Ukraine on the tip of the tongue in Australia

When I left Australia on Wednesday, the big news of the day was the story about the Ukrainian swimmer and her father, who scuffled poolside at the FINA World Swimming Championships in Melbourne.

While I've heard the stereotypical stories of domestic violence in the former soviet union, I've never seen it first hand.

So I was surprised that, despite living in Ukraine, it was in Australia that I saw a bit of argy-bargy between Ukrainian parents and kids. Not first hand; rather, splashed all over the newspapers.

The paper reports obviously sparked a lot of commentary on the radio in Oz, with people talking about how this sort of violence in not acceptable between parents and kids, or in the sporting community, or both. All the while talking about Ukraine in quite a negative light.

Here's my thoughts on the situation:

- Firstly, I do understand that violence is a part of life for some Ukrainian families, same as Australian families and indeed many families in many different countries. As to whether the stereotype of drunk and violent families in the FSU more so than many other countries is actually true, I'm not sure, but this episode unfortunately perpetuated that stereotype.

- Secondly, Australia is a developed and rich country. Ukraine is only 15 years into independence, is still rather poor and is still trying to find its feet in the global sphere. While violence isn't acceptable, I'm pretty sure Ukraine's priorities don't currently lie in spending money on huge domestic violence awareness and advertising campaigns that Australia does at this stage of the country's development.

Sometimes Ukrainians don't understand how other parts of the world may be different. The most obvious way that I see this is when I try to speak Russian - people can get very frustrated when I tell them I don't understand them, and their reaction makes me think they can't understand that someone doesn't speak their language (fair enough, I am in their country after all).

Violence doesn't solve anything, but Ukrainains are very emotive people - I like to think of them as the Italians of Eastern Europe. They talk with their hands, and if they feel an emotion, it's likely to be the extreme of that emotion (I've heard a couple of Ukrainians say they listen to sad music on purpose so they can cry at its sad beauty...)

What the coach and his daughter probably didn't realise that in Australia, it's illegal to even spank naughty toddlers into submission. They certainly wouldn't have realised that they would go to court and possibly be jailed for having a family scuffle by the poolside.

Sorry about being serious for once. But I just feel like it's a shame that Ukraine is top of mind in Australia and everyone's determined to be as negative as possible about it.

Really and truly, Ukrainians tend to be unemotional and a bit grumpy in shops and restaurants, and boy can they get their elbows out on the metro. But in their own homes, my Ukrainians friends are fun, helpful, generous and very lovely people who have a passion for life, their families and their country.