Yushchenko's Wife Misillustrated as Kaczynski's Wife on 1.tv.ru

Talk about human error.



5:13-5:23



The video soon disappeared from the Channel 1 website, but no apologies have been made.

I’m not a big fan of Kateryna Yushchenko or Viktor Yushchenko.

Do the math: The president of Poland used a medium-range Soviet Tu-154 made in 1990. By contrast, Yushchenko had inherited a fleet of six jets: from aging Soviet Tu’s and Il’s to a Ukrainian Аn-74TK-300VIP made in 2003.

In 2007, Yushchenko purchased a long-range Airbus A319 — complete with bars, bedrooms and showers — at an estimated taxpayer cost of $40-$60M. Meanwhile, Libya and the UAE ordered two medium-range An-74’s from Ukraine at a cost of $12M apiece.

(Nominal GDP per capita: Poland, $13K; Libya, $10K; UAE, $47K; Ukraine, $3K.)

That said, I wonder what kind of coverage Channel 1 would come out with if one of our channels erred like this.

(By the way, it’s not the first time this happens to public figures from Ukraine.)

The tragedy at Smolensk has provoked a lively discussion online.

As civil-minded people express condolences and ask questions, the-not-so-civil trash Poland, Russia and, naturally, Ukraine.

Monday will be a day of mourning in Ukraine.

Video uploaded from:
http://for-ua.com/main/2010/04/10/133530.html
Original source:
http://1tv.ru

Tightening One’s Belt — With $1,650 Handbags, $1,950 Necklaces

Not long ago, President Yushchenko urged Ukrainians to “live without” expensive foreign-made items in times of crisis.

His call appears to be lost on Ukrainian elites. They just can’t live without those items.









Unfortunately, that includes First Lady Kateryna Yushchenko, chairwoman of the Ukraine 3000 international charitable fund.






In terms of Ukraine’s average monthly pay of $268, keeping up with the Tymoshenkos can be quite expensive.

It becomes even more expensive if we compare it to Ukraine’s monthly benefits for children with disabilities: $38.

Leadership by example? Not in Ukraine.

Do as I say, not as I do.

Sources:
http://tabloid.pravda.com.ua/brand/4922e4a28d23c/
http://www.epravda.com.ua/news/492c269706797/
http://www.bank.gov.ua/KURS/last_kurs1.htm
http://www.golos.com.ua/article/1174910774.html

Pechersk School International Probed in Scandal Over Hitler Infantilization

Pechersk School International, an elite English-speaking institution attended by President Yushchenko’s two younger daughters, has become the epicenter of a scandal.

What attracted public attention is the controversial role-playing assignment given in a history class. The object of the assignment was to generate the tyrannic profile of Hitler and to grasp the mechanics behind the Nazi election campaign. For several days, students experimented with Nazi propaganda by drawing paintings of Hitler and replicating the slogans of the Third Reich.

Initially, the PTA defended the assignment as one that in no way makes Nazism itself part of the official school policy, which, on the contrary, includes school trips to Holocaust museums.

However, at least one family protested the assignment and withdrew their child from the school attended by the offspring of Kyiv’s diplomatic corps and expat community.

In the face of the looming ethical quagmire, a spokesperson for First Lady Kateryna Yushchenko issued the following statement:

Kateryna Yushchenko is convinced that placing demands on adolescents to recreate fascist symbols is absolutely unacceptable, regardless of all educational designs. It is particularly unacceptable in a country that suffered most from the horror of fascism and communism.

Even though the children of the Yushchenko family, who study at lower grades, did not attend this class, Kateryna Yushchenko is categorically against their viewing of posters depicting any totalitarian symbols.

The First Lady makes good sense. In a country that lost 7 million lives to the Third Reich — unlike any Western country — Hitler must not be approached with a detached attitude. The fathers of both Viktor and Kateryna Yushchenko went through Nazi concentration camps. Role-playing games can be an effective vehicle for learning, unless they equip the mindset of a young person with a carefree picture of crimes against humanity.

The state of the world makes the study of history crucial to the survival of humankind. The study of history, in turn, requires a high degree of sensitivity. A school assignment that brings together kids of diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds should have sensitivity factored into it. What Student/Parent A finds acceptable, Student/Parent B may not.

Indeed, one’s freedom stops where someone else’s begins. And it appears that the ethical concerns in this assignment do outweigh, if not rule out, the pedagogical value of the assignment.

