On Oct 12/97, Michael Casale wrote:
| Or would you prefer stop the brain drain by erecting the Iron Curtain again? Or perhaps find a friendly bricklayer to build the Berlin Wall again? |
Michael:
I know how to stop the Brain Drain From Ukraine To Israel dead in its
tracks � and we don't need a new Iron Curtain or Berlin Wall to do it. It
involves two measures:
(1) Take the $20 thousand per family (I am relying on memory for this
figure � will someone correct me if I am wrong?) of the American taxpayer's
money that is presently given each Ukrainian family that moves to Israel,
and give it to that Ukrainian family on condition that it stays in Ukraine.
(2) Stop the painting of swastikas, the desecration of Jewish graves, and
the rumors of pogroms within Ukraine. Stop the 60 Minutes broadcasts and
pogrom hysteria that is being whipped up in the West. The only beneficiary
of all this activity is the state of Israel.
I will go farther than that and tell you of a way to reverse the brain
drain. This is a measure, in fact, that in the interests of fairness and
the redress of past wrongs should be instituted. Specifically, I think
that the United States should offer professional families living in the
West, and in Israel, $20 thousand for moving to Ukraine. If this balance
were instituted, we would begin to see just how unattractive Ukraine really
was as a place to live. If this balance were instituted, then the idea
that the US was a friend of Ukraine and helping Ukraine � instead of
plundering it � would stop being a joke.
Lubomyr Prytulak