"Where have you been? Haven't seen you in a few weeks," I said to a beautiful young woman I chat with at the Y most days. "Back to Ukraine to see my family," she replied. "It's a mess there." No kidding, I uncharacteristically didn't add. "It's terrible there," she said, echoing my thoughts and stating the obvious.
Chatting about her visit, I learned her father is a physics professor at the university and her sister a doctor; the former makes $200 per month, the latter $250. Feature it! And yet they stay. Why? I asked. "Because my sister would have to work as a waitress until she was accredited," she replied. (I cruelly thought that with what's going on there, at least the sister would be kept very busy.) "And my father and mother are too old to uproot their lives." She then recounted how her brother, a conscript, had to hide in a ditch for days to avoid being killed during a "cease fire". Apparently, one of his comrades who could stand it no longer crawled out and was immediately shot."
Hideous. I was trying to wrap my brain around a university still functioning, a doctor still practicing, and a brother hiding in some dirty ditch -- all at the same time? Do they all co-exist in some parallel universe? They must.
"What upsets me is the international media doesn't care anymore," she lamented. "Yep, that's true," I replied, explaining that the news cycle is a the most 24 hours -- usually less. "The big story now is the ruckus over the confederate flag in the south," I said. "Who cares," she said. "Just as you care about the Ukraine, Americans care about their flags. Actually, it's all about flags," I explained. "Since nothing has changed in the Ukraine, no one gives a sh-t."
She was dismayed at this truth. "I realize what a wonderful country Canada is," she said. "We accept everyone here -- we work alongside Chinese, Europeans, Muslims and everyone else with no problems."
You better believe it.
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