Few Books, Lots of Booze for Rural Teens

Try playing the $125/mo English teacher in rural Ukraine.



No castles, no showers, no bidets. No textbooks either.

Well, here’s the consolation prize: booze.



Some bright kids go for the books.



Others don’t. What a great supply of labor migrants for energy-rich Russia and englightened Europe.

The same Europe that pays less for Russia’s gas and values some of Ukraine’s elites so much. Talk about European values.

Luckily, those 45 Ukrainians on board the Costa Concordia have survived. Will the captain apply for asylum? In Russia or Mezhyhirya maybe?



Meanwhile, Tymoshenko’s tigress is expecting. Some French guy did this.




No, he’s not in the government and hasn’t picked up his Légion d'honneur yet:)

Sources:
http://life.pravda.com.ua/society/2012/01/13/92774/
http://tsn.ua/video/video-novini/navchannya-bez-pidruchnikiv.html
http://tsn.ua/video/video-novini/yake-dozvillya-vlashtovuyut-sobi-silski-uchni.html
http://tsn.ua/video/video-novini/angliyska-z-korovami-abo-yak-zaohotiti-vchitisya-progulnikiv.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYwLQDwqDCI
http://tsn.ua/video/video-novini/ulyublenicya-timoshenko-narodit-vid-francuza.html

Yanukovych Ducks Unexplained Wealth Question

Now that she’s done working, he’s all work and no play.

Reporter Mustafa Nayem: I would like to ask you the following question. Today indeed you’ve stated many times that the country’s economy is bad and that indeed people haven’t yet experienced improvements in living standards and that we don’t have money in our budget for Chernobyl and Afghan vets and yet at the same time on a daily basis we all see the circumstances of how your own life in particular is being improved. We see how you’re renting a chopper for a million dollars from a firm that, according to an Ukrayinska Pravda report, belongs to, or is controlled by, your son. We know for a fact that at Mezhyhirya construction is in progress by firms that are controlled by your son. Tell us: Why the disconnect? What’s the secret of your success? Why is it that the country’s doing poorly and you’re doing so fine? Thank you.

President Viktor Yanukovych: Uh…[chuckles]…I’ll tell…I’ll tell you what…uh…what you’re spinning so passionately…uh…it absolutely doesn’t interest me to any great extent. And I’ll tell you the reason for that. Because…I…have very little time, you know, for pleasure. Very little time. Yesterday, for a example, I came home at about 3 a.m., and today I got up at 6 in the morning. Yep. The day before yesterday it was a bit earlier and so on. That’s why I don’t know what easy street you’re talking about, and then you’re discussing my family all the time. I want to tell you I don’t envy you. Hahaha!

Audience: Hahaha!

Yanukovych: Hahaha! You and I know and understand each other well.

Spokeswoman: Next question, please.

Yanukovych: You figure out the rest.

Sometimes his alarm clock goes all jealous on him.



Which is why he doesn’t show up for work until 11 a.m...

Sources:
http://www.pravda.com.ua/news/2011/12/21/6854230/
http://blogs.pravda.com.ua/authors/leschenko/4eeb298c40a35/

Yanukovych to Ukrainians: ‘Show Some Ukrainian Character’

The Yanuking speaketh...

Yanukovych: From this treebune...tribune, I want to reach out to every Ukrainian with this: No more complaining and humiliating yourself. Ukraine is a strong and ambitchious state. It’s time to show some Ukrainian character — to prove to yourself and to the world that Ukraine is a country that leads the way.

As if saying трибина instead of трибуна wasn’t enough!

Ambitchious would be a mistranslation. What he actually mumbled out defied translation: амбідна — a portmanteau of ambitna and bidna (ambitious and poor).

How badly does he want poor Ukraine to show some Ukrainian character? I mean, like they did in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya?

Or at least, like holding him to his promise? Last year, he promised us to show his Mezhyhirya property, remember?

Pools, lakes, mansions, club houses, guest houses, pigeon houses, bowling, tennis, golf, helipad, underground shooting range...





Just how much character does it take? To keep all this stuff around while holding the country's highest office?

UPDATE
Segodnya.ua offers a fresh collection of bird's eye views of Mezhyhirya.



