You're reading: Lifestyle Blog: TV journalist buys pensioner potatoes, story goes viral

“I just stepped out to the shop. In the supermarket, in the grocery department an old lady checked the price of one potato. Both I and the sales assistant turned numb. The granny said she just paid her utility bills, bought some necessary medicine and that’s how she needs to live up to the end. Today she can afford only one potato and a quarter of a black bread loaf. I was shocked, got her a full package of potatoes and paid for it. She got embarrassed, was thanking me and crying. And I went home and cried too. That package of potatoes cost me just Hr 6. What country is this, when one chandelier at Mezhyhirya cost millions, deputies’ watches cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, billions were stolen from road projects, and the granny is standing there in the supermarket with one potato? Where is your (expletive) improvement? You all should be burnt alive!” 

This Facebook post by
Ukrainian TV journalist Olena Danko was shared 3,279 times in just 22 hours,
taking the Ukrainian Internet by storm. The post might be the most viewed and
shared since pictures of opposition leader Arseniy Yatseniuk flying economy
class went viral.

The mysterious
“improvements,” widely promoted by Ukraine’s governing Party of Regions might be
the main reason for the post going viral.

Or it might be the
emotional tone of the post, the colorful comparisons of one potato to the
wealth of Ukraine’s top officials, or just the image of a poor babushka with
one potato in a supermarket full of delicious food that tugged at Ukrainians’
heart strings.

Some complain that
Danko only bought the granny potatoes, while others say the story doesn’t
deserve such publicity at all, as poor people have existed under all
governments. Some even say that they pay taxes and do not owe anything to the
poor old lady.

Nonetheless, most
joined the author in her outrage, and commented that they would also help a
poor pensioner if they have a chance.

Kyiv Post staff writer Daryna Shevchenko can be reached at [email protected]