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Graduation ceremony date, and Ukraine again.
It occured that though I've known it for some time, I didn't bother to mention here the date for my graduation ceremony (as a sidenote -- it always feel odd when I translate it as such -- in Greek ofcourse the word is "orkomosia", "oath-taking".) *Anyway*. It's this Monday, 13th December, noon.
And since I've recently gotten and installed a scanner, once I have some photos from there, I'll scan and post some. :-)
----
Away from the personal, back to the Ukrainian politics, probably my last post thereon.
Ukraine
As people who've stayed informed on the issue may know, the game ended with a seeming victory of the Orange Revolution as the Supreme Court of Ukraine annuled the fraudulent second round of the elections and a rerun of the elections was set at 26 December.
A seeming victory for democracy and freedom that has many people celebrating. But the game is deep, and there's also a deep defeat that reduces the victory significantly. For the reforms that were needed to ensure the rerun vote would actually approach fairness... those were only agreed by the Kuchma-controlled legislature through a package deal that at the same time constitutional changes that would severly curb the powers of the president.
So, unlike his predecessor, Yushchenko won't actually be able to do much, like have his own cabinet, appoint his own prime minister, or a minister for Foreign Affairs, or a minister for Defense or whatever. All this will be passing through the Kuchma-controlled parliament. Some other presidential powers will be transferred to the oblasts (regions) of Ukraine instead.
To put it in another way, the only way that the establishment of Ukraine would accept the possibility of fair presidential elections that'd bring a reform candidate to the position of the president would be only if the position of the president had no power whatsoever to actually reform anything. The heights of cynicism and shamelessness. Nobody even tries to *pretend* it's anything but what I just described.
So there's the deep defeat for democracy in Ukraine, sugarcoated by a thin layer of seeming victory. The Ukrainian tyrants will still be in business atleast until 2006, when it'll be time for parliamentary election. And no significant reform will be able to happen until then if ever -- at 2006 we can only *hope* they won't be able to manipulate the system further to keep themselves in. But tired out from two years of non-reform even with their elected (but impotent) president, will the Ukrainian people have the strength or courage for a Second Orange Revolution to give democracy a true voice? And that's assuming all the protagonists of this Orange Revolution won't have been assasinated till then. Last Eastern European reformer was also murdered -- Djindjic. And Russian reformers aren't doing much better on the survival ratio either.
The only thing that gives me hope is that there may exist a victory *within* the defeat that's in turn within the victory. The game is deep.
And here's that victory: In general, the more power away from the President and to the Parliament, the better. Both parliamentarism and federalism are constraints on the power for tyranny that a single individual can have. In *general* (there are always exceptions) the parliamentary systems are less prone to fall to dictatorship than the purely presidential ones. That's whyEmperor Palpatine dissolved the Imperial Senate Putin has recently managed to push reforms in Russia that not only let him appoint the regional governors, it also lets him dissolve the regional parliaments if they disagree with him: He's essentially abolished both democracy and *federalism* in Russia.
So in *general*, the reforms towards more federalism and parliamentarianism would have been a positive step. The only reason they aren't is that in *this* instance is that they were a blatant attempt to nullify a democratic result, to keep power to those elected through crooked means. But in the long term... in the truly long term they might, *might* be good.
It's all so depressing. *sigh* I'm wishing the people of Ukraine good. But even as a month or so ago I had said the battle would be long -- so it has indeed proven.
--
Music: Razom nas bahato, which you can also download from there. As a sidenote, doesn't "подолати" which seems to be translated as "defeated", look a bit like "ΠΟΔΟΠΑΤΗΘΕΙ?" ("crushed underfoot" in Greek)
It may be coincidence, but I'd like to know where "подо" has a meaning of foot in Ukrainian.
And since I've recently gotten and installed a scanner, once I have some photos from there, I'll scan and post some. :-)
----
Away from the personal, back to the Ukrainian politics, probably my last post thereon.
Ukraine
As people who've stayed informed on the issue may know, the game ended with a seeming victory of the Orange Revolution as the Supreme Court of Ukraine annuled the fraudulent second round of the elections and a rerun of the elections was set at 26 December.
A seeming victory for democracy and freedom that has many people celebrating. But the game is deep, and there's also a deep defeat that reduces the victory significantly. For the reforms that were needed to ensure the rerun vote would actually approach fairness... those were only agreed by the Kuchma-controlled legislature through a package deal that at the same time constitutional changes that would severly curb the powers of the president.
So, unlike his predecessor, Yushchenko won't actually be able to do much, like have his own cabinet, appoint his own prime minister, or a minister for Foreign Affairs, or a minister for Defense or whatever. All this will be passing through the Kuchma-controlled parliament. Some other presidential powers will be transferred to the oblasts (regions) of Ukraine instead.
To put it in another way, the only way that the establishment of Ukraine would accept the possibility of fair presidential elections that'd bring a reform candidate to the position of the president would be only if the position of the president had no power whatsoever to actually reform anything. The heights of cynicism and shamelessness. Nobody even tries to *pretend* it's anything but what I just described.
