International Association of Ukrainian Studies seeks reform in ...

8 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, JULY 10, 2005No. 28LETTERS TO THE EDITORKira Muratova:Ukrainian directorDear Editor:Recently the brilliant Ukrainian moviedirector Kira Muratova has been gaininglong-overdue recognition in the Westthrough retrospective showings of herfilms. In these, unfortunately, she hasbeen characterized as “Russian” (forexample, at last year’s Lincoln Centerretrospective in New York and the recentseries in San Francisco).When faced with objections to this bythose who feel she should be consideredUkrainian, the organizers give as theirrationale for the label the fact that herfilms are in Russian and that she is consideredRussian by Russians, as provenby the prizes bestowed by them on her asone of their own.Using language spoken in a film as acriterion for categorization is bizarre.According to this line of reasoning, allEnglish-language films are English –those made in Ireland, India, HongKong, Africa, etc. – as are their directors.Mel Gibson, then, is an Arameic director,since his “The Passion of the Christ” ismostly in Arameic. And directors ofsilent movies are stateless. I doubt thatany sane peson would accept suchabsurdity.Films dealing with contemporary situations,when striving for authenticity,should have the characters in them speakthe language they use in daily communication.Ms. Muratova is right in havingthe people in her movies speak Russian,since this is the language their prototypesuse in real life, even if they live inUkraine. In her great movie “TheAsthenic Syndrome” only two personagesspeak Ukrainian – inmates in aninsane asylum. In the Soviet Union,which is what the movie depicts, you hadto be crazy to speak Ukrainian.And as to awards given out by theRussian government – as we all haveread, President Vladimir Putin recentlybestowed the title of “National Artist ofRussia” on Jack Palance, which Mr.Palance refused since he is of Ukrainianand not of Russian origin. Russian imperialismdies hard.I don’t know Kira Muratova’s ethnicbackground, but she definitly is not anethnic Russian. She was born in 1934 inMoldova, in the ethnically mixed townof Soroky (a Ukrainian name), right onthe border with Ukraine. She was then aSoviet citizen; with the collapse of theSoviet Union, she chose to stay inUkraine and is now a Ukrainian citizen.She has been given the title of“National Artist of Ukraine” and hasreceived the Shevchenko Prize withwhich Ukraine honors its finest artists.Most of her movies have been made atthe Odesa Film Studio, which is inUkraine, and where Dovzhenko made hisfamous movies. Many of the actors inher movies are Ukrainian as are themembers of the film crew. And her work,though completely original, bears thestamp of Ukrainian poetic cinema.All of this makes her, without a doubt,a Ukrainian director and her moviesUkrainian.Yuriy TarnawskyWhite Plains, N.Y.Yuriy Tarnawsky is a UkrainianAmerican writer, linguist and computerscientist, and a former adjunct assistantprofessor of Ukrainian literatureand culture at Columbia University inNew York.Why can’t wehave some fun?Dear Editor:Responding to the letter (June 26)objecting to the recent varenyky eatingcontest in New York City, I wish to reply“Pereproshuyu, Pani!” (Please!) I admit Ido not have the May 29 issue to rereadthe article about this event, and I am takingliberties as if I know the letter writer,Orysia Tracz, from her wonderful folklorearticles (yes, I’m a fan of those), butI have to say it: if you are going to complainabout any fun activity that easilyincludes marginal Ukrainians in participatingat a Ukrainian event, pack up andgo home.Watermelon or pizza or cherry or pieor pyrohy eating contests are an acceptableU.S. fun thing to do. Don’t lookdown your Canadian nose and tell us weare sinning by wasting food, because weare not. We may be guilty of gluttony,perhaps, but not of wasting food.Even though in your article “Somemak for the road” (June 26) you speak ofit, will you now be shaming those whosay they sprinkle items with holy waterfor good luck instead of invoking ablessing as being shamefully anti-Christian, or those who use the seedsfrom