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Music and Art at the Ukrainian Institute of America
Posted by Mother Teresa's Lawyer on September 17, 2005 at 14:05:14:
In Reply to: Re: Addressed to both Alex and MTL- posted by you both agree that ... on September 17, 2005 at 13:22:34:
Definition of the Orange revolution
The PR campaign dreamed up by Yushenko supporters to convince voters that progress in Ukraine could only come about by Ukraine's integration with the EU.
The reality is that Ukraine is light-years away from such a possibility, it would be LONG after Yushenko would leave office (even two terms) that such a possibility would be feasible. So the orange revolution turned out to be a ploy to garner votes AND western support and $$$$.
There was never any real possibility of doing what was promised
Now the government has stopped issuing vague promises and has simply distinigrated amidst the turmoil for next spring's Rada elections, again nothing will be done for the country and it's people.
The best description of Yushenko I've ever read comes from the Kyiv Post, and I will post a portion:
“Today I can look in the eyes of those people who before this hadn’t received pensions of a minimum living standard, of handicapped children and mothers who give birth to a kid,” Yushchenko said, referring to new social benefits and the increase in pensions paid by his government.
In other words, not much more than a month ago, everything was fine, fine, fine in the land of Yushchenko. There reigned an aura of fine mid-summer comity; in an accompanying photo, Yushchenko clasps hands with Rada speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn and a rosy Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko. A matter of weeks later, everything’s wrong, wrong, wrong. The government’s a disaster, all that’s left is to kick everybody out onto the street, some of the heroes of the “orange” coalition are as bad as anything you might have found under a Kuchma-era rock, etc.
So most of what Yushchenko was saying back in July was nonsense: a vast misrepresentation of the way things really were. I’m trying to wrap my mind around what differentiates a permissible amount of political spin from all-out lying. (Yushchenko’s self-delusion or wishful thinking might have had something to do with it, too.)
But of this I’m sure: Yushchenko, who presented two opposed versions of reality within the space of five weeks, is a bafflingly vague political personality. I have no idea what he stands for, what he wants, whom he ultimately counts among his friends and enemies, when he means what he says and when he doesn’t. Except for those magical weeks of the Orange Revolution, I’m not sure I ever have – and even then, his speeches were typically gauzy, fuzzy, semi-platitudinal, lacking in detail.
Peter Lavelle, commentator for RIA Novosti, writes this week: “What is truly disappointing is how little the ‘Orange Revolution’ has moved away from Leonid Kuchma’s corrupt style of politics, and the privatization of the economy for the benefit of the few. Instead of breaking with Kuchma’s oligarchic system, Yushchenko’s team...has only continued it. In principle, there was never anything wrong with Tymoshenko’s plans to re-visit the opaque privatizations of state-owned property under Kuchma. What was disturbing was the perception that they were simply reversing some privatizations in order to punish some oligarchs and benefit others. Instead of doing away with corrupt practices, the ‘orange’ elite appears to be more interested in re-gigging Kuchma’s failed system in its favor.
"and MTL - when I tried to write about "life and death" issues - you ducked out as soon as it no longer was centered on Ukraine bashing"
What exactly are you referring to? Maybe something I'm not knowledgeable or interested in.
"In regards to the posting re: W. Ukrainians - you did not deny it when it was written and did not counter it - you let it stand, unchallenged. In fact, it still stands unchallenged by you! "
Ummm, sometimes I take vacations and travel and don't look at the web at all, you could post stories about my mother and I would make no reply, get real....