It is impossible to say how many people dream of being as famous and lucky as Archimedes and Isaac Newton, who made their discoveries while taking a bath or sitting under an apple tree. Since I live with bronchial asthma, I cannot travel widely and so recently started making my own discoveries at home.
The first thing I understood was that I was not the king, ruler and transformer of nature but its humble and powerless offspring. My heart aches each time a solar flare occurs, making me take lots of pills and refrain from drinking a traditional Sunday shot of vodka and other such pleasures. These violent solar explosions and coronal mass ejections made me an ecologist. Being a professional economist, I explore the environment. Adam Smith and Karl Marx are no longer my idols but our prominent compatriot Volodymyr Vernadsky, who is famous for his noosphere ideas. I began studying the impact of various factors like plants and animals, climatic changes, food quality and the environment of our homeland on humans.
Many old village people believe they die sooner in towns and cities, where they live together with their children. Some years ago, I was in the Carpathian village of Nimetska Mokra and spoke with one of its aged dwellers. He said many of those ethnic Austrians who had emigrated to Austria had died there soon. "One must not uproot an old tree to re-plant it somewhere else, even in a paradise," he said bitterly.
Although there is probably no possibility to prove that we are tied to our homeland with some invisible threads, I remember talking to a dying friend of mine who was convinced he would recover if he could drink some Baikal water. I first thought it was a whim but when I visited this lake and tasted its water, I realized it was impossible to forget its vitalizing taste until death.
Here is another example. Once a doctor recommended that I buy an herb infusion prepared in a famous European laboratory. Surprisingly, it had no positive medicinal effect. Then a phytotherapist advised me to make such a potion from local herbs. Its effect was amazing.
It will probably take much time for scientists to explain the link between humans and herbs growing in different areas. This connection obviously exists and should be studied.
We know that words are a powerful factor of influence. Doctors are taught that kind words can heal patients. However, I have seen many proofs that not only good words can heal but also native language. My health is one of the proofs. I started speaking Ukrainian (it was not difficult because my family is bilingual) and read lots of books by Ukrainian authors, among them my university friends Mushketyk, Symonenko, Vyngranivsky and Lutsenko. I enjoy reading Ukraine's contemporary prose writers and adore Lina Kostenko. All these books led to health improvements. I started feeling much better than after taking all these persistently advertised immune stimulators. It can be the psychological effect of self-persuasion. However, it is also possible that our mother tongue has some secret and magical power which invigorates and harmonizes our souls and bodies. So my conclusion is that any government should ensure its citizens can speak their native language not only to adhere to the European Language Charter but also for the sake of their health.
We do not know how language enforcement affects human health, even if that foreign language is progressive, beautiful and widely spoken. However, researchers claim that the poor spiritual state of the founder of the modern Russian literary ethic, Ukrainian Mykola Gogol,, and his creative exhaustion were caused by the incompatibility of his Ukrainian mentality and the fact he wrote his books in Russian.
Taras Shevchenko sometimes wrote in Russian and often had to speak Russian. We know he complained about this.
"I have just translated one of my poems. I am crying now. Why the hell should I confess to the Russians? What sin have I committed?" he once wrote.
Language does not seem to affect scientists, who see it as an instrument to receive information about concepts and paradigms, as much as it affects artists, particularly writers and poets.
Many western Ukrainians sent to Crimea to develop the arid peninsula still feel like foreigners in the Russian-speaking autonomy. They can only be humorous and talkative in their community. However, their children, born in Crimea, do not regard Russian as foreign language. They integrate and assimilate in Crimean society but rarely speak about their ethnic origin, do not demand that their children be taught at Ukrainian schools and do not insist that Ukrainian magazines and newspapers be published where they live.
Today it is almost impossible to succeed without speaking at least one foreign language. People travel, migrate and work abroad. In Ukraine, there are lots of Russians, Hungarians, Tatars, Moldavians, Romanians, Poles, Greeks, Bulgarians, Jews and Roma. The official language for interethnic communication in Ukraine is Ukrainian. Under the constitution, those people whose job involves communicating with others have to know the state language.
This globally accepted rule is a stumbling block in our country and has resulted in demands to recognize Russian as a second official language. This would enable Russian-speaking officials to refuse to study and speak Ukrainian but would also make Ukrainian-speaking people learn Russian to speak with officials. This is absurd to compel Ukraine's non-Russian-speaking ethnic groups to study the two state languages because of the laziness and caprices of our officials.
To justify their unreasonable demands to make Russian official in Ukraine, the supporters of this idea are not ashamed to publicly insult the Ukrainian language and all those who speak it. A few months ago, a representative of the governing coalition described Ukrainian as a provincial and unsophisticated language, sparking off resentment all over Ukraine.
It is true that Russian is more popular in urban areas whereas Ukrainian has been better preserved and widely spoken in villages. However, that does not mean Ukrainian is second-rate, primitive and cannot be used by scientists and artists. Only ignorant people and Ukrainophobes can state the opposite.
If Ukrainian was weaker and worse than Russian, it would never have survived so many bans and restrictions. Only a powerful and rich language could survive. Today Ukrainian is not only the state language but also heals those who speak it.
When scientists prove that native language has curative properties, we will understand why those living in rural areas are stronger and enjoy better health than city residents, who apparently have better healthcare and eat better food. However, up to 80 percent of Ukraine's Russian-speaking urban population comes from villages, which explains why their health is poorer and psychological state less stable.
So this is my most recent home discovery. Hopefully, one day it will be recognized worldwide and its author annually honored and remembered, at least on April 1.
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