I know everyone in the States probably knows about this video already, but I just absolutely love it. I heard about it earlier, but caught it on my cousin’s blog today while trying to distract myself from paperwork. So just in case I catch a few people who haven’t seen it yet

Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.

Ok, so this is a belated birthday post, but here is a video from our small celebration and card signing in Kyiv on the 18th. The event was held by the Eastern European Development Institute, the Nigerian Community of Kyiv and the African Center. Special guest speakers included the Ambassador of South Africa and Mr. Stanislaw Cieniuch, the first Ambassador of Poland to South Africa.

Of course, this pales in comparison to the crowd of over 40,000 that came out for the celebration in Hyde Park. 46,664 to be exact.

The 46664 Campaign:

46664 is an African response to the global HIV AIDS epidemic that invites the whole world to take the fight in hand. It’s our aim to raise awareness overall and educate the younger generations in particular. By gaining global backing for the cause, we will also raise funds to directly assist the many HIV AIDS projects we support. We intend to do this by using our international ambassadors to spread our messages of hope, our calls to action, our pleas for compassion and our requests for assistance and support for those living with HIV AIDS.

46664 (we say four, double six, six four) was Nelson Mandela’s prison number when he was imprisoned on Robben Island, off Cape Town in South Africa. He was jailed in 1964 for 27 years for leading the liberation movement against apartheid and for his impassioned stance on the rights of everyone to live in freedom. He was prisoner number 466, imprisoned in 1964. The Robben Island prisoners were never referred to by their names, but rather by their numbers and year of imprisonment - hence 46664 was Nelson Mandela’s number…

It was for precisely this reason that Mr. Mandela decided to use this powerful, symbolic number in the fight against HIV AIDS. Through this simple, poignant means he has demonstrated and communicated to the world that people must never be reduced to simple numbers - we are human beings, all equal, and those infected and living with HIV AIDS have the same right to live and to be treated as equals…

It is continually imperative for us at 46664 to make an impact on a global scale in order to draw attention to the HIV AIDS issue; so far we have had success thanks to a worldwide audience of over 1 billion people either viewing or listening to our concerts on TV, radio and the internet…

We will continue to produce these unique concerts combining international, local and African artists joining together symbolically onstage to demonstrate their support for Mr. Mandela’s 46664 campaign. We will also be staging significant sporting and other entertainment events worldwide. Nevertheless a major part of our effort now will involve promoting community outreach campaigns that will encourage people to participate in discussions, educational activities, volunteer work and prevention, care and treatment support programmes. To do this we often partner with governments, NGOs and the private sector.

Happy 90th Birthday, Nelson Mandela.

The above quote came from Savik Schuster, whose show, Svoboda, is a popular political discussion and debate forum that attracts some of Ukraine’s most prominent personalities to banter over topics while a live audience electronically agrees or disagrees with the statements of the speaker.

He said, “It seems to me that Lutsenko has gone crazy.” Yuriy Lutsenko, who is the current Minister of Interior of Ukraine, made a statement on Tuesday that has ignited debate not only in Ukraine, but has attracted media attention in Russia and other CIS countries.

From Unian:

Interior Minister of Ukraine Yuri Lutsenko is opposed to attracting foreign workforce in Kyiv.

Thus, speaking at a session in the Kyiv Directorate of the Interior Ministry of Ukraine, the Minister asked the citizenship, immigration, and natural persons registrations department chief about how many residence permits were given to people from the far abroad. Having heard the answer “seventy”, Yuri Lutsenko said: “Do we lack our own workforce? If you want to go to China – you may buy a ticket and often go there on vacation. You may call me a racist, but I will not allow to turn Kyiv into another Kharkiv or Odessa. The instruction is as follows: we give a residence permit only if he marries to our girl. Because shortly I will have to invite the Vietnamese or Chinese to work in police instead of you!”.

Remember that World Bank report that said Ukraine needs more foreign workers to sustain economic growth because of population issues, etc.? Well, apparently Lutsenko disagrees and this is how he chose to express himself. Not to worry, though. Here comes his press agency to the rescue:

The Press Service of the Ministry of Interior has just confirmed Lutsenko’s recent statements, however noted that Mr. Lutsenko’s comments should not be taken so literally, and all he was trying to do is make a point ‘that
registration of aliens is a very serious issue’.

“The Minister’s concern is based on the fact that foreigners in Kyiv committed three times more crimes against Kyivites than crimes committed by Ukrainians against foreigners. This year we deported to their historical homeland 1309 individuals of whom 485 are from the Caucases. It is this category (Caucases) who steal and rob. The Minister, who is aware of these statistics, acted in defence of his own citizens”.

