Joel Koonce speaks about the Ukraine
Posted by Steve Frazier
The Speaker on September 15th was Joel Koonce and is also a prospective member. Joel went to the Ukraine on a business-consulting trip with some humanitarian aspects involved. While in the Ukraine, they distributed some funds from Episcopal churches in the Lake Minnetonka area to needy persons and causes.
Joel had a slide presentation that showed us Kiev (it is spelled Kyiv in Russian languages) and parts of Ukraine. Ukraine is a separate Soviet State, having been one of the "Republics" in the USSR. The USSR broke up and Ukraine became a sovereign state on August 24, 1991. It is 90% the size of Texas and is parallel with Winnipeg, Canada. One-fourth of the agriculture in the Soviet Republics takes place in the Ukraine. Farmers can purchase Russian tractors with 3 year financing, but banks will allow 5-year loans on American products.
His mission was to be a consultant on farm loan policy in the Ukraine. Because the farmers can't buy or sell land, and there is no credit history available for banks to access, it is almost impossible to place a farm loan. Mortgages do not exist.
Tourist pictures filled the latter part of his presentation. Pictures of Chernobyl showed the devastation that the nuclear accident caused. Although over 60% of the radiation fell on Belarus, an adjoining Republic, there was wide loss of life in the area around Chernobyl. The government imposed secrecy and there will never be an accurate count of the lives lost in the accident. Pictures showed homes abandoned in the middle of dinner, and children's toys left strewn on the ground. Radiation levels in the area are still high, and the containment building that has been built to stifle the radiation from the destroyed reactor has a leak in it. During their stay in the town, they were constantly monitoring the radiation levels they were being exposed to.
Other interesting comments by Joel included that World War II is referred to in Russian states as "The Great Patriotic War". Every town seems to have a memorial to the heroes who died in that war. Larger towns have extensive subway systems with the track and trains running far below the surface. The subways were built to also serve as bomb shelters during the war. Many age-old churches were converted to other uses during the communist era, but most have been returned to their original purpose. (Story by Tad Shaw)