The opposite of play is not work. It’s depression
A writer writes. If you want to be a writer, write.
I know I should be
reading/listening to these books right now (which I am but sporadically), and
writing my ethnographic fieldnotes from the interviews I’ve conducted recently,
or preparing for class,
Before I launch into my reflections on this book and its relationship to my experiences here in Ukraine thus far, and/or my teaching and scholarship interests, I need to make an ANNOUNCEMENT, which is this:
I have
invited my Deviance class students (20 Ukrainian students from KPI) to read my
blog and offer any thoughts they have on my reflections about Ukraine, or about
anything my readers might post in response. If you are one of my students this
semester, please understand that I am truly interested in learning more about
Ukrainian culture and that any thoughts you share with me here are essential to
my own learning. While I do think of myself as your teacher/professor, I also
think of myself as a learner, just like you, and I know you can teach me
a lot about Ukraine and its culture and history. I know my American readers
(family, friends and colleagues) will also be grateful for any of your written
feedback on this blog. So please, please, if you are my student, contribute to
this blog and give us your insights, even if they are not related to what I’ve
written.
Now, about this book (Humankind) and how it relates to class.
This new book, Humankind: A Hopeful History by Rutger Bregman is a social scientific look at humanity, pointing out, in a variety of social contexts and in social research, that humans have actually evolved to be more kind and generous toward others than we are competitive and selfish. It is a compelling argument full of scientific evidence that, although the culture has communicated otherwise, human societies are far more successful when cooperating and working toward the common good than when competing for greedy, individual interests. But you don’t have to fall into the shop-worn debates over “socialism vs. capitalism” to appreciate what is presented here. One eye-opener for me was Bregman’s complete annihilation of three classic, taken-for-granted, studies done by social psychologists on obedience and conformity: Sherif’s Robbers Cave study, The Milgram shock experiment, and Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison Study), which were shown to be so fatally flawed in their methodology that we should probably get those studies out of the nearly every sociology and psychology textbook that has ever been written! Why do so many people always assume that people are naturally self-interested, so blindly obedient, and so naturally prone to conflict and violence, when our nature is to be social and cooperative (the very reason why we evolved over other human species like Neanderthal)?
So, as I was
covering these 3 studies in my Deviance class at KPI this week, I had to raise
the issue, particularly since I’m teaching 22 Ukrainian students who are most
familiar with “socialism”, but who I think have a very different experience of,
and perspective on issues of authoritarianism and obedience, and its
counterpart, deviance. It’s time for me to go to school, me thinks 😊
so I’ll refrain from saying anything further until we get into it, but already
I can see that these students don’t think of themselves as either “socialists”
or “capitalists” and do not typically frame their attitudes, values and beliefs
in this way. In some ways, I think they can more clearly see the pitfalls, perils
and promising hope of both. They are just one generation removed from the socioeconomic
fallout of the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the corruption and rise of the
oligarchs that took control, but they can also see advantages of moving toward
Western models of capitalism and the opportunities it presents to Ukraine, both
economically and culturally.
It’s a bit disconcerting to see any other country or culture
pursuing the most unhealthy food and bad habits that America has to offer, and
the addictions, disease and waistlines they create. These Ukrainians don’t know
just how beautiful they are! So fit and healthy and hard-working. Kids with
parents playing in parks, OUTSIDE with others every day. They do not spend much
time on the couch just watching TV or playing video games like so many of us
American do, and the benefits to healthy and healthy living are obvious. A
model for Americans to emulate. And believe me, so many of these men and women
could easily be supermodels in our country, for real!
Families are typically close too, which is another attribute
Americans could emulate more. One indication of strong family bonds here is the
fact that nobody refers to their cousins as “cousins”. Here, your cousin is
your “sister” or “brother” when talking about them and that’s exactly how they
see and interact with each other. I envy that, and now, after spending so much
time with him, I’ve found myself quite naturally referring to my brother-in-law,
Oleg, as “my brother” (no disrespect to Mike!).
SCHOOL CHILDREN PERFORMING ON ST. ANDREWS ST.
https://www.viator.com/tours/Kiev/Chernobyl-Tour-from-Kiev/d22377-8392P1
But when I pleaded to Tetyana and Oleg to go with me, they
flatly refused, expressing absolutely no interest in visiting this site or area
(Pripyat). And the more I listened, the more I came to understand that this
major historical event meant something entirely different to Tanya and her
family. They were here, they lived through it. Tanya was a teen at the time,
and Oleg was in a stroller, a baby, but Tanya even remembers the public
announcement to take shelter and get into the house, and the ambiguous
announcements and disinformation campaign that followed. For Tanya and her
family, and for all Ukrainians I imagine, what they remember is the emotions of
alarm, nervousness, panic, and a lot of sadness for the illnesses and death
that resulted from it. And, I’m guessing here, but probably a good deal of
depression. The only thing an American could relate this experience to would be
9-11, but even this doesn’t match the enduring legacy of sickness, pain,
sadness and anger that Chernobyl has left behind for Ukraine, and I’m sure
right here in Kyiv, the closest major city.
