Witnessing history in the making

By Dan Hilborn
Published Dec. 24, 2004


When reports of the Orange Revolution in the eastern European nation of Ukraine first swept across the nightly news last month, one of the busiest people in North Burnaby watched the scenes with more than just a passing interest.

One year ago, Isabel Kolic, who today serves as the executive director of the Heights Merchants' Association on Hastings Street, was working at an economic development centre in the thriving Ukrainian city of Ivano-Frankivsk.

And while Kolic does not claim to offer any great insight into what might happen as the former Soviet republic continues to move towards democracy, she said her experience gives her reason to be optimistic that the former communist country will survive the turmoil it is currently facing.

"I had always wanted to work in a post-communist country because I was sympathetic to any nation that was trying to overhaul its political and economic structure," said Kolic, who went overseas to work with the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) as part of her practicum in the Community Economic Development program at Simon Fraser University.

Kolic was working in the community affairs office at BCIT when she decided to go back to school to upgrade her skills and, when it came time to find a practicum, she turned to her employer for help.

Because BCIT maintains close relationships with other technical institutes around the world, Kolic was encouraged to take a position with CIDA and its work with a group known as the Association for Economic Development of Ivano-Frankivsk.

Kolic notes that even before her Ukrainian adventure, she was no stranger to Europe. Her family is of Croatian descent and, as a young child, she had many visits to see her grandparents on the Adriatic Coast of the former Yugoslavia.

When she arrived in the historic riverside Ukrainian city of 250,000 people on Aug. 31, 2003 to begin working on a three-and-a- half month contract, Kolic found herself in an office with several other Canadians from the University of Waterloo, Confederation College in Thunder Bay and CIDA, plus a group of enthusiastic Ukrainians, who were doing their best to foster western economic ideas in this former East Bloc nation.

"I was part of a team going village to village paving the way for business to open," Kolic said. "Our job was to train local bureaucrats to be able to help people to open businesses. Say a local mayor wanted to attract a certain type of business - eco- tourism, for example. He has no way to know how to do that. But the people working for our group were all trained.

"I saw rapid change all around me," she said.

Of course, the experience was not all about work. Kolic stayed in a modern stone and timber home with a young professional family in the picturesque 300-year-old city that was renamed in the 1960s in honour of a celebrated Ukrainian poet.

During her tenure in Ivano-Frankivsk, Kolic served as the official translator for her office, writing grant proposals in English, doing research on the Internet, and composing a series of 'Snapshots of Ukraine' - semiweekly reports to her friends back home in Canada of the sights, sounds and her experiences.

Kolic was impressed by both the religious piety of the Ukrainian people as well as their propensity to enjoy a toast of vodka with virtually every visitor they meet - a custom she was surprised to find practised by a taxi cab driver who was celebrating his birthday.

The region she worked in is in the western side of Ukraine, just a few hours' drive away from Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and Romania, in an area she describes as "a hotbed for Ukrainian nationalism."

And while Kolic has some fascinating insights into what might happen in the country over the coming months, she also wants to emphasize the fact that she is not a students of politics.

"I don't want it communicated that I'm some kind of expert, because I'm not," she said. "But I was pleasantly surprised how vigorously and quickly they rallied around either side. For a country that had never really exercised democratic protest before, that really surprised me."

Of course, Kolic departed from Ukraine almost exactly one year ago - on Dec. 15, 2003 - so her comments are based partly on what she hears from the friends she stays in contact with, and what she sees on her television news.

She notes that there are aspects to the protests that many people in the west are unaware of, such as the deeply religious tone to the demonstrations. "Religious leaders from all factions start the protests at night, with blessing for all the crowd and calls to keep things peaceful."

As for the future, Kolic relates the story of something she witnessed on her first night in the country.

"I remember I saw this young boy, about 10 years old, playing a wooden recorder on the streets of Kyiv on my first night in the country," she said. "He really wasn't playing it very well, as if he couldn't care less.

"The next day, I saw him again in a different spot, except this time he had a violin and he was playing a Roma (gypsy) tune, and he wasn't putting much effort into it," Kolic said. "That's when another boy who was very smartly dressed came up and started playing classical music in a very polished way. The first boy started to play a lot harder and more aggressively, but not any better.

"It sounded awful with the two violins playing different tunes, but eventually people began putting money into the second boy's violin case, and the first boy stopped playing and pulled out his recorder again."

"I guess I saw that as a metaphor for what was happening throughout the Ukraine," she said. "The people are trying different tools and different approaches, but the moral of the story is that it isn't easy."

Kolic said one of her greatest hopes is that the Ukrainian people continue to show the great patience and perseverance that they are known for throughout their history.

"Ukraine has only been independent for 13 years and the people are wondering why are the reforms taking so long," she said. "They want to know why aren't the schools being repaired and why are there still potholes on the street?

"I had to point out that Western Europe had 40 years to get over the effects of the Second World War and that happened layer by layer. It's not going to happen overnight. But it's especially hard for the people in the western Ukraine because they're surrounded by eastern Europe. And Ukrainians always look to Europeans in comparison to themselves."