A guy I was speaking with the other here in #kyiv asked me "but what about money disappearing?"
He was talking about Ukraine, and a reputation for corruption which continues to dog efforts to defend this country. It's a good question. On the table where the sunlight can reach it.
Ok, a few things:
Corruption is a universal phenomenon, a sickness common across cultures (duh). It exists here. Where people deal, corruption follows.
Ukraine fired then charged with corruption its Ambassador to the US just about a week ago. So institutional anti-corruption is alive and relatively well here.
War sorts the wheat (stand-up people) from the chaff (not so good). Brutally.
Oh, and just one other to slip in – "Ukrainian corruption" is a part of Russian disinformation efforts. Of course it is, why wouldn't it be? It deters support.
I've been coming back and forth to Ukraine since the beginning of the large-scale invasion in 2022.
I've traveled around from west to east, and north to south. I've sat down with the physically and psychologically maimed; the brave who haven't left their posts for almost 5 years of fighting; the dreamers of a better time and those who think only about taking the fight to the enemy. Soldiers close to the front lines, and medical staff far from the front.
I've talked with a lot of people at great depth, because we (#planethumana) have been investing large sums of private money in Ukraine's defence.
War attracts the very best of people, and some of the very worst.
It's a kind of anarchic environment where a lot of rules get fried, the souls of people are blow-torched, and their spirits too often melted.
The very worst things that one can imagine happen – things that remind you why agreements, norms, rules, and civil understandings (down to ordinary politeness) are important to uphold – and people get used to the idea that other people really mean it when they say they want to kill you (or your children).
But there's an eco-system of volunteerism which has exploded.
It infects every corner of society here – and it pulls in some amazing people from abroad. Virtually everybody contributes time, money, skills, or their whole body to the cause.
Volunteering is dyed into the social fabric, because the survival of the nation depends on it. Although #kyiv is a thriving metropolis buzzing along on a wartime economy, it is underwritten by an entrepreneurialism which keeps the country fed, and feeds volunteerism.
Knitting circles make camo netting. Kids print drone parts in bedrooms. Artists make war-time posters with battle cries to stir the souls of citizens. Businesses hive off a percentage of profits to fund units in which their relatives serve. Housewives bake cookies to fund the body armour of their men. Graduate medical students join volunteer ambulance and evacuation units. Old men cook meals in kitchens for children's hospitals. Volunteerism is here in every variety. It's baked into the military-industrial lifeblood.
So this wartime spirit creates a different kind of social vigilance.
When everybody is devoting themselves to the cause of liberty, and millions of people have relatives and friends risking their lives, who's going to screw with that? Corruption is a menace. It's treason. It erodes trust in the war effort, and it risks the lives of the very people who are defending the country. So Ukrainians have a very high interest in seeing that corruption is contained.
Does it continue despite this? Yes. Because war sorts the wheat from the chaff, and one doesn't exist without the other, and people are people. The good, the bad, and the ugly.
The people we underwrite are some of the best I've ever met. I've spent long hours and days with them.
There's no replacement for looking somebody in the eyes, spending time with them as they moves through their lives, seeing how other people respond to them, learning about the challenges they face in their everyday life, and who loves them: Who are the people they'd be letting down if their souls were corrupt. And that's all before seeing the tangible product of their efforts.
Big institutions like the UN or the huge Ukrainian NGOs or government ministries of Defence or Health occupy a vital space.
But my experience in dozens of conflicts and disasters is that some of the best work is done (and can only be done) by small groups of people who intimately understand the needs of their communities.
These people fill a space that can only be filled by people who sacrifice their time, money, careers, and sometimes lives because they can't imagine another way. And the best thing you can do is provide them with funds, and get out of the way.