Toronto Star journalist narrowly escapes detention in Ukraine... (http://www.thestar.com/news/world/2014/04/24/toronto_star_journalist_narrowly_escapes_detention_in_ukraine.html)
By speaking french...
Quote
SLAVYANSK, UKRAINE—We were just a few nervous steps from the taxi when the small mob descended.
Four angry faces, bulged tight with tension on the ready-to-blow streets of Slavyansk, getting right up in ours. Three men and a woman. Fifty-something. Friends of Russia. Civilians .
Show us ID. Now.
The Star's interpreter, Mikhail, gave me a fleeting look I had yet to see in our week together. An end-of-the-world look.
They studied his Ukrainian passport, then spun my way. I'd left mine back in our room, deliberately, because Canada, as we've reported, is an especially dirty word here in occupied, Russified east Ukraine.
But there was no hiding the other dirty word: journalist. And so, with great reluctance, I played the Toronto Star card. A frenzy ensued. And amid the shouts, and Mikhail's counter-shouts, I saw the most aggressive of the men raise his cellphone to make The Call. He was a civilian, but it seemed now that he knew someone who was not. We were about to get sucked down the black hole of detention that is taking reporters and others out of the regional equation at a torrid rate.
One last card to play. "Parlez-vous Francais?" I asked in the calmest voice I could muster. "Je suis un journalist Canadien. Franco-Canadien ." Franco Franco Franco. I couldn't say it enough. Anything but English.
It was a ruse that probably shouldn't have worked. But it slowed things down. The woman pulled down the arm of the man with the cellphone, buying us time.
For the next 30 minutes we withstood a withering browbeat. It was The World According to Putin — a fierce, beseeching laundry list of grievances, frustrations and fear, delivered in staccato Russian.
But the more they vented, the less angry they became. And about halfway through, I began to think — hope — vive le Quebec libre . My dismal command of Canada's other official language was enough to persuade these desperate and panicked monolingual Russians in [url=http://www.thestar.com/topic.ng-u-k-r-ukraine.html] Ukraine (http://www.thestar.com/news/world/2014/04/24/toronto_star_journalist_narrowly_escapes_detention_in_ukraine.html) that we weren't really the enemy. French, ironically, was our Get Out Of Jail card in a part of Ukraine whose language lacks official status with the new government in Kyiv.
This complex mess involves much more than language. But as we worked to extract ourselves — there were least 20 handshakes in the final 15 minutes of the encounter, and one of the men actually said "sorry" at the very end — the risk of speaking English in these parts was never more apparent.
The airwaves have been stripped of Ukrainian television and there are Moscow's state-controlled feeds in their place. And for the past week, leaflets have been circulating throughout the insurgent-controlled towns warning of American provocateurs. "Beware the CIA in sheep's clothing," one reads.
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Quote from: viper37 on April 27, 2014, 09:35:58 AM
Franco Franco Franco. I couldn’t say it enough.
Been funny if the "civilians" had said, "He's still dead".
What a loser.
I doubt he was in any danger. If he was really in line for a bad experience, it probably would have made his career anyway.
Quote from: alfred russel on April 27, 2014, 12:47:44 PM
What a loser.
I doubt he was in any danger. If he was really in line for a bad experience, it probably would have made his career anyway.
Yeah, plenty of veteran foreign journalist have been through a lot worse than that.
Did the guy and his team actually even get physically manhandled ?
I think if you went to a Celtic-Rangers match and in talking to outside people said the 'wrong' sort of things, you might well be similarly treated.
I heard this guy on NPR yesterday.
My question was: is Canadian really a red flag in eastern Ukraine? Why?
Quote from: Admiral Yi on April 27, 2014, 01:04:02 PM
I heard this guy on NPR yesterday.
My question was: is Canadian really a red flag in eastern Ukraine? Why?
So he can get more tail.
Quote from: Admiral Yi on April 27, 2014, 01:04:02 PM
I heard this guy on NPR yesterday.
My question was: is Canadian really a red flag in eastern Ukraine? Why?
Due to a large Ukrainian-Canadian population (:blush:) Canada has consistently taken a pro-Ukraine foreign policy since '91.
Quote from: Barrister on April 27, 2014, 06:23:21 PM
Quote from: Admiral Yi on April 27, 2014, 01:04:02 PM
I heard this guy on NPR yesterday.
My question was: is Canadian really a red flag in eastern Ukraine? Why?
Due to a large Ukrainian-Canadian population (:blush:) Canada has consistently taken a pro-Ukraine foreign policy since '91.
Ya, Uke's are our Cubans :P