myrosia

Замріяно пливе ранкова каламуть.

Спокійні дерева у маренні глибокім

Горять, немов свічки. І часу вічні кроки


Нікому не дано пізнати і збагнуть.

Долина тихо спить. Та неба сиза ртуть

Уже розгойдана. Під парусом високим

Поранок виплива — довічного уроки

Дано пізнати і дано забуть.


Тож стелься знов, дорого невідома!

Хай будуть радощі, і зради, біль і втома —

Усе, як од віків. І втіха голуба...

Хай усміхаються нам обрії незнані,

Хай люблять, зраджують, і люблять знов кохані.

Хай буде бій, хай буде боротьба.

* * *

Василь Стус

Фільм про подорож Перкалаби до села Перкалаба можна подивитись тут:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=679278996373765482

Myroslava Keryk, Natalia Ryabinska

Natalia: Mid-80-ies, 1 of May Parade, Kharkiv. Column of students of the Kharkiv Aviation Institute marches on the Dzerzhinski square. Before them column of the Malyshev Machine-building Plant and follows them the Auto-mobile-building college. In the centre of the square First Secretary of the Regional Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine and other communist leaders tolkaiut rechi (giving speeches). One of them shouts: “Long live Soviet Union!” and columns reply: “Hurrah!” “Long live Communist Party!” and columns – “Hurrah!” Someone from the group of Aviation Institute students shouts “Klaudia Shulzhenko!” and students reply – “NO!” guy: “Lev Leshchenko!” students “NO!” and “Iosif Kobzon!” students – “NO!” and “Andrey Makarevich!” and students “YES, YES, YES!” Voices of students merged with voices of the crowd and nobody noted their irony.

Mira: Mid-90-ies, lecture-hall of the Lviv State University. Students of the first year History department drawing the black list of Soviet singers on the last desk trying by this to cut off from the Soviet past. On that list among others are Lev Leshchenko and Iosif Kobzon, who were instruments of Soviet propaganda. Their repertoire consisted of songs about Soviet army, Soviet Fatherland and cosmonauts. Students from 90-ies L’viv similarly to students from 80-ies Kharkiv believed that these singers who were symbols of the dead Soviet regime are unwanted for their generation will disappear in nearest future.

Present day Russia…
Concert dedicated to the Victory Day (9 of May), Moscow. Among military, children and folk choruses, one-day stars – boys and gilds bands the key figure is Iosif Kobzon. He sings how courageous Soviet soldiers liberated Europe from the Nazis and about today’s powerful and unconquerable Russia. Here is the song:

«Я люблю тебя, Россия»
(I love You, Russia)
(Lyrics: M. Nozhkin, Composer: D. Tuhmanov.
Non-poetic translation of song by authors of the article.)

Я люблю тебя, Россия,
Дорогая наша Русь.
Нерастраченная сила,
Неразгаданная грусть.
Ты размахом необъятна,
Нет ни в чём тебе конца.
Ты веками непонятна
Чужеземным мудрецам.
(I love You, Russia,
Our dear Rus’,
Unspent power,
Undiscovered melancholy,
Unbounded scale,
You have end in nothing.
For ages You are incomprehensible,
To foreign wise men.)

Много раз тебя пытали,
Быть России иль не быть,
Много раз в тебе пытались
Душу русскую убить,
Но нельзя тебя, я знаю,
Ни сломить, ни запугать.
Ты мне - Родина родная,
Вольной волей дорога.
(Many times You were tortured,
To be Russia or not to be,
Many times they tried
To kill in You your Russian soul,
But I know, it is impossible,
Neither break, nor intimidate you.
You are for me – Dear Motherland,
Dear for one's own freedom.)

Check here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6LO8vn98JPk

The same song he was singing during Soviet concerts and sings during Russian one. Kobzon is the main star of many official state concerts like Days of Russian Army, Russian Militsia, Russian Federal Bureau of Security (FSB), Victory Day, etc., etc. However presently he modified his lyrical-patriotic repertoire and besides Soviet time ofitzioze hits he sings songs from and about the pre-Revolution Russian empire and its glorious army.