the poppies blessed on the firstFeast of the Savior (August 1/14) orseeds from the herbs used on the Feast ofthe Dormition (August 15/28) as beingsuperstitious? Sounds like somethingfrom a “Saturday Night Live”-styleChurch Lady.Why do all Ukrainian events have tobe cultural? You wrote in your lettersthat people can have fun, “But not in thismanner. It’s beneath us.” When you considerthat you are speaking of thosewhose motherland’s immediate pastpresident was Leonid Kuchma, how canyou say anything is beneath us?Please don’t pontificate against anythingunless you have a suitable replacementto offer within the same parameters.Remember, if the Irish sang theirballads only in Gaelic instead of the languageof the enemy, who would havesympathized with them? Why do youthink our Ukrainian diaspora gatheringstoday look like the reviewing stand ofyesterday’s Kremlin on May Day: oldand wrinkled icons of orthodoxy ratherthan youthful faces showing anticipationof glory?About the “rift”in Illinois UCCAMichael JulaCarnegie, Pa.Dear Editor:I am writing in response to OrestBaranyk’s article “Illinois UCCA holdsannual meeting, hopes to heal rift withincommunity” (June 12), which I read with agreat deal of interest. I was fascinated notso much by his egregious inaccuracies butrather by his uncharacteristically insightfulwords about the future of the UCCA andwhat the UCCA needed to do to maintainits viability. The text of the article is not inkeeping with Mr. Baranyk’s views andstance over the past year, particularly duringthe recent annual branch meetings heldin March and May, which were videotapedand tape-recorded, respectively.In his article, Mr. Baranyk stated thatthe “regular meeting was cancelled dueto a lack of compliance with the by-laws…” and “...flagrant disregard of proto-col,” leading readers to believe that thesecond meeting was in compliance withthe by-laws. This was not the case.Examples of by-law violations duringthe second meeting are too numerous tocite. More notable ones include UkrainianNational Information Service (UNIS)donors being actively encouraged andallowed to vote contrary to the by-laws(only donors to the Ukrainian NationalFund, or UNF, are permitted to vote), and11 individuals without the right to votebeing elected to the branch board. Clearly,the vote and board selection were notbased on, as Mr. Baranyk stated, “…whowas qualified to vote…[and] the requirementsof the UCCA By-laws.”To his credit, Mr. Baranyk proposed asolution to the by-law crisis that he and otherscreated – the establishment of an ad hoccommittee to review and make recommendationsto the national by-laws committee.However, Mr. Baranyk, as a memberof the national UCCA board, shouldknow that it is the role of the national bylawscommittee to solicit input from allUCCA members through branch chairs,because each branch has unique andvaluable perspectives. He should alsoknow that this committee is elected ateach UCCA congress (the most recentone being held last fall).By creating an ad hoc committee, theprocess loses its transparency andbecomes all-exclusive – not somethingthe UCCA leadership should strive for.Mr. Baranyk also mentioned a “rift” inthe Ukrainian community in Chicago. Towhat is he referring? Is he referring tohis arbitrary interpretation and applicationof the UCCA by-laws, which havedisenfranchised a substantial number ofUCCA voters, the majority of whom arerecent immigrants?Many new immigrants, including formerboard members, were told during theMarch meeting that they were ineligibleto vote because they did not pay “appropriatedues.” Yet Mr. Baranyk allowedthem to be on the board for almost fiveyears without informing them what the“appropriate dues” were.Also, Mr. Baranyk failed to mentionin his article that during the March meetingthere were approximately 300 participants.During the May meeting, therewere “nearly 80 participants,” approximately10 of whom later walked out indisgust. The difference in attendance canonly reflect the fact that, for the first timein branch history, the meeting was heldmidweek, a time inconvenient for themajority of members. Perhaps the shoutsof “Shame!” (“Hanba!”) directed towardMr. Baranyk during the first