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Lubomyr Prytulak   InfoUkes Posting   30-Sep-1997   Ukraine's hidden friend
Date:  Tue, 30 Sep 1997 00:05:09 -0700
To:  [email protected]
From:  Lubomyr Prytulak
Subject:  Ukraine's hidden friend
It is easy to get the feeling that Ukraine has many hidden enemies, but does it have any hidden friends?

On the question of aid to Ukraine, I have been arguing that the aid is small in comparison to that received by other NIS countries, and that I am uncertain as to whether it constitutes loans that will have to be repaid with interest, or what good the money ends up doing, or how much will be stolen.  Much of the money allocated, I have argued, in reality stays in the West.

With respect to Chornobyl, I have pointed out that when the World Health Organization decided to build an "international center for radiation-induced health problems for the victims of the Chornobyl nuclear disaster," it picked a spot near Moscow.  Dr. David R. Marples writes that "Most of the initial aid for Chornobyl victims from international sources � whatever its intended destination � also found its way to Moscow, though much of it disappeared, as though into a void" (The Ukrainian Weekly, February 21, 1993, p. 9).  So that when you try to find some concrete good that may be resulting from the aid, sometimes one comes up with little.

But then I came across an instance of substantial aid which was all the more touching because it came from a donor that was itself impoverished. You'd never guess.  I can't understand why it hasn't received much attention.  It's Cuba!

In the Ukrainian-language newspaper Novyi Shliakh (New Pathway) of April 29, 1995, p. 13, Marianne Kots (the name is my transliteration) writes that Cuba spent 200 million dollars over five years on the humanitarian program "Children of Chornobyl."  During this time in the Cuban medical-rehabilitation center named after Hose Marti, almost 13 thousand Ukrainian children were treated.  Among these, 250 had serious hematological disorders.  Ninety seven children were operated on, of whom twelve had heart operations, and two had kidney transplants.

Did you know that 13 thousand Ukrainian children had passed through Cuba? Has the large and wealthy United States brought 13 thousand children to the United States for medical treatment?  Did the Ukrainian diaspora bring 13 thousand Ukrainian children to the West for treatment?  Did the Ukrainian diaspora send Cuba help in treating the 13 thousand chilren that passed through Cuba?

Maybe sometimes we lose track of who our friends are.

Lubomyr Prytulak

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