Kyiv in Colors 3
The Four Seasons of Political Campaigning

With the Oranges back in power, has Fukuyama’s end of history come? Not at all! And if I should borrow from Tymoshenko’s rhetoric, I’d say, “This is just the beginning.” In Kyiv, one can find harbingers of the presidential election 2009 here, there, and everywhere.

So here’s my Sunday promenade through Kyiv in pics and vids.


Happy New Year and Merry Christmas! Your Dreams Will Come True!
(Not until we grab stabilnist by the balls. Not until we make every philanthrapist behave. Not until we make this country more livable.)


Merry Christmas! Love, Viktor Yushchenko.


Three in a Row, or Tomu Shcho Merry Christmas!


Don't Be Surprised to See Sights Like This in Kyiv
(If I were the President of Ukraine, I would seek re-election by investing in legislation on DUI, on emergency care, on animal rights, and on animal lovers' responsibilities. I would never litter the streets with expensive personality cult-like billboards that add no value to my people and annoy them.)



Both Sides of the Coin


Happy New Year! Leonid Chernovetsky. City Budget (UAH): 9 bn (2006), 17 bn (2007), 25 bn (2008)




If I were the Mayor of Kyiv, I'd be sure to spend some of that budget on street cleanup.


Billboard 1: Happy New Year! President of Ukraine Viktor Yushchenko.
Billboard 2: HIV/AIDS: Who's at Risk?


Rearranged: Danilych [Kuchma], Come Back!
(In the September parliamentary elections, the KUCHMA Bloc scored 0.1 percent of the vote. So, Danilych is not coming back anytime soon.)


Repressed: Danilych, the People Are with You!


Remixed: Daniylych, Save Ukraine!


McDonald's at Minska
(McDonald's customarily equips its local outlets with Ukrainian banners. This comes across as some sort of pledge of allegiance to the country in which they operate, now that America's image across the globe has seen better days.)



Anywhere You Go, I'll Follow You Down...


Double Impact




Just the two of us, we can make it if we try
Just the two of us, (Just the two of us)
Just the two of us, building castles in the sky
Just the two of us, you and I


Bohdan Khmelnytsky Monument at Sophiyivska Ploshcha (Square)
The red circle points to the recently built Hyatt Regency Kyiv. The Global Hyatt Corporation was founded by Abram Nicholas Pritzker, the son of Ukrainian Jewish immigrants.









Maidan


Get Outta My Dreams, Get Into My Car





Underneath Maidan: Happy New Year and Merry Christmas! MP Vasyl Horbal.
(A member of the Party of Regions, Horbal allegedly controls Ukrgasbank and is the pillar of the local PRU chapter.)









More of Maidan







Qatar Cat, Check These Out!


The Passage at Khreshchatyk


life:)



Khreshchatyk Station



Kyiv City Hall, or Chernoco House


A Closer Look at Sardine-packed Construction
(The middle edifice being erected must be quite a bit of trouble for locals.)


The Central Department Store, aka ЦУМ, spelled tsoom (tsentralny univermag)



Sell an Apartment in This House, and You Can Buy a New One in Manhattan!


The Lonely Lady


Vote No. 4, Party of Regions
(September 2007)


Bourgeoisie of All Countries, Unite!
(You can also spend the night at Premier Palats, a 5-star hotel.)


Besarabsky Market




PEOPLEnet, Ukraine's First 3G Network


Stabilnist in the Exchange Rate
Unlike the rest of the world, the official Ukrainian exchange rate for the U.S. dollar has shown remarkable stability during the last eight years:
USD 100 = UAH 544.02 (2000), 537.21 (2001), 532.66 (2002), 533.27 (2003), 531.92 (2004), 512.47 (2005), 505.00 (2006), 505.00 (2007).



Who Cares About the Big Mac Index?

Saving All My for Yu

I love that song, Whitney being one of my teen queens. I love that heart-shaped check mark, BYuT being the party I gave my heart to in the September parliamentary elections.

Of course, I was a little younger than a teenager when "Saving All My Love for You" came out. I was a Soviet 5-year old living in one of the two superpowers that could annihilate each other at a moment’s notice. (Needless to say, we didn't have MTV at the dawn of perestroika.) Unsure of what the future held for them, my parents and grandparents nevertheless decided to save, and so did millions of other Soviet Ukrainians.

