If not old, at least familiar. (R 18, 20 4th floor)
When one first hears Mao's comment about revolutions and dinner parties, it seems a a statement so obvious it could only be profound to crazy foreigners in strange lands - but today, on the eve of potential, possible, probable revolution, I am not being incited along with the masses or fading into the milieu (though admittedly I will be in a few hours,) but rather cleaning my apartment. Last night I met a certain relative of a certain politician in a club (we apparently have a few common friends) and although as intelligent twenty-something women, we both appreciate the full weight of the word, it rolled in and out of a conversation about drinks, boys, and perfume. I feel almost the same apprehension as I did at this time before my banquet a week ago... and I am left to wonder, be the cause youth or energy or inexperience or human limitation, about the possible range of human emotion in the face of history. Will life really change so drastically tomorrow? I cannot understand if it will. I think it hit me this afternoon when Stuart called to change our lunch plans for tomorrow "because of the crowds" - by the crowds, he meant the throng of 600,000 or so that will likely be demonstrating or rioting in Pechersk tomorrow, where the Central Election Commission is located, and, incidentally, we planned our lunch. Sweeping changes sweep life just as the little ones do - how catastrophic really is it, when you get the flu, or there's construction on your favourite street, or they stop selling your colour of lipstick, or the currency crashes and you have to live on bread and water for three weeks? There's something here and everywhere about life that simply goes on.
So this is the eve of revolution. I feel grossly unprepared mentally, as if, were I in a novel, I would be able to handle the idea of these swiftly shifting sands and gaze in future awe at the strange new edifice that would arise in place of what I know and understand. Am I taking everything in the world for granted? Is this my last, best chance at something I don't even know exists? I suppose I am not built to be a revolutionary, rather only to watch them, as I watch the ballet or visit a museum. After my dinner party, I woke up with a hangover, a newly messy apartment, a grouchy view of the world, and that loss of expectation that always accompanies a morning after. Despite Mao's advice, I really wonder if tomorrow will be the same, and if all the changes that come will be the same as always.
Is this age so momentous that the historic has really become ordinary, or am I just blind? Or is this, as Tolstoy seems to think, the nature of history, so that the men who burned Moscow were the ones who rescheduled lunches and cleaned their apartments? There's a nagging thought in my head that every generation thinks that it is the return to history. Perhaps it's only the lucky ones. I've been saving the following poem for awhile, but I think there's no better day than today - and as I type, I realise that may be the whole point, and the whole significance of love, music, wine, and revolution. Here, my friends, here's to being young and beautiful in the midst of changing nations - here's to the history books of future generations - most of all, here's to today, above all other days, before all other times.
Wash it down with some Symborska.
Children of Our Age
We are children of our age,
it's a political age.
All day long, all through the night,
all affairs - yours, ours, theirs -
are political affairs.
Whether you like it or not,
your genes have a political past,
your skin, a political cast,
your eyes, a political slant.
Whatever you say reverberates,
whatever you don't say speaks for itself.
So either way you're talking politics.
Even when you take to the woods,
you're taking political steps
on political grounds.
Apolitical poems are also political,
and above us shines a moon
no longer purely lunar.
To be or not to be, that is the question.
And though it troubles the digestion
it's a question, as always, of politics.
To acquire a political meaning
you don't even have to be human.
Raw material will do,
or protein feed, or crude oil,
or a conference table whose shape
was quarreled over for months;
Should we arbitrate life and death
at a round table or a square one?
Meanwhile, people perished,
animals died,
houses burned,
and the fields ran wild
just as in times immemorial
and less political.
