I started a post yesterday in which I attempted consideration of US Independence Day vis a vis the Current Crisis of Britain as a consequence of the Chaos following the Brexit vote -- seen through the lens of my newly found British ancestry. Well, not surprisingly, it didn't work and I never completed the post. It may languish in draft form for the foreseeable future, or maybe I'll just delete it.
This post will take something of a different tack.
Today marks my father's 115th birthday. He was always very proud that he was born on the 5th of July (1901), as that made him a patriotic child of the new century. His birth, he thought, marked the transition from what used to be to what would become -- the Future in other words.
My father considered himself to be Irish-American through and through. His father was the son of Irish immigrants who arrived in the United States in 1850 -- or thereabouts. This date contrasts with the story I was told about them, but that's another story...)
Actually, I haven't found the immigration date of my father's grandfather James, but James's parents (Alexander and Mary) arrived in 1850 along with several of their children and in-laws. James is not listed among them, nor are a couple of other of their children. I'm assuming they were still in Ireland and came over later, probably in 1852 or so. Family histories are murky about dates and such. At any rate, James, my father's grandfather, got to the US somehow at some date, and after settling into Iowa (his parents and siblings, after a relatively brief sojourn in Ohio where there were uncles and cousins, moved to Iowa in 1856), he acquired farms and land in Scott County, outside of Davenport. James married Alice (also an 1850s immigrant from Ireland) and they started a family on the farm. Alice died shortly after my grandfather's birth in 1869). James married again three years later, to a woman named Margaret -- who was also an 1850s immigrant from Ireland -- and they had one son together. As time passed, James retired from farming and moved upriver to Clinton, where his son (my grandfather William H) had a law office and James's daughter Katherine (also spelled Catherine) had lived for some time with her husband -- who was also descended from Irish immigrants.
My father's mother was German-American. Her mother, Veronica, was said not to have spoken English. Her father, Reinhold, did speak English, though his accent was said to be heavy. My father never knew Reinhold, his grandfather, because Reinhold died in 1901, two weeks after my father's birth. My father had little to say about his mother Elizabeth Veronica. She died in 1940, about a year before my father's father William H died, so I never knew either of them as they were long dead by the time I came around (in 1948). I heard some things about Elizabeth, my grandmother, specifically about how she faced prejudice during WWI, because of her German ancestry. My father indicated that her family were well-off enough to get through that difficult period, but he seemed to resent the fact that his mother had had to face the cruelties of American xenophobia at all. It seemed to affect him, though, in that he essentially buried his own German-American ancestry, rarely mentioning it, and typically focusing on the fact that he was Irish-American, and that's what he passed on to me. I therefore was Irish-American as well.
Yes, well... but what about my mother?
She claimed not to know much about her ancestry, but from what she did know of it, she claimed an aristocratic lineage. What she liked to say was that she was "a direct descendant of Marie Antoinette!" With a toss of her auburn haired head to express the exclamation point. Well, no, I don't think she was actually the sad French queen's descendant, but when I looked into her ancestry, I found it led back -- and back and back -- to the Drakes in England. Through the Drakes, she may indeed have had some tiny fraction of English royal blood, though I found no direct connection with English kings and queens.
I had long thought that her grandmother Ida was an immigrant from England. This was because my sister had had one encounter with Ida when she came out to California to visit from her home in Indiana -- where my mother had been born in 1911.
My sister said she thought that Ida was British because she spoke with an accent and had "that demeanor" about her.
Well, it turns out that Ida was not from Britain. She was born and raised in Indiana. Her father was from New Jersey, though, where his family had been since the 1600s. Their ancestors, in turn, were from England and it is through them that I found the connection with the Drakes.
There was also a connection with a New Jersey character named "Princess Snowflower," the daughter -- or perhaps the sister -- of "King Nummi," the "last of the Lenni-Lenape Indian chiefs of Cape May, New Jersey." Princess Snowflower was -- apparently -- my mother's grandmother's great grandmother. Got that? Good.
There is some dispute over whether "Princess Snowflower" was actually an Indian Princess at all, however. Some accounts say that the story of "Princess Snowflower" was made up in the 19th century to romanticize the history of a girl -- who was actually a descendant of someone who came over on the Mayflower. You would think her actual ancestry would be romantic enough, but apparently not.
I don't know what to believe about it. It's just another data point. At any rate, through her female line, I found nothing but English ancestry -- except possibly for "Princess Snowflower."
My mother's father's side provided some roadblocks, however.
My mother didn't know much about her father as he was killed when she was five years old, and she was raised by her mother and step-father. They didn't have a whole lot to say about her biological father.
I was able to find out a lot about him through Ancestry.com and various newspaper archives, none of which provided a flattering picture, but I ran into a roadblock tracing his ancestry. I could find nothing regarding his paternal ancestry prior to his grandfather who was apparently born in Virginia in 1798. Where the parents came from is something of a mystery. Possibilities include England, Ireland, Scotland, France or even Spain.