Now that I speak some English, there’s something I heard about those savings on Wednesday night. It sounded like a song, too, and I want to share it with you.

If you’re looking for materialistic terms like principal, interest, future value, CPI, indexation, etc, you better quit right now — or it will break your heart. Nowhere does it mention them. Remember, the heart emoticon can be expressed as <3>

So, forget the finance. Enjoy the romance.

I sincerely greet you. We’ve celebrated New Year and Christmas holidays. The time has come to get to work. I want us to start getting used to the idea that politicians carry out the promises they make during election campaigns. We promised to refund the savings lost with the former Oshchadbank of the USSR, and we are doing it. On January 8, depositor registration in Oshchadbank Ukraine began. To register, bring your passbook, a photocopy of your passport, and your ID number. [Ukraine still relies on the internal passport system. A person’s ID number is the equivalent of a social security number.]

At the bank’s branch, you will be met by an administrator who will assist you with all the required paperwork. In a matter of three days following the registration, the money will be transferred to your account. If your deposit does not exceed 1,000 hryvnias [$200], you will receive the full amount [In fact, deposits were made in Soviet rubles.] But if your deposit is more than 1,000 hryvnias, you will receive your first payment of 1,000 hryvnias. And then we will continue. You will decide how to spend this money: whether to take cash or to leave it in your Oshchadbank account at the annual interest rate of 13.5 percent.

I ask you, my dear ones, and especially elderly people: do not worry and do not stand in long lines. Deposit registration and savings disbursement are not time sensitive. May God give you good health, and each of you will be guaranteed to receive what is earmarked in the budget. Our task is to organize the payout so as not to provoke accelerated inflation, so that the money that is coming back to people will not be lost on its way to the store. A responsible government should support the savings payout with a host of counter-inflation measures.

That’s why we will offer, as a supplement to the 1,000 hryvnias, which you will receive in cash, to use according to your wish the remainder of your deposit to pay for utility debt and current bills, to pay for your kids’ education, and to pay for durable consumer goods such as: television sets, refrigerators, and other consumer electronics. In a month’s time, the government will pass related regulations that will allow you to use your savings to buy goods and services. It’s just that some time is needed to work out the related active and failsafe mechanisms.

You will get all the answers to your questions regarding the savings payout by calling our hotline toll-free: 8-800-501-34-10. Wrong were those who dismissed our statements about returning the lost savings as hollow campaign promises. Our team keeps its promises. This year, the amount paid out will be 30 times as much as our predecessors did in 2007, and five times as much as has been returned to the depositors throughout the 17 years of Ukraine’s independence. And this is just the beginning.

Our work on returning the lost savings is eliciting a critical and sometimes even hysterical response from our political opponents. I don’t want to waste time arguing. We’re giving the money back, and that’s it. It so happened that the real work on savings compensation began at Christmas time. Given this opportunity, let me send my New Year and Christmas greetings to you once again, and let me ask for God’s blessing for a good cause. Good luck!

Video uploaded from: http://censor.net.ua/go/offer/ResourceID/72872.html

Shyrka on Standby

In May, we reached a certain agreement, and that’s why we gave approval for early elections.

Essentially, the President hoodwinked us. I said back then that he couldn’t be trusted. He kept on and on. Tried to hoodwink Yulia Volodymyrivna [Tymoshenko] and Viktor Fedorovych [Yanukovych] and our political power. Today, we understand that nothing will come out of what was promised.

Today, we have one situation, but tomorrow it may change. They’ll tell us, “Guys, let’s do something. Let’s make a grand coalition.” Then, the presence of our person [Raisa Bohatyryova] at the NSDC will be justified.

— MP Vasyl Khara, PRU, Chairman of the Social and Labor Policy Committee

That’s a nice picture. I wonder if the Secretariat of the President has anything to say about Khara's vision.

Sources:
http://www.pravda.com.ua/news/2008/1/10/69533.htm
http://www.gpu.ua/?&id=201194&s=1_gztmain

Tymo Goes One-for-Ten

I’d like every minister to personally and literally fix all the time frames in terms of action, so that these time frames will simply go one day for ten. I want us to draw up a plan of this kind for ourselves. For the 17 years [of Ukraine’s independence] went you-know-where, right? And now we have to speed up our life one-for-ten.

