The Very Old Woman

Ukraine has a large number of 'very old women' called 'starinky' but

almost no old men -- with old men being almost a complete rarity -- with

most perished due to (1) World War II (The Great Patriotic War), (2)

industrial accidents , (3) alcoholism, (4) very poor diet and general

health (women tend to eat more moderately and a better diet) (5) auto

accidents, and (6) presently a sorely inadequate health care system.

Your ratings and critiques are invited and most welcome. If you rate

harshly or very critically, please submit a helpful and constructive

comment; please share your superior photographic knowledge to help

improve my photography. Thanks! Enjoy! John

I live sometimes (and part-time I guess, depending on when you ask me) in Ukraine.

This was taken in Kyiv, the capital, on the most fashionable shopping street in the country.

Notice that the garment the old woman is wearing is brocade . . . this was not a cheap garment when it was new.

Of course it may have started out as a curtain or something similar . . . we'll never know.

And for certain she spent the majority of her life under Communism, which fell Christmas 1991, and left nearly everyone in the country destitute, selling their garments and even their winter coats just for something to eat (as recounted to me Saturday by a State Department Deputy Secretary of State for Arms Control who was there at the time who described a Kyiv with no cars and lines of people selling essential things for more essential food.

Now there's maybe a million cars and everyone is well clothed -- even the beggars and the very aged. As recently as the depression and devaluation of 1998 in nearby Russia where I was, women were clearing out their closet for money to buy essential foodstuffs between 1997 and 1998 when there was a real devaluation, and I have no reason to doubt it happened and far worse in Ukraine (because the latter country is much poorer than the capital of Russia).

Even though times just turned harder again in Ukraine suddenly with the global economic crisis happening at the same time as Metro fares quadrupled in one day, the citizens have sucked up and not revolted.

Traffic fines were quintupled and that did not invite more 'law and order' on otherwise disorderly roads from somewhat disorderly drivers who do not follow rules of the road,, and instead gave corrupt cops (militia) greater excuse to ask for five times the normal bribe and then to stop everyone in sight to fatten their larders.

(The laws of unintended consequences are again carried out . . . . the sought increased lawfulness is turned into increased lawlessness by the guardians of corruption -- the militia, who would rather fatten their wallets than carry out the justice they were supposedly hired to mete out, and this was a nationwide phenomenon from the smallest one-block village at highway side to the capital itself -- and no one was immune from corrupt militia. (my first encounter with acknowledged corruption in Ukraine on a personal level, though I paid nothing, and won't).

(All this is from personal knowledge, and not from stories, and is augmented by numerous stories recounted to me as well as stories also on national news).

It's a rougher life in Ukraine, even when times a relatively good . . . . as they have been until just recently and even a few months ago when this photo was taken.

Be prepared for a shock if you go to Ukraine, especially a more rural area, or a smaller city or burg.

Life's 'raw' in Ukraine, which is one reason I chose the nation to photograph in. Things are not all 'smoothed over as they are in many more advanced Western cultures, though Ukrainians by and large regard themselves as 'middle class Europeans, though their incomes seldom if ever meet that standard.

John (Crosley)

I really do not think this old woman is a beggar. She may not now be rich, but she once probably was very well off -- see that her suit is made of brocade.

She's old -- so old that Russians and Ukrainians have a name for it - older than ba'bushka -- it's called starinka. That literally means very, very old woman, similar to great grandmother. There's an almost identical word for very aged old men, but there are few, if any old men because almost all men have died by the time they get anywhere near such an age.

She is a relic of times past, raised and worked under Communism for sure, and coming to grips with a Capitalist world. When Communism fell in 1991, there was no food and people were selling winter in winter cold coats for precious food.

Streets were empty of cars -- no one had a car.

Period.

Now Kyiv, Ukraine is choked with cars, even if it is not a first world nation and even the poorest beggar has adequate clothing. Everybody has adequate winter clothing that I have seen, even if not always highest quality. Life is better, though declining right now with a recent spate of hyperinflation after five years of steadiness in their currency -- the hrivnia.

Only time will tell what will happen, but Ukraine is a fertile land with strong, able people and some very intelligent ones. They mostly love the US and mostly like US citizens/residents and most (except in the far East of the nation next to Russia), really like the US.

Their present government seeks better relations with the USA and even NATO involvement.

For now at least, Ukraine seems firmly allied with the West -- all to Russia's consternation, since it has been attacked numerous tiimes and it perenially feels vulnerable unless it controls its flanks. Russian suspicion of foreign treachery runs deep, but also can be used as a form of political control, say some commentators, but I cannot judge that.

I just know I have lived in both nations and they are remarkably similar, but I have felt quite more safe in Ukraine than in Russia -- but don't know if that's just a matter of 'the times (I lived in russia when Mafia were rampant), or the place.

This is a story 'to be continued'.

Regrettably, for this woman, she probably just was out to see the new prosperity (when I took this), and for her, that effectively will be the end.

When, as in neighoring Poland which is becoming increasingly prosperous, the men also reach old age, then Ukraine will have arrived, I think -- Poland has large numbers of post-retirement older men, while Ukraine has very, very few.

Thanks for commenting, and putting up with this commentary in return.

John (Crosley)