Hangar




Club house


Pigeon houses



Visit Segognya.ua for breathtaking video (Part 1) from a Mezhyhirya-Kyiv chopper flight. Part 2 coming soon.


In case you failed to notice, last year, Yanukovych made $115K and his wife $2K.

Sources:
http://durdom.in.ua/uk/main/photo/photo_id/23641.phtml
http://censor.net.ua/ru/video_news/view/164031/yanukovich_ukraintsy_hvatit_unijatsya_proyavite_ukrainskiyi_harakter_dobavleno_video
http://www.rada.gov.ua/~dtrp/
http://censor.net.ua/ru/video_news/view/151798/jurnalisty_ustroili_ohotu_na_yanukovicha__militsiya_v_rasteryannosti_video http://tvi.ua
http://www.pravda.com.ua/articles/2011/04/8/6090201/
http://www.segodnya.ua/news/14241548.html
http://www.segodnya.ua/video/14241092.html
http://durdom.in.ua/uk/main/photo/photo_id/23684/person_id/1.phtml

Governor, Wife Play (Taxpayers Pay)

Drinking and dancing on the taxpayers’ dime? Yes we can!

Ternopil Governor Valentyn Khoptyan: Look, we’re not celebrating Women’s Day, we...we were invited to [this place] where they have young talent, including those from the land of Ternopil, and I wanted to see...because the head of the oblast administration, he has to deal not just with industry, agriculture and the budget, but he also has to deal with life issues, ones pertaining to our region, including, including culture, health care, education, I mean, all those reforms that should be in progress today — there are 21 — ones that the president of our country has set forth. So this...that was, that was not a festive event and not recreation, that was a field trip, a learning experience, as it’s...the kind of work that’s done in Husyatyn Rayon (County), and, as you know, my wife is the chair of the rayon council there.

Reporter: Yes, I do know. So you bel[ieve]...in the report, they didn’t say it was a field trip of yours.
Governor: I’m telling you, I’m telling you: It was...

Reporter: In the report, they said it was the governor...
Governor: They were wrong. I’m...it was a field trip. And every time wherever I go, likewise, likewise, I always want to see our talent, and the land of Ternopil is rich in talent, both young and mature.

Reporter: Let me get this straight one more time. So making this report with state funding and showing it on state television, you believe, is absolutely acceptable?
Governor: It was a field trip of mine...and I...and we should be organizing this kind of work — the recreation of our people — in every rayon, city and village of our region.

What about all those people now making a living in Italy, Spain and Portugal?

How much more “recreation” do we need before this country runs out of people?




Sources:
http://censor.net.ua/ru/video_news/view/163216/glava_ternopolskoyi_oga_prazdnovanie_v_restorane_8_marta__eto_rabochiyi_vizit_video
http://pravda.com.ua
http://durdom.in.ua/uk/main/photo/photo_id/23526/person_id/1.phtml
http://durdom.in.ua/uk/main/photo/photo_id/23537/person_id/1.phtml

Yushchenko’s Brother: ‘Any Government Is From God’

In Government=God we trust.

Reporter: Will you be listening to Yanukovych this year [New Year’s address]?
MP Petro Yushchenko (NUNS): Sure, I will!

Reporter: You’re willing to?
Petro Yushchenko: It’s a choice...it’s a choice...it’s a choiceeeee...uh...under...any government is from God!

Thank God you and your bro got to keep your government apartment and dacha respectively!




God bless Ukraine!

Sources:
http://censor.net.ua/ru/video_news/view/148679/yuschenko_poobeschal_vstretit_novyyi_god_s_yanukovichem_quotlyubaya_vlast__ot_bogaquot_video http://tsn.ua
http://www.evangelie.ru/forum/t32670.html
http://www.volynnews.com/news/interesting/ianukovycha_i_iushchenka_zobrazyly_na_ikonakh_foto/

Yanukovych (FY 2011: $42.9M) v. Bush (FY 2007: $12.4M)

He talks small government.

And then he outspends the White House 3.45 to 1.

Yanukovych: These people that will be dismissed, they will receib...receive corr...corresponding severance packages upon dismissal, in accordance with the law. [...] The benefits...from the reduction of government officials’ headcount will not transpire until 2012. From then on, every year, undoubtedly, we’ll have quite substantial savings.