My mother's father's mother, however, was much easier to trace, as she was a descendant of the Lawrences of New England -- which would make her heritage English quite solidly.
If my mother's mother was (mostly) British, and my mother's father was (mostly) British, that would make me at least half British wouldn't it? Kind of puts the kibosh on my Irishness, no?
It's definitely disorienting.
I never had much regard for the British, and the current hoo-hah over the Brexit vote is kind of funny, actually. My Irishness makes me instinctively suspicious of British motives and actions -- there is little reason to believe much of what is presented as "truth" by the British because they lie. It's part of the culture. Who knows, maybe it's genetic.
Consequently, much of what we're told by the British is probably false, and the spectacle surrounding the Brexit vote is likely mostly phony and for show. That Tony Blair is being resurrected to explain is a sure sign of duplicity at the least.
There's also been some chatter-- yesterday at any rate -- that proposes the American Revolution was somehow a "mistake." Would things have been better if it had never happened? Possibly, who knows.
But it did happen, and here we are.
So many things that might have been never were and won't be because of what actually happened.
There is more and more speculation that Britain will not actually leave the EU, but that the kingdom itself may break apart. The breakup of the British Isles into component parts is somehow pleasing to an onlooker like myself, almost as if it were inevitable like the break up of the Soviet Union and so much of Europe following the collapse of the world that used to be. The EU has not been a pleasant replacement, far from it. So the EU may collapse as well. Led by the Brits.
If that were to happen, it would eventually mean the end of the USA as we've known it, wouldn't it?
Ah, that remains to be seen, but if it happens...
Showing posts with label EU. Show all posts
Showing posts with label EU. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 5, 2016
Saturday, March 29, 2014
About That Bailout for Ukraine?
We've been hearing rumblings since before the overthrow of Yanukovych last February that the IMF/EU would be delighted to refinance Ukraine's debts on favorable terms -- provided Ukraine adopts severe austerity measures like those of Greece -- or even twice as harsh as the terms imposed on Greece.
Yanukovych was overthrown in large measure because he refused to accommodate those terms -- once he fully understood what those terms meant. The problem with negotiating EU/IMF bailout terms is that the actual terms are not disclosed until the moment comes for signing the documents. And then, oh my goodness. The terms are much harsher, the consequences for not abiding with them are much more severe, and the determination of the EU/IMF negotiators to have their way, no matter what, is shocking.
Yanukovych was expected to sign away Ukraine's patrimony and sovereignty at the Vilnius conference last November, but he balked, said "No!" and turned to Russia for aid. Russia offered a much better deal on terms that did not unduly interfere with either Ukraine's sovereignty or the welfare of its people. Compared to IMF/EU demands for harsh and immediate austerity measures on the people of Ukraine in exchange for a "bailout" that required extremely harmful and unpopular economic "reforms," (reforms that potentially included some "good" measures along with the bad) the Russian deal allowed a much more moderate economic transition and the integration of Ukraine's economy with those of the Russian led Eurasian Economic Union -- apparently as well as that of the EU, but on terms that would protect Ukraine's people from the abuses so customary from the EU toward the Periphery.
The anti-Yanukovych demonstrations in Kiev and elsewhere in Ukraine began immediately when Yanukovych refused to sign in Vilnius, as if they had been organized prior to the conference. What struck me about the research I did into New Citizen and Center UA, the NGOs Pierre Omidyar funded in Ukraine, was the fact that the dozens of orgs under them, some of which, in turn, were umbrellas for dozens or even hundreds of other NGOs and individuals, like Russian matryoshka dolls, was their obsessive focus on EU integration and 'education' (propaganda) on behalf of Europe. This was a long term project. Some of the orgs and NGOs had been promoting the EU cause in Ukraine for decades, since independence from the Soviet Union. Many of the orgs were focused on youth, which meant that over the decades, Ukrainians grew up knowing little or nothing besides pro-EU propaganda.
Many of the NGOs under New Citizen and Center UA's wing (New Citizen is a "project" of Center UA, which appears to be the master org) were also funded by NED (National Endowment for Democracy) and USAID (US Agency for International Development), both of which are considered CIA fronts, though NED has so far been able to abjure the label and claim independence from CIA control.
My point has never been that the US precipitated the revolt in Ukraine against Yanukovych. If it had, I don't think the rightists in this country would be parading around screaming about "weakness." Instead, it looks like there was a coalition of pro-EU interests in Ukraine who were prepared to go to the streets should the Yanukovych regime balk at EU/IMF demands for austerity and other "reform" measures. Up to the point of the Vilnius conference, the Yanukovych government had been working closely with the EU and IMF toward the goal of European integration. There was very little indication prior to Vilnius that Yanukovych would balk and take the Russian offer.
