Interestingly, the news of renaming a street after Steve Jobs came not from the cities of high technology, say, Dnipropetrovsk or Zaporizhia, but from Ternopil – the city that for most Ukrainians is associated with Ukrainian nationalism. After all, there is no surprise in this: healthy Ukrainian nationalism, despite the idea that circulated in Soviet times, never denied the world achievements. The idea to name a newly constructed street in Ternopil in honor of Apple founder Steve Jobs, who passed away in October, was perceived positively. Deputy of the Oblast Council Stepan Barna submitted an official proposal to Ternopil City Council for renaming the street. Commenting on his initiative to The Day, Barna noted: “We say that Ukraine could be world’s breadbasket, but nobody says that we can be a powerful scientific and technical center, as one of the first computers was created in Ukraine. Therefore, I hope that Steve Jobs will be a symbol that will encourage us to move in this direction. I believe that one day Ukraine will be known for its ‘silicon valleys.’ We know that Steve Wozniak, man of Ukrainian origin was a part of Apple company, he was Jobs’ business partner. Besides, one of the shareholders of the corporation was American Eparchy of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. Jobs was a genius of thought – not just a technician, but also a philosopher, because he who had the opportunity to hear hiss speeches, would start thinking about many things and will re-evaluate them. This is true not only about fundamental technical components, but also about moral values. By his own life experience, Jobs showed how one should work, create, and build relations with people,” said Barna. Ternopil citizens have nothing against this idea because, as they say, it is impossible to imagine life today, in Ukraine as well, without inventions of the world-wide known computer genius. Dmytro Batozhny, historian, ethnographer, member of the Youth Research Society Oberehy says: “If you delve into the history of our city, you would note that this initiative is normal and quite in the spirit of Ternopil. Jobs deserves to have a street called after him. Why not use the name of a man who changed history? We, as a progressive part of Ukraine, have to be ahead in these matters. For example, in Lviv there are streets named after George Washington and Dzhokhar Dudayev, while both of them, in fact, had nothing to do with the city. Thus, I believe that it is totally possible to have Steve Jobs Street in Ternopil.” Especially, because we really need to establish the cult of intelligence.
