The blue-yellow flag represents the beautiful Ukranian land and peaceful sky – the core values of nature and freedom. “Everyone’s honest heart is being attacked now”, writes our grantee Oksana Skaldina.
To love nature and respect freedom. These two values are among the core basics of the Finnish lifestyle. Aren’t they just simple basics of human life?
Nature has entire freedom. Plantain and yarrow grow everywhere in Europe. Swallows and sparrows fly whenever they want. They know no borders or limits. But we, humans, have the reasonable power to create or eliminate, to restore or destroy.
I am Ukrainian. The last events are destroying both the nature and freedom in my homeland and attacking these values inside millions of hearts. Those are not only the hearts belonging to the Ukrainian people. Everyone’s honest heart is being attacked now.
There were fire attacks on Feldman EcoPark and Zoon in Kharkiv on last week’s Friday. On that day many endangered animals were injured and killed. Similarly, the previous night there was a fire attack on Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Station. Yesterday, the flame, frightening the whole world, extinguished. But what will happen today?
In the 20th century, Ukrainian soviet biochemist Vladimir Vernadsky introduced the concept of “noosphere”. He suggested that in the same way as biological organisms have completely transformed the geosphere and turned it into the biosphere, we humans have the power to turn the biosphere to the next level – the noosphere. Then we can live in the “sphere of reason”.
We’re now living and experiencing the 21st century. Are we progressing or turning back to dark days by destroying the basics of nature? We have two maps – geographical and political. They are just different maps. This is the reality. Or are they just the two wings of the Dove of Peace?
Nowadays you can see the Ukrainian flag everywhere. Do you know what the yellow and blue colours mean? Yellow symbolizes the boundless fields of wheat and sunflowers, the amazing Ukrainian nature. Blue means peaceful sky – the protective shield of freedom!
Those two life basics should be saved! I hope Ukraine and each of us will pass through this flame and believe in a better future for my nation.
05.03.2022
Pictures made by Ukrainian journalist and writer Tata Asteri (Tatiana Skorokhod). She is sending greetings from currently occupied Ukrainian city Kherson to every honest heart.
Picture by Yana Pavlova
The author works as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Turku and University of Eastern Finland. Her postdoctoral research project is entitled “Less atmospheric carbon, more pollinators: rethinking the restoration capacity of artificial greeneries”. It is dedicated to ecological restoration of city landscapes and funded by Maj and Tor Nessling Foundation.