Now that I understand the situation better, through
Ukrainian eyes, and after I looked more closely at those tours and what they
offer – a long day of travel, regular radiation checks, and restricted stops at
just a few locations like
these – I will not be taking the Chernobyl tour, ever. Anyway, I feel like
I already took the tour (and saved my $103) by just looking at the EXACT SAME
pictures that every other tourists has taken (or is allowed to?). See
for yourself (the dome, the signs, and the ferris wheel being the
highlights, evidently)!
By the way,
Chernobyl is apparently still active (smoldering):
https://www.science.org/news/2021/05/nuclear-reactions-reawaken-chernobyl-reactor
Let’s talk about another festering observation about
Ukrainian society – Race.
Anyone from America who spends any time in Ukraine can’t
help but think about race. The utter absence of anyone looking black is stark
and very noticeable. In fact, it’s about the first thing you notice when you
first get here. Walking around Kyiv, part of a broader region that was,
historically, the same region where the word, “Caucasia” comes
from (listen up, white folks!), I’ve been thinking about race and racism lately.
It turns out the subway ride is a perfect time for philosophical reflections and
personal introspection Some of you will laugh at the fact that I didn’t already
know that 😊
I think I need to offer a disclaimer of sorts at this point.
Since my travels here in 2010-11 and 2013-14, today’s “Kyivites”, as they are
called, are noticeably more diverse. I see black people! Almost every day. Not
many, but you do see color on the streets (black and brown people of all
ethnicities and countries). I even met a Hispanic guy who lives in Odessa who
was from San Diego! So frequent are sightings, that I no longer have the urge
to rush up to them and give em a big sympathetic hug of solidarity. To them, I
just look like another Caucasian in a sea of 7 million others, but I see them
and applaud their bravery and willful adaptation to this very, very different
culture. I can’t wait to see a Ukrainian city like Kyiv ten years from now!
I found peanut butter!
Also, though, I can examine my own cultural lenses better,
and have realized something less obvious about Ukrainian diversity, which is,
that diversity is not marked by skin tone, but more so in diverse nationalities
and ethnicities. Of course, there are ethnic Ukrainians and Russian-Ukrainians,
but also Armenians, Georgians, Romanians, Belarusians, Poles and Hungarians,
Jews and Germans, Turks and Tatars,
all born and raised right here in Ukraine, just to name a few. An American won’t
notice much because we are socialized to distinguish race/ethnicity primarily
by color. Here, that idea is foreign. There is even a kind of innocence about
Ukrainian attitudes toward race (speaking generally here, not individuals).
They have their nationalist racists (e.g. right sector) like
everyone else, and regional racism elsewhere, but your average Ukrainian has no
hatred for the different ethnicities and cultures that exist here, no “immigration
crisis”, and they seem puzzled and amused at America’s fascination with skin
color as a marker of it.
So my normally salacious and provocative conversation in my
Deviance class, where I raise the awkward and offensive emotions that arise
when we talk about words like “nigger”, and the changing meaning and symbolic
significance over time in our country (as a manifestation of both deviance and
conformity), falls of deaf ears when you bring it up with Ukrainian undergrads.
They do not fully understand this word and its social impact, so the reaction
is more puzzled. They do not fully understand, for example, why it’s okay to
refer to black folks as “black” or “African-American” but not “negro” or “colored”.
It just confuses them. But it also exposes our idiosyncrasies about race, and about
color as race. A typical Ukrainian can TRUTHFULLY claim, “I don’t see race”, in
the context of color, whereas an American cannot. Of course, they notice
varying skin tones, but it doesn’t carry the cultural weight that it does in
the States. I’m oversimplifying the racial contours of Ukraine here, but this
basic observation is something any American will experience and think about
here.
In class, the only thing I could think to compare it to (the
weight of words) was a similarly offensive Ukrainian (or Russian?) word like “Zalupa”
(think Chalupas at Taco Bell), which I understand to be offensive in the same
way, but since nobody in my family or in my class will tell me what it means, I
can take no offense, personally 😊
DEVIANCE STUDENTS!! My audience and I would really
like to hear what you have to say about this (hint, hint…comment button is at
the bottom!)
So as I continue to reflect on expressions of diversity, and
kindness and openness to other cultures, it is in this same spirit of humankind-ness
(great book, highly recommended) that I have befriended the people I have been
most afraid of when in Ukraine – the security babushkas!