For its part, the US seems to have been most concerned with the US corporate sector and its interests in exploiting the resources of Ukraine. I haven't written much about that, but there were and are major US corporate interests involved in the Ukrainian issue, some of which are highlighted in the triumphal Vicky Nuland-Kagan video posted previously. But there are many more. A number of people have looked into the corporate interests involved in Ukraine's current unpleasantness, and they read like a who's who of American corporate greed. While their corporate interests are being protected and fostered by the US government, they do not appear to be the ones who precipitated the revolt. The revolt seems to have arisen locally if not spontaneously, driven by the many EU integration currents fostered by the multiplicity of NGOs -- hundreds and hundreds of them -- which had been promoting EU interests in Ukraine for many years.
Now that the interim "government" of Yatsenyuk has signed onto the IMF/EU "reform" demands, some of the details of just what is being provided and required are coming out, and it is becoming clear what a duplicitous two-step has been underway all along.
According to the UK Telegraph, what the deal amounts to is paying off Russian banks and Western hedge fund creditors at 100% while forcing increasingly dire levels of austerity on the Ukrainian people, austerity measures that will lead to misery and despair, death and depopulation, much as happened in Latvia, and much more severe than the measures imposed on Greece. The fact that Russian banks and US and European hedge funds are being paid off at the expense of Ukraine's people is interesting and gives a clue to the thinking behind the various maneuvers that have taken place.
The claim is made that Yanukovych absconded with tens of billions (up to $70 billion) in his flight from Kiev, and that's why such severe measures are "necessary" to prevent Ukraine's economic collapse. Yet prior to the overthrow of Yanukovych -- and his alleged theft of funds -- the same measures were being demanded.
In other words, the issue of how much has been "stolen" by the Ukrainian oligarchs and the Yanukovych government is beside the point. The money which is being offered by IMF and EU (which includes a little bit from the US) has nothing to do with that issue. It's propaganda to say it does, propaganda that is supposed to make Ukrainians more compliant with their suffering now by blaming Yanukovych for it.
It seems to me that Yatsenyuk's belligerence during this period is also part of a propaganda campaign to ensure popular submission to these highly destructive measures being imposed by the IMF and EU, and to ensure that the resource exploitation by American and EU companies is not interfered with.
And if I'm reading the beads right, Russia has no problem with any of this as long as their interests and oligarchs get paid. Jesus, what a cockup.
Quite a show when you think about it.
Yanukovych was overthrown in large measure because he refused to accommodate those terms -- once he fully understood what those terms meant. The problem with negotiating EU/IMF bailout terms is that the actual terms are not disclosed until the moment comes for signing the documents. And then, oh my goodness. The terms are much harsher, the consequences for not abiding with them are much more severe, and the determination of the EU/IMF negotiators to have their way, no matter what, is shocking.
Yanukovych was expected to sign away Ukraine's patrimony and sovereignty at the Vilnius conference last November, but he balked, said "No!" and turned to Russia for aid. Russia offered a much better deal on terms that did not unduly interfere with either Ukraine's sovereignty or the welfare of its people. Compared to IMF/EU demands for harsh and immediate austerity measures on the people of Ukraine in exchange for a "bailout" that required extremely harmful and unpopular economic "reforms," (reforms that potentially included some "good" measures along with the bad) the Russian deal allowed a much more moderate economic transition and the integration of Ukraine's economy with those of the Russian led Eurasian Economic Union -- apparently as well as that of the EU, but on terms that would protect Ukraine's people from the abuses so customary from the EU toward the Periphery.
The anti-Yanukovych demonstrations in Kiev and elsewhere in Ukraine began immediately when Yanukovych refused to sign in Vilnius, as if they had been organized prior to the conference. What struck me about the research I did into New Citizen and Center UA, the NGOs Pierre Omidyar funded in Ukraine, was the fact that the dozens of orgs under them, some of which, in turn, were umbrellas for dozens or even hundreds of other NGOs and individuals, like Russian matryoshka dolls, was their obsessive focus on EU integration and 'education' (propaganda) on behalf of Europe. This was a long term project. Some of the orgs and NGOs had been promoting the EU cause in Ukraine for decades, since independence from the Soviet Union. Many of the orgs were focused on youth, which meant that over the decades, Ukrainians grew up knowing little or nothing besides pro-EU propaganda.
Many of the NGOs under New Citizen and Center UA's wing (New Citizen is a "project" of Center UA, which appears to be the master org) were also funded by NED (National Endowment for Democracy) and USAID (US Agency for International Development), both of which are considered CIA fronts, though NED has so far been able to abjure the label and claim independence from CIA control.
My point has never been that the US precipitated the revolt in Ukraine against Yanukovych. If it had, I don't think the rightists in this country would be parading around screaming about "weakness." Instead, it looks like there was a coalition of pro-EU interests in Ukraine who were prepared to go to the streets should the Yanukovych regime balk at EU/IMF demands for austerity and other "reform" measures. Up to the point of the Vilnius conference, the Yanukovych government had been working closely with the EU and IMF toward the goal of European integration. There was very little indication prior to Vilnius that Yanukovych would balk and take the Russian offer.
