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Friday, September 25, 2009

Yalta European Strategy Gathers for 6th Annual Talkfest

All work and no play makes Pinchuk a dull boy. Why not hold a little carnival amid the big crisis?

YES is an international network established to promote the development of a just, free and prosperous Ukraine, to open the country to the rest of the world and to support Ukraine’s membership to the European Union.

Six annual YES meetings. Any results?

Has Ukraine improved its standing on world economic indexes? NO.
Has the EU eased its Schengen Curtain? NO.
Have the oligarchs invested a lot of money in energy-efficient technology? NO.
Have they started paying more and caring more about workplace safety? NO.
Have they separated business from government? NO.

Foreign participants:
Israeli President Shimon Peres (videoconferencing)
Former Fed chairman Alan Greenspan (videoconferencing)
Former Russian ambassador Viktor Chernomyrdin
Former German foreign minister Joschka Fischer
Head of the IMF mission to Ukraine Ceyla Pazarbasioglu (“Ukraine does have a good social safety net.”)
Former Polish president Aleksander Kwaśniewski (permanent fixture)
Analyst Alexander Rahr (Yanukovych: Ukraine Remains Neutral, Ukraine Might Steal Gas Bound For Europe)
Analyst Anders Aslund (Leonid Kuchma Built a Prosperous Ukraine)

Ukrainian participants: Tymoshenko, Yanukovych, Yatsenyuk (presidential hopefuls).

Last year, they watched a movie called YES We Can. Unfortunately, that movie doesn't seem to be available on YouTube as advertised.

Instead, they have this:



So YES you can what? Keep Ukrainians down? Depopulate Ukraine further? Donate another $5M to the Clinton Foundation? Feed Ukraine to the Kremlin? Expand oligarch cartels overseas?


Sources:
http://yes-ukraine.org

8 comments:

elmer said...

How about this?

Elton John singing about Philadelphia FREEDOM

Elton John, the same one who is trying to adopt a Ukrainian child - any Ukrainian child.

I wonder if Pinchuk can help him with that.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpJaIWZKpGA





I used to be a rolling stone
You know if the cause was right
I'd leave to find the answer on the road
I used to be a heart beating for someone
But the times have changed
The less I say the more my work gets done

`Cause I live and breathe this Philadelphia freedom
From the day that I was born I've waved the flag
Philadelphia freedom took me knee-high to a man
Yeah gave me peace of mind my daddy never had

Oh Philadelphia freedom shine on me, I love you
Shine a light through the eyes of the ones left behind
Shine a light shine a light
Shine a light won't you shine a light
Philadelphia freedom I love you, yes I do

If you choose to you can live your life alone
Some people choose the city
Some others choose the good old family home
I like living easy without family ties
Till the whippoorwill of freedom zapped me
Right between the eyes

elmer said...

Or how about this:

Why don't we take a little place of summer sky
Hang it on a tree
For that's a way to start to make a pretty world
For you and for me

And for the summer
Find a man and buy the moon
You can hold the string
Oh, can't you see that little world of ours
Will be the prettiest thing

We can gather rain enough
For the string
To hold our happy faces

When you finally freeze
I'll blow you a kiss or two

Take me in your arms
In our little world
we'll be the place of places

Nothing else to make
But breakfast and love

We'll hang a little sign
That just says - Paradise
Population - two

I know together
We can make a pretty world
For me and for you

For you

It's what I wanted to do,
To do
To make a world with you


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yla_z-aFjn0

elmer said...

Or perhaps this:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FeVJbhXuRek&feature=PlayList&p=5FFF70DC4F91BF69&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=6

Ma chambre a la forme d'une cage
Le soleil passe son bras par la fenêtre
Les chasseurs à ma porte
Comme des petits soldats
Qui veulent me prendre

{Refrain:}
Je ne veux pas travailler
Je ne veux pas déjeuner
Je veux seulement oublier
Et puis je fume

Déjà j'ai connu le parfum de l'amour
Un millions de roses
N'embaumeraient pas autant
Maintenant une seule fleur
Dans mes entourages
Me rend malade

{au Refrain}

Je ne suis pas fière de ça
Vie qui veut me tuer
C'est magnifique
Etre sympathique
Mais je ne le connais jamais

{au Refrain}

Je ne suis pas fière de ça
Vie qui veut me tuer
C'est magnifique
Etre sympathique
Mais je ne le connais jamais

{au Refrain}

elmer said...

Or perhaps this:

No hay problema

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6X1XtNzs9Q&feature=PlayList&p=5FFF70DC4F91BF69&index=4

Unknown said...

Well, many of these conferences are not successful because the participants are not really devoted or the interests are so far from each other.
If I get accepted to the university then I may study at least 6 months in Ukraine because it has connection with an Ukranian university in Dnipropetrovsk.
http://www.dbuapa.dp.ua/

(it has no English site so I don't know almost anything.)

However I have the chance only if there will be a beginner Russian course next September when I start if my application will be accepted.

So in that sense Ukraine is partly opened to the EU or rather to Hungary.

Taras said...

Elmer,

I wouldn’t mind if Elton John adopted the entire Kuchma family and their friends (Ils ne veulent pas travailler.) That would be “Simple Life” indeed.

Thanks for the good music!:)


Ropi,

So far, YES has achieved NO results. They have the resources, but not the resolve.

By the way, that Dnipropetrovsk Regional Institute of Governance website is in Ukrainian.

If you’re going to study in Ukraine, you should try learning Ukrainian as well!:)

elmer said...

What - no mention of the Palace where Churchill, etc had their conference, and the visit to same by the assorted participants?

No mention of Tymoshenko and Pinchuk having a private, one-on-one lenthy meeting?

Tymoshenko apologized to Europe, on behalf of Russia - oops, on behalf of Ukraine - for any "discomfort" suffered during the last gas war.

And - it looks like Kuchma sort of momentarily froze Yulia during her speechifying - Kuchma, former president of Ukraine, was the one who threw Yulia in jail a few years ago.

No signs of a past participant - Klinton, however.

Pinchuk gave Klinton's foundation $5,000,000 - I guess it wasn't enough to warrant a repeat appearance.


http://www.pravda.com.ua/news/2009/9/26/102271.htm

Taras said...

Thank you for the follow-up details, Elmer!

Apparently, $5M was not enough. Or maybe he simply doesn’t want to screw his wife out of a job.