Contemporary Russian authorities are doing their best to re-establish Russia as superpower in the world and the myth of the Soviet Union as mighty and unconquerable state is essential component in this policy. Soviet leaders, like Stalin are criticized for persecutions, mass killings and creation of GULAG, but at the same time they are glorified for making the Soviet Union (i.e. Russia) the strongest state and with whose opinion everybody counts. For many Russians this is the central point of their identity. Kobzon was the symbol of previous glorious times and is proper to become such for the re-born strong Russia. Being almost dead professionally he managed to find his place in the new conditions. With the same sincerity he was singing about the Communist ideals and presently sings about the White Army officers. His sincerity about what he does and sings nowadays is like his wig, seams even more artificial then it was in the Soviet times. If 20 years ago there were disputes whether he has wig, presently no one has doubts.

P.S. Present life of Soviet song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_nA2JVmSac

Article was written and firstly was published on the www.plotki.net
After editing some parts of this article were not published, so i decided to place here a full version.

Recently I passed through the article of Les Black “Beaches and graveyards: Europe's haunted borders“ on eurozine.com about the small border town between France and Spain in which his life ended philosopher and literary critic Walter Benjamin. The reason of suicide was the denying him possibility to cross that border and possibility to be saved from Holocaust. The author compares this story with present day situation in that town and with impossibility to cross that border for people from Africa for who attempt to escape ends also with death, but this time in the sea.

The new ‘old’ border between new Schengen states like Poland and countries left outside like Ukraine again became difficult to cross. It resembles the situation during the Soviet times with such a difference that now the fences are built from the ‘western’ side to be protected from us ‘unwelcome’ migrants. Here similarly to the sea border of EU people die trying to cross it.

I can understand that each state protects its citizens and especially its labour market, and, thus, implies some requirements on those willing to immigrate into the country. Presently, however, in EU (and Ukraine as well) there is rather fight against migrants rather than discussion how to control it not using authoritarian and how to make the procedure of obtaining legal status or citizenship acceptable for both the state and migrant. So far we see construction of the new “Berlin walls” between EU and other states. It even intensified in recent months what show recent political decisions in France and Italy, like the idea to force migrants to clean Naples from the garbage.

But on the other hand what is with freedom of movement and with right of each human being to live where s/he wants regardless whether s/he is from France, Ukraine or China? Ukrainians to some extent are willing to accept immigration to their state from former Soviet republics, but do not want to agree on the flow of migrants from Africa or Asia. Similarly it is with Poles, who only recently became more open on migrants from the East and in that case from Ukraine, Belarus and Russia and they are reluctant to accept migrants from the countries of so-called third world. Here comes the question to what extent each state could allow immigration and to whom? What criteria the state should employ in choosing these proper and welcome immigrants? How it is related to the human rights?

For me it is important to have possibility to work and to live where I want. Being citizen of some country I would like to cross state borders without problems with visas or at least to receive them without being humiliated. As a migrant to Poland I would like to have similar rights as Poles, especially when I work and pay taxes. I do not want to worry each time when I apply for visa whether I will get it or not and whether it will be of proper type, I do not want to stay in queues for many hours regardless the weather in front of consulates or offices for legalization of residence and then to wait for several moths for decision about temporary residence permit and during which I will have to submit plenty of often absurd documents and to be checked by police. And when I want to start working in Poland on the position, which is according to my education I do not want to work illegally. The procedure of my registration as a foreigner is very complicated and time/money consuming and many employers deny doing it. I want to have health and social insurance that will give me the same possibility of medical care and to provide living when I will be old. So far I have work agreement that do not oblige employer to pay medical and social costs, and many employers prefer such kind of agreement. To have the full medical insurance (ZUS) I would need other tape of work agreement or to buy much expensive insurance, which in the end does not help much. I would still had to pay for medical treatment.