For its part, the US seems to have been most concerned with the US corporate sector and its interests in exploiting the resources of Ukraine. I haven't written much about that, but there were and are major US corporate interests involved in the Ukrainian issue, some of which are highlighted in the triumphal Vicky Nuland-Kagan video posted previously. But there are many more. A number of people have looked into the corporate interests involved in Ukraine's current unpleasantness, and they read like a who's who of American corporate greed. While their corporate interests are being protected and fostered by the US government, they do not appear to be the ones who precipitated the revolt. The revolt seems to have arisen locally if not spontaneously, driven by the many EU integration currents fostered by the multiplicity of NGOs -- hundreds and hundreds of them -- which had been promoting EU interests in Ukraine for many years.
Now that the interim "government" of Yatsenyuk has signed onto the IMF/EU "reform" demands, some of the details of just what is being provided and required are coming out, and it is becoming clear what a duplicitous two-step has been underway all along.
According to the UK Telegraph, what the deal amounts to is paying off Russian banks and Western hedge fund creditors at 100% while forcing increasingly dire levels of austerity on the Ukrainian people, austerity measures that will lead to misery and despair, death and depopulation, much as happened in Latvia, and much more severe than the measures imposed on Greece. The fact that Russian banks and US and European hedge funds are being paid off at the expense of Ukraine's people is interesting and gives a clue to the thinking behind the various maneuvers that have taken place.
The claim is made that Yanukovych absconded with tens of billions (up to $70 billion) in his flight from Kiev, and that's why such severe measures are "necessary" to prevent Ukraine's economic collapse. Yet prior to the overthrow of Yanukovych -- and his alleged theft of funds -- the same measures were being demanded.
In other words, the issue of how much has been "stolen" by the Ukrainian oligarchs and the Yanukovych government is beside the point. The money which is being offered by IMF and EU (which includes a little bit from the US) has nothing to do with that issue. It's propaganda to say it does, propaganda that is supposed to make Ukrainians more compliant with their suffering now by blaming Yanukovych for it.
It seems to me that Yatsenyuk's belligerence during this period is also part of a propaganda campaign to ensure popular submission to these highly destructive measures being imposed by the IMF and EU, and to ensure that the resource exploitation by American and EU companies is not interfered with.
And if I'm reading the beads right, Russia has no problem with any of this as long as their interests and oligarchs get paid. Jesus, what a cockup.
Quite a show when you think about it.
Sunday, March 23, 2014
Additional Ukrainian Matters
As Putin-Hitler Stalin-rules the revivified Soviet Union, bulling his way into Europe and re-erecting an Iron Curtain around Crimea and his Russian cronies, enslaving the multitudes and subverting the nations, the cries for even greater ridicule of Romney and Palin and the dreaded Turtle increase.
They love Putin! Therefore, their time in the spotlight is nearly at an end. Well, it would be if they weren't so fun to ridicule. And what about those Duck Dynasty guys? And the Missing Plane? Hmmm? What about them?
Speak not of Young Snowden, however, for his case under HitlerStalin-Putin's fulsome wing is different. He says nothing, he knows nothing, he merely tries to open a debate about the nature of our society and what we and only we want it to be, not about the Soviet Union, which is different. Like he is. So stop saying that. And besides, there isn't any Soviet Union any more, so stop saying that, you look like a fool.
In fact all this hoo-hah does make one wonder. All this hoo-hah, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing but masking plenty. What could it be, what could it be? Huh. It's just so puzzling.
Truth is, more and more people are recognizing the real Game here, the Game being obscured by all the hoo-hah and propaganda. By keeping the Rabble uninformed and propagandized to death about the situation faced by Ukraine, its dismemberment -- shall we say, even if it stops with the return of Crimea to Russia -- is simpler. Domestic unrest over economic and social issues is channeled into patriotism and nationalism (it always works, until it doesn't) and anti-enemy-of-the-day OUTRAGE!!!!™. This shall not stand!!!!
Etc.
From the signs, it's looking more and more like Ukraine will be carved up into enclaves, the easier to exploit its resources and further impoverish its people. The national government of Ukraine has never really worked out well for anyone except the kleptocrats and oligarchs, some of whom are behind the Maidan thing. As much as the Yatsenyuk government is dancing to the tunes of his EU and US "partners," I'm not sure it's playing all that well on the street. The problem which can't really be handled is that of the Nazi shock troops who were used to incite violence and control the crowds in the Maidan and who have been given the "Law Enforcement" and "Justice" portfolios in the self-proclaimed "Interim Government." These people tend not to take well to the diktats of their Betters in Kiev, Berlin and Brussels. They have their own agendas, after all. Ahem.
And there are plenty of separatist interests throughout the rest of Ukraine. The rather elaborate coup that brought down the Yanukovych regime appears to be backfiring. How it was engineered is not entirely clear.
There are more than a few signs that neither the EU nor the US was prepared for what happened when Yanukovych refused to sign away Ukraine to the loving embrace of Europe and NATO in Vilnius last November. They encouraged the demonstrations that arose in response, they may have even planned and helped some of them. But demonstrations along the lines of "Color Revolutions" -- which this one might have been too, as the tactic has been used in Ukraine before (see: "Revolution, Orange") -- but it quickly got out of hand.