So there's the deep defeat for democracy in Ukraine, sugarcoated by a thin layer of seeming victory. The Ukrainian tyrants will still be in business atleast until 2006, when it'll be time for parliamentary election. And no significant reform will be able to happen until then if ever -- at 2006 we can only *hope* they won't be able to manipulate the system further to keep themselves in. But tired out from two years of non-reform even with their elected (but impotent) president, will the Ukrainian people have the strength or courage for a Second Orange Revolution to give democracy a true voice? And that's assuming all the protagonists of this Orange Revolution won't have been assasinated till then. Last Eastern European reformer was also murdered -- Djindjic. And Russian reformers aren't doing much better on the survival ratio either.
The only thing that gives me hope is that there may exist a victory *within* the defeat that's in turn within the victory. The game is deep.
And here's that victory: In general, the more power away from the President and to the Parliament, the better. Both parliamentarism and federalism are constraints on the power for tyranny that a single individual can have. In *general* (there are always exceptions) the parliamentary systems are less prone to fall to dictatorship than the purely presidential ones. That's why
So in *general*, the reforms towards more federalism and parliamentarianism would have been a positive step. The only reason they aren't is that in *this* instance is that they were a blatant attempt to nullify a democratic result, to keep power to those elected through crooked means. But in the long term... in the truly long term they might, *might* be good.
It's all so depressing. *sigh* I'm wishing the people of Ukraine good. But even as a month or so ago I had said the battle would be long -- so it has indeed proven.
--
Music: Razom nas bahato, which you can also download from there. As a sidenote, doesn't "подолати" which seems to be translated as "defeated", look a bit like "ΠΟΔΟΠΑΤΗΘΕΙ?" ("crushed underfoot" in Greek)
It may be coincidence, but I'd like to know where "подо" has a meaning of foot in Ukrainian.
no subject
YAY for graduation! *many hugs*
no subject
i'm pretty sure it's the same - indo european root
But I know that "sun," "day," "night," and the numbers are all the same - in fact, "five" sounds closer to Gk than most others because the p didnt shift, it's pyat' rather than fuenf (i wonder where the heck cinque/cinquo came from, I guess it's that rarer p/q shift like Epona/equus and then slipping from k to s, but that's just an amateur WAG).
Also dat', to give, and bird, p'titz, (pterosaur) are slavic words that are clearly IE - and also old, basic words, so unlike the reverse of Bistro (from buistre, faster, a dark history of the word, it came from Russian officers to surviving French prisoners in Napoleon I was told) these do not come from latter exposure to more western cultures.
Ahem. [restraining extreme geekiness forcibly] Language evolution and how it speciates is really cool, too.
Many congratulations on your finishing grad school. If you feel sort of hollow and drained and like you should be doing something, but you can't think what, for some time afterwards - don't worry, that's par for the course, based on all the relatives and friends who have done it. (Is it in the light of swearing fealty to Athena/Sophia, the way that graduation is seen over yonder, then?)
Re: i'm pretty sure it's the same - indo european root
As for the oath, they've given it to us in writing, so here it is, in Ancient Greek, and as close a translation as I can make it (some words are slightly unfamiliar to me so I may have made small mistakes).
"Του Μεταπτυχιακού Τίτλου Σπουδών ειδικεύσεως περί την Πληροφορικήν του Τμήματος Πληροφορικής και Τηλεπικοινωνιών αξιωθείς, όρκον προ του Πρυτάνεως και του Προέδρου του Τμήματος ομνύω και πίστην καθομολογώ τήνδε. Της μεν επιστήμης ως οίον Τε μάλιστα έν τώ βίω επιμελήσθαι κάπί το τελειότερον αυτήν προαγαγείν, πάν δε ποιήσειν προθύμως ό,τι αν μέλλη ές ευσεβείας οίσην και κόσμον ηθών και σεμνότητα τρόπων, μηδ'εθελήσειν τάναντία ών αυτός γιγνώσκω διδάσκειν μηδέ καπηλεύειν την επιστήμην. Τάυτην μοι την επαγγελίαν επιτελούντι, είη μοι τον Θεόν αρωγόν κτήσασθαι εν τω βίω."
"The Postgraduade/Master's diploma of Informatics of the Department of Informatics and Telecommunications having been worthily granted, I take an oath before the Dean and the President of the Department, confessing faith/loyalth: The science I will take care in my life promoting it at its most perfect, and everything I will do in future well-respecting the ethics of the world and the modesty of manners, nor will I try to teach in contrariness of what I know, nor will I abuse the science. Fulfilling this promise, may I have God as my helper in life."
Wow! I didn't have to take anything like that to graduate--
Come over to UM, where you can correct me (I had this mistaken impression you were History, I don't know why) and impress everyone with this; we're waiting to sing "For he's a jolly good felllllllow" and cheer and all (only virtual booze, but still)
no subject
PS when are you going to be drafted into the army?
no subject
And thanks. :-)