The Auld Lang Syne of Dressing Up for Winter Holidays

Under the atheist canon of the Soviet era, New Year was the holiday, with Christmas celebrated unofficially in rural areas only.

MP Hanna Herman, PRU: My first New Year costume was that of a comet.

MP Alla Alekasndrovska, KPU: I had sweets in my hands, my crown was the shape of a sweet too, and with great delight I was a sweet.

Unidentified Orange MP: You’re going to be surprised, but I was nonstandard...um...I was a Ukrainian.

Irena Kilchytska, Deputy Mayor of Kyiv: One of the brightest experiences I recall was being a Gypsy. I was in grade three. I neither wanted to be a snowflake nor a bunny.

MP Volodymyr Yavorivsky, BYuT: I neither was a bunny nor a runny, nor a wolf. Once we went there, we dressed up: I was Karl Marx I had some book tucked under my arm that had Capital written on it. They fixed me a beard.

MP Mykola Tomenko, BYuT: As to an ani…animal outfit, I never appeared in one, as a rule.

MP Volodymyr Sivkovych, PRU: Well, I definitely never was a bunny.

MP Oleh Zarubinsky, LyB: I was a rabbit, in terms of the Chinese calendar. I have a picture where I’m dressed in a costume, in the white costume of a rabbit.

Viktor Yanukovych, opposition leader: There were no fancy toys, no outfits for me to put on. We lived very poorly.

Viktor Yushchenko, President of Ukraine: I remember how my mother woke me up early in the morning after New Year when it was time to go caroling, so that I would tour my relatives door-to-door.

Watching this bittersweet video made me feel like sining Michael Jackson's "Childhood":

Have you seen my Childhood?
I'm searching for the world that I come from
'Cause I've been looking around
In the lost and found of my heart...
No one understands me
They view it as such strange eccentricities...
'Cause I keep kidding around
Like a child, but pardon me...

People say I'm not okay
'Cause I love such elementary things...
It's been my fate to compensate,
for the Childhood
I've never known...

Have you seen my Childhood?
I'm searching for that wonder in my youth
Like pirates in adventurous dreams,
Of conquest and kings on the throne...

Before you judge me, try hard to love me,
Look within your heart then ask,
Have you seen my Childhood?

People say I'm strange that way
'Cause I love such elementary things,
It's been my fate to compensate,
for the Childhood I've never known...

Have you seen my Childhood?
I'm searching for that wonder in my youth
Like fantastical stories to share
The dreams I would dare, watch me fly...

Before you judge me, try hard to love me.
The painful youth I've had

Have you seen my Childhood...


Happy New Year everyone! Thank you for reading, thank you for lurking, and thank you for commenting:)!

Video uploaded from: http://censor.net.ua/go/offer/ResourceID/72476.html

The Ombudswoman in Blue: Reappointment of Yanukovych Associate Defies European Practice

The Yanukovych-controlled Rada Thursday appointed MP Nina Karpachova, PRU, to her third term as Ukraine's Commissioner for Human Rights. Later in the day, MP Mykola Tomenko, BYuT, landed the job as Vice Speaker. The latter position, generously reserved for the opposition, came with the nodding approval of the ruling Anticrisis Coalition. Being part of BYuT’s prior agreement with the PRU, it saved BYuT the agony of having to explain another episode of rapport with the PRU. (BYuT largely abstained from the Karpachova vote.)

While Tomenko’s promotion provides BYuT with a comfortable perch, Karpachova’s political credentials make her comeback a demotion for Ukraine’s human rights track record. (Blue is the official color of the PRU.)

European democracy requires that this watchdog position be occupied by an independent, nonpartisan figure. In Ukraine, however, democracy takes a back seat to Donbas and justice walks in lockstep with the oldest profession — or should we say proffession? But since Ukraine became a member of the Council of Europe in 1995, its citizens have learned to sue the corrupt government all the way to the European Court of Human Rights, winning settlements of a few thousand euros.

Despite assurances to the contrary, the human rights agenda to expect from Ombudswoman Karpachova should probably be called “See no evil, hear no evil.”

Bonjour mesdames Severinsen and Wohlvend. Here’s your clue on how Yanukovych’s goes about his vision of “building a Europe inside Ukraine.”