Ukrainian example of the Freedom Prize; reads Sweden’s Dagens Nyheter (Daily News) noting that Olexander Tymoshenko seeks political asylum in the Czech Republic. He is the husband of former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko (famous for her braids). Her circumstances are described as though, "living in a torture cell."
Why does this happen in a free Ukraine?
One thing that struck me during the five years I lived there was the standard for right and wrong and also what constituted truth or falsehoods. My reasoning led me to believe that this approach was fostered or that it was an unplanned result of the Soviet state ideology. All goals were measurable and all necessary resources were allocated in order to reach the goals.
When a person who grew up in that community is saved, comes to a personal encounter with Jesus Christ, it means not only a freedom from one’s own sins, but also as a colleague in Moscow told me, she "also needed to be saved and freed from the identity as a ‘Soviet person".
Consequently, it is not surprising for Ukrainians that those currently in power determine the legal framework of what constitutes official justice and truth. There are not many who believe that a president with a shady gangster background, credentials from diploma mills has become the country's leader on (his) democratic merits. He who holds the purse also pulls the strings.
Can we Swedes simply shake our collective heads and think, "poor them". Comforting that it happens far away in Eastern Europe. How far away is it really? There are more sophisticated means by which to manipulate freedom. If we do not realize and recognize the treasures we hold dear, we will lose them before anyone even notices it.
Commissioner Marie Willermark
Territorial Commander Sweden & Latvia
2 comments:
Very good two piece article on freedom Commissioner---and how very true and applicable!
I remember watching a program on Public television a number of years ago about the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor and the promise that it held out to millions of immigrants who first saw it when they arrived in the U.S. from Europe at the turn of the 20th Century.
What was especially interesting to me about the documentary though was the sad segment that explained how once they got their freedom, so many of them couldn't handle it and immediately turned to alcohol, drugs and/or all encompassing, cult-like religious groups as new forms of enslavement! Go figure.
Daryl Lach
USA Central
"You Must Go Home by the Way of the Cross, To Stand with Jesus in the Morning!"
Yes, it is interesting commentary on freedom. Everyone seems to hold it so dear, but when we get it, it can be frightening.
Playing devils advocate here for a second - I wonder if that's why many people deep down, really like conservative churches, with it's rules and regulations that must be followed, with little scope to think for oneself. Likewise, with TSA - being told where to go, what to do, when to do it etc. We see the same thing in the Military - Soldiers fight to the death for freedom, but when the experience total 'freedom' themselves, they often fall apart. How ironic.
Freedom is really quite relative, and is itself a two edged sword. We have to have the wisdom to handle freedom before we get it or it can destroy us.
Yours in Christ,
Graeme Randall
Former Australian East
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