Charis Around The World

Ministry In Ukraine

Ukrainian Missionaries, Vitaliy and Anne Sokol

Legal Stealing, Bribes & Compassion
 

Legal stealing. Oxymoronic, yes, but in Ukraine it’s true! Especially under Communism, “legal” stealing was a part of working life.

Illegal stealing is, of course, what we think of as stealing—breaking locks in the dead of night, smashing windows, attacking a person to get a wallet, or just pick-pocketing on the metro. We all agree that those are examples of illegal stealing.
 
Legal or socially-acceptable stealing is different. This basically involves taking things from your workplace. Why is this acceptable? For example, Vitaliy, my husband, worked at a fish factory. Every day they would feed the fish they were breeding there. But for months, the workers received no salary. There was just no money or it was embezzled for other purposes.

So as a part of survival, the workers stole the fish food to sell it and have cash. At the beginning of the day, for example, the supervisor would show the workers one big bag of fish food and say—“today, this bag, but no more.” That is what they were allowed to steal. But they stole more, of course. It wasn’t always so openly said what was allowed to be stolen. But the bosses knew that workers weren’t being paid or weren’t paid enough, so they allowed them to steal from the workplace in order to help compensate for that.

Christians usually didn’t steal in this way. When my husband’s brother repented years ago, their mom was distraught—how will you provide for your family without stealing?! And it was a big temptation, especially under Communistic conditions.

Learning little insights like this has given me much greater compassion into the frustrating social problems of Ukraine. Yes, corruption exists everywhere. The unethical actions of people (like “legal” stealing) become more understandable when I learned that they weren’t being paid for months on end—which was probably the result of someone else’s unethical actions.

Bribes? For example, my friends go to government birth houses to have their babies. Service there is supposedly free. The State pays the workers. But if you want attention, nice treatment, etc., you’d better pay. “You have such-and-such a problem? Give me $$ and I’ll help you,” the nurse says.

Easy to judge those workers and condemn them, isn’t it? But the picture changes when other facts come to light. Rent for our cheap, two-room apartment in Kiev is $500. That is ONLY RENT. How much is that government worker paid? The anesthesiologist I met at one birth house is paid $150/month.

Do the math: rent $500, salary $150, and we have HUGE problems. No wonder they have to find ways to get money personally from their clients!

Ever heard how much of a hassle it is to get documents done in a post-Communist country? Endless waiting. Returning again and again just to be told you need one more signature or stamp. Always a reason it can’t be done right now.

They’re playing for a bribe. It’s not just a bad mood, inefficiency, or control issues (although those are factors, too). They want extra income to take home, and usually it’s very understandable that they need the extra income.

While I don’t excuse unethical actions, legal stealing, or intentionally not performing one’s job well, as I’ve come to understand what motivates these actions, I have greater compassion for these situations and the workers caught in these traps, who as yet, don’t know the God who can supply for them.

In God's Love, Anne Sokol

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