The Ukrainian Nationalists, Fascists and Nazis, though relatively few in number, were able to take charge of the course of events. They weren't afraid to use their limited numbers in a forceful and at times violent way, something that was being documented by the Kremlin, but which was largely ignored in the West, although the engineers within the EU and US couldn't have been unaware. They had to have known. They had to have given at least tacit approval.
This was no "nonviolent" Color Revolution. This was an engineered take down of a non-compliant regime, something that was attempted in Syria but has so far failed. How to do it seems clear enough: present the appearance of a mass-revolt through well-attended protests in a significant public space. Inflate the numbers of protesters well beyond the actual numbers present. Tightly control that crowd so as to keep them intently focused on a limited range of "reasonable" issues (in Kiev it was to be European integration, government corruption, and popular dissatisfaction with economic prospects) while the behind-the-scenes operators focus on subverting the government and making it impossible for officials to govern.
The Nazis were the wild card-enforcers, and it doesn't look like it is working out well.
The government ("") that replaced Yanukovych is on a knife-edge. It is unlikely to survive in its present form for much longer. It appears to have little or no control beyond the Palace in Kiev, and the efforts of the US and EU to prop it up are looking more and more dishonest and pathetic. The frantic efforts to solidify agreements with western corporate and EU interests for the prompt exploitation and "economic reform" of Ukraine are unseemly at best, further cause for revolt if the plans are carried out.
The assignment of pro-Yatsenyuk oligarchs to rule the restive Eastern Sektor is simply gob-smacking in its simplicity and obviousness.
The total disinterest of the Powers in the well-being of the People is striking. This of course follows the same pattern as has been employed already in the EU's near-Periphery, particularly in Greece but not solely there. If the People suffer, according to this Iron Law of Economics, it is their own fault. If they protest their impoverishment and ruin, they are to be suppressed with whatever force is necessary. If they starve and die, too bad, so sad. If this Iron Law is not followed or is resisted in any way by native governments, they are to be replaced, forthwith. That is all.
We've seen it happen over and over again, even in an EU Core country like Italy, where the prime minister was replaced with an unelected technocrat when he attempted to mitigate some of the harsher provisions of the Austerity diktats out of Brussels and Berlin.
As more and more are recognizing, however, it will be worse -- far worse -- for Ukraine, for the simple reason that Ukraine is the Far Periphery, not an EU member, and at best it will serve as a EuroAmerican Colonial-Corporate enterprise zone. At best.
Few among us want to imagine the worst-case scenario, but the embrace of the Ukrainian Nazis and Fascists and Nationalists by the West is a sure clue to where this whole thing may be headed.
"Stalin-Hitler" Putin ought to be concerned.
On the other hand, as always, the people caught in the middle are conscientiously forgotten by all sides in the Pageant of Power.
Hideous.
Saturday, March 22, 2014
The Measure of Propaganda -- Ukraine Edition
The corporate news -- such as it is -- has been dominated with an intense barrage of Anti-Soviet propaganda since well before the opening of the Sochi Olympics. The inundation of Anti-Soviet propaganda has been complimented with as strenuous an Anti-Putin demonization campaign as we've seen since the days of Stalin.
Most people alive today never directly experienced Anti-Soviet/Anti-Stalin propaganda and may have difficulty making the connection, but I'm old, and I have witnessed it in the past. I lived through the Post War/Cold War Red Scares and hysterics, and even though I was a child, it made a big impression on me. I knew even then that it was propaganda, and it was mostly based on lies and fantasies. It was story-telling on a grand and destructive scale, intended to keep us from knowing what was true and from thinking critically about any of it.
Similar tactics were used to demonize Saddam Hussain and Iraq in the lead-up to the catastrophe of the Second Gulf War, perhaps the most egregious example of war of aggression since the Unfortunate Era of the 19th and 20th Centuries, when the war of aggression was refined to an art form and implemented widely, not solely by Hitler!!!!™ either. Far from it. The war of aggression was a basic tactic in the Imperialist kit bag, frequently employed by colonialist and imperialist powers -- with or without pretext -- to seize and control what they wanted. The colonialist and imperialist powers were not supposed to do it to one another, but sometimes they did anyway.
That's all water under the bridge, however. We're in a New Century now, the supposed American Century if the neo-cons get their way, and progress requires continued conquest or the game is up. Can't have that.
You'd think they'd learn, but they don't.
Reading the beads and parsing the text, what I'm getting out of the current propaganda barrage regarding Ukraine is that the nation-state called Ukraine is falling apart, disintegrating. The reasons why are somewhat masked under the propaganda barrage, but it might be due to the fact that Ukraine only ever existed before as a satrapy and province of the Russian Empire and relatively briefly as a dependent republic of the Soviet Union. It was never organized into an independent nation-state, in other words, but was always the appendage to some other Empire, state or interest. Even during its brief hey-day under Nazi occupation, the point was never for Ukraine to be an independent nation-state, but for it to be a colonial resource for the benefit of Germany and the Aryan Race, no matter how this status was being sold to the Ukrainian people.
