Spring
Thank you for all the lovely birthday wishes. Still taking one day at a time. Visited some of the Haidehof residents at the arrival center on Sunday. Book recommendation.
I turned another year older, and hopefully wiser, yesterday. Thank you for all your kind wishes and for allowing me to use the occasion as a fundraiser of sorts for Cards for Ukraine. We too are nearly one year old. I delivered my first cards last year on April 19 (for some reason that date stuck in my head) at Wien HBF, in front of the big Interspar, quickly realising everyone preferred Hofer vouchers (cheaper prices). This morning I read grocery prices have risen by a whopping 30% in Austria this past year, which means if we wanted to be offering the same help we did a year ago, we would now in theory need to hand out €65 gift cards! I am not considering that for the moment as €50 is a nice round number and it is hard enough as it is to raise new funds/cards.
I continue to say I am happy to keep doing this as long as Mario is kindly still willing to dedicate his own time as a volunteer managing all the admin and stuff I am terrible at, and buying & sending cards in bulk, and we still are able to raise funds. Naturally, with the refugee crisis out of the headlines, and the war dragging on, this is going to get harder going forward, especially as so many locals in Europe are feeling their own economic pain. Prices are rising like crazy on almost everything, and employers are in no hurry to raise salaries (while still hilariously complaining they cannot find employees ready to be superheroes with tons of experience all for 2k a month before taxes). In short — a lot of people are hurting right now. Many Ukrainians find themselves still trapped in the Grundversorgung system, which is still paying €260 per adult and €145 per child per month, and your guess is as good as mine how anyone is supposed to cover all of their costs (except housing) with those amounts, while also being told if you do get a full-time job, we’ll pull the rug out from under you (basically).
On Sunday I visited the arrival center and delivered six more cards, thank you. Artem in a wheelchair and Ihor who is blind, both from Haidehof, were unfortunately amongst eight residents who were told by the authorities (I literally still do not know who makes these final decisions — let’s call it the city of Vienna for simplicity sake) that no permanent housing was found for them and they must stay in the arrival center. This is, frankly, an inexcusable disgrace. The arrival center is in an old university building which is barely wheelchair equipped. The lift goes down to the garage but not to the main entrance, so Artem cannot easily go outside.
Artem also cannot take a shower because the shower is in a container in the courtyard because this was never a residential building in the first place. I gave the men another Hofer card and told them how sorry I am about the whole situation. They continue to advocate for themselves, and are talking through the Ukrainian grapevine about what room might be available where, and they hope to go to the authorities already with addresses and known availability. Ihor had a plan of action when I talked to him on Sunday. He had just come back from church. Sunday was also Orthodox Easter.
Can you imagine? I just hope it will be sorted in the next few days. What a complete, avoidable mess. I did not see the other residents but understand some of them are also elderly and handicapped. I really cannot understand why official Austria thinks such people should be sleeping on cots months after they first arrived here. Remember that the next time the SPÖ asks you to vote for them, because they decide everything in Vienna, and this is happening in Vienna. There were two months to prepare for this move. More than enough time if someone in charge had cared.
I am working on a few side projects. This is one I could really use some hive-mind help for. Any leads or tips would be really appreciated! She is such a nice, hardworking woman and this is her first pregnancy and I would love to be able to help her find a stable living situation. This not being able to embed tweets is super annoying — sorry for the screenshots:
I am reading but not yet finished with this incredible book. I cannot remember who recommended it to me; I ordered it months ago but never got around to it. It was written in 2014-2016 by a Ukrainian from Donbas about what was happening there, and the origins of it, and most importantly, about the mentality of the people on the ground. So much of what he wrote foresaw this awful present. And then there are chilling passages, like describing Bakhmut as a “safe” part of Ukrainian-held Donetsk region, and you realise what happened this year would have even back then been unimaginable to the author. The author focuses a lot on the local mentality, the nostalgia for the Soviet period, for a feeling of basic economic security and a strongman in charge, and I think that would resinate across a lot of working-class mining communities around the world, former and present. Ukraine is a huge country and Lviv is not Donetsk, just like Arizona is not Pennsylvania (of course not “just like” but you know what I mean). This book helps put a lot of that in context, if you are interested in the region, as I am. Some of the most fascinating people I have met this year are originally from Luhansk and Donetsk regions.
There are pages of it you read and just want to scream why didn’t anyone shove this in front of Macron and Merkel. I found myself highlighting nearly every other page on the bus yesterday. A few selections:
“For as long as I can remember, I’ve always heard ‘We don’t make the decisions.’ All we could do was think about the price of butter or how expensive potatoes had become, while the powers-that-be had already decided everything for us. My friends, have you never topped to think why this is so, why people whose strength of character and will enables them to descend half a mile below the surface of the earth while under artillery fire are so indifferent and apathetic to their own fate? Don’t rush to answer.” (page 46)
This next text was written in 2015 (!).
“The man running the Kremlin thinks entirely differently. Every since the concept of ruskii mir and “Great Russia” began to become tangible thanks to the actions of its primary proponent, an abyss has emerged that separates modern, civilised Europe and this man, whose ambitions do not fit into the simple logic of enrichment or territorial interests. Russian political and psychological reality is clearly taking on elements of fascism…all this points to the reality that the Kremlin is not focused on trying to avoid sanctions or save the domestic economy, let alone worry about the Russian soldiers dying in the Donbas…Putin’s actions need to be seen through the lens of history rather than just through the business calculations that underpin the “deep concern of his European counterparts.”
Really nothing more to add, is there? Just this morning I read Putin apparently travelled to occupied territories to present Russian soldiers an ancient icon from some former Russian defense minister of the history books. Sure, it may have been one of Putin’s body doubles (I am tending to believe this more and more, actually), but it illustrates perfectly all this senseless mindless death is just for one man to act out his sick historical fantasies. There were horrific videos that appeared this week of Wagner fighters reportedly confessing to the murders of civilians. I cannot watch them. I cannot understand why they would confess to such heinous crimes on phone cameras. There is a lot I will never be able to understand. One thing is clear: if they really did what they claim to have done, there are no living witnesses, which, I suppose, was the intention of the war criminal commander who gave the order.
I need to sign off now but I just want to thank you all for your continued support. I received this photo yesterday from the arrival center. The mini watermelon! Moms with kids are waiting there too, as you see from the treats in the photo. I would love to hear what the plan is when this arrival center stops accepting new arrivals and is eventually closed in a month or so, and what “the plan” is for social housing, as people are still arriving from Ukraine, and people in Austria are still waiting for housing assignments, and simply deciding you are done with the war does not mean the war is done with us. But I’m sure those “in charge” know this (sarcasm off).
p.s. one more thing! If you know anyone teaching a “Ukrainian integration class” in a Vienna school, ideally a middle school, could you please let me know? I will have a 3rd grade gymnasium class (ages 12-13) available for a social project with Ukrainian refugees one morning in June, and would love to offer a joint trip to a museum or language practice, etc.
Happy birthday. Much love and hugs for all you do
Late but heartfelt birthday wishes from me as well - and thanks for this report and book recommendation. Hugs, Regina