In fact, this defense isn’t even creative. The Russian government has been known for quoting the exact same reasons for slacking on combating racist and xenophobic violence within its borders. Yet when these numbers are quoted, the corruption that occurs in the court systems, particularly in dealing with cases against foreigners is, of course, never mentioned. The lack of respect for legal or human rights during the court process is not mentioned. As well, in Ukraine, the recorded number of attacks against foreigners is far below the actual number of violent crimes committed because they’re often too scared to go to the police. And not without reason. And, for example, these statistics also include the arrests of foreigners who have defended themselves after being attacked.

Can you see why Ukraine will have an extremely difficult time combating the rise of racist and xenophobic violence if even the top level of the government cannot look at the problems and issues for what they are, and instead merging everything together to create an unclear and misleading picture of the situation?

I wanted to post these pictures I just took from the small balcony of my apartment. I am going to go ahead and say I’m pretty lucky to be living where I do in the city

This is Slava Park, which is directly across the street. It’s the place where soldiers occasionally gather to blast loud band music at unreasonable hours of your Saturday or Sunday morning. Also famous for its bride parades.

One of the most famous sites in Kyiv - the Pecherska Lavra

Another view of the Lavra, however this time you can see Rodina Mat, as well. Or as she is so fondly known to us: the Iron Maiden.

So, I suppose it is about time for a personal update while I wait for my laundry to finish up.

First, Happy Birthday Mom!

And Happy belated Independence Day. Unfortunately, being a Fulbright doesn’t get you an invitation to the fancy Embassy 4th of July Party and it looks like the American Chamber of Commerce Picnic is going to be rained out today. Oh well. To be honest, I see fireworks from my apartment almost every night so they’ve sadly lost their charm.

Here are some pictures of Kyiv I took the other day while wandering near Universitet metro:

A Ministry building of some sort:

Lovely fountain:

Well, I have officially moved on to my extension project. The focus has significantly narrowed. At first, I had planned to do more review of research than original research by collecting and drawing connections between existing material (the little there is) on the rise of xenophobic violence and attitudes in Ukraine. Now, I will be concentrating on the experience of foreign students in Kyiv. There is only one pre-existing study that we know of, so it is going to be more original research than I had intended to collect, but I think it will be worth it. Over the next two months, we will be gathering focus groups of students from a selection of Kyiv’s universities to find out what the process has been like from the beginning (in their home country) to the point they are at now, and how their experiences in Ukraine have affected them. Just from collecting background information and making initial student contacts, I think this is going to be a really interesting project and it will say a lot not only about the life of international students in Ukraine, but also about the larger situation facing foreigners in Kyiv and the Ukrainian higher educational system.

I spent a semester of my own in an Ukrainian university in Chernivtsi (voted, by the way, to be the best city in Ukraine to live in. Sorry, available in Russian only) I never had to deal directly with the administration of the university, but I also never feared for my safety the way my African student friends here do. Just from reports from students who have attempted to talk to their administrators to address their concerns and improve safety on campuses, it seems the administrations are fairly inaccessible and lack a serious attitude about the threatening situation facing their students.

I should probably explain the title of the post at some point, right? From my apartment in Kyiv, I can either walk or take buses or marshrutkas to wherever I need to go. The 527 is one of those marshrutkas, and yesterday, I passed up my 2 hryvnia bill and patiently waited for my change. As I noticed the driver was not making any effort to pass the change back to me, I looked above the windshield to see that the price had jumped up to 2 hryvnias a ride from it’s original 1.75. To put it into perspective, it’s not that big of a jump. 2 hryvnias is roughly 44 cents. But still! Inflation is taking its toll and the dollar is slowly, but surely dropping in value in Ukraine. I guess the hryvnia couldn’t stay at 5 to the dollar forever. It has since 2005.

Inflation, however, is definitely making life harder with an overall rate somewhere between 25 and 31%. Everything from rent prices to taxis to the price of meat and fruit is going up, up, up. When (if) I leave to come back to Buffalo on September 10th, I may be getting out just in time to save a few bucks.

Speaking of coming back to Buffalo, I’m going to need a job. Anybody have any ideas? After seeing that the U.S. lost another 62,000 jobs, I’m feeling a little nervous.

The World Bank recently released a report on what gaps Eastern European countries need to fill if they want to sustain their current growth, Innovation, Inclusion, and Integration: From Transition to Convergence in Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union.