The disintegration of Ukraine is not due to Russian pressure, nor is it due to the return of Crimea to Russian control, though the propagandists like to pretend Russia is the cause of all troubles in Europe's Eastern Partnership. It's just not true.
What seems to be true is that internal tensions are the driving forces underlying the disintegration of Ukraine. The population, for example, is not homogeneous but is in fact quite disparate. It's not simply a matter of Russians here and Ukrainians there. The ethnic issues are far more complex than that. It may be analogous to the situation in Yugoslavia prior to its breakup and civil war. Under Russian Imperial control or Soviet control, the pseudo-state of "Ukrainia" (actually, they do use that term over there) could function relatively well, because loyalty was not to "Ukrainia" but to Russia or the Soviet Union. Ukrainian nationalists were the outliers.
Now it seems "Europe" wants to become the master and overlord of the Ukrainian nation and people as a whole, and it doesn't look like it is going to work. The Ukrainian people(s) have different interests. Their national identity is weak. The various ethnic enclaves each have separatist notions of their own. Russia's modern history in Ukraine (that is since the disintegration of the Soviet Union) is slight at best, something the propagandists can't seem to grasp. Independent Ukraine has been a full-on basket-case from the get-go. Despite the billions of dollars pumped in by the United States and Europe to prop up some form of nationalism and national government, it hasn't worked.
The desperation of the Interim Government (so-called) to "integrate" with Europe is palpable. But to what object? Certainly not on behalf of the Ukrainian people(s). It's self-evidently a personal quest of those in charge for the moment, something they've wanted for themselves, bugger the "people." They're trying to sell a pig in a poke, not even bothering to put lipstick on it, and it's not very pretty.
Russia's claim on Crimea can be disputed on technical grounds, but not on historical, social or practical ones. Europe's counter-claim on the whole of Ukraine under a EU puppet government -- which is what has been installed using local Nazi shock troops to make it so -- is truly outrageous. Russia's claim on Crimea seems modest by comparison. Despite the hysterics in the West, Russia appears to have no particular interest in the rest of Ukraine.
Let them go their own way, poor devils. They'll learn their lesson soon enough.
And if Ukraine is disintegrating anyway, perhaps the EU/NATO will wash its hands of the mess it has made, leaving the constituent parts of what will come to be called The Former Ukraine to sort out their own fates and futures.
Of course, they'll be unlikely to do that so long as global corporations have their hooks in and assert their prerogatives and power. It's all highly unseemly.
And as always, the people being squeezed from both sides are the losers. On its present trajectory, no matter what the propagandists tell us, there is no good way for this to end for the Ukrainian people(s). They've been had.
Again.
Tuesday, March 11, 2014
Ukraine is Only a Piece of the Prize
I've been curious about why there's such an absolute rush -- particularly on the part of Europe, but no less so on the part of the United States -- to integrate and coordinate Ukraine into the EU Periphery. I've never seen the European Union move so swiftly on anything, and certainly the American involvement in the uprising that overthrew the Yanukovych government was quite open and obvious from the outset. Bringing uber-techocrat/bankster Arseniy Yatsenyuk to the White House mere days before the plebiscite scheduled in Crimea to vote on the future of that autonomous republic is a striking confirmation of US interest and involvement in the process of detaching Ukraine from the Russian Sphere and adding it to that of an Eastern-expansionist Europe.
In my research on the member-groups of "New Citizen", prompted by Mark Ames's disclosure that Pierre Omidyar had been funding the outfit to the tune of "hundred of thousands of dollars" (according to a communiqué from the Omidyar Network, the total funding for "New Citizen" and its member/parent "Center UA" is $1.105 million over two years, but who's counting, right?) I saw a good deal of evidence that Ukraine is only a part of the Prize the EU seeks to capture.
They already have the Baltic States, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. and so far as I'm aware, the Kremlin is just as happy to see them struggling with their enormous economic problems on their own -- with the gentle loving kindness of the EU banksters/and technocrats to ease them through these difficult times with doses of austerity medicine.
It's what the EU does; it's an identity thing in Brussels. Viz: the treatment of the Near Periphery of Greece, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Ireland during the current economic unpleasantness. The EU/IMF/World Bank/Bank of Europe/NATO axis has little incentive than to do otherwise: embegger the Periphery in order that the Core continues to prosper.
But what are they to do when the Near Periphery is stripped clean? Well, obviously, expand into the Far Periphery (30 slide power point pdf), the nations of the Eastern Partnership:
All of which, of course, were former republics of the Soviet Union which had been part of the Russian Empire prior to the establishment of the Soviet Union, and thus are still to some extent in the Russian orbit.
To detach them all and place them in the European orbit through strategy appears to have been the long term goal of the EU for decades. I call them the Eastern Territories rather than Partners, because the evidence shows a very definite Senior/Junior relationship focused on exploiting the resources of the "East" for the benefit of the Core (ie: Germany, France, Luxemburg, Belgium, Netherlands, Denmark, with the UK as a participant if not a member.) We have the evidence from the experience of the Near Periphery under the tender mercies of Frau Merkel and Mme Lagard. Not a pretty picture, particularly for Greece, but other countries on the Periphery suffer too.
