Progress ... The Advance of Industry ... Technology as Hope for the Future ... In a decade or so, the top-ranking occupations in the "service" economy will be: (1) Foraging for scraps of rotting food, and (2) Raping, pillaging and plundering ... Scavenging a Way of Life in Ukraine By SERGEI SHARGORODSKY .c The Associated Press YENAKIEVE, Ukraine (AP) -- Every day, a pack of boys attacks a steep hill of slag near a metal plant in this depressed Ukrainian town in search for pieces of scrap metal and ore. The young scavengers pile the heavy brown chunks on sleds and pull them along a snowy road to a processing center nearby. The outfit pays 3 kopecks (about one cent) for every 2.2 pounds of scrap metal. ``Who cares about school?'' said a dirty 13-year-old who gave his name as Yuriy. Pausing to puff on a cigarette stub, he added: ``I have to make a living. We'll use the money to go to a disco or something.'' Many workers in Yenakieve, 500 miles southeast of Kiev, are either out of a job or not being paid for months at a stretch. So scavenging is not restricted to young people. Anna Iliyakova, an elderly widow, was pulling her load like a horse. The mother of 11 children, she earned the title of ``Hero Mother'' during Soviet times for producing so many kids. The award brought a special stipend from the state, but now she makes her living scavenging. At the Yunyi Kommunar mine near Yenakieve, pensioners sift through a pile of coal, selecting pieces that will burn well in their stoves -- the only way to heat many houses in a nearby miners' village. With the coal industry crumbling, even miners sometimes emerge with a sack of coal to take home or sell on the market. The more dangerous kind of scavenging involves the theft of metal equipment and parts to sell to private recycling companies. Mine officials say thefts by miners themselves and by scavenger gangs are widespread. In coal towns, electric and telephone cables disappear overnight. ``The streets are dark and we have only one place left from which we can call an ambulance,'' said Mykola Irklienko, settlement head of dilapidated Uralo- Kavkaz, home to 3,200 people. A few weeks after he gave the interview, Uralo-Kavkaz was plunged into darkness after thieves stole the main electricity wire. Irklienko climbed a pole to try to bring the lights back on, and was electrocuted.