Countries of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union have put the crisis of the 1990s behind them, but they need to innovate, include all their citizens in the development of their countries, and integrate with the broader global economy if they want to sustain growth, says a new World Bank report.

The International Herald Tribune focused in on one of the suggestions that the report makes concerning the workforce of these countries, which is to bring in more foreign workers to fill the gaps created by population decline (both natural and due to native workers going elsewhere):

Countries in eastern Europe will have to open up to new waves of immigrants to prevent their economies being hobbled by labor shortages caused by rapidly aging populations, a senior World Bank economist warned Wednesday.

After years of exporting workers westward, Poland, Ukraine, Bulgaria and the Baltic states must bring in labor from outside Europe to offset their demographic decline, or forget hopes of catching up with Western economies, said Pradeep Mitra, the World Bank’s chief economist for Europe and Central Asia.

“There’s no question that immigration will be needed to fill labor shortages,” Mitra told reporters. “The trade off is: accept migration in a regulated way or don’t be serious about converging with EU 15 living standards.”

Mitra was referring to the 15 Western nations who made up the European Union before the entry of 12 other European nations since 2004.

Launching a World Bank report on the region’s economy, Mitra said falling birth rates were expected to lead to Ukraine’s population falling by a fifth by 2025. Bulgaria, Georgia, Belarus, Latvia, Russia and Lithuania are all expected to see population declines of more than 10 percent over the same period.

U.N. data show just 200,000 foreigners are registered as living in Ukraine, mostly from other former-Soviet nations. Experts warn that without action to address looming labor shortages, the country of 46 million will not be able to maintain its healthy economic growth, which topped 7 percent last year.

“There is not an organized policy to identify those gaps and to seek legal mechanism to fill those gaps,” said Jeffrey Labovitz, head of the International Organization for Migration mission in Ukraine.

Pradeep Mitra also acknowledged that there is the possibility a sudden influx of foreigners may trigger backlash from the native population. The IHT article discusses the already rising rate of xenophobic violence in Ukraine.

It seems that xenophobic attacks in Ukraine will increase whether or not Ukraine decides to boost its efforts to bring in more foreign labor if the government doesn’t uniformly recognize the problem and deal with it appropriately. The government still releases conflicting information and policy statements that do everything from recognize the problem to fall back on statistics that “show” crimes by foreigners are increasing (thus creating further resentment against them) to saying that there is no racism in Ukraine, there are only manifestations of racism. I am not sure where the author of the IHT article gathered her statistics on attacks in Ukraine against foreigners with possible racial motivations. The only source it cites is “the police,” which, not surprisingly, are a weak link in the response to racially motivated-attacks in Ukraine. So, the source seems strange to me.

This post will not argue whether or not Ukraine needs more foreign workers to fill its labor needs. The World Bank report has already come to a conclusion about that with facts and figures. However, can Ukraine really handle an influx of foreign workers when the country has a broken immigration system with a lack of an organized policy and a problem with xenophobic attacks that is increasing in numbers and the level of violence? It will be interesting to see what the official response (more likely responses) from the Ukrainian government will be towards this report.

Today is World Refugee Day. I hope the events in Buffalo went well.

This article was in the New York Times on June 18:

Refugees From Wars and Persecution Increase, U.N. Agency Says

GENEVA — The number of refugees fleeing to other countries to escape conflict and persecution rose in 2007 for the second year as factors from climate change to over scarce resources threatened to increase the flow, the United Nations refugee agency warned Tuesday.

A total of 11.4 million refugees were under the care of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in 2007, including some 400,000 feeling conflict in their home countries, the agency said. The report for 2006 numbered 9.9 million.

The total was modest compared with the 17.8 million refugees in 1992 at the time of the Balkan wars, but after a steady drop between 2001 and 2005 it represented a worrying trend , the relief agency said.

“We are now faced with a complex mix of global challenges that could threaten even more forced displacement in the future,” Antonio Guterres, the high commissioner for refugees, said in a statement. “They range from multiple new conflict-related emergencies in world hotspots to bad governance, climate-induced environmental degradation that increase competition for scarce resources and extreme price hikes that have hit the poor the hardest and are generating instability in many places.”

The number of people displaced by conflict but remaining within their own countries also rose in 2007 to 26 million, the agency said, citing statistics provided by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, a private organization.

The conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan accounted for more than half the world’s refugees in 2007. More than 2 million Iraqis have sought refuge in Syria and Jordan, and 3 million Afghans in Pakistan and Iran, the refugee agency said…

The latest statistics contradicted a number of misconceptions about the impact and distribution of refugee patterns, officials said, starting with the notion that Western countries admit most fugitives from conflict.