BACKGROUND: Ten years ago, Ukraine's first elected president, Leonid Kuchma, took office. Known for ridiculous political corruption, the most well-known of which is the suspected decapitation of Georgiy Gongazde, Kuchma has agreed not to defy the Constitution of Ukraine and, officially at least, step down as president after a maximum of two five-year terms. Kuchma's hand-picked candidate is Sopranos-looking Viktor Yanukovich, the current Prime Minister, an ex-criminal from the province of Donetsk. He wants to maintain the financial oligarchies of Ukraine, and strengthen ties with Russia at the expense of Europe. Victor Yushchenko, the leader of an opposition bloc called Our Ukraine, promises to bring Ukraine closer to Europe, and most of all, to fight the pervasive and obvious mafia presence in Ukraine. Yushchenko has, throughout the year complained about harassment from the Yanukovich camp. About a month ago, Yushchenko had dinner with the head of the SBU, a specialised military unit of Ukraine. The next day he was stricken with an unknown illness, which Yanukovich's camp claims was due to consumption of spoilt food, but is generally agreed to be poisoning, potentially with ricin. Yushchenko survived, but with obvious difficulty, and gave a vituperating and directly accusatory speech in Parliament about the incident. The next week Yanukovich, in what is labeled the "egg controversy" claimed that several students in the city of Ivano-Frankivsk hit him with a series of heavy objects, and that he was knocked down and hospitalised. An AP video was soon revealed, proving not only that Yanukovich, a large, stocky man, probably faked the fall at a signal from his adviser, but also that the only object that hit him was a raw egg. A few weeks ago, a student organisation called Pora, along the lines of similar student protest organisations such those of Georgia's Rose Revolution, was investigated for possession of explosives. According to Pora, a first investigation, which was videotaped, revelead no explosives, but a second investigation in which witnesses were not allowed revealed explosives and incendiary literature. In addition, movements have been made to shut down the only non-government owned television channel in Ukraine, Channel 5, days before the election. Indeed, it has been shut down in many areas of Western Ukraine. (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty was shut down in February.) Last week, one of Ukraine's largest demonstrations was seen, in favour of Yushchenko and against the harassment of Pora and Channel 5. The demonstration went off peacefully, but men, unaffiliated with Yushchenko, but wearing Yushchenko flags, incited violence late in the evening. Yushchenko's people detained them, but they were released by police. Later Yushchenko people were attacked, and a brawl ensued, including even the candidate himself. On October 28th, a military parade was held in commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Ukraine from the Nazis - a parade that has, for the last 60 years or so, been held on November 6. However, November 6 will be after the elections. Today, election day, there is a military presence, and the SPS has been given extra power by the government. The current president warns of agitations and revolutions, and election fraud is almost assumed to be the case. There are not nearly enough election observers, but it almost doesn't matter what the vote will be - Yanukovich will almost certainly fix the election Yuschenko supporters will assume it is fixed, and Yanukovich supporters will assume Yushchenko is starting a revolution. Perhaps I'll update tomorrow, but until then the future is absolutely wide open. Happy Halloween!
So this is the eve of revolution. I feel grossly unprepared mentally, as if, were I in a novel, I would be able to handle the idea of these swiftly shifting sands and gaze in future awe at the strange new edifice that would arise in place of what I know and understand. Am I taking everything in the world for granted? Is this my last, best chance at something I don't even know exists? I suppose I am not built to be a revolutionary, rather only to watch them, as I watch the ballet or visit a museum. After my dinner party, I woke up with a hangover, a newly messy apartment, a grouchy view of the world, and that loss of expectation that always accompanies a morning after. Despite Mao's advice, I really wonder if tomorrow will be the same, and if all the changes that come will be the same as always.
Is this age so momentous that the historic has really become ordinary, or am I just blind? Or is this, as Tolstoy seems to think, the nature of history, so that the men who burned Moscow were the ones who rescheduled lunches and cleaned their apartments? There's a nagging thought in my head that every generation thinks that it is the return to history. Perhaps it's only the lucky ones. I've been saving the following poem for awhile, but I think there's no better day than today - and as I type, I realise that may be the whole point, and the whole significance of love, music, wine, and revolution. Here, my friends, here's to being young and beautiful in the midst of changing nations - here's to the history books of future generations - most of all, here's to today, above all other days, before all other times.
Wash it down with some Symborska.
