Ukrainiana: November 2011

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Donetsk Protesters Overpower Cops, Storm Govt Building

The foot in the door philosophy at work!

Way to go Donetsk! Vote them in, vote them out.

Sources:
http://censor.net.ua/video_news/189412/razgnevannye_donetchane_taki_vylomali_dver_oga_i_vorvalis_v_zdanie_video

Monday, November 28, 2011

5,000 Fans Rally Outside Lockup as Tymoshenko Turns 51

"Вітю на нари, Юлю на Канари!" (0:32-0:35)

Ukrainians celebrate opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko birthday from alexey solodunov on Vimeo.

"Put Viktor in jail and Yulia in a fairy tale!" (poetic translation:)

As if 2008-2009 wasn’t enough of a fairy tale. The economy drops 15%, the hryvnia loses 60% of its value. People lose their jobs, savings and homes.

And PM/presidential candidate Tymoshenko loses €100K on a Spain getaway?

Not to mention her gas deal that now has Ukraine (Gazprom’s biggest client ‘10) paying well above the EU spot rates: $414 v. $360-$380. We'd be paying $514 had Yanukovych not won that super-magic gas-for-fleet discount.

Not only have we joined the EU, we’ve gone the extra mile.

So where are we, ladies? Jamaica? Haiti?

Sources:
http://vimeo.com/32764239
http://censor.net.ua/video_news/189365/miting_u_sizo_5_tysyach_storonnikov_gory_tsvetov_i_horovoe_penie_gimna_video http://mignews.com.ua/ru/articles/93629.html
http://durdom.in.ua/uk/main/photo/photo_id/27664/person_id/1.phtml
http://focus.ua/

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

My Blogging Career

Why blog?

2007-2008: 24,797 visits

2008-2009: 38,626 visits

2009-2010: 45,394 visits

2010-2011: 87,487 visits

Incoming links: NYTimes News Blog Guardian News Blog Kyiv Post Global Voices

What else is there? To me, blogging felt like putting Ukraine on the map. In my own way. On my own time.

And what a time it was! Planting all those red dots in places like the

White House, State Department, House of Representatives/Senate
Parliament of Canada, Privy Council Office of Canada
UN
European Commission, European Parliament
UK Parliament
CIA, FBI, DHS, DOD, NATO, NORAD, NASA
BBC, Bloomberg, Reuters, AFP, Fox News, Al Jazeera, RFERL, VOA
World Bank, IFC, IMF
Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Berkeley, Columbia, MIT, Duke, Oxford, Cambridge
Cuba
North Korea

Not to mention the world’s biggest banks and corporations (another 3K visits).

My YouTube account: 2,522,000 upload views since 2007, of which Gaddafi's 2008 visit to Kyiv has fetched 1,368,000. (I used to upload and translate rafts of news reports back then.)

As you can see, I tweet from time to time, but I don’t blog as much as I used to. Blogging doesn’t pay. Working out does. I lost about 90 pounds last year. Despite all the mess in my country, I feel and look better than ever before.

That’s freedom!

Saturday, November 19, 2011

Former Assistant U.S. Attorney: Tymoshenko Was 'Unindicted Co-Conspirator'

We jail your former PM L = prosecution. You jail your former PM T = persecution.

So being an “unindicted co-conspirator” kind of grants immunity from U.S. prosecution, right?

If you’re one of those lucky “unindicted co-conspirators,” you don’t get 9 years in U.S. jail like your not-so-lucky partner does. You don't even get indicted. Instead, you get full White House and State Department democracy support. Let’s call it “But She's Our Unindicted Co-Conspirator” program. Gaddafi bad, Karimov good.

Well, some U.S. judges beg to differ. To them, blood is definitely thicker than gas.

As the West worships Tymoshenko, her parliamentary bloc sides with the ruling Party of Regions again. This time they pass an election bill that kills two other opposition blocs' chances. Business as usual. The West loves tha t!

Rozkazhyyyyyy...chomuuuuu....teeeeell me whyyyyyy...

Sources:
http://www.pravda.com.ua/news/2011/11/19/6767463/
http://www.pravda.com.ua/news/2011/11/19/6767482/

Saturday, November 05, 2011

Yanukovych Scared, Tymoshenko Stoic as Protests Continue

Just to be clear: It's anti-Yanukovych protests, not pro-Tymoshenko ones.

Chernobyl vet: Screw them, screw them…they’re sitting up there and torturing these people, these Chernobyl folks. The Chernobyl folks were all there, no...nobody ran away from there, and those bastards up there are hiding their asses. [mumbled fragment] They’ve shipped their kids abroad. How long can they mistreat us like that? Yanukovych, come the fuck out, bitch!

He hears everyone.

Yanukovych: …and I’m being informed by law enforcement that…weapons are being procured inside the country…and an effort is under way to attack authorities. [ …] Already, people have lost everything: both fear and shame. So who’s organizing this? [ …] Not those who are struggling the most. Those who are struggling the most, they remain silent, patient and waiting.