It's a marathon, not a sprint
Housing, jobs, school. The long-term reality and ever present challenges of building a new life in a new country sets in. Plus, Zelensky vs. Zaluzhny, Russian economy, Abramovich Austrian villa.
This week has been crazy in my own life, but we did manage to still send out over two dozen Hofer cards. Thank you! I still receive messages every day asking for help, particularly from the elderly and those living on €40 per month “pocket money” to cover all their expenses (transport, medicine) in organized housing in which they are “fed”. At the moment, I have no more cards to send, and I tell them that, asking for patience, explaining neither Mario and I nor our donors are the state. We cannot promise anything, but we can add you to the waiting list. It is disheartening no better long-term solutions were found for those pensioners who find themselves here in Austria. They of course have health problems and cannot go work at their age. I imagine many who have homes to go back to in Ukraine have done that. But others are here, their homes are gone. Each story is unique. Some are very sad: they write me how old they are, their health problems, if they lost someone in the war. I really try not to carry this all around with me. I explain, at the moment I cannot help, I will add your name to the waiting list.
In short, Cards for Ukraine is still putting your generous donations to good use, nearly two years into this war. No, we cannot believe it ourselves. I never ever could have imagined a short-term stop gap would turn into a long-term project highlighting the failures of the state response and providing a tiny cushion to those in need, but it is doing exactly that. If you prefer, you could alternatively buy €50 e-gift cards online with Spar or Hofer and send them to me directly via email. I print them out and off they go! I currently have 13 empty envelopes, the majority of them are pensioners living in accommodation where they are “fed” and only receive €40 per month pocket money. Yes, really. Those in the “system” know about this and yet they do not fix it.
This week I was contacted by an Austrian TV journalist looking to do an in-depth program about the Ukrainians (as I said to her, I imagine the two-year anniversary is finally prompting editors to approve stories they had no interest in over much of the past year). We discussed the topics they would like to cover, who might be ideal interview candidates. And then I did what I always do: I took the question to my Telegram group. And the response really surprised me. After two days of very active discussion in the group about how hard it is to find a job in Austria, two days of complaining and discussing tactics, not a single person came forward willing to talk about the struggles of the job search process publicly. One mother really thought about it, and tried to convince her adult child to join in, but her child refused — they are grateful to Austria for what it has given them, and are afraid if they say anything critical she might be “deported”. Yes, she really used that word.
The journalist also asked me to find someone living in this “hotel” for €40 per month. So I asked a woman who gave me permission to share her comments with you, anonymously. But she too is afraid to speak on camera. She has a friend who moved out recently, maybe she would consider it….
Hi. Please believe there is nothing good about living in social housing and receiving only €40 per month. You cannot call what they feed us food, there is no choice, it is basically only lunch, the rest (dinner and breakfast) are not meals, just window dressing. Every day you must check in with staff, you cannot be gone for more than 3 days. They are constantly performing room inspections. You cannot cook your own food (1-2 microwaves for the entire hotel of 300+ residents).
There are only two fridges for us all to share. They banned us from having our own electric kettles (they can evict you if they find one). If you simply want to do laundry you have to make an appointment and wait sometimes a week and get it all done in 2.5 hours. In reality, the social workers do not help with anything.
It is a fantasy to think you can change this social housing to a better one. They put Syrians and Afghans in our rooms, when we complain or ask to have Ukrainian roommates they do not listen. So, people are basically held hostage in this kind of housing. So you have to either work illegally (Tanja’s note — because of the Austrian law “Zuverdienstgrenze” limiting how much one can earn while in social housing under “Grundversorgung”) and save up money to rent housing of your own or be on the edge of survival here.
I would not wish my enemy such treatment and living conditions.
Reader, this is a former business class hotel located right in the middle of downtown Vienna. This is not a hardware problem. This is a lack of funding + putting the wrong people in charge with no power to make any changes. There are such “hotels” in other cities like Salzburg, and even worse, in small towns out of sight out of mind run by private individuals. This week alone I received desperate pleas from a small town in Lower Austria where residents are “fed” and from a hotel in rural Upper Austria where the owner is playing games with the Ukrainians, issuing threats, not giving them their money for food owed to them by the state (in this case he acts as banker, too). It is all so unpleasant and if ordinary Austrians knew they would be shocked but alas, the majority of Ukrainians won’t speak publicly out of fear so…nothing changes.
I had dinner with a fellow volunteer last night and I said to her: it is been nearly two years. It doesn’t feel right to be an advocate for those not willing to be their own advocates. I do not feel comfortable speaking about the struggles Ukrainians in Austria are facing if they are not willing to do it themselves now that they know some German and can express themselves. Now I completely understand that a 75 year old is scared and will not talk. That I understand. But the young people, who have been diligently taking German courses and trying to adapt to school for their kids and job searching for themselves or simply learning to navigate daily life here in a new language in a new culture…it is time they speak for themselves rather than through volunteers like me. And if they choose only to get upset in Internet forums in Ukrainian or Russian, like in my Telegram group, but not share any thoughts publicly in German or English, well then you cannot be surprised when/if nothing changes for the better. If you want change, you have to be a part of it.