For now I do not have the answer for the questions I posed. What I know that there should be balance between the state’s security and human freedom, and so far there is more concern about so-called safety, but less about freedom. The future will show whether state restrictions and the people needs will meet and there will be some agreement, or there the fight will be still going on.

If to imagine that Ukraine once will become a member of the European Union and Ukrainians will have no problems with visas there will be someone left outside the border. What to do with them? For me the answer is not the closing of borders, but transformation and improving the level of life in sending countries. The borders exist and will exist as long as states exist, but they should not be uncrossable.

Голандія-Франція 4-1
Фантастика!!!
В Амстердамі всі шаленіють. Щастю нема меж! Ще кілька хвилин перед закінченням матчу по вулиці пробігла група голих голандців :-)
Що цікаво голандці дуже обережні в очікуваннях і це мені подобається. Вже було нераз, що вони супер грають, але до фіналу не доходять. Памятаю Голандію-Аргентину в чвертьфіналі. Надіюсь цього разу буде по іншому, бо хочу побачити як голандці скакатимуть в канали. Таке мені сказали в одній з кнайп :-)

Migrationonline blogs:
http://www.migrationonline.cz/blogs/border/

Have a nice reading about troubles with borders...

Contemporary life provides person with various means of communication with family and friends. When someone migrates abroad one of the first things s/he does is to find a way of communication with them. Some time ago when I came to Poland and it was six years ago migrant had only one or two possibilities and it was to use telephone card and to call from the street or home phone or to write emails. The latter I used in communication with friends, but to the family I could only call. There was no internet in my village and my parents did not know how to use it. Similarly it was/is with labour migrants, who does not have access to the internet and do not know how to use it. Presently, however, the means of communication increased and they are of several types.

When I went to the Netherlands two years ago I discovered that there are special mobile companies that specialize in providing cheap services to the migrants. As a result I could call from the Netherlands to Ukraine much cheaper than I did it from Poland. Recently situation also changed in Poland and Ukraine. One of the main mobile providers introduced a special offer to those willing to call to Ukraine. For one who bought sim-card from that company the minute of phone call to Ukraine costs 68 groszy (app. 18 eurocents) per minute. The company probably made research about the composition of migrants in the state and took into account the fact that Ukrainians are the most numerous group of migrants in Poland. Moreover, the webpage of that company is three-lingual: Polish, English and Ukrainian and Ukrainian page contains information about embassies of Ukraine and Poland, including where to find information about visas and work permits. Ukrainian mobile company which wants to have shares in the market also decided to take into account Ukrainian migrants and saw in them a good source of income. This provider these days will introduce a special offer for Ukrainians who work in Italy and will open a network of offices there. Special tariffs for calls to Ukraine will be introduced and all serviced will be provided in Ukrainian.

One woman told me that when she went to work to Poland her children stayed in small town near L’viv and they did not have phone, so they have to go to neighbours to receive her calls. Presently they all have mobile phones and she easily can contact them and they can send her messages or call. The children of other women, approximately 55 years old lived in a village and they in order to receive her calls had to travel to the nearest town. But after she bought them mobile phones everything changed. Moreover, her son, who lives in L’viv has internet at home and she learned how to use skype and now they often talk. This leads to another mean of communication – internet.

Last summer I was in internet club in L’viv and there came girl around twenty years old with her Italian boyfriend and she brought there her father to teach him how to use Skype. Such programs like skype or icq are commonly used by students, but slowly they become a mean of communication for labour migrants. Many of my friends from Central Europe, whose parents work in Spain or Portugal bought them computers to have better and cheaper communication with them. They taught parents how to use internet and programs like skype or email.

