Fight and don’t compromise with evil; serve not only yourself, and make decisions so that no one has to wait; take responsibility for everything that happens around you; and don’t wait for someone else to do it. These are the guidelines for young people given by Ulana Suprun, Ukraine’s Acting Minister of Health, during a talk she gave to UCU graduates at the Sheptytsky Center during the recent UCU Days in Lviv.

To compromise with evil on behalf of good is an evil

Should a doctor hide from the patient the fact that the patient has cancer, in order to lessen the patient’s suffering? 89% of immigrants from the USSR in America answered “yes.” Only 8% of native-born Americans gave that answer. For those who have left the USSR, this is a compromise with evil on behalf of good; at the same time, for Americans this compromise with evil on behalf of good is an evil.

For me, this is a key indicator of people with a Soviet mentality. This is a certain, cynical schizophrenia, when your worldview has no constants and everything can always be justified.

Lee LeFever later proved that such an approach makes it impossible to resolve conflicts without loss of the participants’ dignity. This is whence comes the twisted idea “crudeness is the second happiness,” which Orest Drul cleverly noted in his article “The Galician dichotomy.” This is connected with another twisted concept – “difficult character.”

I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but in Ukraine they call “people with a difficult character” those who have the kind of character when you have certain clear principles and are not afraid to state them, when you don’t compromise on certain basic matters, correspondingly, when you have conflicts with those with contrary views and receive the label of a person with a difficult character.

Conflict because of one’s convictions is a manifestation of honesty

Don’t make compromises when your conscience tells you something’s wrong. Don’t be afraid to listen to your internal voice. Don’t make allegiances or partnerships with evil because of good intentions. Don’t legitimize evil – fight it. Give things their proper names – tell the truth. They will call you a “difficult” and “conflicted” person, but conflict because of one’s convictions is a manifestation of honesty when the fear to be honest very often pushes us to compromises with evil.

Service is activity on behalf of something greater than simply me myself

In Ukraine, there is no understanding of the idea of “service.” Generally, people serve to keep their jobs, or they simply fulfill their obligations. For me, service is activity on behalf of something greater than simply me myself. It is the ability to influence and change the life of the community for the better in a concrete place at a concrete time.

A week ago I returned from Great Britain, where there was a big conference on the development of digital technology in the medical field and, at the same time, a big event for the 70^th anniversary of the National Health Service. This is a fantastic institution with fantastic authority among the population – higher than any other institution or person, including the queen.

And one day there, at an evening with colleagues, I asked how the preparation for Brexit was going, because one of the members of the government was talking about various tasks, including in the medical field, in order to make Brexit successful. What we then heard was very indicative: Britain, which is to leave the EU by March 2019, has, currently, no plan how to do this. Yes, yes, Britain, a country which does nothing without a clear plan.

And what is the reason? The first instructions from the government were to prepare an analysis of the political and economic effects of this process. Officials of various departments analyzed all the possible challenges and presented the results to their superiors. But they never received a response. The new government clearly did not expect such prognoses: 99% of the bureaucrats who work in British state institutions consider exiting the EU to be an incorrect step. Their work is to carry out the daily tasks of the government, whatever their own views are. But they are the top experts in various fields of life and, like no one else, they are able to make a prognosis of the consequences of one or another events.

This is a manifestation of the strength of British institutions with centuries of experience, when, through the media, you can convince people of anything, but, finally, you remain in the cabinet of ministers with uncompromising rationality and the language of civil servants, that is, numbers.

In Ukraine it is acceptable to treat bureaucrats as those who impede progress and make life more difficult for everyone. But in a healthy state institution, the culture of service is what rescues the nation from political storms, from governments of populists and marionettes. However, true understanding comes only from the experience of working in the government sphere. The role of one, single bureaucrat can be fantastically large not only in support of reforms but also in support of occupation, the surrender of national interests, or the ruin of culture.

A few years of service in the government sphere will give you a school of administration and understanding the context of the life of our society which no educational program will give. Do not turn away from the field of government, but use this instrument to serve something greater than each of us can be. I’m waiting for you in the government sector!

The people and decisions that you are looking for are sitting next to you in this hall.

The Bolsheviks glued the word “responsibility” to the word “criminal.” Accordingly, this was seen as something dangerous, harmful, something necessary to avoid and to be extremely afraid of. But this is not our responsibility, this Soviet mantra which they taught to repeat when the time came to make an important decision. As a consequence, millions of people are used to accepting decisions which have already been made for them.

I know that you are responsible citizens, but I don’t know if you understand, finally, how responsible you are.

One wise American once said to graduates of Harvard, already in the time of President Trump: “Don’t deceive yourself with the thought that removing yourself from a system which, in your opinion, is broken, will allow you to avoid harm from the mistakes of that system.”

The year 2019 is not about people from television screens. It’s about people who don’t look at televisions. It’s about you and me. I know, you are thinking, that someone normal should show up, and then you will support him in the elections. But I have a surprise for you: he won’t show up. The people and decisions that you are looking for are sitting next to you in this hall.

The problem is that no speeches will encourage Ukrainians to take the fate of their country in their hands like the bad results of an election. And, you perhaps think, it is normal to wait for someone who will take responsibility for changes on himself, but this is a waste of time and opportunities, your time and mine and your opportunities and mine, opportunities which Sheptytsky, Hrushevskyi, and Bandera could not even dream about.

Oksana Levantovych