At the back of her tiny West Side grocery store, Marie Stachiw conceded she did not have a clue about what Chicago would gain when it adopts Kiev, the capital of the Soviet republic of Ukraine, as its sister city Wednesday. But she was all for it.
”Getting the link is an accomplishment,” said Stachiw, whose parents immigrated to the United States from the Ukraine after World War II. ”The big thing is (for people to) recognize that we are not Russians.”
On Wednesday, Mayor Richard Daley and his Kiev counterpart Grigory Malishevsky will sign a sister city agreement in a ceremony at the Palmer House. Kiev is Chicago`s ninth sister city. The first, Warsaw, Poland, signed on in 1960.
This week some 1,500 delegates from 30 countries around the world will meet in Chicago to swap experiences on how sister cities can help each other solve problems. They will also celebrate the 35th anniversary of the sister cities program, which is now more popular than ever.
Today 900 U.S. towns, including several Chicago suburbs, are linked to 1,424 cities in 97 foreign countries, and the rate continues to accelerate.
The program was developed under the Eisenhower Administration to enhance the United States` image during the Cold War. Since the crumbling of communism, cities across the U.S. have scrambled in search of partners in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. And vice versa.
”The increase in the last five years had a lot to do with democratization of the world,” said Richard Oakland, the director of member services of Sister Cities International, the organization which coordinates the program. Many cities in eastern Europe are seeking U.S. cities as sisters to help them as they move toward democracy.
Sister cities promote trade and cultural exchanges. But in Chicago, it`s not so much about money. It`s about politics and prestige.
”Chicago has made conscious effort to become an international city,”
said Ukrainian-American lawyer Marta Farion, who is on the newly formed Kiev Committee of the Chicago Sister Cities program, which has been set up to promote exchanges between the two cities.
The sister cities program is not without its critics. Some say city officials use sister cities as an excuse for taking personal junkets. Others contend that the sister city program is mainly for business, not cultural enrichment. In Chicago`s Ukrainian Village, Peter Stachiw said that politicians get the publicity for the linkup, but it has little effect on the reality of life in Ukraine.
”People are still afraid over there and there are a lot of red tape,”
Stachiw said.
The program has sometimes embarrassed U.S. administrations. U.S. cities adopted cities in Nicaragua when the communist-led Sandinistas ran the country. Other cities have joined with Palestinian communities in the Israeli- occupied territories.
The United States ranks behind France and Germany in the number of sister city affiliations it has made, but this country has sisters in more countries than any other, according to Pennsylvania State University geography professor Wilbur Zelinsky.
Chicago`s other sister cities are Milan, Italy; Osaka, Japan; Casablanca, Morocco; Accra, Ghana; Goteborg, Sweden; Prague, Czechoslovakia; and Shenyang, China.
Still, the city lags far behind the nation`s leader, Los Angeles, which has 18.
Often the cities are linked by common ancestors. Tinley Park, for example, adopted Budingen, a city in Germany where several of its residents still have relatives.
Even for residents with no links to Budingen, the sister city program has proven rewarding.
Carol Tietz and her family hosted a Budingen family who visited Tinley Park two years ago and visited the German city last year.
”I have lived in Tinley Park for 15 years but have never really been involved in the community. Escorting them around made me very, very proud of my town. You see your own culture through someone else`s eyes.”
Des Plaines and Nailuva, Fiji, became sisters after Peace Corps volunteer nurse Pat Macalister lived in the village on the main Fijian island of Viti Levu for several years. She was struck by Nailuva`s shortage of educational facilities.
Macalister`s friends visited her in Nailuva and she persuaded them to start a campaign to join with the Fijian village so that they could help educate its children. The city has since sent books to start a library in the village and helped build classrooms. Last year, the group also sponsored a Fijian youth, Manasa Nabete, who took hotel and motel management courses at Oakton Community College.
”Manasa wandered all over town. Everybody knew him and they benefited from (the experience). They at least got to see what a Fijian looks like,”
Macalister said.