The communication with family for migrants, and especially labour ones includes not only phone calls, but also sending them money or some goods. Few years ago people used various means to send or to carry money back home (some still do) and there were: hiding them in socks, toothpaste, clothes, letters, etc. But the customers who checked them on the border or mafia who were “welcoming” them on roads or bus/train stations in Ukraine forced migrants to change the habits and to use other ways of transfer – banks and companies which specialize in money transfers and provide special services for Ukrainian labour migrants. One of such companies is Western Union, the advertisement of which in Ukrainian one can find in the Warsaw office of Mazowiecki department for foreigners. The advertisements of this company appear from time to time in the Ukrainian and Polish TV. Ukrainian labour migrants are the main target group for this company and it even lowered the commissions for the transfers in order not to loose clients. However, for money transfers one has to pay, thus some people keep hiding money in letters and presents.

Since migrants need to send some presents back home there was created the whole infrastructure which provides a post services for them. My friend, whose mother works in Italy and whom she joined after one year usually was going to some travel agency to pick up letters or some packages sent by her mother. When I asked whether she has some relatives in that agency that they bring her letters, she replied ‘no’ and that there is a special mail service for labour migrants in Italy. There are some people who drive minibuses between Ukraine and Italy and carry packages back and forth. To Ukraine they bring coffee “Lavazza”, olive oil or some fancy clothes and back some home-made food or Ukrainian specialities like salo or horilka and in both directions – letters. Later when I went to Amsterdam some Ukrainian told me that here it works as well. There is one guy who comes each 3 weeks and brings and takes packages. Such service costs 1 euro per kilo. Since I had 25 kilos of books and photocopies I had to use his services. Presently I am again in Amsterdam again and I hope this guy still works, because I am going to have some kilos of papers.

All these mentioned contemporary means of communication make that for migrant her/his family seems closer. However, besides them the old mean, that is letter which one can hold in hands and re-reed remained important way of communication for migrants. I am, similarly to my friends, a product of modern times and internet-addict who almost forgot how to use pen and how to write normal letters. What is more important - how it is nice to receive them. In that respect one can take example from labour migrants and to learn again how to write letters. So, I start writing…

Мені страшенно сподобалась акція групи Р.Е.П. у метро! Жалію, що мене там не було :-( 
http://ua.glavred.info/archive/2008/02/11/130252-3.html

This passing year was for me a time for starting many things. For instance I started to drink alcohol and I was drunk for the first time since I was teenager. It was year of starting to smoke cigarettes and hopefully it finished on starting. Besides starting to be drunkard I began my career as a teacher and I was employed as lecturer of history in one private university in Warsaw. Since the period of validity of my resident permit finishes in January and I wanted to avoid the problems with obtaining of another one and I decided to apply for working visa. Thus, yesterday it was the first time I tried to apply for the Polish working visa and the first time I failed to receive it.

 

In Poland foreigners that teach in universities are exempted from the necessity to make work permit. When such foreigner applies for residence permit s/he submits a letter from the rector of his university where it is indicated that s/he is employed as a professor/lecturer. Such letter one needs to add to his application documents when applies for the working visa. I was afraid that I will not receive a residence permit, because the salary I have in my university will be considered as to low. I was also frightened by the complicated procedure of preparing and submitting documents for this permit and its high price so I decided to make working visa. My friend told me that this procedure is rather simple and visa is free of charge.

 

I gather all necessary documents like filled in an application form, made photos, bought health insurance, got a letter from the rector, a letter from my school where I write my PhD thesis, made copies of all other documents and I went to L’viv. I registered on the website of the Polish consulate in L’viv few days earlier and I got a number 100 and the date of visit. The Consulate in L’viv opens at 7 a.m. and I calculated that I should be there around 8 a.m. I arrived there at that time and I was accepted exactly around 8. The problems started inside the Consulate. Firstly, the woman in the window did not know that teachers in the Polish universities do not need an invitation for work. Obviously she did not read the web site of the Consulate where it is written. Secondly she had doubts whether to accept my insurance, which I made in Warsaw and which is valid in Poland comparing to those bought from the numerous middlemen in front of the Consulate. Finally when she was ready to accept my documents she noted that I apply for the visa on the period starting from 15 0f January 2008. She asked her neighbour co-worker and later went to ask her boss whether she can give me visa. When she returned she said: “we do not issue Schengen visas.” I replied that I apply for the national Polish visa and not Schengen, then she told me: “We do not give something like national visa. Your residence permit finishes on 18 of January, so come on 19^th of January.” On my reply that I have lectures on 20 of January and I need to be in Warsaw she replied “please come after 21 of December.” On my indication that I came here from Warsaw specially to make this visa and I will not have time later she repeated that they do not issue Schengen visa and denied to accept my documents.