meetingwere not without merit.Conversely, perhaps Mr. Baranyk’s“rift” refers to his unprofessional behavior.Telling people to shut up and threateningto throw them out during the meetingis not becoming of someone who is abranch president, the national UCCApresident’s deputy, and the nationalUCCA’s external affairs liaison.Or perhaps by “rift” Mr. Baranyk isreferring to a topic that he and a smallgroup of people insist on continuallyraising to the dismay of others – the saleof 1st Security Federal Savings Bank. Inhis article, Mr. Baranyk mentions thesale (“merger”) twice and states that it“should not be forced onto the UCCA’sagenda.” Unfortunately, Mr. Baranykcannot seem to stop forcing it onto theUCCA’s agenda and continually makingit an issue at meetings. For example, duringthe May 18 meeting Mr. Baranykallowed the former CEO of 1st SecurityFederal Savings Bank to give a prolongeddiscourse against people whoprotested this sale.The Orange Revolution and what theIllinois UCCA branch accomplishedwere also discussed by Mr. Baranyk.Contrary to Mr. Baranyk’s assertions, thebranch contributed almost nothing to theefforts of the Orange Revolution inChicago. In fact, the Election 2004 committeedid most of the work with muchfinancial support from Chicago’sSelfreliance Ukrainian American FederalCredit Union.The committee’s work included holdingthree demonstrations in support offree elections in Ukraine (the first ofwhich Mr. Baranyk tried to suppress eventhough Taras Bilozir from the Yushchenkocampaign and Askold Lozynskyj supportedsuch an action), monitoring the elections,registering voters, busing volunteersand voters to and from the Consulate, providinglogistical support, and organizingfive buses for a demonstration inWashington. Over $350,000 was raised inabout three weeks for the Yushchenkocampaign, mostly by recent immigrants.The national UCCA leadership shouldtake note of this fact.What did the UCCA Illinois branch doto support election activities in Chicago?According to Mr. Baranyk’s statement onMay 18, it rented portable toilets for useby the Election 2004 committee and voters,and had a few observers monitor theelections.On the national level, why was theUCCA president or his deputy not includedon the U.S. government delegation toPresident Viktor Yushchenko’s inauguration?In my opinion, this exemplifies thepoor quality work of the UCCA ExternalAffairs Committee, which Mr. Baranykhas headed for a number of years. Itappears that the U.S. government doesnot take the UCCA seriously.Mr. Baranyk also mentioned financesin his article. However, he erred in combiningUNIS and UNF collections intoone sum of approximately $80,000. Thismuddies the true picture of communitysupport for the UCCA. The branch inChicago has two major fund-raisers eachyear: one for the Ukrainian NationalFund, which supports day-to-day operationsof the national UCCA, and theother for the Ukrainian NationalInformation Service.UNIS collections are supported by asmall group of people compared to theUNF collection, which is more representativeof the community and its grassroots support for the UCCA. Last year,approximately half of the UNIS collectioncame from Selfreliance UkrainianAmerican Federal Credit Union andJulian Kulas’ Heritage Foundation, whileover a quarter of the UNF collectioncame from recent immigrants – exactlythe people Mr. Baranyk has gradually andsuccessfully alienated. Furthermore, theannual UNF collection for the past fiveyears has been approximately $25,000.But in 2004, only $19,000 was collected.Is this substantial drop in the UNF collectiona statistical fluctuation, or is itindicative of a leadership problem?Finally, half of Mr. Baranyk’s articleaddressed broader UCCA concerns;namely, issues surrounding leadership,professionalism and future directions.Mr. Baranyk uses terminology such as“dialogue,” “inclusion” and “effectiveness.”Is telling people who disagreewith him to shut up “dialogue”? Is denyingpeople the right to vote “inclusion”?Is alienating people effective leadership?Perhaps the UCCA should follow theexample of democratically elected worldleaders who are elected for finite terms sothat personal ambitions do not become(Continued on page 9)