The first stage of revolution is self-discovery and preservation. We're not talking about rebels storming the barricade, God forbid, but merely showing up for work.
Let's call it the Easter-May Day week uprising, when thousands packed their lunch pails and pell-mell headed off to the job, even though the Kyiv government had declared the entire week a holiday, or at least strongly suggested.
I realize I am talking about a certain group of people -- primarily the shopkeeper class, or the construction company, the travel bureau, the delivery and food services, that which has become the new backbone of an emerging economy.
These are folks who realize that by not showing up at work they don't provide as well for their families. They know that the competitor down the street will be open, and hard won customers and clients are fickle.
Staying home were government workers, and the under-employed. This included, of course, those who when they do work produce something nobody wants or has the money to buy.
The reaction of multinationals was a little schizoid. Most were confused and went along with the city administration. A few, however, tossed caution to the wind, and declared independence.
The Willard Group, our company, refused to honor the holiday in its official entirety, but had a liberal time off policy in operation. We were on the job, though admittedly during a slow time. However, we maintained our umbilical cord with the outside world.
This dilemma is visited several times a year. It has become more intrusive, not less. A voice from on high, perhaps with primarily personal motivations, declares Ukraine separate from the rest of the commercial world.
This is imperially moronic.
I vaguely remember my cousins in Mississippi getting out of school for several weeks each year because farmers needed their sons and daughters to help pick cotton. But that was a half century ago.
I am not sure that long-ago practice in Mississippi is the same as Ukrainians needing to flood to their gardens in May for survival, but the principle is the same, I am told. It seems so dated.
The month of May just happens to have a lot of holidays in it. It also just happens to be a big planting month, and, after all, we must put food on the table. This is wonderful, even commendable.
However, as national policy, it tosses Ukraine back into the early part of the 20th Century. This is disastrous in a real-time world, one with global markets that move commodities at the touch of a key.
More than that, it reeks of unnecessary social largess, as something for which the government believes Ukrainians should be thankful. Hence they will keep out of the streets with those pesky protest signs.
But today I cannot rail nearly so much against Ukraine's six days of weekday Easter-May Day "holidays" this year, or at the prescribed weekend work to make up for that extended May recess.
There were simply too many people and small business owners who said enough is enough. Many of my company's clients flung open their doors, even a few multinationals.
And to the north of us, Russia had the good sense to realize that in a secular country, there is no need to have an extra holiday for Orthodox Easter. Worship on Sunday, but come to work on Monday. They also, unlike official Ukraine, worked Tuesday and Wednesday.
This has nothing to do with a nose-to-the grindstone philosophy. Workaholics are bores. It merely has to do with a good portion of Ukraine's work force realizing there is an outside world.
Thus, the Easter-May Day uprising. Long live the revolution.
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