Of course, we know where they went. And we know the guys who did it. So, the need for speed — for some sort of no-nonsense uskoreniye — is there indeed. Let's see how tough her lady speed stick is.

Video: http://censor.net.ua/go/offer/ResourceID/72909.html
Soundtrack: http://download.sovmusic.ru/m/vrvpered.mp3

No ‘Stability’ in U.S. Presidential Campaign

'Change' — not 'stability' — is the buzzword. I learned this after studying CNN and CBS reports on the Iowa and New Hampshire primaries.

No matter how desperately I searched for 'stability,' my search efforts suffered a massive failure. I couldn’t find a single S-word in the campaign rhetoric of either Democrats or Republicans. All they talk about is change.

And change does not merely pervade the campaign rhetoric. It also characterizes the primaries dynamics.

Apparently the bovine stabilnist brand brought by U.S. spin doctors to one of Europe’s poorest countries has too few fetishists at home.

White House hopefuls shun the word ‘stability.’ Maybe it’s because their voters stick to a different diet?

"The numbers tell us this was a debate between change and experience, and change won," said CNN political analyst Bill Schneider.

"You came together as Democrats, Republicans and independents to stand up and say that we are one nation, we are one people and our time for change has come." (Obama)

"For most of this campaign, we were far behind," he said. "We always knew our climb would be steep. But in record numbers, you came out and you spoke up for change." (Obama)

Clinton, speaking with 96 percent of the vote in, portrayed herself as the candidate who could bring about the change the voters want.

Clinton had worked to convince Iowa caucus-goers she has the experience to enact change, while Edwards and Obama preached that she is too much of a Washington insider to bring change to the nation's capital.

Edwards, in a tight race for second, said Iowa's results show that "the status quo lost and change won."

"Now we move on ... to determine who is best suited to bring about the changes this country so desperately needs," he said.

Sources:
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/01/03/iowa.caucuses/index.html
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/01/08/nh.main/index.html
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/01/04/ap/politics/main3676274.shtml
Photo courtesy of AP

Tymo Talks of Hourly Rates for Miners

We must stop extracting this coal along with the blood of the coal miners. We can’t do this. That’s why an hourly rate is the only thing that can protect the miners from self-destruction.

Meanwhile, two miners died yesterday before paramedics arrived.

Sources:
http://news.bigmir.net/article/ukraine/19644/
http://censor.net.ua/go/offer/ResourceID/72798.html

Tymo to Haul Zvyahilsky over Hot Coals?

Ukrayinska Pravda has some hot Tymoshenko quotes:

We have to analyze the very fact of such a violation, so that in a matter of three days you will prepare a memo for the government on what responsibility there is and who should be held responsible for paying the miners of a profitable mine based on the underrated minimum wage.

We will make decisions and will take our case to all government agencies as required, so that the people who violate labor laws will be held responsible.

Come on, Yulia! Bring it on. Don't just blow off steam. Bring the heat!

Sources:
http://www.pravda.com.ua/news/2008/1/8/69431.htm
http://www.bat.mk.ua/1/foto/Timoshenko_01.jpg

Ukraine Celebrates Christmas, Part 2 (Updated)

Ivano-Frankivsk — a Christmas carol from the chamber choir Cantemus



Lviv — a Didukh ceremony



Sambir, Lviv Oblast — a vertep at a juvenile correctional facility



Videos uploaded from:
http://censor.net.ua/go/offer/ResourceID/72697.html
http://censor.net.ua/go/offer/ResourceID/72729.html
http://censor.net.ua/go/offer/ResourceID/72787.html

More Wishes from Yanukovych

Christ is born. Let us praise Him! May the light of the Christmas Star shine a ray of hope for the happiness and good of every family. May the birth of God’s Son renew our faith and give us renewed strength to pass all the tests; to walk the road of life with dignity; to do good and hope for God’s grace. On the day of Christ’s birth, I wish that every family, in happiness and good health, may share the joy of our Savior’s birth. Christ has been born. Let us praise Him!

I wish that Yanukovych himself did some of the good things he wishes for. That way, he wouldn’t have to go through the embarrassment of moonlighting as a Santa for stabilnist.