 

Later when I left the Consulate quite depressed I realised that I could ask this woman to make me visa on the period starting from 20 of December 2007 and I would get this national visa. On the other hand I would loose one month from my residence permit. Presently, the question of national visa became a mystery for me. Polish politicians and representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs indicate that Poland will issue national visas after becoming Schengen state, but employees in the L’viv Consulate obviously do not know about it. I am afraid that after 21 of December the number of documents that applicant for visa will have to submit will increase and I will not be able to gather them and thus, I will not receive the visa.

 

Few months ago in my article about L’viv Consulate I wrote that there will be problems with issuing visas and number of applicants after the 1 of January 2008 because Polish consulates since the summer issue visas on the period till 31 of December 2007. I did not know that I will have to witness and experience it personally.

 

About two months ago one of my Polish friends made a proposition to me, that if I have any problems with my stay here in Poland he can marry me. Because I am romantic person and I believe that marriage has something in common with love and not with visa, I denied. But in the present situation maybe I should accept his proposal. Or, what do you say, A Nonymous about the second invitation?

 

This summer my friend Ruslan Salamatin, assistant professor at the Medical university of Warsaw decided to go on vacations to Malta. In order not get bored from sightseeing or staying on the beach he combined it with English language courses. Because he is Ukrainian this trip had to start from visits to embassies for visas. Firstly he went to the Consulate of Malta. It appeared that in Warsaw there is only honorary consulate which does not issue visas but promessa. This document guarantees that one will receive visa when he/she will enter Malta. Ruslan got promessa.

The citizens of the Eastern European and non-EU countries shortly after they start preparing their trip to the Western Europe realise that this continent is divided on the zones of the cheap and expensive ticket prices for flights. The flight from Berlin to Malta or other states is much cheaper than from Prague or Warsaw for instance. The more on the East of Europe one lives the more he/she has to pay for the plain tickets, what is the consequence of the policy of these states and monopoly position of some airlines. Thus, the cheapest way to get to Malta from Warsaw was to take train to Berlin and from there the flight to Malta. Thus, the next embassy my friend visited was the German one. There Ruslan showed promessa and all necessary documents concerning the reasons of his trip, and received a transit Schengen visa for 2 entries.

“Where are you going? Why you do not have visa to Malta”– asked the German border guard when my friend was crossing the Polish-German border in Frankfurt (Oder). Ruslan explained the reasons and showed promessa and the Schengen transit visa issued by the German Embassy. The border guard stated the one can get the transit visa only when he/she has visa of the destination country. The Ukrainian citizen in order to get visa to Malta would have to travel to Moscow, what is too far and too expensive. In this case one can presume that those Ukrainians or Belarusian who want to fly to Russia or Turkey from Germany cannot enter the state since they do not need visas to Russia or receive visa on the Turkish border. The border guard stated that since Ruslan does not have visa to Malta he cannot cross the border. He indicated that in cases like this he should have a short term Schengen visa and it is guilt of the German Embassy that he does not. Border guard took him out of the train to the office. The explanations of my friend about the procedure with Malta visa and that he is late on the flight from Berlin did not resulted. The border guards stated that with such visa he could not and will not enter Germany. As a result Ruslan had to return to Warsaw on his expense and to find another way how to get to Malta.

