Every now and then I get into some interesting conversations with Ukrainians. One day we were at a lake watching a couple of guys catching some large carp fish and a random guy next to me asked me if I spoke English. How could you tell? He wanted to talk to me in English so we chatted about Ukraine and then the conversation turned to politics. This guy is a surgeon here in Kiev.
I generally try to avoid this subject but this guy was determined to teach me about the world of government. His theory was that everything in the world was controlled by the Masons and according to this surgeon, former president George W. Bush was behind quote a few evils in the world. After telling me about Bush, the guy asked me, “How in the world could Americans elect Obama? What has this guy ever done in his life? Where did he come from? Americans are not smart.”
He then proceeded to tell me about another conspiracy theory behind Obama’s ascendancy. I asked him if he had ever been to the United States, and he had not. OK, how do you know about all these secretive dealings behind world politics? He replied, “You can look it up on the internet.” I could not disguise my look of disbelief. I think the double-eye roll in opposite directions with my tongue hanging out of my mouth betrayed my thoughts. I wish I was making this up, but I am not.
I recently attended a football match between Ukraine and Germany in the renovated stadium in Kiev. Beside learning some new Russian words for stupid idiot when the fans screamed when the Ukrainian player missed the open net, and getting hugged and high-fived by friendly, beer-loving Ukrainians when Ukraine scored three times, I also witnessed the reception of the Ukrainian president at the game. When the announcer told the audience of 70,000 that President Yanukovych was at the game, the crowd booed him loudly for several minutes. My friend and I just looked around, smiled and said, “Wow. That hurts.”
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