At school, children boast not about their holidays but about downloaded games; the number of churches has grown at least 20-fold, and programmers' salaries 30-fold
On the eve of Independence Day, the Segodnya newspaper set out to find what has changed in various areas of our lives. We asked people from different professions to compare the distant 1990s with the present day, to talk about the changes and also to make a forecast: what awaits our country another 21 years from now?
Note that our experts' stories are not without nostalgia, and their view of the future is often not as optimistic as one would like. But do not forget that 21 years ago we were exactly 21 years younger. We had more strength, energy and optimism. Besides, the formula "things are worse now than they used to be" is centuries old. That's just the way we are...
Priest: "God will bring us to our senses"
"Until 1988, there were 8 Orthodox churches and 2 monasteries in Kyiv. Only old women went there. Now there are more than 150 churches of our UOC alone in the capital (Moscow Patriarchate — author's note). 70% of Ukrainians consider themselves believers. But on the other hand, people are sliding into the abyss. The decline of morality and the crisis of spirituality are visible to the naked eye. Just recently some girls cut down a cross... And I think those who strive to live by the laws of the Gospel are only 10%," says Father Anatolii (Zatovskyi).
What's next? "If we do not come to our senses, God will bring us to them. In 20 years there will be either a disaster like Chornobyl (in 1986 people rushed to church) or miracles of healing, after which people will start thinking about God. And there will be one single UOC with no offshoots," the priest believes.
Doctors: "There are many more patients now"
"I have been working as a doctor since 1989. Literally everything has changed since then," says Olha Kovalenko, an anaesthesiologist at Kyiv City Hospital No. 17. "Doctors have more work now. The number of Kyiv residents has grown, but the number of staff positions has stayed the same. On the other hand, it is more comfortable to work now. We have fairly modern equipment, and we can make diagnoses faster and more accurately. Many new effective antibiotics have appeared. Conditions that were considered incurable 20 years ago are no longer a problem for doctors."
About salaries, the doctors say this: "Back then we basically spent them all on food, and we still do." The conversation about patients is more specific.
"Because of a sedentary lifestyle, our immunity is getting weaker. Allergies caused by the environment and chemical pollution are mowing Ukrainians down. Financial difficulties lead people to skimp on their health. Treatment and check-ups are put off until later, and people come to doctors already with a whole bunch of chronic diseases. But at the same time there is insurance-based medicine, which protects patients' pockets. And more and more people understand that health must be looked after. Many employers literally demand that a person be healthy. And those who think about their careers go in for sport and do morning exercises. They get treatment at weekends so as not to take sick leave," says Olha Kovalenko.
What's next? "Without proper funding, state healthcare will simply disappear; our reserves are running out. As a consequence, mortality will rise. But we believe this will not happen," the doctors say.
Chef: foreigners may save borscht
"In the late 1980s and early 1990s, restaurants were like clones — the same dishes on every menu. Now we delight people with good, varied cuisine. And you can find the ingredients for almost any dish in a Kyiv supermarket. But the quality of some products, alas, is much worse. I am all for the Soviet GOST standards, which protected quality. Now it's 'whatever I want, I put in the sausage'," says Viacheslav Hrybov, head chef of the Dnipro hotel complex.
What's next? "Tell me, where in Kyiv can you try Ukrainian cuisine? It's sushi and pizza everywhere. But if you are hungry, what do you dream of? A morsel of rice or a bowl of borscht?!" Hrybov asks. "If we want to develop tourism, we have to create a chain of restaurants serving our cuisine. An Italian simply isn't interested in eating lasagne here. He wants something new and surprising. I hope the market will make businesspeople open Ukrainian restaurants."
Police: no respect and no neighbourhood brawls
Police Lieutenant Colonel Mykhailo Andrusnyk has served in the patrol service (PPS) since the mid-1980s. "Remember the racketeering and the gang fights between neighbourhoods? There is nothing like the 1990s now," he says. "But back then people had their hats snatched in the street, and now it's gold chains. Robberies and thefts haven't gone anywhere. What else has changed? The police used to be respected, but now our rating has hit rock bottom."
