It's About the Children

seven-generations.com

Euromaidan 2013 could not have a more important agenda!  At first, the whole protest movement seemed to be about the people's anger with the government fumble in not signing the EU Association documents as was planned, promoted, advertised and celebrated all over Ukraine. Of course finances come into the question but there is more.  The young democracy emerged from its empire, feudalism and colonial serfdom relatively recently.  And the nightmarish embrace of the past is trying voraciously to devour the opportunities of the future.  Some of Ukraine's "bear-ish" neighbours, spawning many like-minded "bear-cubs", have persistently asserted themselves into the very thought patterns of this young nation.

Given a good reading of the Ukrainian psyche, it could mean that the children are anxious, feeling bullied and worried about family members themselves. Ukrainian folklore and literature is full of these themes. Know yourself, observe and know others, work around obstacles, don't react, guard your self esteem, recognize your significance, help others, speak truth to power, recognize insults as childish, use wisdom and laugh to restore perspective. But nightmares of past atrocities, past injustices, past incidents that prevented self reliant actualization have dogged Ukrainians for a long time.

The long list of persistent stress-ors that have impacted on the Ukrainian agenda are signals of serious problems that need healing. Every caring person, Ukrainian or otherwise, wants to contribute to their children's better future, to give them the tools for engaging the world in a powerful and satisfying manner. Everyone wants their children's success, happiness, and peace. And most wise people know it "takes a village to raise a child", "nobody is an island unto himself".

Ukraine's international diaspora has had the distance, time and opportunity to infuse its children with values, social and historical understandings which create pockets of Ukrainian identity. Crucially, those of us children, raised in the "little villages" around the world have a positive sense of self, identifying with ancestral homeland in a myriad of small and seemingly insignificant ways. Our aspirational neighbourhoods have shaken any vestige of economic or feudal bondage to our past, and this is the envy of people in Ukraine.

Euromaidan 2013 has coalesced in its emotionally resolute, ethical stance to correct the strategic focus of their government's work, from chumming with thuggish neighbours, to creating vibrant, healthy communities, economically healthy neighbourhoods and healthy friends for all their children's children.