Three observations from Ukraine
I travelled home for a visit, after three years away. “I’m going to Ukraine”, — evoked two kinds of reactions from my friends in Australia. One — “You must be excited! Have a grand time!” Another — “Why?…”
My visit was short, I didn’t even experience air raid sirens. “It’s a rarity — to have six full days of quiet!” — my Mum said. But I’d rather I have had that experience. It teaches you something about the reality of death in any given moment, — a reality that Ukrainians take philosophically, or perhaps — matter-of-factly.
I’ve always loved my city, but this time, even my parents got surprised with my non-stop singing praise to Lviv. Truth is, the city changed a lot — for the better. Against the backdrop of the war, the visible growth and vibrancy of Lviv felt special.
My observations from Lviv are just a glimpse. I hope to come again soon, and stay longer… For now, however, here are the three themes of this visit: the risk, the humor and the beauty.
The risk
Assessing risks is counterintuitive. After all, there are only two outcomes — a missile strikes your home or it doesn’t. Putin launches a nuke or he doesn’t. Russian soldiers hit the Zaporizhiia power plant or they don’t.
Assigning a probability to binary events is tricky, and even once assigned, a number makes little sense. If the risk is 20%, it’s not as if you lose your home or loved ones in 20 out of a 100 parallel realities.
Decision-making under risk may be part of the curriculum I teach, but I have no illusions about my own rationality: it’s constrained. My thoughts in the lead-up to the trip oscillated between “Chill — no big deal” to “WTF — 20% chance of a nuclear attack?!”
Thoughts are just thoughts — in my account, they are only meant to illustrate one human grappling with risk assessments. But it helps to recognize that this particular human was very far away from war when thinking those thoughts.
When in Ukraine, this very human forgot all about the risk, the war, and the nuclear blackmail. Apart from one small reminder: a bottle of Potassium Iodide I packed into my purse and carried everywhere, together with a passport and some cash.
The humor
Perhaps I should’ve started my observations with topics less grim than the nuclear risks. I mean, Ukrainians laugh it all off (yes, literally — check out the Ukrainian Twitter, and see for yourself!).
Let me make some more cheerful observations — of how people live, love, and laugh in the face of stress and loss. Don’t forget: Ukrainians are the nation that elected a comic for a president, only to watch him become a charismatic wartime leader.
My first dose of cheer came from the Ukrainian radio, after crossing the Polish border. I love the Ukrainian radio! LvivFM in the background in the car, — and I was instantly up to date on all the latest jokes on the Russian “backward-moving offensive”.
The beauty
Every time I come home, it hits me: Gosh, the streets look like a cover of a fashion magazine! I rave about it for a week or two, half-envious, half-proud. And then — I go shopping ( when in Rome — you know…). Oh well, these days, there’s an excuse — to support the Ukrainian economy.
In all seriousness though, this year I actually paid attention to where each item is produced . And it led to yet another re-discovery: that Ukrainian-made clothes are fashionable, affordable, and well-made.
Final words
Now, I’m in Riga, a city of my University years. Riga surprised me, too — with the abundance of Ukrainian flags and even more abundant spoken Russian. “Riga seems to display a greater number of Ukrainian flags per square meter that Lviv does”, — I jokingly observed to a Latvian friend.
Today, I wandered the streets of Old Riga with a nagging question in mind: what do the Russians in Latvia think of all this? And what do they say they think? A research question for sociologists out there.
P.S. Thanks for reading! I keep my posts free, but here’s a quick way to say thanks — donate to United24 or the KSE Foundation, and #StandWithUkraine! This is the best way to invest in freedom and ensure we live in a safe world.