You mean, having 16 ministers instead of 24 will save us a fortune? Awesome! But wait... Is that the whole story?

It’s not. I mean look at the State Directorate for Affairs. This funny-name agency acts as the nanny state to Ukraine’s mammoth central government bureaucracy.

In FY 2011, its budget will balloon 27%, or by Hr. 292,856,700 ($36,822,962), to Hr. 1,343,862,300 ($168,973,394).

Now what about the Administration of the President? Wanna see the color of his money?

FY 2011: Hr. 204,743,300 ($25,743,835)
FY 2010: Hr. 131,968,700 ($16,593,366)

That’s just one ambiguous presidential line item. The other two items, maintenance and foreign travel:

FY 2011: Hr. 107,396,200 ($13,503,690)
FY 2010: Hr. 131,968,700 ($16,593,366)

FY 2011: Hr. 29,151,500 ($3,665,426)
FY 2010: Hr. 26,526,300 ($3,335,340)

So whatta we got?

$42.9M for Yanukovych (FY 2011) v. $12.4M for Bush (FY 2007).



You’d think Ukraine’s GDP per capita beats that of the U.S. by a factor of 3.45.

Oh no...



Nominal GDP per capita: Ukraine ($2,600) v. U.S. ($46,400)

Special thanks to the IMF for your continued support!

Your last standby program caught us in Nov. 2008, when we had a population of 46,200,000. As of Sept. 1, 2010, we still had 45,831,400 left.

Can we downsize it to, say, 25 million over the next two decades?

Sources:
http://censor.net.ua/ru/video_news/view/145718/yanukovich_effekt_ot_sokrascheniya_gosslujaschih_nastupit_ne_skoro_nado_snachala_nakormit_uvolennyh_chinovnikov_video
http://inter.ua
http://news.dt.ua/news/73777
http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d09305.pdf
http://durdom.in.ua/uk/main/photo/photo_id/20249/person_id/1.phtml

Thousands Protest Draconian Tax Law

Small business, small protest.

It takes 20 times as many protesters to mean business.

Yanukovych to Commute by Helicopter

Take this $17M chopper.

Make it $1.5K/flight, plus $7.5M for the helipad.

Add that personal “missile shield”...

And we have liftoff!





One flew over Mezhyhirya may cost Ukrainians a lot.

But it’s worth every cent!

High-security property. Private zoo. 500 workers/day. At least $9.4M in interior design alone!

Can any drug cartel keep up with this?






Pigeons: a clear and present danger

Sources:
http://censor.net.ua/ru/video_news/view/138781/polet_yanukovicha_iz_doma_na_rabotu_budet_stoit_1012_tysyach_griven_v_chas_video
http://censor.net.ua/ru/video_news/view/142325/aviamarshrutka_v_mejigore_intereru_vertoleta_yanukovicha_zaviduyut_obama_i_merkel_video
http://tvi.ua
http://tabloid.pravda.com.ua/photos/4cc53e3333a8f/
http://www.pravda.com.ua/articles/2010/10/27/5519970/
http://durdom.in.ua/uk/main/photo/photo_id/19788/person_id/1.phtml
http://durdom.in.ua/uk/main/photo/photo_id/19776/person_id/1.phtml
http://durdom.in.ua/uk/main/photo/photo_id/19777/person_id/1.phtml
http://durdom.in.ua/uk/main/photo/photo_id/19852.person_id/1.phtml
http://durdom.in.ua/uk/main/photo/photo_id/20079/person_id/1.phtml
http://durdom.in.ua/uk/main/photo/photo_id/20203/person_id/1.phtml

BBC Corners Yanukovych on Roads and Taxes

He puts the people first. Or does he?

Yanukovych: I’m surprised...by your question. Surprised.
BBC reporter: Why?