Food for thought.
Bigger picture, I won’t attempt to armchair psychology the conflict between Zelensky and Zaluzhny, other than to say it is my impression amongst Ukrainians that they are frustrated with everyone — the government for what they see as mobilisation of ordinary young men with often rough “recruitment” tactics while the impression is that anyone with influence and money has sent their men out of the country where they cannot be drafted. So, as they say, politics as usual have returned to Ukraine. Meanwhile, you hear from those who have lost relatives in the army that the death toll has been enormous. I heard a story this week of a mother who lost her 23 year old son, killed in action, and then tried to call the other men in his brigade (sorry I don’t know the right word for group of soldiers), only to discover most had died. Russia keeps fighting and Ukraine is short on ammunition. This is the context within which a very popular general called for a mobilisation of 500,000 men aged 25+ from whom their access to all state services would be stripped in the future if they dodge. The way the law is written now, you will have stateless Ukrainian men in Europe who cannot renew their passports without presenting papers that they have registered in a military office. Those abroad cannot do this, of course.
The thing is, there will be very Ukrainian solutions. The schemes to get out of army service will continue, just at a much higher price tag (it was between $5-10k reportedly last summer to acquire papers from a doctor saying you are handicapped and therefore exempt). If men cannot transact, they will sign all property and assets over to women whom they trust. And so on. I found this summary thread to be particularly informative. It is one view from Ukraine. But there are many. Zaluzhny obviously has a good PR team, with his recent articles in the Economist a few months back and now this week, CNN. Zelensky knows the draft is not popular, he is reportedly pushing back the army on the 500,000 figure but honestly if they had to choose, my gut feeling (no scientific basis whatsoever) is that most Ukrainians would still trust the general over the president, now at least). The people Zelensky surrounds himself with are not universally respected. I think that is the most delicate way I could phrase it. And in a time of war, I am not sure it is the general you throw under the bus first. For background, here is the Economist on the firing that was leaked but then didn’t happen. I would also recommend reading this thread by a Ukrainian scholar in the U.S., I found myself nodding along. Misha often says the quiet part out loud. I appreciate his views for that.
Meanwhile, in Russia. The FT wrote about the outlook for the Russian economy, with reporters writing from Riga and Tbilisi. So not everyone is fearless when it comes to having journalists work in Russia, and rightly so. Every time I see a western journalist still reporting from inside Russia, I wonder to myself how it is they do not believe they could be next.
Having said that, on my “to watch” list (free time has all but disappeared of late), is this conversation led by The New York Times’ Valerie Hopkins who has been bravely reporting from Russia for some time now. She speaks with two leading Russian experts who are still in Russia. I think this will be a very enlightening conversation, if you like me are interested in the human psychology behind how the once unthinkable (war between Russia and Ukraine) becomes normalised on a mass scale.
Learned Indifference: How Russians Have Adapted to War
The FT also wrote a very interesting piece about a picture-perfect villa castle on a little lake of its own in Austria which happened to be quietly sold to Roman Abramovich’s daughter via a banker years ago, and only now has it emerged that the local administrative office “lost” the land papers it needs for the sale/ownership to now be called into question due to his presence on the EU sanctions list. And now, the Green Party, believes it has a case to strip him of this asset. But this is Austria, so we do not know yet how the movie will end.
So here we are. I continue to ask you for help to send grocery cards. The largest NGOs in Austria working with Ukrainians here are demanding long-term solutions from the government. No one knows what will happen past March 2025. Everyone agrees we need answers and clarity, whatever the government decides.
I understand the Ukrainian government would like to see those who can come home do so. They need the economy to function. They need people. But many Ukrainians look at the situation and say I’ll take a chance on Europe, no matter how hard it is now. So there is an inherent conflict there between a country at war that needs its people and people who look at the war and say I will wait it out under peaceful skies. They were given that option by the EU. Not everyone has a home to return to. Many know they have left for good. Some have already sold everything: apartments, car. They really left on foot not looking back. They try hard to build new lives in a new environment. Those who went to the U.S. and Canada are even further away. It is here in Austria some struggle with “I want my son to stay and study here but I will go home as soon as I can”. And of course if you have not seen “home” in a few years, it is not what you remember. Time passes and your glasses turn even more rose-colored.
This week I will feel a sense of achievement if I can help these 13 families while taking care of my own stuff that has me pre-occupied at the moment. Thank you all for continuing to support what never should have had to morph into a long-term project. And huge thank you to Mario for keeping it going for much longer than he ever could have imagined. I told the elderly to please wait. I know they have a huge sense of unfairness when their neighbour received a card and I didn’t have one left for them. And of course they do not understand that we are not the state nor an NGO — they simply ask anyone and everyone for help. Someone passed on my number and promised them €50 in groceries. And on it goes.
