
churches and antique wooden house quarters. But this beautiful site was
completely changed at night. Full of boozers walked on the street. And
finally, I became a victim of this alcoholic related trouble.
When I was walking down the street, a drank young guy came over talking
to me. And suddenly, he got my both arms and threatened "Gime a money!"
(Oh! At 44 years old, please let me alone from these kind of street gang
stuff ... ) I shouted "Neup!" But no pedestrians helped me up. (Where are
the friendly Ukrainian people I knew ... ?) I gave up and stuck my hand
into the pocket. I found only a twenty hryvnia bill (=2USD). (My God. I'll
be in a trouble with such a small bill ... ) I showed it to him. He snatched
it and left. (Thanks for cheap consumers price of Ukraine ... No, not such
an easy matter) That's the moment I knew how's going on the country.
It's a just 12 day stay in Ukraine. And I met some tips of trouble. But
I've not disgusted by Ukraine. Why? It's because the Ukraine I actually
saw was not different from the one I had imaged. I had not expected so
much for the country. And actually it was. Add to that, I chose such an
ordinary place for photographing ordinary people. What's more I need?
And it's also true that I looked Ukrainian people being floated by passing
days as a fellow.
Dec. 2009
Today's piece
"Trolley bus" Chernihiv, Ukraine 2009
 Shanghai tea party vol.3
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 Post Script
In Nov.2009, what I had expected to Ukraine could be "traces of Soviet
Union" Traveling around cities in east part of the country, the mine
shaft city Donetsk or the heavy industrial city Mariupol along the black
sea for example, gratified my curiosity with the atmosphere of the good
old USSR.
Ah, I remember I had another reason why I visited Ukraine. It's Chernobyl.
Already 22 years had passed after the serious accident. Cs 137 had half-life
of 30 years. So the area was still contaminated in physics. However the
contamination was not flat. Some place were OK to visit while the others
were NG. After all some travel agencies got start the Nuke plant tour from
Kiev. The price was around 300USD for the day trip.
After all, I gave up the tour. I thought it was too expensive for the adventure in high level radiation. That must be better decision to me because I would get the high radiation later here in Japan.
Yeah, it was, couple of years later my neighboring Nuke plant was exploded
like a bad joke, meanwhile now the political situation of Ukraine is in
chaos. "The countries which I know gets the bad time ..." Recently
I hear those kind of bad news with regret.
For my generation, Chernobyl has still the negative symbol of Soviet Union, and the Ukraine is symbol of Soviet's great granary. It's tend to think speaking Russian language is enough in Ukraine. But it's absolutely misunderstanding about the country. In fact, Ukraine is nothing but Ukraine. The country was independent of former Soviet Union with Ukrainian land and maybe even the broken nuke plant. The Ukrainian people once got the independence with high aspirations.
Although I don't like a gigantic power of a nation, there are few merit
to be a nation I think. Organizing the different people, groups, thoughts
or religions must be one of them. When you looking over the world, many
nations are struggling in the issues and dealing with it. So if the people
or the nation has racism or exclusivism, the little merit would be blown
off. And if each nation on the planet is consist of each mono-group, the
civil wars would be decreased. However on the other hand, the world would
be so introverted and diplomacy would be lessen.
You must be a company's employee but at same time a kid's parent. Tow nations
must have a conflict in historical understanding but also they are important
business partner. Russian but living in Ukraine. Being Japanese but also
being Asian. After all, both nation and people have to have the simultaneous
or multi-channel thought. In another words, mono-channel stiff thought
lessen the choice to solve the world conflict. You dislike someone, so
you will end up hating everything he stands for? That's a childish behavior,
isn't it?
Apr. 2014 |
fumikatz osada photographie
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