I have to tell you, I have always been terrified by this
group of babushkas – the old Ukrainian ladies that work as security guards (of
a sort), at the entrance to many bathrooms, in museums, and especially the ones
that work as concierges at most apartment entrances. They are solely
responsible for making sure only tenets enter, not strangers. As one of those
strangers, I always get the extra long glare and sometimes a slew of angry-sounding
words shouted behind me as I try to shuffle quickly past them without notice
(they were just asking for my room number). And when I mumble something
resembling “ya nyet gavareech paruski”, which they never seem to understand, it
only gets more tense as they continue shouting foreign words at me. I just
freeze, especially when I’m alone at the entrance. Am I supposed to give them
gryvna (money)? Am I doing something wrong? What are they asking me to do or
say? It seems impolite to just keep walking and not reacting to their adamant
request, whatever it is. So, while Tetyana was out of town for two weeks and I
was alone in the apartment, I had to rectify this situation. It was an
unsustainable situation.
So, before I was ready to leave the apartment each day to
get groceries, water, or to meet Oleg to go downtown, I would first practice a
couple useful (Russian) words to utter to these ladies as I passed by. I even
pre-prepared a voice response on my Google Translator app where I stated my
name, my relationship to the apartment’s owner (Oleg), my room #, and what I
was doing there by myself (but that didn’t go so well, I’ll explain some other
time). It turned out, I didn’t need that translator. All I had to do was say
(in Russian), “My name is Ken. What is your name?, which always provoked a big
smile in my (three) security babushkas and, over time, became “Good morning.
How are you? I am good”. I have now successfully endeared myself to the scary
security babushkas and now look forward to saying “good day (insert 1 of 3
names here – Lida, Lyubov, and….you guessed it, Tatyana)” each time I walk by! I
think I am the butt of their jokes because they giggle at me every time, but I
don’t care. I’m not terrified of them anymore! I will try to capture this daily
ritual on video if I can pull it off without freaking them out, stay tuned 😊
This daily ritual, by the way, is immediately followed by
the tin box death trap ride, the Soviet-era elevator I must use several times a
day to get up to my brother’s 10th floor apartment. This elevator –
or should I say – this moving coffin of death begins when you push the little
silver button that ignites a flurry of clanking, whizzing, buzzing, and ticking
sounds as the menacing tin can descends down to the lobby. Then an
extraordinarily long pause before the creaking metal doors separate, only to
reveal a dimly lit gray metal box exactly 3ft X 3ft, and which never quite
settles exactly level to the floor you open up on, and which I’m sure does NOT
meet OSHA standards of safety. It’s especially creepy when the elevator lights
aren’t working. I mean it’s pitch black in there, can’t see your hand in front
of your face. But you can hear all those noisy, metallic clanking sounds and
even a kind of steely moan coming from the cold metal floor. It sounds like a
drawn out “I ache!”, like “iiiiiiiiaaaaayyyyykkkkkk”. And it tugs and jerks on
each floor as it moans, but of course you won’t know how long it’ll last
because there is no lighted display to tell you what floor you are currently
on. And all this happens at the exact same
moment you are wondering, “how high up am I right now?” and, “If this rusty cable
finally snaps, would I survive?” - and then, as if it wants your agony to linger
just a little longer, when you reach your floor, it doesn’t open for……like……………..like…..eight….…seconds.
But when it does open, like a ray of sunshine in the
morning, and when you start breathing again (did I mention it stinks?), your
stress level drops back down to just your average panic attack, you stop
sweating, and normal stress levels of being in a foreign country return.
Here,
I’ll show you, let’s go for a ride, shall we?
Another project I’ll share with you next time, is a re-make
of A Bob Marley’s song, “Three
Little Birds”, rewritten in Ukrenglish (my made-up word) with some original
lyrics (ex. First line is “don’t worry, about Ukraine…”, written and sung in
Ukrainian) and, hopefully, sung by my Deviance students. Look for it next time!
That’s enough for now, more to come. Here’s my updated bird
list, some exotic lifers included:
BIRD LIST FOR UKRAINE
Aug-Sept 15th
2 Eurasian Moorhen: https://birdwatch.
4 Eurasian Magpie: https://birdwatch.org.
30 Eurasian
Tree Sparrow: https://birdwatch.
1 European Robin https://birdwatch.org.ua/en/species/Erithacus_rubecula
3 Mute Swan https://birdwatch.org.ua/en/species/Cygnus_olor
1 Pied/White Wagtail https://birdwatch.org.ua/en/species/Motacilla_alba
50 Hooded
Crow: https://birdwatch.org.
2 Eurasian
Kestrel: https://birdwatch.
100 House
sparrow: https://birdwatch.
50 Mallard: https://birdwatch.
50 Herring
gull: https://birdwatch.org.
1,000,000,000 Rock
Pigeon: https://birdwatch.org.
All birds in Ukraine: https://birdwatch.
Very enjoyable reading Ken. Having visited Ukraine in the past I enjoy everything but especially enjoy your elevator experiences.
ReplyDelete: ) Love from mom.
"While I do think of myself as your teacher/professor, I also think of myself as a learner, just like you, " Love this.
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