But have no fear. Apparently with the rushed inclusion of Ukraine into the EU as an "associate" rather than as a member, all will be well.
How this is supposed to work, I'm not quite sure, but if the past is any guide, Ukraine will be exploited for land and water resources and whatever other resources are found will be stripped away for the benefit of Germany first, and the rest of the Core in time. A relative few Ukrainians -- the technocrats and designated "stakeholders" will be lavished with rewards sufficient to keep them tame and in the government, and everyone else will be impoverished, and many -- as in Greece -- will be left to die.
This is the New Reality in Europe and its Periphery, and we will see it play out very quickly in Ukraine if there is no intervention from Russia (likely there won't be, not as long as Russia cuts a deal with the makers of this plan of exploitation.) The Crimea will likely remain under nominal Ukrainian suzerainty while in control of its Russian speaking majority and Russian forces, no matter what the results of the March 16 plebiscite. The point of all this is not to overly rile up the Russian Bear too soon, after all.
Wouldn't want that.
Meanwhile, with the Ukrainian Thing settled (for now, if not for always), the EU can move on to its next target in the Eastern Territories, and from the signs and signals forthcoming from Vilnius last December, when Ukraine was supposed to sign the agreement to fall under EU control -- but didn't, which triggered the revolt in Kiev and elsewhere -- the next targets are Georgia and Moldova, to be followed by Azerbaijan, Armenia and finally Belarus. Of course, the order could change as events have a way of interfering with carefully laid plans, but that's the order that was laid out in Vilnius last December, and at least to my eye, the EU has shown a striking rigidity of thought, process and procedure throughout the recent era of economic unpleasantness and political turmoil.
In going through so much of the "New Citizen" membership list, it was clear and obvious to me, almost from the outset, that the primary purpose of it was to "educate" the Ukrainian people to accept their new European overlords without a peep, and so far, it looks like they will.
We can assume that the same process of "education" is going on in all the Eastern Territories. Whichever country falls next is open to some speculation, but all of the ones listed are targets.
Ultimately, I have little doubt that the Russian Federation itself is targeted for dismantlement and ultimate submission to the diktats of the EU. And the US seems happy to oblige whatever its European partners suggest or request.
Vladimir Putin has been called a lot of things during the recent turmoil over the integration of Ukraine into the EU's Periphery. Mostly the propaganda has pivoted on the notions that Putin is "crazy," "out of touch," "delusional," "desperate," and "trying to revive the Soviet Union," none of which has any remote basis in reality. From the stark evidence available -- though not easily so, to be sure -- Putin is responding to the aggression of the West. And make no mistake, what's happening is most certainly aggression against Russian interests -- and eventually against Russia itself.
Some of those who think about these matters urge caution or even not proceeding at all. Among them are Bob Gates and Henry Kissinger. But some of the more thoughtful ones include Jack Matlock and Jack Goldstone -- whose papers on Revolutionary Theory apparently are highly regarded among the rebels in Kiev.
Clearly Europe's governing class wants the East and apparently will stop at nothing to get it. The people matter not at all in this strategic game. They aren't even pawns, though they may be seen resources to be exploited and discarded. It's nasty business.
Observing it, even from afar, is sick-making.
In my research on the member-groups of "New Citizen", prompted by Mark Ames's disclosure that Pierre Omidyar had been funding the outfit to the tune of "hundred of thousands of dollars" (according to a communiqué from the Omidyar Network, the total funding for "New Citizen" and its member/parent "Center UA" is $1.105 million over two years, but who's counting, right?) I saw a good deal of evidence that Ukraine is only a part of the Prize the EU seeks to capture.
They already have the Baltic States, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. and so far as I'm aware, the Kremlin is just as happy to see them struggling with their enormous economic problems on their own -- with the gentle loving kindness of the EU banksters/and technocrats to ease them through these difficult times with doses of austerity medicine.
It's what the EU does; it's an identity thing in Brussels. Viz: the treatment of the Near Periphery of Greece, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Ireland during the current economic unpleasantness. The EU/IMF/World Bank/Bank of Europe/NATO axis has little incentive than to do otherwise: embegger the Periphery in order that the Core continues to prosper.
But what are they to do when the Near Periphery is stripped clean? Well, obviously, expand into the Far Periphery (30 slide power point pdf), the nations of the Eastern Partnership:
Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine.
All of which, of course, were former republics of the Soviet Union which had been part of the Russian Empire prior to the establishment of the Soviet Union, and thus are still to some extent in the Russian orbit.
