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On Embassy Night, members of the Ukrainian, Canadian-Ukrainian and American-Ukrainian delegations attended a reception at the Ukrainian Embassy in Ottawa. Delegates were also invited to private dinners ate the homes of NCWC members. Closing ceremonies of the 28th Triennial ICW Plenary Conference took place at the gala dinner held at the National Art Center. The next Triennial Conference of the ICW will be hosted in Finland in the year 2000. Ukrainian women throughout the world hope that the NCW of Ukraine will be participating at this conference as a fully accredited member organization and that delegates from Ukraine will resume their historical role as strong and independent women representing a strong and independent nation. A SNAPSHOT FROM KYIV BY MARTHA BOHACHEVSKY CHOMIAK Ukraine has always prided itself on its democratic traditions combined with a finely honed aesthetic sense. During the alleged democratic egalitarianism under the Soviets, this aesthetic sense burst forth in the most unlikely places: a beet carved in the form of a rose in an otherwise empty store, elaborately painted gates along a dusty road, a crisply starched embroidered doily on a shop woman whose legs, badly swollen, hung over her shoes. At that time, the wealth of the elite was hidden, and the elite were careful to appear ordinary, one with the people. In public, they dressed as the public; they enjoyed their western imports in private, in the carefully guarded luxury of their gated communities. Standing apart from the crowd was not desirable. As late as 1990, Americans going to Kyiv took neutral colored clothes so as not to stand out too much. People in Ukraine did not expect much. Even when there were goods available, they were displayed in stores in a utilitarian fashion and had to be asked for. Sales personnel were very unhappy to have their peace violated. Most stores were clearly marked, with little room for whimsy: Cut Goods, Milk Goods, Meats, Processed Foods, Flowers. But whimsy did manage to assert itself here and there -- there was in Kyiv a store named "Little Shoesies" (cherevychky) and an upscale hair salon named "Dream" (Mria). And there were movie theaters striving toward various aspects of red cosmos and starry flights. How things have changed in six short years! Colors, fashions, automobiles, flaunting of wealth by those who have and imitation by those who want to have. Elite and Grand, preferably in Latin script, are desired characteristics. Elite gifts, Grand store, Grand hotel. I am told by a friend that flowers for gifts must be bought at the Roksolana Salon, fancy and over-priced and pretentious, but quite "in" among the in crowd. More realistic are the small army of professional, young (and not so young) people in simple business dress, suits, ties, neat, understated, working away at various jobs. They frequent the modest cafes rather than the more fashionable Arizona, and o to Pantagruel rather than the flashy casinos like Las Vegas, Uncle Same, the Red and the Black. They save, they travel, they work for a decent home. Theirs is a long term vision rather than the get rich schemes so prevalent among the no-neck zoot-suited body builders. And the have nots struggle as usual, but now they begin to see what they are missing, and somehow the poverty of their youth appears to have been not quite so dismal. All youth has a glow when one sits in the evening shadows. The ladies )vendors, but they like to be called ladies "pani") still sell their lovely cherries at 1.50 a pound if you do not haggle. And for a few glorious weeks, there are the smallest possible wild strawberries, still smelling of the woods, selling at 2.50 a pint. People grouse about taxes, prices and lack of money. There is no need to stand in line or to dream about travel as in the old days. These days you only need money. Normality is a blessing that is sometimes too easily taken for granted. Another celebration, another year. --August, 1997 Видання C оюзу Українок A мерики - перевидано в електронному форматі в 2012 році . A рхів C У A - Ню Йорк , Н . Й . C Ш A.
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