Kateryna Yushchenko’s statement can be viewed as an attempt to seize the initiative and thus cushion some of the media flak the Yushchenko family drew in an earlier episode involving Pechersk School International

In the Slisarenko scandal of three months ago, The Kyiv Post published an editorial chiding President Yushchenko for shipping his children off to an elite school rather than taking on the severely underfinanced public school system.

The Ukrainian Ministry of Education has launched a probe into the present incident. According to Ukrayinska Pravda (Ukr), based on the results of the inquiry, Minister Stanislav Nikolaenko may urge Kyiv authorities to revoke the license of PSI. Here’s what he said:

Students were tasked with finding out how in Germany, in a democratic state, a tyrant could come to power. The Director believes that the teacher’s goal was to denounce fascism. The commission’s probe is pending.

In case the fact of fascist propaganda in a history class at Pechersk School International is confirmed, I will contact the Security Service of Ukraine and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with a request that the history teacher be deported from the country.

In all likelihood, to accuse the teacher of propaganda is to turn the issue on its head. What happened was an unfortunate ethical misstep that should supply the material for a case study.

The first report on the incident was published in Segodnya (Today), allegedly controlled by Rinat Akhmetov, a member of the Party of Regions opposed to the Orange Coalition.

Sources:
http://www.pravda.com.ua/news/2007/12/5/67885.htm
http://www.pravda.com.ua/news/2007/12/4/67775.htm
http://www.pravda.com.ua/news/2007/12/4/67833.htm
http://www.segodnya.ua/news/721229.html
Photos courtesy of Segodnya

President Yushchenko and First Lady Kateryna Yushchenko Cast Ballots




Voter turnout as of 4 p.m. Kyiv time (GMT+2:00): 42.55 percent
http://www.cvk.gov.ua/vnd2007/w6p063pt001f01=600.html
http://www.pravda.com.ua/news/2007/9/30/64623.htm

Election Warfare: PRU Wants an E-Day of Its Own

BYuT’s drive for new parliamentary elections and the annulment of Politreforma has provoked a response from with PRU.

As Tymo packs audiences in Washington, MP Vasyl Kyselyov, PRU, has announced a bill that would lump together parliamentary and presidential elections and slate them for Sept. 30.

Yanukovych, still sitting on the fattest pack of approval ratings, has no intention of detoxing himself from the political steroids of Politreforma. He has recently mentioned the idea of indirect presidential elections, that is, having the president elected by parliament. Yet, even if the Anticrisis-controlled Rada passes that chimeral bill, it will most likely lack the votes to override the presidential veto.

All of which suggests a rather blunt publicity stunt. The PRU, whose electoral fat reserves are dwindling in inverse proportion to Ukrainians’ rising costs of living, seeks post-hybernation relief. The list of countermeasures varies from courting Tymoshenko with a two-party system to terrorizing lame duck Yushchenko with early retirement. The trick is to keep the two from flying in formation.

Chicken Chernovetsky

If Pavlovian handouts worked for you, you’re toast. If Mayor Omelchenko turned your world upside down, you haven’t seen anything. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome Mayor Chernovetsky, the heaven-sent man about to explain to you the ways of the world.

Mr. Chernovetsky, laughed at as an eccentric banker and Jesus peddler who spoke a language few could understand, raised quite a few eyebrows when he landed the job jack-in-a-box-style, scoring a mere 32 percent of the vote. Compared to a lofty 73 percent for Omelchenko in 2002, not exactly a landslide victory, isn’t it?

More surprise awaited those who pictured him as a harmless do-gooder. They soon realized that the mayor of their jokes had a plan that didn’t exactly match their own.

On his orders, a loyal legion of Pravex managers, including his close relatives, infiltrated the City Hall. Contrary to what some naive Kyivites had expected, these servants of the “public good” perfected the den of nepotism built by outgoing Mayor Omelchenko. The philosophy gave itself away with the thunder of favoritism scandals involving metropolitan land sales. This ear-splitting, heartbreaking wedding march effectively consummated the City Hall’s remarriage to conflict of interest. Thanks to the local media keeping a watchful eye from day one, the truth finally hit home: Boy will they rock this town.

And here’s the great leap forward for us mortals: Starting December, we will be paying 340 percent as much for utilities as we used to.

