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MOTRIA KUSHNIR I REMEMBER COPENHAGEN Modern travel is a wonderous thing. Within hours the plane transported me across several thousand miles of ocean from one continent to another. Like women from all over the world, I was returning home after participating in the World Conference of the United Nations Decade for Women and the Mid-Decade Forum. My three-week-long adventure in Copenhagen-which began on the 11th of July and ended on the last day of the month-was over. But not quite. Trans World Airlines (TWA) delivered my person, but not my baggage, to the Philadelphia airport. My suitcase remained in New York, destined to rejoin me not until the following day. And thus it came to pass that the normal patterns and rhythms of homecoming and unpacking we re disrupted and postponed. Four days after its arrival, the offending suitcase stood propped against the wall, ignored. Clearly unready to bring down the final curtain on my globe-trotting ex perience, I refused to undertake the mundane chore of un packing. I knew that the process of emptying my bag of its contents, piece by piece, deciding what to launder or dry clean, would irrevocably return my wardrobe and my life to the commonplace everyday world. Finally, though, I had to do it, theories of the ritualistic significance of luggage notwithstanding. Sighing melodramatically, I unzipped my trusty old piece of baggage, threw back the cover and peered in side. Atop the pile of one million wrinkles which once had been my summer wardrobe lay my trench coat, the only article of clothing that had served me well while I was abroad. Because our American summer had been so hot, I was completely unprepared for the weather in Europe. With the exception of a few sunny days, we women in Copenhagen had to cope with a raw, wet and windy climate. I recalled how several members of the delegation rep resenting the World Federation of Ukrainian Women’s Organizations (WFUWO) had sickened from the cold and wet. Sniffling and feverish, they nevertheless braved the elements to attend workshop sessions at the Forum and meetings, even late at night, of our own group. A little bad weather and ill health did not deter them from pursuing the work of the delegation. After shaking out the creases in my coat and hanging it up in the closet, I checked the pockets and found a tattered, dog-eared transportation pass. For the cost of 100 kroner-about $20.00-1 had purchased the pass that allowed me to travel on almost every bus in Copenhagen during the duration of the conference. Most mornings I used the pass to board the bus going to the Copenhagen University Center, Amager. Here, at the modern University complex not far from center city, the Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO) Mid- Decade Forum met daily on weekdays for workshop sessions, group meetings and caucuses, social gatherings, exhibits and film screenings and, at times, for screaming confrontations and emotion-charged de bates. The WFUWO delegation held our workshop, first- day hunger strike and press conference on these premises. Entering the Amager Center was like jumping in the Maelstrom. The halls of the building overflowed with women of every conceivable shape, size, color, age and nationality, talking animatedly in their native tongues — with Spanish and English predominating. Exhibits, banners, posters, signs and placards lined the corridor walls, proclaiming every possible point of view and issue of concern — from wages for housework to nuclear disarmament. The WFUWO delegation set up shop in a strategic lo cation next to a Taiwanese group and in front of Amnesty International headquarters at the Forum center. Large photographs of Ukrainian women imprisoned by the Russian dominated our exhibit, which also included books by Ukrainian women, issues of our emigre publica tions and beautiful examples of Ukrainian embroidery. Many of the women who approached our table inquired whether they could purchase the embroideries. Everyone who stopped by our exhibit left well in formed about the situation in Ukraine. Members of the world press often visited our group, eager to interview Dr. Nina Strokata-Karavanska. In addition to speaking with her, they received press packets full of information about Soviet persecution of Ukrainian dissidents and their families, as well as facts documenting the policies of national genocide implemented by the Soviet regime. Although NGO participants and observers spent most of their time at the riotous Amager Center, the Forum con ference was not confined to this site alone. The main Forum panels—to which the event organizers invited special speakers, experts and well-known personalities — took place each morning and afternoon at the Royal School of Librarianship. Female scholars, academics, university professors and students from round the world conducted their deliberations at the Police College. As any eyewitness will attest, the Forum conference was a three-ring circus in more ways than one. Far removed from the city proper and the antic world of non-governmental organizations was the Bella Center, the newly built, modernistic, glass-enclosed conference complex that housed the meetings of official governmental delegations to the United Nations World Conference for Women. In contrast to the Amager Center where no one seemed in charge, the Bella Center bristled with walkie-talkie-toting, badge-checking security guards. Only authorized delegates, media personnel and UN staffers found their way into the building. My own green badge proclaiming Motria Kushnir a member of the press representing OUR LIFE and SVOBODA UKRAINIAN WEEKLY was still pinned to my suit jacket. Detaching it from my lapel, I tossed the garment into the dry clean pile. Out fell a Danish kroner and rolled across the floor The coin reminded me how high prices had risen in Denmark, especially in Copenhagen. Dinner — that is, a modest cheese burger, fries and coffee — at Burger King, Danish style, cost a whopping five dollars and assorted
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