Yanukovych [takes a deep breath]: What roads do top officials use? You just...I...I’ll tell you that...do some research. I know what people are saying. I’m saying this myself. I’m saying this myself. Do some research on how many roads were reconstructed and built last year and how many this year. Not that it makes me tick, but I’ll tell you at least twice as many. Do it. It’s official data. That’s first of all. Second of all, undoubtedly, from the highways we should move on to roads of...sec...secondary importance, ones that are used by...those [ordinary] people...uh...and...these roads...should be...put in order as well. The problem did not arise overnight. It’s...uh...what we inherited from our predecessors. Check out the stats. Do you believe the stats or not? Take a look at what was done during the [last] five years by our predecessors in any given area. Take any indicator. You’ll see that it all went like this. Downhill. Why? Try answering this question. Just be honest. Unbiased. Yes, that goes for you too. I would like to have journalists tell the truth. I really would like to. Now that will be freedom of speech. So I’m telling you: Year after year...there will be increases in the volume of roads being built, road reconstruction and road quality. This issue has been set forth harshly, and it will be implemented.

Did you hear that? Yeah, it’s him! It’s the “Ukraine for the People”-“I hear everyone”- “red-hot iron” man speaking.

You may remember him serving as PM (August 2006 through December 2007).

Now that he’s been promoted...



...how about we ask him a couple of questions?

Why did he spend 50 million tax hryvnias on his Mezhyhirya home-sweet-home road?

Let me guess. Euro 2012 made him do it!



At least, that’s the official explanation supplied by Ukravtodor, the state-run ($15M/km ‘08) road construction company.

And what about those rural roads and the low-caste aborigines that use them? They can wait. The Millennium Development Goals told him so, right?

Forget the Yanukovych-only road. Try the Mezhyhirya one! There’s room for everyone now. What’s good for Yanukovych is good for Ukraine!

Still mad at him for blocking traffic as he passes by? Wait until he goes airborne!




Sources:
http://blogs.pravda.com.ua/authors/leschenko/4cb86390b025b/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/ukrainian/multimedia/2010/10/101013_yanukovych_video_oh.shtml
http://durdom.in.ua/uk/main/photo/photo_id/19471/person_id/1.phtml
http://durdom.in.ua/uk/main/photo/photo_id/19550.phtml
http://durdom.in.ua/uk/main/photo/photo_id/19459/person_id/1.phtml
http://durdom.in.ua/uk/main/photo/photo_id/19444/person_id/1.phtml

FEMEN Breast Protest Pokes Fun at Azarov

Hardly a week passes by without FEMEN doing boobs and circuses.

This week, they target PM Azarov's broken Ukrainian, rampant misgovernment and outrageous sexism.

Specifically, they elaborate on the PM’s hilariously mangled version of the Ukrainian word for bloodsuckers that he uttered last week in a finger-pointing speech.



He should have said кровососи (krovososy) but came out with кровосісі (krovosisi), which sounds like bloody titties.

FEMEN, in turn, seized the opportunity to produce a collection of mock body art, enshrouded in feminine mystique.







Sources:
http://femen.livejournal.com/66090.html
http://www.youtube.com/user/FEMENmovement
http://tabloid.pravda.com.ua/focus/4c0e3b6836199/
http://www.pravda.com.ua/news/2010/06/2/5099399/

Staby (A Quality of Government Report)

Hi guys! I want you to meet my little friend.

It’s a dead dog. Dead since last Friday (Apr. 9). I call her Staby (as in stabilnist). She can be found here.

Naturally, the municipal hotline didn’t help. The CDC didn’t even answer calls.

Hour after hour, day after day, the beach gets visits from unsuspecting kids and carefree adults. That’s where they run into Staby.





I’ve been picking up plastic bags and bottles on Kyiv beaches for about a year. I’ve even buried a few birds. (We don’t have a reliable service to take care of dead animals or roadkill. Most of the time, they just rot away on the streets or become car-pressed steaks on the highway.)

I gave up on Staby. She’s too heavy and too much of a health hazard. You can smell her from a distance of 50 meters if the wind blows your way.

Ironically, the bay goes by the name of Sobache Hyrlo (Dog's Throat). Here's what it looks like in the summer.


Back to Staby, I last saw her on Thursday evening, half-submerged. With the water rising, she may sail away tomorrow. Too bad she won’t reach Koncha-Zaspa.



Mr. Yanukovych, I know you hear everyone. Why don’t you pick up Staby and take her to the White House, along with the enriched uranium?

Or maybe we should keep her as a tourist attraction for Euro 2012?

Mr. Yanukovych, my offer remains open for you until further notice.

As of April 20, Staby appears to be gone. Gone in 950,400 seconds.