Instead, 80 percent of refugees remain in developing countries in the immediate vicinity of their own country, the UN agency said.

Pakistan accepted more than 2 million refugees and Syria 1.5 million in 2007 while the United States sheltered 281,000, the statistics showed.

The U.S. Committee for Refugees released its 2008 World Refugee Survey, which includes a list of the worst places for refugees to be in displacement or to try to resettle. These countries include Bangladesh, Russia, Europe, Malaysia, China, Iraq, India, Kenya, Sudan, and Thailand. More than 2 million of the world’s refugees are located in these countries. Ukraine, despite the small number of refugees residing within its borders as it rarely grants refugee status, has a serious problem with refoulement, and a rising problem with violence against visible minorities, is also among the world’s least safest places for refugees.

As the New York Times article stated, Iraq produced the highest number of refugees worldwide. According to USCR, this is the third year in a row that this has been the case. Although the U.S. stated in 2007 that it would resettle 7,000 Iraqi refugees, the U.S. only resettled 1,608. Refugees International, UNHCR, and Amnesty International recognize the situation facing Iraqi refugees as a crisis in desperate need of attention.

Refugees International’s page on the situation states that one in five Iraqis have been displaced:

According to the UN Refugee Agency and the International Organization for Migration in 2007, almost 5 million Iraqis had been displaced by violence in their country, the vast majority of which had fled since 2003. Over 2.4 million vacated their homes for safer areas within Iraq, up to 1.5 million were living in Syria, and over 1 million refugees were inhabiting Jordan, Iran, Egypt, Lebanon, Turkey and Gulf States.

There were reports last year that Iraqi refugees were actually returning to Iraq because of the decrease in violence. However, UNHCR noted that these refugees often returned to Iraq because they had ran out of resources in whatever country they had fled to after violence continued to spiral at home. As well, once they attempted to return home, they often found that their homes had either been destroyed or taken over, which forced them into secondary displacement contributing to an increased number of internally displaced persons.

With the number of refugees at over 14 million worldwide, there are, of course, other crisis situations that have lacked the kind of international attention needed to provide assistance to people fleeing from conflict and persecution:

Sudan, which is dealing with two separate refugee situations: Darfur/Chad and Southern Sudan. While the resettlement process is ongoing in Southern Sudan, it has been a fragile process as the situation regarding the Peace Agreement tends to shift on a regular basis. The crisis in Darfur continues to destroy the lives of hundreds of thousands of Sudanese, and is especially affecting women. In fact, it has come to a point where gender-based violence is a regular part of the lives of female refugees of all ages trying to survive the conflict that plagues their homeland.

Sudan is also home to over 300,000 refugees from the neighboring countries of Eritrea, Chad, Ethiopia, and the Central African Republic. Unsurprisingly, it has been found that the human rights of these refugees are not protected during their time in Sudan.

Refugee International on Sudan, UNHCR on South Sudan, UNHCR on Darfur/Chad

Burma (or Myanmar), where refugees are displaced not only by the persecution they suffer in their home country, but also from the recent Cyclone that forced over a million people out of their homes and has shown that the government could care less about the survival and protection of its citizens.

Millions of people are currently forced from their homes in a kind of horror that no one should ever know. Today, we should remember them and pledge to support them as they struggle to survive.

Give Refugees a Hand on Facebook

Last night, Lenny Kravitz rocked Palatz Sportu in Kyiv. I know the picture quality is not super, but I think the sound turned out ok.

A few things from the list of 12 Things You Don’t Know About Lenny Kravitz from What’s On Kiev:

- He’s Ukrainian!
(In part at least.) He’s the son of a Ukrainian Jewish father and a black mother of Caribbean descent. Kravitz considers himself both Christian and Jewish, describing the faiths as “all the same to me.” He also notes that the melange of spirituality he inherited “has been an important issue in my growth.”

-His father, Sy Kravitz, was a news producer for NBC television. He was also a jazz promoter, which allowed him to make friends with Duke Ellington, Sarah Vaughan, Count Basie, Ella Fitzgerald, Bobby Short, Miles Davis and other jazz greats. Ellington played ‘Happy Birthday’ for little Lenny one year.

- In 1993, Kravitz wrote ‘Line Up’ for Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler, and appeared on Mick Jagger’s solo album ‘Wandering Spirit’, in doing a version of Bill Withers’ soul classic, ‘Use Me’. That year Kravitz also got to work with his idols Al Green and Curtis Mayfield, two of the great names in soul.

