Ukrainian example of the Freedom Prize; reads Sweden’s Dagens Nyheter (Daily News) noting that Olexander Tymoshenko seeks political asylum in the Czech Republic. He is the husband of former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko (famous for her braids). Her circumstances are described as though, "living in a torture cell."
Why does this happen in a free Ukraine? One thing that struck me during the five years I lived there was the standard for right and wrong and also what constituted truth or falsehoods. My reasoning led me to believe that this approach was fostered or that it was an unplanned result of the Soviet state ideology. All goals were measurable and all necessary resources were allocated in order to reach the goals.
What was deemed ‘right and true’ were those facts and associated actions that could be authenticated with a officially stamped documents. Even if all concerned were witnesses to a different and more plausible and honest reality, all worked only in accordance with the official version. A double standard that became a common everyday occurrence, and one that all lived their unreflective lives in.
When a person who grew up in that community is saved, comes to a personal encounter with Jesus Christ, it means not only a freedom from one’s own sins, but also as a colleague in Moscow told me, she also needed to be saved and freed from the identity as a ‘Soviet person’.
Consequently, it is not surprising for Ukrainians that those currently in power determine the legal framework of what constitutes official justice and truth. There are not many who believe that a president with a shady gangster background, credentials from diploma mills has become the country's leader on (his) democratic merits. He who holds the purse also pulls the strings.
Can we Swedes simply shake our collective heads and think, "poor them". Comforting that it happens far away in Eastern Europe. How far away is it really? There are more sophisticated means by which to manipulate freedom. If we do not realize and recognize the treasures we hold dear, we will lose them before anyone even notices it.
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