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Thursday, January 17, 2008

Surkis Makes Soccer of Ukrainian Politics

Hryhoriy Surkis, President of the Football Federation of Ukraine:



The President is the goalkeeper, who, as the Guarantor of the Constitution, today safeguards certain rights, including the rights of citizens to make their choice. Yanukovych was the midfielder —the midfielder who defended a certain bastion in connection with the Cabinet Bill, with the unwillingness to go for early elections, for it was deemed to be unconstitutional. But he did go. The brilliant striker was Tymoshenko, who called for early elections, made the early elections happen together with the President, and today that’s exactly why she occupies the Prime Minister’s seat.

That’s a nice role-playing game! And if Tymoshenko is the striker, I want her to deliver that Ukrainian Breakthrough rather than end up sandbagged with too much compromise. To be a good feminist in the man’s world of Ukrainian politics, she must resist the seductive and self-destructive power of Hillarization.

Video uploaded from:

http://censor.net.ua/go/offer/ResourceID/73539.html

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Give credit where it is due - the interviewer was teh one in demanding that Surkis state the positions of these three politicians in terms of soccer - it was not Surkis who came up with the metaphor. Unfortunately politics in Ukraine is not like soccer - if it were all three would be spending alot of time in the penalty box or out of the game completely. And soccer is played by rules which are enforced by referees and "criminal play" is ruled on.

Luida

PS I hope 5.ua shows the full interview via downloadable video.

Taras said...

Since I didn't see Roman Chaika put these metaphors in Hryhory Surkis's mouth, I guess it's the latter who deserves credit.

But yes, the role of the referee is largely underutilized in the soccer of Ukrainian politics.

The larger-than-life gap between crime and punishment makes this "soccer" a zero-sum game for most Ukrainians.

Anonymous said...

Well I did happen to catch the interview on tv and yes, Chaika did frame the questions, setting the boundaries in answering the question and very clearly stated that he wanted to hear from Surkis how he views these three political figures within a soccer metaphor (actually said it twice) - harrumph, so there :)))))) It is unfortunate that the ques. was not inc. in the video clip posted by Censor.net

I actually thought what was really important was what Surkis stated about how he would like to see Ukraine prosper and outlined his views on how that can be accomplished as well as he stated that under one circumstance he would rather prefer being dead than seeing the reality realized but as unfortunately my RU does need improvement and there was no subtitling or dubbing into Ukrainian, I did not catch the complete pix of what he was saying. But he did express alot of respect for the office of the President (how much of this is related to being influenced by pre-KabMin Bill Presidency I don't know.) Alot of reasons why I am miffed that the complete interview is not avail. on 5.ua

Which of course sends me off on a rant about the changes at 5 kanal. In addition to no more english lang. translations on their site, their new programming such as "Attention" in the evening leaves a lot to be desired. As well as their interviewers - did you see Tarasyuk being grilled about NATO? and the tiff over the word used by the interviewer ("ignoring") used in the question why the government was ignoring the people? So much for objectivity and not being loaded.

Luida

PS Good luck with the poll but don't you think placement would be better higher on the sidebar? Is it being noticed by visitors? I actually did not realize it was there until my eyes caught my name. I actually would like to check all options as they are all winners in their own categories and ways. And I think it does allow repeat voting yipeee :)))))

Taras said...

Thanks for enlightening me:)! Regardless of who coined it, the metaphor worked just fine! (Unfortunately, I didn’t watch the Tarasyuk interview.)

Surkis is a smart guy. A onetime business partner of Medvedchuk, he ran for mayor a couple of times — only to be defeated by Omelchenko. I also remember him as the shyest guy in the rabidly anti-Orange NeTak Bloc, which fizzled out in the 2006 parliamentary elections. In summary, being in the national soccer business requires good working relations with the President. That's what Surkis has shown us.

I’ve promoted the poll a little further up the ladder, but will stick to single-shot voting on this one for fear of muddling up the score. You see, given our cast of characters, many people would be tempted to "vote for all."

So let's have a clean fight. Use your best judgment! Pick your most favorite one!:)