For the Mayor and utilities bosses he’s chummy with, this surely sounds like a good idea. But not for the metro crowd! Given Kyiv’s median take-home pay of $350 per month, not all Kyivites own cars, let alone Maybachs and Bentleys.

Experts believe that Chernovetsky’s costing contains a hefty overcharge. President Yushchenko has already cautioned him to that effect. Interestingly enough, in the previous Rada, Chernovetsky had shined on the NSNU rolls.

According to the opposition, Chernovetsky and Co. have been constantly wooing avaricious representatives of other parties with lucrative offers to use them as the voting lubricant for their beggar-thy-neighbor policies.

Aware of the tide of public opinion against him, Chernovetsky responds to criticism with self-deprecating statements, calling his policy “unpopular” yet “inevitable.” Why not compare himself to Chirac, the 1995 president-elect who introduced himself to the global village by approving nuclear tests at Mururoa Atoll? The sad thing is, despite the tsunami of Greenpeace protests, he went through with it.

If Leonid Chernovetsky goes for the kill with the same rate of success, the next bestseller on Petrivka market might well be called NukLeo.

Meanwhile, BYuT leprechauns in the City Council have been quitting in droves to join the docile majority. Those with a different value system have to fend for themselves — physically. In the heat of the recent live-broadcast sparring over utility bills, a BYuT representative was hospitalized, having sustained a concussion from a muscular male duo dressed in civvies. The episode is pending investigation.

In another episode, a comic one, BYuT representative Mykhailo Brodsky, a rather rambunctious figure, staked the Mayor to a loaded question, “Sniffed a line today?” “I never do,” replied Chernovetsky. Brodsky then added tauntingly, “Oh, I forgot he’s on wheels.” The prank directly addressed the widespread rumor of the Mayor’s substance abuse problem. Joking aside, Kyivites would be better served if Mayor Chernovetsky enriched his polygraph testing commitment, as applied to top-level municipal employees, with urine testing.

Boxing legend Vitaliy “Dr. Ironfist” Klychko, who happens to occupy a City Council seat, has not shown much fighting spirit. Hey man, why don’t you show us what you got? We need you on the ring as never before. Nope to dope!

What’s in It for Ukraine?

The U.S. midterm elections have returned results that President Yushchenko can relate to. In this spiritual exercise, he should ask himself a couple of questions.

Question 1: Does Yushchenko still believe that being opposed by Parliament, by its own nature, contradicts the founding the principles of government?

As a Reagan White House intern, First Lady Kateryna Yushchenko probably never kept her husband in the dark about this not being true. That dealing with hostile legislatures is normal practice for Western leaders demands no further explanation. Needless to say, the piece of evidence America has just provided us with casts the local “lyubi druzi” school of thought in a less intellectually appealing light. It was those oppositionphobic gentlemen who posed as maids of honor to Yushchenko, their lucky star, whose marriage by arrangement to Yanukovych would have multiplied their fortunes.

Question 2: Does Yushchenko expect Bush to nurse his own Universal of National Unity?

When Yushchenko — obsessed with justifying his tango with “bandits” and “vote riggers,” as he once had gently termed them — came up with that political prenup of his, the only person he fooled was himself. And that summer coalition fling cost him dearly, by putting him in cahoots with individuals his voters had revolted against in the thing called the Orange Revolution. As the NSNU Convention reopens this Saturday, the patient is a bureaucratic mammoth debilitated with the special interest contagion, severely disconnected from its grassroots support group, stuck in single-digit territory. NSNU is a four-letter word, period.

No sooner had the Democrats uncorked their champagne than Moscow pocketed its pride and rushed to sign a bilateral protocol with the U.S., on concern that, with Dems taking both the House and the Senate, it may be grounded in the WTO limbo for a long time.

That explains why Moroz has been working against the clock on WTO-related legislation while steering clear of the NATO issue. The accounting formula behind the $130 price tag seems to be written on the walls: “NATO, for this you’ve paid us; WTO, for that you haven’t.”

The D-Day hardly spells a Moscow-centric U-turn on the Hill with regard to Ukraine. In fact, friends of Ukraine can even be found among the surviving Republicans like Richard Lugar, John McCain, and Arnold Schwarzenegger.
What it does spell is bad times for the bad guys.

By the way, there’s a ruling party in Ukraine that, behaviorally, has established itself as a much uglier version of everything that’s wrong with the GOP. For reasons outlined above, that party should watch itself very carefully. Otherwise, its day of reckoning, too, will come.