Yanukovych Struggles With Words, Events

The wages of being President Yanukovych come in all sorts of gaffes and glitches.

President Yanukovych: I do understand that today we’re falling behind on [Euro 2012] preparations, and today we should take extraordinal...[pauses for a spell check]...measures...[adds emphasis to blunt his awkward pause]...to kick-start...[nods]...this construction of these stadiums, roads and infrastructure.

Acts of sabotage followed President Yanukovych to an SBU gala event. No sooner had he started singing Ukraine’s anthem than the recording malfunctioned (“Ще не вме...”).

A few minutes later, he ended up awarding the wrong guy.



“Normalnaya vlast” (Rus. normal government), as one SBU officer put it, obviously means Valeriy Khoroshkovsky, the Ken-faced billionaire who now runs the SBU. Among other things, Khoroshkovsky owns 3.5 Disneylands worth of land, 32,171 sq m worth of real estate and millions worth of Ukraine’s #1 TV channel. (He got his first job at the SBU as a RosUkrEnergo-friendly deputy director appointed by Yushchenko.)

Witness Tina Karol perform at a Yanukovych gala. Yes, that's the same Tina who toured Ukraine with a bunch of other celebs who endorsed Tymoshenko.





Tina...

Russian singer Valery Meladze’s did “Вопреки,” a soundtrack song from Адмиралъ, a Russian biopic on Aleksandr Kolchak. (In the Russian Civil War, both the Whites and the Reds fought against Ukraine’s independence.)

Director Khoroshkovsky did not respond to questions about the cost of the event. Asked about who pays, an unnamed SBU officer said the SBU does, but he wasn’t sure.

Videos embedded from:
http://censor.net.ua/go/offer/ResourceID/153703.html
http://censor.net.ua/go/offer/ResourceID/153857.html
Original sources:
http://5.ua
http://stb.ua

Herman Prescribes Mopeds for Gov’t (‘Ugh,’ Not for Hers)

Talk is cheap.

Deputy Chief of Staff Hanna Herman: And the government in Ukraine — in a poor country like this — has to use mopeds. And that will be right.
Host: And what will Azarov use?

Herman: Ughhhhh...iiiiit's...I think that the premierrrrr caaaaan walk on foot if he lives nearby. He can use a bike, for example. I once was witness to the defense minister of Poland, uh, coming to work on a bicycle, uh, and, you know, he had this peg on...on his pants so he wouldn’t touch the chain. I think the government in a poor country, uh, has to behave modestly, aaaaand I think that we all understand this and we all will be thinking about it, thinking at least.

Let’s think about it.


Ready...


Set...


Go!

Video uploaded from: http://censor.net.ua/go/offer/ResourceID/152877.html
Original source: http://5.ua

Tears for Votes: Yanukovych Follows Lytvyn

Some laugh and sing. Others cry and cry.

Whether spontaneous or staged, tears put a human face on a politician. The Hillary syndrome has now spread to Ukraine. Tears have been shed in our presidential campaign.

Speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn routinely blasts the oligarchs and claims being cash-strapped.

That’s despite privatizing 600 sq m of taxpayer-paid real estate and having a daughter who owns a luxury boutique and a brand new $100K car.

You’d think that makes him a thick-skinned materialist. Hell no!

When a fellow Lytvynite presented him with a rushnyk sewn by her mother, the gift moved the man to tears.

Presidential candidate Volodmyr Lytvyn: In...[fights back tears, falls short of igniting a standing ovation]...in Polissya...in a back-of-beyond Polissya village...[fights back tears, ignites a full-blown standing ovation]...my parents brought me into this world.

Yanukovych found himself in a similar situation during his tour of western Ukraine, where his opponents vastly outnumber his supporters.

An elderly woman mounts the stage, empathizes with Yanukovych’s childhood of growing up without a mother, gives him a vyshyvanka and wishes him the best.

Presidential candidate Viktor Yanukovych: [smiles amid applause, crosses himself, bows repeatedly, thanks the woman, kisses her hands, ignites a standing ovation]: Thanks a lot, Hanna Mykhailivna! I’m deeply moved. I’m very grateful. In the area, in the region, in the land where I grew up, there’s a hu...huge industry. It was there...that I grew up, it was there that I was taught to work, to manage production, the economy. I grew up all by myself among people. Indeed, down there...nobody wore vyshyvankas...[gets sentimental]...and I’ve never worn it in my life. But I...I promise you that I will definitely wear it on holidays. [ignites a standing ovation, steps down, visibly tearful]

It’s the same tough guy who sells his apartment for Hr. 33,416,350 but reports Hr. 2,674,910 on his tax returns.

