Ukrainiana

Kyiv in Colors


I was a Johnny-come-lately for the Sunday BYuT rally. On my way from Podil to Maidan, I ran into a downhill exodus of BYuT fans. They were “falling back to base,” that is, to the caravans of buses that brought them to Kyiv from all over Ukraine.


NUNS, which campaigns to lift parliamentary immunity, has dressed the Ukrainian House in orange, displaying a maxim that reads Zakon odyn dlya vsikh. (One law for all.)


At Maidan one could marvel at rookie police officers who guarded PRU tent kiosks, populated by blue-clad teenagers who reportedly make $5 per hour by sitting there and waving banners outside. Exceptions to this recruiting policy can hardly be found in political Ukraine, just as one stands little chance of contesting the PRU’s leadership in it.

Recently, Mayor Chernovetsky ordered the removal of all political paraphernalia from the streets, ostensibly to prevent disorderly conduct. (Yanukovych’s "instability" fetish must be highly contagious.) Amid an acute absence of any signs of civil unrest, municipal authorities have not enforced the ban yet.

If you’re looking for unrest, watch the debates, surf the Web, or, if you’re out on the street, look at the walls. The streets of Kyiv have become a political battleground in a war of words and symbols.


Tymoshenko’s “little red book,” titled Ukrayinsky Proryv (The Ukrainian Breakthrough), has spawned an anonymous spoof slogan, Ukrayinsky Naryv, which can be poetically translated as The Ukrainian Brainscrew. The spoof slogan makes a mockery of the BYuT logo, a red heart-shaped check mark, by turning it upside down. That’s the Regional McCoy, isn’t it?

Short of that, my reality check of the "crisis" craze keeps bouncing all the time. When it comes to ordinary Ukrainians, I see nothing but peaceful coexistence. So if you’re a sucker for stability, welcome to Ukraine.

T-shirt caption: ВірЮ в Україну, or I believe in Yukraine (as in Yulia). Well, some people believe in Yanukraine, but again, no civil unrest whatsoever.