Most foreign tourists, especially first-time visitors, are likely to be pleasantly surprised by Ukraine during the Euro 2012 football championships played here from June 9 to July 1.
The sun will shine, the games will be played, the beer will be poured and many foreigners will finally see for themselves the beauty of Ukraine and Ukrainians.
However, the bad news is that some foreigners may be scared away from even making the trip in the first place. Or, for those who do make the journey, their pleasant experience may only be relative to the horror stories about life here they’ve encountered lately in the foreign press.
Ukraine’s reputation – for reasons both deserved and undeserved – has indeed taken a beating internationally on almost all fronts in the run-up to the tournament. Officials are hoping for the arrival of up to one million foreign tourists in the three-week period, although the more realistic figure is probably half that number or even less.
The nation’s big chance to bask in a favorable international spotlight, however, is being upended by many events. One of them is an iconic image published all over the world in which masked hoodlums on May 20 kicked and beat Sviatoslav Sheremet, the leader of the Gay Forum in Ukraine.
The assault came as Sheremet was announcing that the first-ever Gay Pride Parade scheduled for that day in Kyiv had been cancelled because of threats. The time and location of the event was supposed to be a secret, with journalists instructed to wait for a call from an organizer, who would meet up with them and take them to the parade site.
Fortunately, the presence of photojournalists and TV crews cut short the attack, making the assault mercifully short and not life-threatening to Sheremet, as a YouTube video shows. Still, he suffered a concussion and other injuries.
The spasm of anti-gay violence symbolizes how Ukraine is still decades behind the times in acceptance of a person’s sexual orientation. The intolerance and discrimination are reasons why many Ukrainians choose to conceal their homosexuality, living in unnecessary fear and secrecy.
Images are powerful, however. This now-infamous one of the assault on Sheremet – shot by a Reuters stringer – has the potential to change the course of history for the better. But it can do so only if the majority of good and tolerant people in Ukraine use the occasion to openly support gay rights and condemn those who perpetuate hate and fear – including the ultra-nationalist Svoboda party and lawmakers who would deny equal rights to gays.
Racism in Ukraine also came to the forefront after relatives of black English soccer player Theo Walcott said they are not attending the Euro 2012 games because of fears that racist skinheads would attack them.
Add to this the justified growing international condemnation of President Viktor Yanukovych’s political persecution, topless Femen’s attempts to use Euro 2012 as a rallying cry against prostitution and the emerging stories of taxi drivers and hotel operators seeking to rip off tourists during the games.
The nation’s big chance to bask in a favorable international spotlight, however, is being upended by many events. One of them is an iconic image published all over the world in which masked hoodlums on May 20 kicked and beat Sviatoslav Sheremet, the leader of the Gay Forum in Ukraine.
And then there’s the “old news” – the April 27 bombs that exploded earlier this month in Dnipropretrovsk, injuring 31 people, including two who remain hospitalized.
How to counter all of this?
Individual efforts are being made, such as by those citizens who formed the Friendly Ukraine initiative to provide free accommodation, translation and other services to foreign guests.
The International Renaissance Foundation is the place to find out more information about this welcome idea. (http://www.irf.ua/index.php?Itemid=25&layout=default&option=com_content&view=article&id=36753).
Lviv also took a step in the same direction by organizing a municipal program called Friendly City to help guests feel welcome.
It will take more similar efforts to show the world that Ukraine is what those of us who live here know it to be: A hospitable place that is home to more than 45 million people – most of whom are guided by the instinct to befriend, not offend, to live peacefully, not violently.
Ukrainians, of all people in the world, have suffered more than their share of violence and repression through the centuries. This makes the nation acutely sensitive to the pain of others. But the unhappy history has also left scars – including deep and repressed hatred, fear of the unknown and lack of exposure to the world beyond the old and constrictive Soviet boundaries.
There is no denying that Ukraine has big problems in many of these areas, including racial tolerance (somewhat understandable considering that the nation is 97 percent white and Slavic), prostitution, corruption, etc. These problems also exist in varying degrees around the world.
But Ukraine’s problems, so graphically chronicled for the world to see, have been exaggerated in some instances by its own officials, foreign journalists and even regular citizens.
For example, why would officials fan the flames of fear by announcing to the world that Ukraine will use fighter aircraft and helicopters to guard its air space, and put 10 surface-to-air missiles on standby?
Rather than calm fears, these kinds of statements are certain to provoke unfounded ones about dubious or even non-existent threats.
It’s time for all of us living here, foreigners and Ukrainians alike, to show Ukraine’s best side in the month ahead.
