On conflicts and the conflict.

On conflicts and the conflict.

This day made proved the fact – and my dear research partner (thank you, Dr. Kalyango) was right at the class – a conflict is of human nature.  

I started today’s morning with a conflict – unfortunately but I did – my alarm sounded but I had a conflict with myself – getting up immediately or letting myself sleep more 10 minutes. And this consideration took me approximately 10 minutes.

Taking into account the time difference, also in the morning I had a skype conversation with my sister.  How strange it is, but the contemporary social media prevent us from missing our family very much and give a chance to conflict in a distance. While the skype conversation my sister and I were discussing which telephone company is better in providing the roaming connection in Ukraine (The one, which I supported, cut off my phone for having a “minus financial balance”). In our discussing we came to a real conflict defending the telephone company which we use.          

The SUSI scholars studied conflicts – their origin, nature, peculiarities – briefly, but the main directions on the further studying them were given to us, in particular – how to distinguish a conflict, how to deal with internal and external conflicts, how to prevent a conflict and how to solve a conflict. Some information was new for me, some was not. What a peace journalist should avoid in his/her professional activity got everybody involved in fast streaming processes of seeking for the answers.

While answering the questions about what journalists should/shouln’t do in covering conflicts in mass media, I tried to reflect the conflict situation within Ukrainian background. And what Ukrainian journalists should/or shouldn’t do (and what they really do) while covering the military activities in the eastern part of Ukraine made me look up the right answers in the Ukrainian context.

Here and now I am not going to discuss the contemporary situation in the east of Ukraine, which is used to calling «a conflict». I would like to stress that a conflict can not result in about 7,000 people (these official data were spoken by Ukraine’s President in Munich in February, 2015). But due to the data, given by German newspaper «Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung», the death toll in the eastern part of Ukraine since April, 2014 equals to almost 50,000 people.

In January 2015 the UN Committee on humanitarian aid stated that the military activities in the eastern Ukraine resulted in 4808 killed, 10468 wounded and about 1 million refugees. The question is: which conflict can result in such data?

The official name of the military events in eastern Ukraine is «ATO – anti-terrorist operation», along with this abbreviation Ukraine’s mass media tend to use such terms as «a war», «a war conflict», «military events» (notorious «political correctness»???). Under such dangerous circumstances the situation is difficult, painful and controversial.

But I should stress – it is NOT a conflict. It is surely not a conflict when I see the funeral of my graduate – the young, strong, healthy, handsome man was killed near Donets airport, when I silently lay flowers under the portraits of my colleagues killed in Luhansk, when my neighbor returned from hospital without a low jaw, when at dinner my friend’s child asks his father: «Dad! How many enemies have you already killed?» (and this question – asked by the child who only wanted to be proud of his father – made each guest stop eating and created a deathly silence covering the dining room).

And the most awful thing is that we are getting used to this situation – the report about the killed, wounded and refugees have not already been considered as something extraordinary, we have already got used to this situation and to these data from the east of Ukraine.

And this situation results in a new internal conflict with myself – where is the line which divides the Ordinary and the Terrible?

One step forward has already been made – the syllabus on seminar «Media and Conflict» is in my hand. Thanks to SUSI.                         

SUSI2015_Cultural Visit to Sugarcreek

Some unexpected and even strange things happen. Now I understand that it was necessary for me to cover Europe, the Atlantic Ocean, the eastern part of the USA to realize what I am and where I live. I had to cover 9,000 km to understand the people who live within 200 km in my region.

We, the scholars of SUSI 2015 on Media and Journalism, have just arrived home (yes, already home – River Park at Athens, Ohio). We have spent some unforgettable days at Cleveland, Sugarcreek, Columbus.   

During this three-day trip I found a lot of things, facts and people interesting and even inspiring. But among them our visit to the Amish people was of great interest.

Before paying a visit to these people in Sugarcreek I was aware of their life style as well as some periods in the Mennonite development.

The fact is that Dnipropetrovsk region (Ukraine), where I am from, used to be the place of the Mennonite settlements in the XVIII-XIX-th centuries before their massive movement to Canada and Americas. And it was the Mennonite people’s influence that enabled as well as encouraged the development of my native city – Dnipropetrovsk – and Dnipropetrovsk region as an industrial and business region.         

Dnipropetrovsk Oles Honchar National University has organized some academic events on the peculiarities of the Mennonites’ life in Dnipropetrovsk region, made the range of researches about the Mennonite settlements, conducted the number of conferences and even invited some scholars, writers and journalists whose ancestors left Ukraine for Americas in the XVIII-XIX-th centuries.

I have never deeply thought over the peculiarities of the Mennonite people’s life – frankly speaking I had no time as well as intention to do that. I was always sure that their way of living was only the way to escape the real problems of the contemporary life. Before watching their life style and listening to them, inspired by the God’s word, I used to think: “Surely, it is easier to explain their children that any technical device is of evil than earn money to buy such a device and give them a chance to make their own choice; it is much easier to convince their daughters that their best function is to be a housewife and housekeeper than give them possibility to enter a higher educational institution and financially support them for all their studying till the graduation and make a professional career”. I used to be even aggressive to some extend towards such people who refuse to protect their native land because of their unwilling to be armed and get violent concerning others.

Now I have totally changed my opinion about their lifestyle. I have no intention to support them and convince others that the Mennonite do the right things. The only thing which I have understood is the following: it is their choice. Their lifestyle differs from mine. However whether their lifestyle is good or bad is a matter of opinion. They can be wrong or right in their beliefs but it is the choice that they made themselves – under various circumstances and under various influence – but it is of their responsibility. Despite threat and persecution (as the cyclorama in Sugarcreek depicted their development) they have survived. And if they exist in this world, it is the God’s will to let them exist.

In order to realize who lives near me I had to cover the half of the world and reach the USA. Thanks to SUSI.