If you have a problem with that, you can sue him. So he says.

Videos uploaded/embedded from:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSCu2z_rgYM
http://censor.net.ua/go/offer/ResourceID/142467.html
Original sources:
http://5.ua
http://www.vgolos.com.ua

Yushchenko: ‘Obviously, I'll Win’

Incumbent President Yushchenko: Obviously, I'll win. [applause] Obviously. And...and I want to explain why. Because there’s you. And there are millions of people like you — millions in this country — who understand why tomorrow, over Ukrainian soil, the sun should rise.

If you follow the sausage, you will lose both freedom and the sausage. If you follow freedom, you will gain both the sausage and independence.

In other words, he promises fishing rods to his voters so they can catch fish themselves. And then he turns a blind eye to a bunch of poachers who use fishnets, electroshockers and explosives.

It’s the same guy who takes the high moral road and talks patriotism every time somebody questions his behavior.

ATV Reporter: Viktor Andriyovych, could you...could you please tell us: Is this a working visit or a campaign event?

Incumbent President Yushchenko: A working visit.

ATV Reporter: With elements of campaigning?

Yushchenko: A working visit, young man. A working visit. You have a Ukrainian cap! A working visit.

ATV is the #1 Ukrainophobic channel in Ukraine. Everybody knows that. So when Yushchenko equates Tymoshenko with Yanukovych, how does he set himself apart?

By letting Yanukovych grabitize Mezhyhirya — a 339-acre property — in exchange for favors?

By imitating Tymoshenko, who flew to an EPP convention — using a government jet and tax hryvnias — and then requested tax euros for royal pageantry?

Videos uploaded from:
http://censor.net.ua/go/offer/ResourceID/142338.html
http://censor.net.ua/go/offer/ResourceID/142466.html
Original sources:
http://inter.ua
http://atv.odessa.ua

The Tymoshenko Cabinet: A Hydra in Your Pocket

Serhiy Leshchenko of Ukrayinska Pravda has written a short guide to the wheeling and dealing in the Tymoshenko cabinet.

For a better idea of Ukraine’s cost of government, try asking this question: How many deputies/undersecretaries do Ukrainian cabinet ministers have?

Here’s your answer:

Heorhiy Filipchuk, Minister of Health Care: 10
Yuriy Melnyk, Minister of Agriculture: 10
Yuriy Lutsenko, Minister of Internal Affairs: 9
Mykola Onishchuk, Minister of Justice: 8
Lyudmyla Denysova, Minister of Labor: 8
Yuriy Pavlenko, Minister of Youth Affairs: 8
Vasyl Vovkun, Minister of Culture, 7
Serhiy Buryak, Head of the State Tax Administration: 10
Viktor Ivchenko, Head of the State Innovation and Investment Agency: 6
Serhiy Lytvyn, Head of the State Border Guard Administration: 6
Oleh Dubyna, Chairman of Naftogaz: 8
Oleksandr Medvedko, Prosecutor General: 8
Valeriy Heletey, Head of the State Security Directorate: 7

"The Tymoshenko School of Management. Where every minister counts."

Sources: http://www.pravda.com.ua/news/2009/4/15/93272.htm

Kuzhel on Death & Pensions for Zarobitchany

She confuses discounts with bribes. She wears a $40K watch. She’s such a fair lady.

Oleksandra Kuzhel: We’ll give them [migrant workers] their own right to legalize the money they earned so that they can safely repatriate, and, by the same token, they’ll have their years of work [abroad] count toward their pensions, which is...I believe, a fair policy. Besides, they’ll also have the opportunity to be insured. Now what does that mean? If a person comes to Ukraine and becomes ill, they have the right to a sick leave, they have the right to maternity benefits, and they have the right to have money for their burial.

How about they have the right to throw out the corrupt officials out of the country? How about they exercise that right before those officials depopulate and bury this country?

