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Prytulak   InfoUkes Posting   09-Oct-1997   Brain drain from Ukraine (reply to Michael Casale)
Date:  Thu, 09 Oct 1997 10:26:58 -0700
To:  [email protected]
From:  Lubomyr Prytulak
Subject:  Brain drain from Ukraine (reply to Michael Casale)
Michael:

I am glad that you feel welcome in Ukraine, and if you are ever in Vancouver, you should feel welcome also in my own home.  There is no quarrel between you and me.

I will limit my reply to a single point that you made:

...

Let me just highlight your remark about brain theft.  People with brains (and some without as well) go where they feel they can better their lives for themselves and their families.  That is why there are so many North Americans of Ukrainian origin.  It reminds me of the fifties and sixties here in the UK when we had a 'brain drain' and lost our brightest and best to America.  Now we had to two possibilities.  The first was to prevent these 'brains' leaving the country by taking away their passports, making them pay back their grants, threatening their families, etc.  The second alternative was to improve the country, give them more pay, improve their research grants, and generally make tham want to stay.  The FSU chose the first path and here in the UK because we hold the monopoly on common sense, we chose the latter.  If Ukraine wants to hold on to its brains, it is competing in a world market and in the final analysis it will have to follow the civilised method.  As far as I can see there is no middle way.

Perhaps it is relevant to my remarks above, to add something about Jewish emigration from Ukraine and the FSU in general.  The Israeli authorities have been very liberal in their definition in what constitutes a 'Jew' and is an extremely contentious subject in some circles.  Given the opportunities for qualified Ukrainians to leave their homeland and emigrate to Israel where they can improve their lot considerably, is it little wonder that they have discovered long lost Jewish great grandmothers, great grandfathers, etc.  From talking to Jewish and other youngsters in Ukraine over the past few years, the 'Zionist' appeal has had no real effect whatsoever.  The pressure to emigrate has been from within Ukraine and has had little to do with thinking that Israel is the greatest invention since sliced bread.

...

Michael Casale

Why do I call the movement of brains from Ukraine to Israel a "theft"?  I have three reasons:

(1) As you point out, this is not a calling of diaspora Jews back to the Biblical homeland � it is, rather the calling of any and all brains from the FSU to Israel � and if you've got a Ph.D. or equivalent, then Israel will be happy to consider you a Jew no matter how shaky the documentation of your family history.

(2) Each FSU family gets $20,000 upon arriving in Israel.  Without US support, Israel would not be able to afford such a generous payment � the money is passed to Israel by the US, and Israel passes it along to the immigrant family.  Whether the money first passes through Israeli general revenue and who knows how many other steps within Israel is irrelevant � if the US would not give money to Israel, Israel would not be able to give money to the immigrants.  Thus, I view this as the payment by the US to each FSU family that moves to Israel.  In other words, the US which pretends that it is interested in helping the FSU in general, and Ukraine in particular, is in fact instrumental in draining it of the one resource which above all others the FSU needs to succeed.  In this regard, the US is most decidedly and clearly the enemy of Ukraine and must be counted among the plunderers of Ukraine.  If the US truly wanted to help Ukraine, it would pay each professional family in Ukraine $20,000 to stay in Ukraine. In Ukraine, this is such a vast sum of money that almost all such families would remain.

Thus, the US has a choice � given its willingness to spend $20,000, it can: (1) give that money to the family of a Ukrainian scientist for staying in Ukraine, in which case it would clearly be helping Ukraine; or (2) give that money to the family of a Ukrainian scientist ON CONDITION THAT HE LEAVE UKRAINE � which I call brain theft.  This is not the free movement of people to the place on earth where they will be happiest � this is the bribery of people to move where the US wants them to go.  The US and Israel are the enemies of Ukraine because they denude Ukraine of its scientists and engineers.

(3) Despite the payment of $20,000 per family, Israel is still not a powerful enough draw to Ukraine's scientist and engineers � many remain behind, and Israel wants these as well.  But why should they come to Israel?  Almost none of them have any religious sentiments.  They don't speak Hebrew.  Isreal is a tiny country, mostly desert.  Israel has turned the one hundred million or so surrounding Arabs into implacable enemies. Moving to Israel is not an easy sell.

That is why Israel needs the added motivation of anti-Semitism.  The greater is the anti-Semitism around the world, the more Jews feel threatened and alienated everywhere in general and in Ukraine in particular, and the readier they will be to come to Israel.  Anti-Semitism is, therefore, predominantly the creation of Israel.  The Demjanjuk trial in this regard was an immense success � Jews had inculacted in them the image of the Ukrainian who cuts off women's breast for entertainment, and Ukrainians were left with a distaste for a Justice which they cannot help seeing was administered by Jewish hands.  Alienation and hostility between Ukrainians and Jews grew, and this helped the exodus of scientists and engineers from Ukraine to Israel.

This does not mean that you should be able to see anti-Semitism within Ukraine � Ukrainians are not so readily manipulated.  The effect that has been produced is a sense of unease among Jews, and this promotes their leaving.

Lubomyr Prytulak

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