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Sunday, June 10, 2007

Russia Tumbai, or Political Crossdressing — PRU Style

«Общеизвестно: американцы - лучшие маркетологи в мире. Не сделать таких профессионалов частью команды - просто глупо. Кто лучше других раскроет плюсы предлагаемого социального пакета? Кто лучше объяснит макроэкономические показатели? С Партией регионов на выборах будет работать команда, состоящая из лучших специалистов, которые есть в мире”.

"We all know Americans are the best marketing talent in the world. Failure to make these professionals part of the team would simply be stupid. Who can best spell out the major selling points of the social contract we offer? Who can best explain the macroeconomic indicators? In this election campaign, the Party of Regions will be working with a team that has on its board the best talent in the world."

— MP Borys Kolesnikov, PRU

Source: http://www.grani.kiev.ua/exp.php?ni=16821&type=2

P.S. Puts a whole new spin on that "Yankees go home!" business, doesn't it?

7 comments:

DLW said...

You know, if you don't want to blog that often, you could consider signing up as a secondary blogger at Foreign notes...

dlw

Taras said...

Give it up, David:P!

Does this part-time blog of mine really look all that dormant to you? Did I miss any major events? Since when did I become a perfect candidate for migration in the blogosphere?:)

I see my blogging as a function of event buildup, time management, and psychic income. At my current pace I see no reason why I should consider the option you suggested.

A few more words on political economy. Communism started out with the hammer and sickle and ended up with the skull and crossbones.

Capitalism learned from communism and the Cold War and ultimately made room for more or less healthy forms of “non-advanced” socialism in Scandinavia and Western Europe. In Ukraine, we neither had a healthy socialism nor a healthy capitalism.

Power will never be shared unless there’s a high probability that doing otherwise may result in its loss. The sooner we have social responsibility and innovation in Ukraine, the safer our oligarchs’ asses will be.

At that point, the new economy will render the term “oligarch” obsolete: The oligarchs will become good citizens. Ukrainians will be equal before law and our mission will be accomplished.

DLW said...

I'm projecting my own blog-flustrations onto you... ;)

Carry on!!!

Capitalism is not a fixed system and must evolve to survive. The issue has always been what shd be the rules of the game... And the rules of the game are never very effective unless people generally believe they are "fair".

It's true many live for power, but I don't think you'd get into a situation where the oligarchs feel compelled to share power, so as to safeguard it, without winning over some of them to be willing to sacrifice some of their own autonomy/power to support such changes. But we're chasing each other's tails on this matter...

We both agree that accomodation and "conversion" are important for making social-economic-political changes? We just emph different aspects.

Good luck with making everyone equal under the law. It's never happened here. It certainly does matter a good deal who you can get to be your defense attorney....

dlw

Anonymous said...

I am absolutely dumbfounded.

This is the Party of Regions that morphed Yushchenko into Bush on posters.

This is the Party of Regions that spelled it -- U$chenko.

This is the same party that screamed about Ukraine becoming the 51st state.

This is the same party that screamed about being a puppet of the US.

These people are absolutely schizoid. They are sick.

They have no conscience, no morals, no decency, no grace, no honesty, no sense of civic duty, no sense of public responsibility, no concept of public trust or of public good.

Take a look at all the other things going on with the Party of Rogues ----- I had no idea that people could be so low on such a massive scale in a supposedly free country. And stil claim to be "Orthodox" and "Christian." When it's convenient.

SICK. SICK. SICK.

BUZZARD PUKE!

Taras said...

Your legal system is no mystery to me, David:)

But you’ll never know how screwed up the system can be until at least you meet ours. So, if Paris Hilton doesn’t mind, in the meantime we Ukrainians would be happy to rent yours:) We can pay you with Oligarchaeda’s bank accounts once we get to them:)))

That’s right, we both agree that Ukraine must go through some sort of conversion, a socioeconomic closure. The only difference, I think, is that good intentions alone won’t work here.

We need a middle class with fire in the belly and with the will to roll up its sleeves and get the monkey off its back. Absent this prospect, hell would freeze over before the oligarchs converted to anything that closely resembles a good-citizen role.

Taras said...

Touché, Elmer!:)

I can only hope that the Dons of Donbas won’t have to print their own dollars to pay their American spin doctors.

Well, I also hope that these strange bedfellows will gain prominence in the campaign and will be an eye-opener to some hardcore Yanukovych supporters

DLW said...

dude, I agree 100% with the import of getting the middle class to provide more leadership.

I tend to frame this more from a less revolutionary peace-maker motif and believe that focusing more on local stuff while stewarding one's political activism to a group of 30 or less is the way forward in avoiding the political technologist spin and playing the parties off of each other.

But yeah, spin those PoRs as much as you can!!! It might be hard to get media penetration in the East, but be creative. If there's a will, there's a way!

dlw