Kuzhel wants to lure back a few million Ukrainian zarobitchany (migrant workers) with a very interesting concept of fairness: Rob Peter to pay Paul. (So that Viktor can stage another Paul McCartney concert or show us some more of those lovely dead animals?)

I digress. Suppose I spent 10 years working hard and paying taxes as a live-in maid in Italy because I couldn't find a decent job in my corrupt country.

So if and when I go back to Ukraine, the poor folks there who don’t wear $40K watches should pay me for those 10 years when I retire? Is that fair?

How does that square with our defined benefit pension system?

Video uploaded from: http://censor.net.ua/go/offer/ResourceID/119392.html
Original source: http://inter.ua

Meat Mismanagement, Paid With Taxpayer Money

They buy meat and let it spoil. They buy cars and let them shine. Taxpayer money pays for both.



Enjoy another report on how Derzhkomrezerv operates.

In 2008, the Tymoshenko government imported various kinds of meat to push the overblown local prices down. To promote the policy, Mykhailo Pozhyvanov, then chief of Derzhkomrezerv, posed in front of the cameras, choking on fried chickens.

For some reason, some of that meat never made it to retail stores.

An STB crew pays a visit to a Derzhkomrezerv partner business that stores minced poultry imports in its refrigerator warehouse. The shipment stored there, worth about $250,000 in 2008 prices, had reached its expiry date last summer. Derzhkomrezerv then tried to resell it to a Donetsk company, despite a ruling by the center for disease control that the meat be destroyed.

Volodymyr Zakharenko, owner of the warehouse, notified the prosecutor's office. And guess what? Police and Derzhkomrezerv raided the warehouse looking for pork. Zakharenko confirmed storing a shipment of pork and even produced some unsavory pictures of it. Yet the man agreed to release the shipment based on an invoice, not a search warrant.

Derzhkomrezerv did not immediately respond to STB’s request for comment.

Videos uploaded from: http://censor.net.ua/go/offer/ResourceID/118985.html
Original source: http://stb.ua

Despite Crisis, Govt Agency Stocks Up on Luxury Cars

Taxpayer money is a cheap commodity in Ukraine, as far as the government is concerned.

As Ukrainians struggle to make both ends meet, Obozrevatel tells another story of how much their government costs them.

At issue is the State Committee of Ukraine on the State Material Reserve, aka Derzhkomrezerv, the government agency that keeps a safety stock of food and fuel to be used in case of emergency.

Speaking of emergency, in late 2008 and early 2009, Derzhkomrezerv filled its reserves with durables other than those declared in its mission statement.

Derzhkomrezerv used state-owned company Resurspostach to buy/rent a splendid fleet of nine Toyotas, worth from $50,000 to $500,000.






Not bad for an organization deep in debt, and one that offers deep discounts by holding less-than-open bids to sell its inventory once it nears expiry date.

In an interview with Obozrevatel’s Tetyana Chornovil, the vice chairman of Derzhkomrezerv, Mykola Synkovsky, admitted no wrongdoing.

I bet he has a picture of Tymoshenko or Yushchenko hanging on his office wall. Well, maybe he keeps a Yanukovych somewhere in the back office.

What he really needs is The Judgment of Cambyses, the painting that every Ukrainian official must have.

Sources:
http://obozrevatel.com/news/2009/3/26/294011.htm

Food Prices A Mystery for Ministers

When you drive cars like that, do you really care?

Reporter: Please tell us, do you know the current price of a loaf of bread, ten eggs, and a kilogram of meat?

Minister of Transport, Yosyp Vinsky: This question goes to my wife.

Minister of Justice, Mykola Onishchuk: I actually don’t have time to do shopping, so I’d rather not engage in a discussion regarding the prices for these groceries.

Minister of Family Affairs, Yuriy Pavlenko: I’ll tell you everything, definitely. Hahaha!

Minister of Labor, Lyudmyla Denysova: I don’t buy eggs because of the fast. A loaf of bread — well, my daughter buys that. [We make] toasts. I actually don’t eat them because I don’t dine at home at all.

Is that the same daughter you hired out of college to run the price controls board in Sevastopol? What if she doesn't dine at home either?

Video uploaded from: http://censor.net.ua/go/offer/ResourceID/116491.html
Original source: http://kanalukraina.tv