Video uploaded from: http://censor.net.ua/go/offer/ResourceID/72676.html

Ukraine Celebrates Christmas, Part 1 (Updated)

The country that exported “Carol of the Bells” to Western civilization celebrates Christmas on January 7.



Christianity, imported to Ukraine in 988 A.D. and oppressed for most of the 20th century, has produced a Christmas tradition very different from that of Western civilization.

The rough equivalent of the West’s much-commercialized Christmas can be witnessed here on New Year’s Day, a counter-tradition cultivated by the atheist Soviet government. (Mind the purchasing power gap.)

Z Rizdvom Khrystovym! Merry Christmas! Enjoy this wonderful collection of Ukrainian Christmas carols and links:

http://www.brama.com/art/christmas.html http://www.worldofchristmas.net/christmas-world/ukraine.html http://www.houseofukraine.com/UKE_CAROL.HTML http://www.abheritage.ca/pasttopresent/settlement/ukrainian_settlement.html
http://www.msichicago.org/scrapbook/scrapbook_exhibits/catw2004/traditions/countries/ukraine.html http://www.infoukes.com/culture/traditions/christmas/ http://www.uazone.net/holidays/christmas.html

"Dobry Vechir Tobi" (Ukrainian Carol)


"Dobry Vechir Tobi" by Ruslana


"Shchedryk" ("Carol of the Bells") by a Ukrainian choir in San Francisco


"Nebo i Zemlya Nyni Torzhesvuyut"


Christmas in a Ukrainian village



"Tykha Nich" ("Silent Night")


Ukrainian Christmas Mass


Christmas Eve in the Ukrainian Diaspora


Vertep in a small Ukrainian village


Diaspora Ukrainians sing Christmas Carols


Ukrainian Caroling in Saskatoon


Ukrainian Christmas Carol accompanied by bandura


Another Ukrainian Carol


"Nadvori Rizdvo" by Bohdana Tkachuk and the ensemble Prolisok


"Narodyvsya Bog na Saniakh"

Chernovetsky Speaks

On learning Ukrainian:
Everyday, I will speak my native language [Ukrainian] better, and you will be witness to it. (April 14, 2006)

You won’t get me to speak Ukrainian. The law says I’m a free man. I don’t speak Ukrainian merely because I lose courage [when speaking Ukrainian]. When I learn to speak it very well, I will start speaking Ukrainian only. (June 8, 2006)

On money:
I spend very little money. I just don’t have anything to spend it on because I’m not that young a person.

On criticism:
I need criticism — it’s normal — but it should be constructive, and should not deceive. Lately, a court ruled out some 28 publications regarding my son.

On birthday celebrations:
How did I celebrate? I was going about town all day long: church service, remembrance ceremony. I became another victim of the Holodomor.

On traveling by metro:
About a month ago, I took a ride in the metro, and I will do it more often. I told my subordinates to go down to the metro and then report on the situation: what they liked and what they did not. Take Denys Bass [Deputy Mayor, 29], a boy from a well-to-do family. He has never been in the metro before, and now he’s seen it with his own eyes.

On the underprivileged:
In the old days, those who begged had their rear ends licked with sticks. But this is not humane. I suggest that we outlaw flea market trading in the metro.

On Tymoshenko:
If anyone is to be trusted, it’s me, not her. For people her age do not change.

On Kyiv’s wellbeing:
Everything is quiet in Kyiv. Everything is under control. And everyday, there’s more control from people who join my team. Kyiv’s international rating has risen and has hit a record high.

Did he refer to this rating?

Sources:
http://www.sudnaroda.org.ua/gromad_sud/news/2007-11-29/perlu_cernoveckogo.html
http://news.img.com.ua/pix/i520/520966.gif

Russian Ambassador Can Tell Tymoshenko from Scarecrow

Narrator: The question was as follows: Will Tymoshenko not scare away the Russian investor?

Viktor Chernomyrdin, Russian Ambassador to Ukraine: Well, to me she doesn’t look like a scarecrow. Why paint her like that? At least, she always stated that…um…she understands it very well, and she herself was in business, and as a business person who knows about the economy…I don’t think she will [scare away the Russian investor].

Some diplomats have the merit of complimenting women in a rather unorthodox manner.

