the luck of birth

AP Worldstream, Kiev, Ukraine, Friday, Mar 09, 2007

"President Viktor Yushchenko appealed to this ex-Soviet republic's political parties to do more to ensure that Ukraine makes it into the European Union during their political careers.

Yushchenko's call came amid disappointing results in talks with the EU, which has agreed to work toward closer political and economic ties with the nation of 47 million, but stopped short of recognizing it as a future candidate for membership."

The EU distances itself more and more from Ukraine. From further expansion. Earlier hopes of ascension have cooled. Brussels is having enough trouble handling the neophytes it has; it can't add another ball to its juggling act.

So the president makes a claim. "Within a political career." But those things don't run long term over here. We need to think in generations. Generations of people, not politics.

Ukrainians were caught looking through the glass window in front of the sweet shop. They saw the rainbow of confectionery treats. They salivated. A bell over top the door dinged and the Ukrainians I know thought the door was opening.

But no.

They're still out. The Mexico of Europe. (Two million Ukrainians working abroad, most of them illegally; high governmental corruption; no trust in the police force.) Locked out of a better future, as most of my students see it, because of where they were born.

Dasha was born in Ukraine, so her chance of living like the people she sees on television is small. She'll finish high school and go on to get a university degree no other country besides Ukraine will fully recognize.

Which is just as well.

She won't be able to get a visa to go anywhere anyway.