Young Ukrainians Brush Aside the Crisis and Voice Optimism About the Future
Ms. Gumenyuk, 30, covered the Arab Spring revolts for two years as a journalist, so she knows firsthand how even the most promising revolution can lead to bitter disappointment. Still, she says, “I have more optimism than I did half a year ago.”
Irena Karpa, 33, a writer and musician who is popular among young Ukrainians, shares the optimism, and the relief that her country was shaking off the old order. “For a very long time, I thought I was alone,” she said. “Finally, it all happened — people stopped being so passive.” She took her children, ages 2 and 3, to the Maidan, the square in Kiev at the center of the protests that ultimately drove Mr. Yanukovych out, to explain what was happening, and she discovered to her delight that “I was by no means the most radical parent in our kindergarten.”
Her parents’ generation, she said, focused on their private lives as the Soviet Union came apart in 1991 and Ukraine gained what has proved to be a messy independence. Business was conducted on an “I know you, you know me” basis, she said, stunting the growth of private companies and institutions. Now “the Soviet Union finally collapsed,” Ms. Karpa said. “It is a pleasure to live in another historic moment.”
One lesson she had learned, she said, was the importance of voting. Like many of her contemporaries, she did not bother to cast a ballot in the 2010 election and regretted the result. “I say now, it was my own fault Yanukovych got elected,” she said. “Bad power is elected by good people who do not vote.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/08/world/europe/young-ukrainians-brush-aside-the-crisis-and-voice-optimism-about-the-future.html
The optimism of youth may be unrealistic. I hope they are right.
= new reply since forum marked as read
Clearly this is just a neo-con propaganda piece trying to cover up the bloodthirsty beasts of Kiev the 'speak truth to power' crew at Russia Times labors daily to expose....
I suspect Poe's Law works towards the furthest fringes of the left, too, so I will break my usual custom and announce this is
