Forum explores local, national issues

Ed Koch and David Kihara

Friday, Nov. 26, 2004 | 8:10 a.m.

When the subject of America being hated came up at the 49th Annual Sun Youth Forum Tuesday, Durango High School junior Natalia Bilym said she believes that America is not so much hated as it is envied for all it has that is sometimes taken for granted.

Bilym, 16, has a broader perspective on the topic than the average Las Vegas high schooler. She's a foreign exchange student from Ukraine in the former Soviet Union. She said that in the three months she has spent in Las Vegas she has come to love Americans and the United States and hopes one day to return here.

Bilym is especially fond of strawberry ice cream and Las Vegas' all-you-can-eat buffets -- things that she said have not yet come to her poor Eurasian nation of 48 million people.

In six months, Bilym will return to a country that currently is in turmoil over a Russian narrowly being elected president over a Ukranian in an election riddled with accusations of fraud. That has resulted this week in tens of thousands of Ukrainians taking to the streets of the capital of Kiev in protest.

Not surprisingly, Bilym does not believe America should approve a constitutional amendment to allow a non-U.S.-born person -- such as Austrian-born actor-turned-California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger -- to become president.

Bilym also told her discussion group, one of 21 groups featuring more than 1,000 of Southern Nevada's brightest high school students who gathered at the Las Vegas Convention Center this week, that "America is not hated -- you have so much opportunity and wealth, and a lot of people are jealous because you live better.

"You are not shy about expressing your feelings. You are so patriotic. I am jealous but not because I hate you -- I don't. I just feel sorry for the rest of the world."

Other students at the forum did not agree with Bilym's observations.

"In the Middle East, we are definitely hated," said Sean McKinnon, a senior at Cimarron-Memorial High School. "It's the difference between Christianity and Islam. The question of whether we are hated depends on what part of the world it is being asked."

Samantha Thomas, a senior at the Las Vegas Academy, echoed that sentiment.

"No matter what action we take, someone is not going to like us," she said. "The world often passes judgment on us because they don't like our leader. Well, half of our own country does not like its leader."

But others, including Mercedes Taimanglo, a senior at Clark High School, believe Bilym has an accurate view of the situation.

"America is envied for our advanced technology, and they (other nations) want to be like us. They also want to be able to openly express their opinions and not get arrested for it."

Bilym said Ukranians generally limit their criticisms of the government to dinner table conversation and rarely express such views in public despite the fall of the Soviet Union.

Bilym, who comes from Nizhyn, a suburb of Kiev, is nevertheless outspoken about Kremlin-backed Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych being declared the slight winner over Ukranian Viktor Yushchenko in the race for Ukranian president.

"It is not fair -- the whole world sees this," Bilym said during the lunch break at the Sun Youth Forum, which was begun in 1956 by late Sun Publisher Hank Greenspun to give youths a voice in the community.

U.S. officials also have been critical of the balloting in the Ukraine.

Susan Marvosh, a mother of nine who is Bilym's host nation sponsor during her stay in the United States, says she fears for her "daughter's" return to her homeland in May.

"I watched with Natalia broadcasts of what is going on in Kiev and cried with her," Marvosh said. "I want Natalia to be able to enjoy the good things that we (Americans) have and to live in a place where she has a voice."

Mike Marvosh, Susan's husband, says he has learned as much from Natalia and the others as he hopes they have learned from his family.

"When you listen to their struggles you realize we take so much of what we have for granted," Mike Marvosh said. "I hope that Natalia takes back with her a feeling that Americans are hospitable and that people everywhere just want a better life."

While Bilym has adjusted well to American ways in her brief time here, other foreign-born students at the forum said it has been rougher for them.

Valley High School senior Sabrina Karic said she had trouble adjusting to America when she arrived three years ago from Bosnia. She said many people in America do not have a good understanding either of the world or of other religions.

"I think the problem is that the schools only teach American history," she said. "Americans group all Muslims together and think they are all terrorists."

However, after Karic explained that many practitioners of Islam are not terrorists, that they preach tolerance of other religions and are peace-loving, other students began to "gain respect for me."

Bosnia and Herzegovina declared sovereignty in October 1991, and followed that with a declaration of independence from the former Yugoslavia on March 3, 1992. But years of conflict followed in the Balkans and affected Karic's life.

"I've been through a war. A lot of kids wouldn't understand that," she said.

Bilym said her country struggles every day amid a dark economy -- 29 percent of residents live below poverty level, according to the World Factbook -- leaving many youths there stymied about what they are going to do for a living.

"In America when you are young you have an idea of what profession you want, whether it is to be a doctor, a lawyer, a teacher," she said. "In Ukraine you just want to do what you can do to make money. There are so few jobs. We just want a better lifestyle, happiness and health."

Bilym's mother, a teacher, left the Ukrainian school system five years ago for a job in Italy because the wages in her country were too low to raise a family. Bilym's sister works in an American-owned factory in Ukraine as a translator for $50 a month -- and that's considered a good wage in the Ukraine, Bilym said.

The Sun Youth Forum focused on seven topics: America, Nevada, world issues, law and crime, school days, teen issues and potpourri. Each topic had three discussion groups that were moderated by 21 community leaders.

The moderators included Sun President and Editor Brian Greenspun, his brother Greenspun Media Group President Danny Greenspun, Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., Chief U.S. District Judge Phil Pro, Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman and Jon Ralston, political analyst and Sun columnist.

Following two two-hour discussion sessions, the groups selected representatives who either will write a column for the Sun, appear on a roundtable discussion on UNLV cable television or write a column for CLASS, a nonprofit magazine for, by and about local high school students.