Share |

Monday, September 24, 2007

Kyiv in Colors 2

Kyiv, Ukraine, Sept. 23, 2007, 168 hours before face-off

As the parliamentary campaign in Ukraine enters its last week, I decided to take some pics.

The Battle of Billboards


Stability and prosperity! (PRU) v. The Ukrainian Breakthrough (BYuT)


Enough fooling the people! (Kuchma Bloc) v. Happy family, successful country! (PRU)


Danilych, [Kuchma] the people are with you!


Hexed: She hit you back then, she’ll hit you again!
(a spoof on BYuT’s Zrobyla todi – zrobyt zaraz! She did it back then, she’ll do it again!)

Behind the Enemy Lines



On the Brink of "Civil War"
You see them? Don’t be surprised to find PRU and NUNS tent kiosks within striking distance of each other as they quietly pass out campaign brochures.


Stability and Prosperity, Sidewalk Edition
An elderly lady from the countryside (baba) selling apples near the food market at Shevchenko Square


Stability and Prosperity, Bazaar Edition


“Justice for Everyone” As Seen from a Marshrutka


"Boys, boys, boys, I’m looking for a good time…"


Big Blue (Kyivska Rus Movie Theater)


Big Orange (Lvivska Square)


Can’t You See How Close We Are to a Civil War, Damn It? (Maidan)


Just Another Look at “Stability and Prosperity”



Miss Mature Maidan, aka Baba Paraska


Juggling Campaign Promises


The Bubble Rush of “Better Living Today” (PRU campaign slogan in 2006)



Once Burned, Twice Cautious (Or Should We Say Copycats?)
(PRU supporters break camp at Maidan to be on standby against "election fraud.")



"I believe the children are out future, teach them well and let them lead the way…"




Revolutionaries of all colors, unite! (a NUNS tent kiosk juxtaposed next to Lenin’s Statue overlooking the Besarabsky Market)


A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words (The Numbers Speak for Themselves)

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Holy mighty right forearm, Batman-Danylovch! Enough of fooling people! Let's just give them a forearm shiver, and knock the heck out of them! It will be just like the old days, when we created false political parties just to make people think that there was a real live opposition!

OK, Robin! But watch out for that cat woman, Tymoshenko! She'll tell the people the truth and scratch your eyes out, to boot!

Holy statues of Lenin, Batman-Danylovych! I thought your mighty Stalinist forearm was stronger than that, and could beat anyone over the head!

Truth is, Robin, that my mighty Stalinist forearm is made of a lot of russkie-sovok hot air. The people must not know about it, or they will get big ideas in their heads about freedom, and then we will lose our Rolls-Royce's and all of our big, expensive dachas and Swiss bank accounts.

OK, Batman-Danylovych! To our secret dacha on the Black Sea! What a big forearm you have!

Anonymous said...

FABULOSO!!! THX mondo for the pics!
Terrific! Awesome! More pls.!

Luida

Taras said...

Oleksandr Volkov’s

K[onstitution]
U[kraine]
CH[astity]
M[orality]
A[ntifascism]

bloc tops this year’s political punk charts. What could possibly be more outrageous than this stinky alphabet soup?

Known as Kuchma’s chief campaign contributor in 1994, Volkov has missed out on a lot of Forbes-rated fun ever since Kuchma fell out of love with him sometime at the turn of the millennium. It’s all downhill from here. His oligarch colleagues have left him far behind. He tried to cast a spell on Tymo, but that thing didn’t work out.

Despite the love-and-hate relationship between Volkov and Kuchma, one of them obviously can’t get enough of the other. Still, betting on Kuchma is a money-losing business, and I’m sure Volkov will prove it. Kuchma was a tragedy for Ukraine; KUCHMA is a comedy.

As messed up as Ukraine is, hardly enough people share Volkov’s type of “dependent personality disorder” to buy him a ticket to the Rada.

¡Muchas gracias! I’ll try to take some more pics:)

Nika said...

Thanks a lot for the pictures, Taras.

I can't believe they are using that terrible ruin on Lvivska Ploshcha for their ads - it reminds me of the pictures of Sarajevo that I've seen...

Oh, and it's not 'morality' in the KUCHMA acronym, it's 'myr' - peace... Makes it even more idiotic... :)))

Taras said...

Oops, I get lost in my creative translation once in a while:)

This time, I gave KUCHMA too much credit for his intrinsic virtues, while shortchanging him on the extrinsic value of myr — “the peace dividend” — his unique selling point. Bwahaha:)))!

Yeah, that ghost building on Lvivska Ploshcha has been there for ages. (It has a sister on Instytutska.)

And since Lutsenko has so bravely beautified it, we can only assume that he means business when he talks about running for mayor:)

Thanks for viewing my collection, Veronica:)! Come back for more:)!

Bravecat said...

Awesome pics, Taras, thanks for posting them. And I am a big fan of your creative translation.

Although I couldn't find a suitable translation for "Porobleno" no matter how much I tried. It's just this language of ours, it's too... complex to be translated without loss of meaning sometimes :) "Hex" won't quite cut it :)

Anonymous said...

well done!!!

dlw

Taras said...

Qatar Cat,

Thanks for viewing!:) It’s great to have fans at least on three continents:)

So far, I find myself at a loss for a better translation of porobleno. Translation, as we all know, involves analogies and approximations, and I enjoy incubating better versions as time goes by:)

Let’s hope this election turns out well, without much of that porobleno stuff:)

Stay tuned, David:)