Ukraine and Me

2 min to read

Beautiful Country

I had nothing to do with Ukraine until I came to know some Ukranians. Then, I decided to travel there. Kyiv, Uman, Odesa, and Chernobyl. Truly fell in love with all beauty there. Then, the war started. It's pretty sad to see people suffering and all the destructions. Every day the TV broadcasting from Ukraine shows city scapes I am familiar with: where I have walked and what I have seen. Then, I came to know Ukrainian refugees and more people. Some of them are still in Ukraine, others left. It's even harder for me to understand the war, as I have Russian friends too.

But, my communication is now mostly online with them. Unfortunately, there is only little impact for my everyday life. As the war continues like forever, my connection is dacaying slowly but surely. From time to time, news pops up about the fights and diplomacies. President Zelensky visited Hiroshima too. I also went to a Kyiv National Opera and Ballet show in Tokyo (firm support in Japan). But, like other people in the world, attention is decreasing.

Ukrainians in the Digital World

But, Ukraine always comes back to me with surprise. The first encounter with Ukraine in my recent work was when the Ukrainian flag appeared in the black command line screen. Distinctive yellow and sky blue. It was soon after the war started. Apparently, it was Ukrainian or other developers (in the huge Docker community) to raise awareness of what was happening in the country. Very powerful message not textually, but visually.

Quite some time later, the second one was when ReKisstory introduced the map view. We use Leaflet JavaScript library to show a map with Open Street Map. It turned out the developers of Leaflet are Ukranians (You can also read a message of the developer on the home page above). As a user, you can also see a tiny Ukrainian flag at the left bottom of all maps we display in ReKisstory. Very clever idea. I like the subtle yet powerful visual message, as it does not bother the map itself. The library is pretty famous for developers, because it is an Open Source. It was encouraging to see their resilience in the cyber space. While I enjoyed this coincidence, I did not expect even more.

We recently launched the image gallery view. When I was looking for the most suitable Open Source software to create an image gallery, Photoswipe caught my eyes: "I can easily deploy this and the functionalities are sufficient". I started reading the documentation, and this was the third encounter of Made in Ukraine. I am pleasantly surprised at the Ukranian presence in the Open Source world. Let's benefit from their nice effort and good-will. I really hope that the war will end soon and I can visit the country again. I highly recommend you to help them recover after the war, by visiting the contry with a big potential.

Go_A

Another story goes with one of the most famous bands in Ukraine. Guess what. Their name is Go_A. Without doubt, I find connection to my own name. Is it my band?? I do not know the stroy behind their name. If you know, please contact me!

My Ukrainian friend introduced the band to me, among other Ukrainian music (before the war started). The band sings most songs in Ukraine. The mix of traditional folk songs and instruments with modern electric sound is the trademark. It seems that the band is becoming a symbol of Ukranian solidarity. It is righly so.

While I had listened to their music on YouTube, last year I came across their name in the concert ticket website I subscribe for news. "Go_A is coming to Amsterdam". Within few minutes, I was already downloading an e-ticket. The night was full of energy as well as many Ukranians in the Netherlands. Their show was held in the legendary Paradiso. Perfect combination of church-architecture and electric atomosphere. Toward the end, the singer asked the audience to take hands of each other with strangers. Many a bit puzzled and embarassed like me, but all of the sudden, we stop hesitation. Somehow we were in a circle of strangers, and danced together to the Ukranian music. Ukranian magic (the tour name) was spell-bounding.

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