As for how pay has changed, the lieutenant colonel only said that in the 1990s salaries were delayed by up to six months. But even now it is hard for a police officer to live on UAH 1,700.
What's next? In the 1990s the police could not even dream of modern technology. And progress does not stand still. New video surveillance and public order monitoring systems may well appear. There will be fewer police officers on the streets, but crimes will be solved more effectively.
IT: soon we will become a supercomputer
Anton Marrero, head of an international IT consortium, became interested in computers back in the 1980s. He graduated from Kyiv Polytechnic Institute (KPI), and by 1991 he was already teaching "Artificial Intelligence". "But it was impossible to live on a $20 salary. Only 5–10% of my group (object-oriented programming) managed to find work in their field; the rest changed professions. To work in IT, my friends and I had to set up a company," Anton says. "We developed software for financial and accounting purposes. But there was no one to install it for — there were hardly any computers back then. In a year, the five of us earned $4,000 between us. But back then $100 a month was the limit of a programmer's dreams. Today they get $800 right after university, and advanced specialists get $3,000–5,000."
What lies ahead. "Very soon people will not be able to make decisions at all without machines that suggest scenarios. In 5 years the IT industry will become one with biotechnology — there will be implants that extend the body's capabilities. I would venture to suggest that in 20 years all people on Earth will be able to unite into a single super-mind. And it will be integrated with all the computers on the planet," Anton predicts.
School: may go online in 21 years
We asked Tetiana Vovchenko, a teacher of Ukrainian language and literature at Kyiv School No. 96 with 28 years of teaching experience, to tell us about "school changes". "Do you know what children will be discussing on 1 September? Who spent the summer where? No! Who downloaded what onto their mobile phone. And do you remember how we used to run along the corridor during breaks? Now children stand and stare at their phones," the teacher says. We should note, however, that many pupils will also be showing off photos taken on holiday in Egypt, Spain and so on. Today children have more opportunities to have a good holiday and see the world than in the 1990s.
Speaking about 21st-century schoolchildren, the teachers noted that children have become more rational: as early as the 5th grade they understand which subjects will be useful to them in the future and which they can easily do without. "Children's speech is becoming less imaginative and poorer. They don't use proverbs and sayings, and riddles leave them stumped!" Vovchenko marvels. But one cannot say that today's children are worse than their peers from the 1990s. They are different. They are smart and quickly master new gadgets. They learn foreign languages on their own initiative, not under duress. Most children are well-rounded and attend clubs and sports classes.
Teachers' salaries have changed too. "Back then a young teacher's salary was $40; now it is $150. It has become a little easier. In 1991 I went to the shop with a list: so many grams of sausage, so much cheese and so on. Now I can afford a little more. But if you buy something expensive, it means you have to economise," the teacher says.
What's next? "The average age of our teachers is 40–50. There are practically no young people," they say at the school. "And perhaps in 21 years the school as we know it will disappear and children will study remotely. Lectures will be held over Skype, and pupils will sit at their desks only for exams."
Farmer: "Our harvests will keep making us happy"
In 1991 a law on farmers was adopted. "After that I left the collective farm, took out a loan and started working my own land," says farmer Oleksii Lymar (Chernihiv Oblast). "Since then harvests have become a little bigger. Stability has appeared. In the 1990s this is how it went: you sold your harvest, the money lost its value, and there wasn't even enough for seed."
What lies ahead. "The mood is good, fighting! Our harvests will keep making us happy. If only officials didn't put a spoke in our wheel. It feels as if our guidelines are being written by new Lysenkos (a Soviet scientist who rejected genetics — author's note). Under the current rules, I can sow rapeseed in my fields once every 200 years! In some resolutions one line contradicts another! And in some places it is written between the lines: 'Go and pay a bribe'," the farmer fumes.
Source: Segodnya. Author: Vlad Abramov