Elderly woman: What's the point of us electing them? Are they doing something for the people? Nothing is what they're doing. They're lining their pockets.
United Center campaigner: You're being completely inco...not exactly correct here. Why? Because these people haven't been in power. They haven't lined anything.
Girl: What can you tell about a person if you only read six...six...sentences about then?
Guy 1: I look at people's faces. People's faces can...can tell a lot.
Guy 2: We absolutely don't care about it. Whoever wins, it's a [bleep censor].
1:25-2:15
Have some faith, young man! You come to the campaign stand. You pick your favorite candidates. You put them in that ballot box.
It’s all about you. You’re the boss!
That’s what they mean by “primaries” at Tihipko’s Strong Ukraine and Baloha’s United Center.
Sparks are flying in the Orange coalition endgame — sparks of Kuchmism.
With the nasty fight getting nastier and the country holding its breath in disgust, the Ukrainian media draws parallels between today’s crisis and pre-Orange Ukraine. Here's a small glossary:
Adminresurs refers to the autocratic use of government resources (local authorities, law enforcement, state-run media, etc) for campaign purposes;
Astroturfing refers to the public relations technique (popular in the USSR and the US) of imitating grassroots support for a political party/politician.
And here’s a short battlefield report: Last week, United Center, the pro-Yushchenko loyalists, rounded up college students and public employees in Zakarpattya oblast for an anti-Tymoshenko human chain rally along the highway. Watch footage of the event.
The two videos feature Mykhailo Dancha, head of Perechynsky rayon (county), presidential appointee and “community organizer” who exudes self-confidence and swears profusely. (H/t Obkom)
Meanwhile, friends of Tymoshenko have plastered the Cabinet’s Web site with a plethora of rave reviews from "ordinary Ukrainians" containing boilerplate language from the Kuchma era. (H/t Ukrayinska Pravda)
According to some sources, the Lytvyn Bloc has agreed to join the coalition in a last bid to reunite the Orange camp and stave off a snap election that may throw the fence-sitting LB back to wilderness. The reports have yet to be confirmed.
Most experts believe that Tuesday’s session of the Verkhovna Rada will see the final collapse of the Orange tandem and the creation of a PRU-BYuT coalition.
Voiceover: Ukraine’s has long been searching for a center that would unite the efforts of many patriots to achieve a common goal. Kyiv, July 12: The United Center Convention. United Center!
Timeline:
1990: human chain between cities; declaration of Ukraine’s independence 1992: Ukrainian banner is raised 1996: Constitution is adopted 2004: Orange Revolution 2006: Ukraine’s soccer team makes it to the FIFA World Cup semi-final 2008: Ukraine joins the WTO; Europe Day is held in Ukraine
Caption: United Center, grassroots support.
Not only does this ad mess with the mind of the audience, but it also messes up the timeline.
Ukraine declared independence in 1991, not in 1990 as shown in the above timeline. On July 16, 1990, Ukraine declared sovereignty while remaining a part of the Soviet Union. Ukraine would not declare independence until August 24, 1991.
The blue-yellow Ukrainian national flag made its way to the floor of the Verkhovna Rada on August 23, 1991, not in 1992 as the timeline says. And why portray Ukraine’s accession into the WTO by running a picture of U.S. Ambassador William Taylor delivering a speech at an ACC event?
Now let’s set the record straight on the United Center. What does United Center stand for? United Center stands for United Center of Shyrka, or Yushchenko’s grand coalition with certain members of the Party of Regions.
Speaking of narodna opora, (grassroots support), narodna omana (grassroots deceit) would sound much more coherent.
Or how about “The grass is greener on the Regions' side, now that we’ve pissed away the Orange Revolution?"
MP Ihor Kril, NUNS: Today, we're preparing our political platform, and with this political platform we want to offer a new ideology to society. We say that today there is no ideology in the world — no classic ideology — that would be valuable for Ukraine, that would provide the opportunity to propel Ukraine onto a broad global road. That’s why we call such ideology unicentrism. And we say that it’s an ideology of unity, an ideology of patriotism, an ideology of truth and pragmatism.
It’s an association of personalities that belong to parties of different kinds. Today, I can claim with confidence that the United Center enrolls members of both BYuT and the Party of Regions, Nasha Ukrayina, People’s Democratic Party, Democratic Party, Party of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, Ukrainian People’s Movement.
Truth and pragmatism. What a touching combination! My heart melts for unicentrism.
So, people elected you under the NUNS/BYuT/PRU/whatever brand and now you want to do “something” else. You want to build a new brand without losing the seats you gained under the old brand. On top of that, you want to build a coalition that has zero grassroots support among voters of these respective parties.
Does a party that goes against the will of the people and professes universalist pretensions reminiscent of the Communist Party amount to a new ideology? Does unicentrism serve as an umbrella for assorted shyrkadelic androids bent on colonizing Ukraine with more stabilnist? Will this “broad” coalition propel Ukraine onto that "broad global road?"