Children of Our Age
We are children of our age,
it's a political age.
All day long, all through the night,
all affairs - yours, ours, theirs -
are political affairs.
Whether you like it or not,
your genes have a political past,
your skin, a political cast,
your eyes, a political slant.
Whatever you say reverberates,
whatever you don't say speaks for itself.
So either way you're talking politics.
Even when you take to the woods,
you're taking political steps
on political grounds.
Apolitical poems are also political,
and above us shines a moon
no longer purely lunar.
To be or not to be, that is the question.
And though it troubles the digestion
it's a question, as always, of politics.
To acquire a political meaning
you don't even have to be human.
Raw material will do,
or protein feed, or crude oil,
or a conference table whose shape
was quarreled over for months;
Should we arbitrate life and death
at a round table or a square one?
Meanwhile, people perished,
animals died,
houses burned,
and the fields ran wild
just as in times immemorial
and less political.
BACKGROUND: Ten years ago, Ukraine's first elected president, Leonid Kuchma, took office. Known for ridiculous political corruption, the most well-known of which is the suspected decapitation of Georgiy Gongazde, Kuchma has agreed not to defy the Constitution of Ukraine and, officially at least, step down as president after a maximum of two five-year terms. Kuchma's hand-picked candidate is Sopranos-looking Viktor Yanukovich, the current Prime Minister, an ex-criminal from the province of Donetsk. He wants to maintain the financial oligarchies of Ukraine, and strengthen ties with Russia at the expense of Europe. Victor Yushchenko, the leader of an opposition bloc called Our Ukraine, promises to bring Ukraine closer to Europe, and most of all, to fight the pervasive and obvious mafia presence in Ukraine. Yushchenko has, throughout the year complained about harassment from the Yanukovich camp. About a month ago, Yushchenko had dinner with the head of the SBU, a specialised military unit of Ukraine. The next day he was stricken with an unknown illness, which Yanukovich's camp claims was due to consumption of spoilt food, but is generally agreed to be poisoning, potentially with ricin. Yushchenko survived, but with obvious difficulty, and gave a vituperating and directly accusatory speech in Parliament about the incident. The next week Yanukovich, in what is labeled the "egg controversy" claimed that several students in the city of Ivano-Frankivsk hit him with a series of heavy objects, and that he was knocked down and hospitalised. An AP video was soon revealed, proving not only that Yanukovich, a large, stocky man, probably faked the fall at a signal from his adviser, but also that the only object that hit him was a raw egg. A few weeks ago, a student organisation called Pora, along the lines of similar student protest organisations such those of Georgia's Rose Revolution, was investigated for possession of explosives. According to Pora, a first investigation, which was videotaped, revelead no explosives, but a second investigation in which witnesses were not allowed revealed explosives and incendiary literature. In addition, movements have been made to shut down the only non-government owned television channel in Ukraine, Channel 5, days before the election. Indeed, it has been shut down in many areas of Western Ukraine. (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty was shut down in February.) Last week, one of Ukraine's largest demonstrations was seen, in favour of Yushchenko and against the harassment of Pora and Channel 5. The demonstration went off peacefully, but men, unaffiliated with Yushchenko, but wearing Yushchenko flags, incited violence late in the evening. Yushchenko's people detained them, but they were released by police. Later Yushchenko people were attacked, and a brawl ensued, including even the candidate himself. On October 28th, a military parade was held in commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Ukraine from the Nazis - a parade that has, for the last 60 years or so, been held on November 6. However, November 6 will be after the elections. Today, election day, there is a military presence, and the SPS has been given extra power by the government. The current president warns of agitations and revolutions, and election fraud is almost assumed to be the case. There are not nearly enough election observers, but it almost doesn't matter what the vote will be - Yanukovich will almost certainly fix the election Yuschenko supporters will assume it is fixed, and Yanukovich supporters will assume Yushchenko is starting a revolution. Perhaps I'll update tomorrow, but until then the future is absolutely wide open. Happy Halloween!