- He’s a vegetarian. Which is a shame for him really, as he’ll miss out on great Ukrainian cuisine such as shashlyk and salo.

A letter to the editor in the Opinion section of the New York Times:

To the Editor:

In “The Sex Speech” (column, June 12), Nicholas D. Kristof urges Barack Obama to address women’s rights issues like maternal mortality.

As it happens, Senator Obama has an opportunity right now to demonstrate his commitment to women and girls.

The Trafficking Victims Protection Act is up for reauthorization. In December 2007, the House overwhelmingly passed a bill strengthening the law to enable more effective prosecution of sex traffickers. Sadly, these criminal provisions were dropped by Senators Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Sam Brownback in the trafficking reauthorization bill they recently introduced.

Senator Obama could help ensure that the Senate legislation incorporates the criminal justice provisions included in the House bill and does justice to victims of sex trafficking. Such action could go a long way in establishing his credibility with women voters.

Jessice Neuwirth
President, Equality Now
New York, June 12, 2008

Yes, this would establish more credibility among women voters after Senator Obama fought a long, hard campaign against a woman candidate.

However, let us not forget that human trafficking increasingly affects men and children, as well. Also, women are increasingly found to be trafficked for purposes of labor as well as sexual exploitation. Modern slavery is really an issue that affects all people in all countries, whether they live in a country of origin, destination or transit (of victims). It is a criminal process that affects the security and challenges the law enforcement of every country, and it is a serious violation of human rights.

In the international community, trafficking is recognized as a form of gender based violence (article 2, United Nations Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women) because the problem, as it is currently known, disproportionally affects women.

While human rights are violated during the process of being trafficked, according to a report produced by La Strada International, trafficking in women is also connected to rights abuses that occur prior to being trafficked. This includes domestic violence, violations of women’s rights in the labor market, and a lack of rights and social protection for female migrants (now comprising approximately half of all migrants).

Domestic violence increases a woman’s risk to trafficking by acting as a catalyst to make the person feel the need to escape at all costs, which traffickers exploit. It also erodes self-esteem, leaving the victim to feel as if she deserves what is happening to her. In the case of children, it may force children to be absent from school, or to engage in risky behavior, which lowers their future job prospects and increases their vulnerability to trafficking.
(from Stephen Warnath’s “Examining the Intersection between Trafficking in Persons and Domestic Violence,” 2007)

A study on the physical and psychological health consequences of women and adolescents trafficked in Europe found that 60% of victims experienced some form of violence prior to being trafficked.

The violation of women’s rights in the labor market including the gender pay gap, discrimination in hiring practices, sexual harassment, and the feminization of poverty and unemployment worldwide, are factors that, in and of themselves, prevent women from advancing, but also fuel things like human trafficking.

While I agree with the writer that Senator Obama should actively engage in the reauthorization of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, it is also important that he continue to support measures against domestic violence and gender-based violence, as well as put effort into addressing women’s rights in the labor market as all of these issues are inextricably connected and need international support to overcome.

A topic near-and-dear to my heart, and an organization I spent my college years with, Journey’s End Refugee Services is holding a two-day celebration from June 20 to 21 for World Refugee Day. Here is the link to the website and the announcement listed below. The picture is from WRD 2006, but I absolutely love it.

Come Celebrate

WORLD REFUGEE DAY
June 20 & 21

With:
Episcopal Migration Ministries of WNY
St. John’s-Grace Episcopal Church
Journey’s End Refugee Services
Vive LaCasa Refugee Shelter

Friday 6/20
Attend an Inter-Faith service with refugee testimonies,
prayers, choir pieces, and concluded with a candlelight
vigil/walk to Colonial Circle.
Begins at 8:00PM –St. John’s-Grace
Lafayette & Colonial Circle(Richmond Ave.)
Bring a personal care item, or household item, to donate to the
refugee agencies!

Saturday 6/21
The celebration continues on Bidwell Pkwy. With musical
entertainment throughout the afternoon, refugee agency
displays and awards, films inside the church, liquid
refreshments, and others. Meet and greet refugees.
Begins at 12PM and ends at 5PM.
Bring a personal care item, or household item, to donate to the
refugee agencies!

Refugees in Western New York contribute to the community, and have an enduring and contagious spirit. I’ll still be in Ukraine when this happens, but I would encourage anyone to attend either of the days and get to know people with a tremendous life experience.