So, after I dragged my butt out of bed this morning after yet another night of staying up way later than I should have, I walked into the kitchen and said good morning to my mother. She said something in Ukranian that I didn't catch because I was still in a stupor, and after I asked "Scho?" (what?) she snapped at me, harshly repeating what she just said, which was to go wash my hands for breakfast.
After a few tense minutes of eating, I slowly started prying into what had gotten her upset, and wondering if I had yet again made some cultural gaffe. After a bit it started coming it: she wasn't mad at me, but three of Ukraine's eastern regions had held a referendum to become autonomous.
And I was reminded yet again that my attention span is way too short. After a few days where nothing but the revolution was the topic of conversation, we had returned to our daily routine: language classes, teaching, nights spent watching movies and playing guitar. After all, we couldn't go to Kiev, and, other than Yuchenko grafitti, orange streamers tied to trees, or the 1:00 AM drunken chanting of: "Nas bahato ee nas ne podolati!" (We are many and we will not be defeated) that is the preminent chant of the Yuchenko supporters (bested only by the 1:00 AM chants of "Yu-Chenk-Ko! Yu-Chenk-Ko!"), we are cut off from the revolution. Oh, by the way, it's not being called a revolution by the Yuchenko camp. It's called "an evolution of democracy."
The evolution of democracy is being televised 24 hours a day here (the title of this post, by the way, is the closest the Ukranian language can get to "The revolution will be televised"), but as I still can't keep up with the breakneck Ukranian spoken on it, I get my news updates from the same place much of America does: Yahoo News.
Still, I do get a side that can't be gotten in America: the reactions of the Ukranians. My host mother is at turns glowing with pride and worried to tears about her country. Losha, who returns from Kiev each day beaming, red-faced from the cold and sporting yellow and orange streamers. The host grandmother of one of my link mates, who tied an orange shawl around her head, declared "I am not afraid" and stomped off in her boots to a marchrutka bound for Kiev. Oxana, my Ukranian teacher, who watches the television and points out that people are smiling, her psyche looking for any bit of evidence that this will turn out alright. Helen, my technical trainer, returned from Kiev yesterday, where she had spent the day amongst the tent city that has sprung up along Krechatic avenue. "Everyone is trying to be kinder than everyone else," she told us, giving us stories of the free food being passed out, apples being forced into people's hands, the free toilets that that have been set up, the free ride she recieved back from Kiev when her marchutka driver declared that he would accept no payments from anyone for the ride.
The demonstration in Kiev, rather than being an impromptu gathering, is obviously is what it is: the successful result of massive organization. A never-ending series of concerts with all of Ukraine's top artists entertains the crowds from the main stage and on plasma screens. Someone brought in those portable toilets. Someone handed out the hundreds of orange tents. Someone is funding the field kitchens feeding hundreds of thousands of people. That someone, of course, is Yuchenko's party. I don't know if it's insidious or not, but the simple fact is that this was prepared for. I had heard the rumors before the first election: that if Yannokovich won, there would be a revolution. So it wasn't unexpected when they descended on Kiev. What's surprising is that it's lasted a week in sub-zero weather and heavy snow. Frankly I'm impressed, but let no one think that this wasn't forseen, that this revolution (or whatever it's called) wasn't orchestrated.
And we will see what the future will bring. After a few days, after no violence, I think we all relaxed, the Americans at least. Police were joining Yuchenko's crowd in droves. Kuchma and Yannokovich went to the negotiating table with key EU people mediating. We thought it was but a few days to a transfer of power or a new election.
But now what becomes apparent is what is not being carried in most Western news media: that Yannokovich has more than just thugs and mafia supporting him. That a huge percentage of the east did support him in an election that, even without fraud, was very close. And now that Eastern section, completely shut out by the media and dubbed as lackeys of a corrupt government, is threatening to break away.
And one would say good riddance, save for one thing: it's the industrial center. Currently, Ukaine cannot economically survive without it. If it breaks off and becomes independent or allies with Russia...well, I can't predict, but the results would be dire. And that's the balance of power: a West that refuses to be led by Yanakovich and an East that refuses to be led by Yuchenko. The West is the intellectual center, but the East is the industrial, and they need each other. Revolutions are grand things, amazing things, especially when so many people pack themselves into one place to together shout down corruption, but things do balance on the edge of the knife, and that's why my host mother was snapping at me this morning...