 The Promise of the New Year? By Pylyp SELIHEY |
On New Year's night Ukrainians dream and make wishes for the future.
The last days of December bring unusual excitement to Ukraine as well as to all other countries. White-bearded Fathers Frost (these are our Santa Clauses) and tender Snow Maidens appear on the streets and squares of Ukrainian towns and cities. New Year trees shine with bright festooned lights in every house, apartment; and our children become totally joyous anticipating the great celebration and the expectations of the big holiday. Women fuss around preparing festive tables, men buy New Year gifts - sweets, perfume, books, mobile phones and all other matter of good things as best our often limited pocketbooks can afford.
And finally on the 31st of December...dusk falls on all Ukraine. From villages in Polissya to the coast of Crimea, from Donbass to the Carpathian Mountains the clock pompously strikes midnight and a myriad of bright lights and bizarre fireworks blaze in the sky.
On the New Year night Ukrainians undoubtedly recall the year that has gone by, they review the past year. They remember and summarize what has been achieved. They recall some wonderful, rare moments that will never happen again. They think about matters they consider to be the most important.
Ukrainians believe that New Year's night is unusual. And if one makes a wish on this night, then it will definitely come true the next year. So, along with recollections about a past year, our Ukrainian people seem to plunge into the world of their dreams and imagine those things that they want to happen the most. So, let's try to take a look at those dreams. Let's try to find out what Ukrainians want to happen the most in the New Year.
There is a well-known saying: "Many men, many minds". After rehash of this phrase we'll say: "Many men, many dreams." Everybody has his or her own dreams. But in general the New Year dreams of all Ukrainians will be very similar. But also social positions of people tend to mean a lot in terms of differences between such dreams.
Let's take elderly people, pensioners. For many years they've only been looking forward to minimal pension increases. They hope that the radical pension reform planned by the government for 2004 will improve their lives. And also included among their wishes - that price increases stop, especially for medicines and that there be reforms in the health care system.
All parents are sure to worry about their children. They worry how to give them a good education and where to obtain the money for it, how to save their children from drugs and rowdy gangs and how to bring them up to be decent people. All these commissions will be troubling Ukrainian parents for the whole of next year and even longer.
And what about the children? As for me, they have nothing I would envy. It's hard to be a child now. There're too many temptations for them now and few opportunities to find their place in this complicated and controversial world. But who among them cares about that? Their dreams for the next year are in a pink color: fashionable clothes, modern music, computer games, many friends and happy school recessions.
The situation is different with students. Most of them have already tasted some bitterness adult life, so they start looking at the world as grown-ups. Their main wishes are quality and affordable educations, opportunities to fill their modest budgets with part-time job money, and then after earning diplomas - to find decent and well-paid jobs, and besides all that to find real love.
After graduating from colleges ex-students go their own ways in life. Many of them find jobs in state-run organizations and structures, state institutions and enterprises. Doctors and teachers, military men and scientists, officials and other state employees wish most of all that the state would start eventually to understand their problems and provide decent salaries. And that the governmental motto social-oriented budget would cease to be just a phrase and would be really become fulfilled in life.
On the other hand, people who work in private business - the newborn Ukrainian middle class - don't complain that much about their incomes. But they also have wishes for the New Year. All businessmen without exception - from owners of big companies to the owners of small bars and restaurants- dream about one thing: a decrease in taxes. All of them would like to see the state as a defender of their interests, and not as their enemy. They all wish to pay not bribes but moderate taxes.
The unemployed dream about finding good jobs according to their professional training and with high or at least moderate salaries. People who have no apartments dream of acquiring their own places for living. People who have no children dream about having babies. The unfortunate dream to find their fortune.
City dwellers wait for sensible changes in housing and improvement in the communal service sphere; dwellers of towns wish their town infrastructure to develop; peasants dream about roads building and gas supplying.
Many of us wish our country becomes closer to Europe. This should mean that we have learned civilized patterns of people's co-existence, the relationships between state and citizens and have adopted the culture of work and a knowledge of business. But unfortunately, it seems we are approaching Europe only "on paper". Talented people, especially those who want to work and can, are looking for their fortunes abroad.
And at last, all Ukraine is waiting for the new presidential elections, which are scheduled to take place in 2004. This event will be extremely important, because it may determine our lives for the next ten to twenty years. The great majority of Ukrainians would like to see the position of the head of the state filled by a decent, patriotic person, one who will care about the strength of the state and the concerns of its citizens. And a leader who is not in the pocket of the insatiable oligarchs.
Of course, Ukrainians understand that not all of their wishes will come true tomorrow. Still they look into the future with patience and optimism. They believe that their current losses and unhappiness will pass by and that there will come a time when there are going to be only good events. They believe that the New Year will bring happiness and comfort to their homes. They believe that our world will become more free, just, friendly and humane for all and everybody.
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