The other and much costly was the trip through Prague. With help of his girlfriend who is Polish Ruslan managed to come back to Warsaw, to buy a ticket and to catch the plain to Prague and from there plain to Malta. He succeeded to be on time when the course started, but it costed him additional money, time and devotion of other people.

This story had continuation, because Ruslan decided to find out the reasons of denial of the entry to Germany. The same day when he returned to Warsaw from the border he sent a letter to the German Embassy in Poland and from Malta – postcards with greetings to the border guards in Frankfurt. Soon he received a phone call from the German Embassy in Poland with statement that the border guards made mistake and they had to let him in.

So at the end these institutions blamed each other for this situation. This kind of ping-pong had both financial and moral consequences for Ruslan. Unfortunately this story confirms the stereotype that exists among Ukrainians that their social and financial status or reasons of trip sometimes does not matter when one tries to apply for visa or cross the EU border and is treated as the person of a second-class.

 

I live in Warsaw but originally I am from L’viv in Ukraine. Because of my PhD studies in Warsaw and a need to travel back home I had possibility to cross the Polish-Ukrainian border often. During these trips I witnessed the behavior of the border guards who control those willing to visit Poland or Ukraine and Ukrainians or Poles who are objects of this control. 

The Ukrainians similarly to other foreigners unless they are EU citizens face several problems while crossing the Polish border. This process is easier when one has Polish residence permit or working visa and much difficult when it is only tourist one. Since majority of Ukrainian tourists are labor migrants the border guards are those who make decision whom to let in whom not.

“For how long are you going to Poland?” – asked the Polish border guard woman on the Polish-Ukrainian border. “4 days,” – she replied. “How much money do you have?” – “About 300 USD” – “It’s not enough for such a period,” – stated border guard. This woman looked suspicious to the officer and she was forced to go back to Ukraine. Predicting such questions and importance to have enough money people in the bus by which I traveled started to have consultations in that matter right after leaving L’viv. What exact sum of money needed not many knew. Some prepared 200-300 USD and some even more. Those who were going to work to Poland and had not enough money used different strategies to get them. One lady was trying to take a sit near someone who goes for studies or for work and has residence permit hoping that border guard will consider that they travel together. Other people were trying to borrow money from their neighbors, whom they just met in the bus. The border guards sometimes require from Ukrainians who go to Poland for several days the sum of money which equals the minimum monthly income of Poles. Yesterday, when I crossed the Belarusian-Polish border the women who are occupied with border trade were worried about the money needed. They complained that because dollar is going down comparing to zloty they need to collect more dollars to show to the border guards. Some of them prepared around 600 PLN for one day visit to Poland.

For Vasyl, an owner of the private minibus the knowledge about the regulations concerning crossing the border of crucial importance, since he lives from the passengers transport. Before each round trip he gives instructions to his passengers how to behave on the border and what to say to the border guards. He prepares necessary amount of money for each of his passengers and the sum depended from the official reason of visit to Poland. When I traveled with him all other passengers were going to work to Poland, but official version was shopping. Each of them got from him about 800 to 1200 PLN which is around 300 – 500 USD. All of them besides one man managed to cross the border. He was denied access because he stayed in Poland 3 months without good justification however he did not overstay the visa period. Vasyl indicated that the control and the number of denied accesses increased since 1.5 year. It is connected with Poland preparations to join the Schengen zone.

For me since I have karta pobytu (residence permit) and no one asked me then and yesterday about the money. The people with residence permit and with working visa are minority and for the rest money is a problem. I do not know on what basis border guards require 100 USD or more for 1 day of stay in Poland, but with Poland joining the Schengen zone the situation could clarify. This summer Ukraine signed the agreement with EU about the facilitation of the visa regime and when it will be approved by the Ukrainian and EU parliaments Ukrainians besides visa will be oblige to have 100 PLN per day. However they will have to prove their sufficient financial status this time not only to the border guards but also to the consulate employees. Money will matter even more.