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katsarisIt 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. :-)
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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.
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(no subject)
Date: 2004-12-11 02:45 am (UTC)PS when are you going to be drafted into the army?
(no subject)
Date: 2004-12-15 04:48 pm (UTC)And thanks. :-)