Peaceful Protesters Beaten by ‘Cops for Construction’

Construction of the “anthrax house” has become a showcase for how virulent the profit motive can be in the weak immune system of Ukraine’s public interest.



Even if the prospect of digging up anthrax spores does not violate the construction company’s conscience, building a high-rise on a tiny, hilly and erosion-prone piece of land — right outside the hospital’s windows — certainly violates basic construction regulations. The pictures speak for themselves.



In Kyiv, if you protest against such violations peacefully, the violators will use violence against you. In episode after episode, police have acted as a proxy for the “powers that be,” something they obviously did at this March 16 anti-construction rally.

Narrator: Several people blocked traffic at Shovkovychna Street. Law enforcement construed it as a violation of civil rights.
Police: Your conduct is now in violation of the law. Please vacate the lane!

Narrator: To hold today’s rally, residents and employees of the Oleksandrivska Hospital have received a permit from the City Hall. But this document is being ignored by the police.
Police commanding officer: Have two officers grab everyone of them by the arm and pull them away!

Police: Get in!
Protesters: Look what the police are doing! Look how the police are behaving!

Narrator: But all of a sudden, Police General Hennadiy Moskal appears at the scene. He is reserved in his comments.
General Moskal: I have no idea what happened here. I was just passing by. They’re doing silly things on Sunday instead of work. I’ll find out right away. I told them to go back to the precinct. Let them file reports to Lutsenko tomorrow, detailing what they did here.

Police watcher Tetyana Montyan, speaking ironically: We here cracked down on a peaceful rally, and then we realized what we had done. Moskal arrived to turn the situation around, but it was too late because everyone had already participated in the clashes.

Paramedic: Can you rise or should we get a stretcher?
Brutalized protester: Let me try.

Paramedic: Just try moving your body a little bit first, OK? Then I’ll get you to the ambulance and we’ll see.
Brutalized protester: Everything works.

Paramedic: It does?
Protester: Everything works, but it hurts.

That’s the way Chernoco works. Here’s a video of police violence from a previous Shovkovychna St. sit-in.

Lev Malolitniy, anesthesiologist: They’re taking away the land, depriving our residents of sunshine and light. Here, take a look. Imagine a 17-storied high rise here. Down there are the departments of urology and ophthalmology. What will our residents be seeing? How will they be living there? How will they be recovering?

Man in civvies: Get your car out of there. Did I come here to play games with you?
Police: Are you feeling sick?

Sit-in protester: Very sick.
Female protester: Yes, he is.
Police: Come here.

Male protester: The man’s sick. Where are you taking him?
Sit-in protester: Look, my heart hurts! What are you doing? My heart hurts! My heart hurts!
Man in civvies: Yeah, it hurts! It’s your [censored] that’s gonna hurt, son of a bitch!

Sit-in protester, screaming in pain: Oh, my ha-a-a-a-a-a-nd, damn it! Man in civies: Yeah, your hand. Your hand’s gonna hurt, son of a bitch!

Prof. Vadym Berezovsky, local: The 3-meter wall has already been carved out. We’re afraid that the same thing will happen to our house as it happened over at Zhylyanska St, where a construction site next to a pre-Revolution house completely destroyed the latter.

Volodymyr Mikunov, construction company production director: People? What about them? This is unhealthy egoism. Don’t you remember that there were some 50 signatories petitioning against the erection of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, including Dumas, Maurois, and other great writers. And today the Eiffel tower is the pride and hallmark of all France. Likewise, the house that will be built here will become the pride of all Kyiv.

What a healthy sense of egoism this guy projects!

According to the Ukrayinska Pravda report, Prof. Vadym Berezovsky, 76, displayed below, has spent a few weeks in the hospital after the clashes.


Meanwhile, the Oleksandrivska Hospital has threatened a strike in the event construction continues, leaving only one department, emergency, in opereation. Andriy Manchuk, a journalist who attended the anti-construction rally, is undergoing treatment for head injury there.

One last thing. Did the "healthy ego" guy refer to André Maurois and Alexandre Dumas as the people who had a problem with the Eiffel Tower? That's very interesting! André Maurois, the French writer, was born in 1885. Alexandre Dumas, author of The Three Musketeers, died in 1870. The Eiffel Tower was built between 1887 and 1889.

You do the math.

Videos uploaded from:
http://censor.net.ua/go/offer/ResourceID/79050.html
http://censor.net.ua/go/offer/ResourceID/77704.html

Sources:
http://pravda.com.ua/news/2008/3/19/73371.htm
http://pravda.com.ua/news/2008/3/20/73404.htm

Anthrax House Gets Go Ahead

Construction of the condo complex at Shovkovychna Street in Kyiv, located at the site of a 19th-centruy anthrax cemetery, as some historical records indicate, will resume shortly, according to a clearance issued by local disease control authorities. The probe did not detect any health hazards.

Now look at this CYA "caveat emptor":

However, the presence of isolated burials cannot be completely ruled out, and due to the probability, albeit a low one, of anthrax pathogens being present in the soil of said site, construction works should follow a set of safety precautions.

So how about buying a home sweet home that gambles with nature? Perhaps the construction company should consider getting an endorsement from Freddy Krueger.

Well, since it’s already a Freddy Krueger market, lowering the price a little might actually work better.

Sources:
http://www.pravda.com.ua/news/2008/1/23/70224.htm
http://blogs.pravda.com.ua/authors/lutsenko/47c6c9cb014a7/

Anthrax Cemetery Becomes Construction Site in Kyiv

How about I build you a home at a 19th-century burial place of people who perished from anthrax and plague, provided that anthrax spores can live for centuries? In the profit-crazed reality of Kyiv’s construction boom, it’s not a joke. It’s a fact of life — or possibly, death — as this story suggests.

The scandal has been gaining momentum over the last week, resulting in a string of articles and forum threads appearing online. Although the building permit had been issued in 2004, under former Mayor Oleksandr Omelchenko, construction proceeded unchallenged under current Mayor Leonid Chernovetsky.

However, faced with yet another public relations disaster, as the specter of early mayoral elections closes in, Mayor Chernovetsky ordered that the work be suspended and that the construction site be quarantined for testing and cleanup.

Located at Shovkovychna Street, which adjoins the premises of the Central Municipal Hospital, formerly known as the October Hospital, the site belongs in an upscale downtown neighborhood, a plum for any developer.

But what if that plum has a viral biological contaminant buried into it? Did the developer have prior knowledge about the cemetery? Aren’t there any historical records? This case warrants a full — and independent — investigation, for anthrax makes no distinction between the rich and poor.

Contrary to the woes of the U.S. subprime mortgage crisis and its financial impact worldwide, the bizarre, barbaric, and bubble-like proportions of Kyiv’s housing cartel remain an oasis for speculative capital.

Welcome to Kyiv, a city where average salaries run at about $500 a month and yet housing prices rival those found in London and Paris.

The profiteer prospers here, while the vast majority of Kyivites have no chance whatsoever of buying a home, given the average life expectancy of 67.7 years. And anthrax doesn’t prolong that expectancy, even if the person has the money to buy a home.

Sources:
http://www.pravda.com.ua/news/2007/12/27/69137.htm
http://kyiv.osp-ua.info/?newsid=13291
http://maps.google.com/maps/mm?ie=UTF8&hl=en&ll=50.439977,30.527084&spn=0.002313,0.006781&t=h&z=18&om=1