Good morning! Here's a QUICK update before I head off to work. . .
- PORA has officially disbanded its campaign organization. It's planning to organize public orgs and analytic centers on the basis of the old PORA. When I first read of this, I was a little skeptical. But there are a lot of poli sci grad students among the leadership of the organization, and they really could pull off a youth political party or political institutes. I'll try to pop over to the HQ this week and get more details about what's in the works.
- Yushchenko has announced that the Ministers for his government will be named in the next four days.
- Yushchenko gave an interview to the BBC while in Davos. He called both Russia and Europe his "strategic partners" and said that Ukraine has interests both to the east and the west. His rhetoric continues to be diplomatic, as always.
- One thing that's constantly absent from his speech is the United States. Remember the anti-Orange critics in the West who saw the Revolution as an American conspiracy and Yushchenko as some sort of puppet? I said back then that this was simply stupid -- Ukraine's focus is on Europe. It was true then and it's true now.
- Yushchenko is requiring those who will serve in the Cabinet to make a public declaration not only of their property, income and expenses, but also those of their close relatives. This is to keep them from hiding assets with those close to them. As he explained: "I constantly repeat to the members of the future government -- 'You stood on the Square, and those who stood near you, those thousands of people believed and hoped that the new regime would be honest and would work in the national interests." (translation mine)
- Typically, the Socialists have now refused to join Yushchenko's Cabinet. They apparently didn't get the three posts they demanded, and are taking their toys and going home. There are soooo many Russian words that would summarize my opinion of them. English is the world's greatest language for poetry, but if you drop a hammer on your toe there is no better tongue than Russian.
Posted by Discoshaman at janvier 31, 2005 07:48 AM | TrackBack
Yes, Russian does seem to have a rather unique aptitude for cursing...
Posted by: FH at janvier 31, 2005 08:24 AMHaving the Socialists not joining might not be such a bad idea after all. The SDPU(o) is slitting right now, partially backing Yuschenko and Tymoshenko. Some Regionov party MPs that are close to the business clan there (Akhmethov) seem also inclined to support Yuschenko..
Moroz overplayed his hand. Interior + Finance + Oil&Gas is just too much. Maybe he WANTED to join the opposition anyway. OTOH, better have an opposition with Moroz than reserving this important role to the KP (Simeonenko) and Ms. "Babushka" Vitrenko. Could be a clever way by the Orangists to dominate government and opposition at the same time. If Moroz doesn't join government, maybe constitutional reform might be revisited yet again. Nothing should be ruled out.
To me Moroz has always been a dual figure. He certainly is integre. But he still is a socialist and that's pretty much antagonist to the values I cherish like market economy, low taxes and a pro-business climate. It should also be antagonist to "Our Ukraine" since the umbrella group of the Europe's center-right called EPP (European peoples party) just took them up as observers. In 2006 we will learn what Moroz is "worth" in terms of votes..
all the best
MAXX (from Austria)
I reckon they're better off without the Socialists, too. Moroz is more than self-serving and shifty - his policy demands would make life v. difficult for Yushchenko/Tymoshenko(fiscal demands, no more land sales, etc etc) Plus am I right in thinking that the association between Tymoshenko and Moroz circa 2001/2 was only because Tymoshenko wasn't getting much joy out of Our Ukraine at that point, and Moroz saw his chance? Good to leave the Socialists out of the equation at this stage and know what you're up against rather than to risk a destabilising bust-up later on, or a watered-down economic policy.
Posted by: Valerie Talacko at janvier 31, 2005 04:24 PMI suppose the only danger is that the Socialists will now cut loose and run a very noisy 2006 election campaign that could draw votes away from Our Ukraine etc - although if the economy continues to perform strongly *and* more money filters down into the budget than before, the Socialists shouldn't pick up too many votes on that basis. Any economic restructuring is most likely to hit the far east, where people would be likely to vote against Yushchenko in any case.
I wonder what approach the government is going to take to the unprofitable mines in the near future? I see Ariel Cohen suggests an IMF bridging loan for their closure, which makes sense. (Or those whose businesses have benefited from the cheap energy could pony up themselves, but I guess that's a long shot).
Posted by: Valerie Talacko at janvier 31, 2005 04:48 PMI was interested in your comments about being able to curse so effectively in Russian. I have a friend who is an anthropologist/linguist who did a book on cursing language throughout the world. Arab culture has a highly developed curse vocabulary (may a thousand camels, etc.), and he also found Russian to be highly "colorful" in this regard. When I told him (as a reliable informant and native speaker) that Ukrainian curses tended mostly towards things like "The devil take you" and "a pox on you" and "may a duck kick you in the shin" -- he didn't believe me and thought perhaps I had lived a "sheltered" life. But try as he might, those were precisely the sorts of Ukrainian curses that made it into his "dictionary". His theory had been to prove that having a language which contains many harsh epithets and curses might dispel aggression and lead to a more peaceful culture as whole. What he found was exactly the opposite, the more violent and aggressive the culture, the more vehement the curses. Personally, I've always favored the "may a duck kick you in the shins" as a telling riposte in any sticky social situation ;-)
Posted by: Aussiegirl at janvier 31, 2005 08:24 PMThank you Aussiegirl! Here I thought I was raised in a particularly clean-speaking house and community. Yep, "nechay by tebe kachka kopla" was a staple, and still evokes a mental picture of a fat white duck trying to kick the intended party.
Posted by: Chris at janvier 31, 2005 08:44 PMChris and Aussiegirl-
In my experience, there are two things that every Ukrainian will tell you about their language:
1. It's the world's most melodic.
2. It has no real curse words.
I guess this is why everyone reverts to Russian at Dynamo games. . . ;-)
Posted by: Discoshaman at janvier 31, 2005 08:54 PM