MARSHRUTKA 

I recently took a marshrutka, a fixed route minibus, from Kyiv to Tarasivka. I must admit that the impressions I was "enriched" with there will last me a long time. First the good: it was unexpectedly pleasant to see that our citizens seem to have learnt to respect each other a little - instead of the usual chaotic crowd, where everyone does what he can to push his or her way into the automobile, there was a queue. But I'm afraid that that was the only positive thing.
Though the taxi was scheduled to leave at 12.05 according to the schedule, it only got underway about a half hour later; the driver must have wanted to compensate for lost time on the highway. 
"Where to do you need to go?" - asked this "neatly-dressed representative of a vehicular transportation company." I replied I needed to get to Vinentzi and asked if the marshrutka would go by the street where my house is. 
"Oh, so that's Letz'ky, therefore you pay 8 hryvens," he continued. I corrected him, pointing out that my dacha is administratively partitioned in Vinentzi. 
"We are not interested in such details but ok, let it be as you wish, pay 7.50" - he concluded.
"All right," I replied, "now may I have my ticket, please." 
The driver responded by shoving the whole stack of tickets at me, "Here, you may have them all," he said.
I won't give you a chronological description of all that happened after that, I will simply say that the most astonishing thing to me was not the overly familiar tone of the "neatly dressed representative", but the fact that no one in the bus demanded and received a ticket. Other memorable parts of the trip were of the blaring radio and the passengers who kept getting on until they were standing as we drove down the highway ("everyone wants to go" seems an unbeatable argument). Moreover, the driver exceeded the clearly posted speed limit driving through Mirnyi, (those acquainted with the traffic regulations know that in populated areas, the limit is 60 km) and outdistanced other cars, also in defiance of traffic regulations. 
Almost daily we are made aware of crashes caused by undisciplined bus and marshrutka drivers. Almost daily we are informed about the victims of such crashes. Almost every day each of us faces lots of seemingly harmless violations which are still, no matter how innocuous, violations of our rights. Why don't we protest? A logical answer might be the total negotiability of the law. Totally negotiable law is the reason why the passengers do not each demand a legal guarantee and confirmation of their rights, that is, a ticket. It is written in black in white on this homely little sheet of paper that it is an "Assurance of the bearer's necessary private insurance". Totally negotiable law is the reason why drivers blatantly break traffic regulations and endanger all their passengers (and who will compensate the poor old grandmother standing in the minibus who is thrown over her basket and breaks her leg when the vehicle stops suddenly?) 
"Well, I'm do what everyone else is doing. My superiors also break the rules, so why must I keep them?" was the driver's riposted. He then added the aphorism, "the rotting of a fish starts with her head" for the final killing argument. 
Our pre-Bolshevik legacy does not want to let us go. It shows itself in the fact that we, the citizens, and they, the powers, do not respect laws; instead, each "post-soviet" person strives to get, or to hustle, to the point where he/she becomes a one who literally spits upon them. 
"We aren't in America; what, have you forgotten where you live?" one striver might ask.
"Oh yes, of course," I think, "I'm in no way allowed to forget about it." It looks like we won't learn to respect each other's rights very soon. And not very soon will neatly dressed driver ask the passengers to turn off their cell-phones and walkmans so that they would not disturb the others. Nor is it likely that the driver will politely greet you, load you luggage into luggage section, and drive his vehicle in strict compliance with traffic regulations anytime soon.
"So what must one do?" you might say. "Look after your own garden", that is, begin with yourself said Walt Whitman, the great representative of the Enlightenment. And this little phrase lays the foundation of civil society.
I've received the ticket "AS Darnytzia"-"AS Vinentzi", trip number 3677, place 2, departure time - 12.05, data - the seventh of July 2004. Seal says that a bus is owned by private entrepreneur Marcheniuk V.M., code of ÇÊÏÎ 2352408353.

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