Crime and Punishment

Lviv, Ukraine.  October 26, 2015 3AM

I committed a petty crime yesterday.  When I rode the Trolley or I should say "Tram" like the woman in the tourist office corrected me, several times as I was asking her for directions.

My crime? I rode the Tram without paying.

Since I'm publicly confessing this I do have a public defense, the ignorance of a foreigner. I know ignorance is no excuse under the law but still ......

The trolley, whoops tram, system is marvelous here. You can go anywhere for 2 hryvni which is about 9 cents.   Yesterday I took the tram to attend an organ concert performed with the largest organ in Eastern Europe.

The tram was packed. We were all standing pressed next to each other and I didn't know how I was going to get my 2 hryvni to the driver and get a ticket back.  But then I noticed the passenger next to me was collecting money from a number of other passengers which she then passed with her money on up to the driver fully one tram car ahead of us. This was a multi car tram and the driver was hidden by the crowd of passengers ahead of us and the money collected was quickly out of site as it passed through the hands of these many passengers between us and the driver.

The system seems to depend on the kindness of strangers. And trust.

Which appeared to be justified as tickets came back and were distributed without any apparent confusion about entitlement.  As the passengers got their tickets they used the punch machines mounted on the side of the tram car to perforate their tickets.

So I wondered what would happen since I did not pass my money up for a ticket?

Well I was about to find out, at least about not paying.   As I was musing about this my stop suddenly arrived and I had to get off the tram.  I anticipated the hand clap on my shoulder and the cry of 'stop him".   And what happened?

Nothing. So far at least.

Now in my own defense. let me say that I didn't pay because I was figuring out how this all worked before I parted with my 2 hryvnias - all of 9 cents at current exchange rates. Fortunately, neither you, nor I, for that matter, have to judge on the merits of my defense.  That's up to the judge to decide if it ever comes to that.

It seems to me on a crowded tram, paying is "only" a moral issue.  I don't see how anyone could actually know for sure who had paid or who hadn't. And no ticket collector was in sight and couldn't have moved within the jam packed car if he/she were.

In fact in Hungary the hotel manager told me you don't really have to pay there when the tram is crowded. Apparently, it's up to the driver to collect the fare and he doesn't care or have time to deal with it, or the ability to do so in a crowded tram he is driving.

But not here.  And that's the thing that fascinates me. This is a country with world breaking records of corruption.  But where does it happen?  Not apparently, at least in this instance, at the level of the public. It certainly does happen at the highest levels which is why the last government got thrown out and the present one may also be removed if it doesn't do a better job than its done so far in fulfilling its mission to clean things up.

So this ties in with what I read yesterday in the Financial Times about a place where Democracy is really working well. Maybe working the best it does in any place in the world.  Where you ask?

In Syria of all places!  But just in one particular province isolated by mountains on the Northern border with Turkey.  It's working multi culturally with Arabs, Kurds etc. all participating and getting along together. And even more amazingly, for this part of the world, it's working with women playing a major if not the major roles in government.  The secret seems to be that government takes place at the local community level not at the top where it does here and in most Democracies.  You can read all about it (and should) here.

And this all seems consistent with what I see here.  It is the people who are battling the corruption and created the revolution, not the U.S. as some of my misguided friends think.  No doubt some in the U.S. government encouraged it and wished for it.  But, the U.S. couldn't have accomplished what the people did or are doing.  Ultimately, Democracy works or doesn't work, only if the people, not the elites, or Government, make it happen.

As for paying for my crime?  Well I haven't been caught or charged yet.  But since I'm going public here, I'm buying two tickets for my  next single ride on the tram today. The extra ticket to pay for the one I didn't buy yesterday.

And just to be sure, I'm doing that before I publish this post so I can publish the tickets as evidence.

And here they are. If you look closely you can see they are in number sequence which proves I purchased them both together on one ride.

One other thing. When I was on the tram today a woman started kind of yelling at me.  Then she pulled on my backpack and actually pulled it off my shoulder. Geez what's this?

Well then I saw my bag was unzipped with my computer displayed.  But, before I could zip it back up the woman sitting on the seat next to where I was standing zipped it up and stood up and insisted I sit in her seat as she was getting off the bus.

There is nothing better in this world than the kindness of strangers here in Lviv.

P.S.  One of my favorite things here in Lviv is the many, many ancient trams, a few of which you see in these pictures plus one super modern gorgeous new one which was the scene of my crime yesterday. All of the trams are painted in different colors and patterns.

Except for this super modern model of which I've seen two. It's the sleek green one which I caught a fleeting photo of as it passed by the more typically ancient one I was on as I took the pictures up above. and here again as I caught it this morning on  my way to the castle.