Video uploaded from: http://censor.net.ua/go/offer/ResourceID/71695.html

Shortchanged on Soviet Savings

Every election campaign, talk of refunding Ukrainians for their Soviet-era savings finds its way into the hearts of voters. Now that Tymoshenko has found her way back to government, it’s about time she walked the talk. But will she?

Under the Tymoshenko plan, each account holder will be entitled to an equivalent of $200 in compensation payments. According to earlier statements, only 60 percent of Ukrainians who held accounts with Sberbank, the Soviet savings bank, will be “fully compensated.” Deposits of less than 2,000 Soviet rubles will have priority. So, unless your savings put you south of 2,000 rubles, you’re a fat cat. Here’s a quote from PM Tymoshenko:

After an account check with Oshchadbank [the Ukrainian successor to Sberbank], everyone owed by the bank will receive up to 1,000 hryvnias in cash depending on the amount deposited. In the near future, we will allow the owners of lost savings to pay for consumer goods, utility bills, and other services out of their bankbooks.

So, if my parents had 6,000 rubles on deposit in the mid 80s, which could buy a Zhiguli, all they get is $200, a free haircut, and that's it? And you call that fair? And what about those coal miners and industry workers who had up to 20,000 rubles on deposit?

“This amount is approximately half of what was usually cited. We plan to initiate a comprehensive refund” is another cryptic quote. Exactly what indexation rate are we talking about? Does it reflect the time value of money? Does it take into account the value of a deposit at the time it was made, as measured by the chronologically equitable basket of goods and services?

For deposits made prior to perestroika and the ruble overhang of the late 80s/early 90s, there is no equitable indexation rate below 1:5, plus interest owed. In other words, once we arrive at CPI figures, one Soviet ruble of savings should at least translate into five Ukrainian hryvnias. A deposit of 1,000 Soviet rubles made in December 1981 does not equal a deposit of 1,000 Soviet rubles made in December 1991.

In fact, there is no economic vehicle for turning around the issue of “lost” Soviet-era savings without righting some of the wrongs of the privatization/grabitization era.

By law, every Ukrainian citizen received a piece of paper called the “privatization certificate,” a legitimate ownership claim on Soviet public property. But somehow only a fraction of Ukrainians received value for their claims — and some received billions of dollars worth of property. Why?

Unless this question gets some serious consideration, the idea of $200 as a compensation sounds as another bad joke. We’ve already heard the unfortunate suggestion of making the coal miner’s job a dream for every Ukrainian kid. And guess what — hardly a month passes by without a coal mine accident.

Sources:
http://www.pravda.com.ua/news/2007/12/23/68877.htm
http://www.gpu.ua/index.php?&id=200406
http://www.sovmusic.ru/p_view.php?id=32
http://www.sovmusic.ru/p_view.php?id=48
http://www.sovmusic.ru/p_view.php?id=52
http://www.sovmusic.ru/p_view.php?id=53
http://aes.iupui.edu/rwise/banknotes/russia/RussiaP222a-1Ruble-1961-donatedoy_f.jpg

Zasyadka — Again

Another fire broke out at the Zasyadka Mine in Donetsk late on Tuesday. Thankfully, no casualties have been reported. But with history repeating itself at such a high rate, how much longer before the death toll starts counting again?

Dear Mrs. Prime Minister, those are human beings down there. Different strokes for different folks will only result in more coffins for the same folks.

Sources:
http://unian.net/ukr/news/news-229301.html

Yanuk Wishes Ukraine Stabilnist

First of all, I wish that stabilnist would prevail in our country. I wish that the dreams of every Ukrainian family would come true; that those who are sick now would heal. To young people, I wish love. To those whose lives are in need of or are held back by poverty, I wish that their lives would get better.

Translating the last wish ("Тим, в кого не вистачає в житті чи заважає бідність — щоб життя покращилось.") was quite a bit of fun. ProFFessor's awkward phrasing gave him the comic edge of addressing two categories of people: (1) those who can't get enough of poverty and (2) those who have had enough of it.

Oh man, u da bomb! You’re a balm for my soul. Since you’ve been stripped of stabilnist, it’s not every day that we hear a remix of Stability and Prosperity (2007) and Better Living Today (2006).

Video uploaded from: http://censor.net.ua/go/offer/ResourceID/72530.html