To detach them all and place them in the European orbit through strategy appears to have been the long term goal of the EU for decades. I call them the Eastern Territories rather than Partners, because the evidence shows a very definite Senior/Junior relationship focused on exploiting the resources of the "East" for the benefit of the Core (ie: Germany, France, Luxemburg, Belgium, Netherlands, Denmark, with the UK as a participant if not a member.) We have the evidence from the experience of the Near Periphery under the tender mercies of Frau Merkel and Mme Lagard. Not a pretty picture, particularly for Greece, but other countries on the Periphery suffer too.
But have no fear. Apparently with the rushed inclusion of Ukraine into the EU as an "associate" rather than as a member, all will be well.
How this is supposed to work, I'm not quite sure, but if the past is any guide, Ukraine will be exploited for land and water resources and whatever other resources are found will be stripped away for the benefit of Germany first, and the rest of the Core in time. A relative few Ukrainians -- the technocrats and designated "stakeholders" will be lavished with rewards sufficient to keep them tame and in the government, and everyone else will be impoverished, and many -- as in Greece -- will be left to die.
This is the New Reality in Europe and its Periphery, and we will see it play out very quickly in Ukraine if there is no intervention from Russia (likely there won't be, not as long as Russia cuts a deal with the makers of this plan of exploitation.) The Crimea will likely remain under nominal Ukrainian suzerainty while in control of its Russian speaking majority and Russian forces, no matter what the results of the March 16 plebiscite. The point of all this is not to overly rile up the Russian Bear too soon, after all.
Wouldn't want that.
Meanwhile, with the Ukrainian Thing settled (for now, if not for always), the EU can move on to its next target in the Eastern Territories, and from the signs and signals forthcoming from Vilnius last December, when Ukraine was supposed to sign the agreement to fall under EU control -- but didn't, which triggered the revolt in Kiev and elsewhere -- the next targets are Georgia and Moldova, to be followed by Azerbaijan, Armenia and finally Belarus. Of course, the order could change as events have a way of interfering with carefully laid plans, but that's the order that was laid out in Vilnius last December, and at least to my eye, the EU has shown a striking rigidity of thought, process and procedure throughout the recent era of economic unpleasantness and political turmoil.
In going through so much of the "New Citizen" membership list, it was clear and obvious to me, almost from the outset, that the primary purpose of it was to "educate" the Ukrainian people to accept their new European overlords without a peep, and so far, it looks like they will.
We can assume that the same process of "education" is going on in all the Eastern Territories. Whichever country falls next is open to some speculation, but all of the ones listed are targets.
Ultimately, I have little doubt that the Russian Federation itself is targeted for dismantlement and ultimate submission to the diktats of the EU. And the US seems happy to oblige whatever its European partners suggest or request.
Vladimir Putin has been called a lot of things during the recent turmoil over the integration of Ukraine into the EU's Periphery. Mostly the propaganda has pivoted on the notions that Putin is "crazy," "out of touch," "delusional," "desperate," and "trying to revive the Soviet Union," none of which has any remote basis in reality. From the stark evidence available -- though not easily so, to be sure -- Putin is responding to the aggression of the West. And make no mistake, what's happening is most certainly aggression against Russian interests -- and eventually against Russia itself.
Some of those who think about these matters urge caution or even not proceeding at all. Among them are Bob Gates and Henry Kissinger. But some of the more thoughtful ones include Jack Matlock and Jack Goldstone -- whose papers on Revolutionary Theory apparently are highly regarded among the rebels in Kiev.
Clearly Europe's governing class wants the East and apparently will stop at nothing to get it. The people matter not at all in this strategic game. They aren't even pawns, though they may be seen resources to be exploited and discarded. It's nasty business.
Observing it, even from afar, is sick-making.
Sunday, March 9, 2014
Again With The Who and What of "New Citizen" and "Center UA"
This exploration of the Ukrainian orgs under the umbrella of "New Citizen" and "Center UA" -- funded by Omidyar Network -- has become a long-term project.
I'm only half way through the list -- if that far -- and what I've found so far can be fairly characterized as a coordinated and concerted effort to inject (shall we say) pro-EU and anti-Russian attitudes and perspectives into Ukrainian politics and culture over many years, decades in fact, openly funded by US and EU interests through the regular channels of USAID and NED along with many others, some of which are acknowledged, but it appears many are not.
"New Citizen" is an umbrella for 58 orgs, most of which are focused on integration of Ukraine into the EU orbit, even if it means Ukraine is on the Periphery indefinitely. "New Citizen," in turn, is a project of "Center UA" -- which I haven't had time to explore more than superficially, but which appears to be a front for US and EU interests in Ukraine.
What, exactly, are those interests? From a geopolitical and strategic point of view, those interests seem to pivot on "stopping" the Soviet Union (er... Russia) from expanding to the West. But that's silly. Russia is not expanding to the West. Russia is organizing and protecting its borders. Whether it needs to or should do so "in the 21st Century" is a question for consideration, but that it is doing so shouldn't be.
Russia has a historical and national interest in protecting its western and southern borders from incursions from would-be conquerors. The idea of detaching Ukraine from Russian influence (which is the obvious point of attaching Ukraine and the other Eastern Territories to the EU) and -- let's say -- from Russian "oversight" must be psychologically terrifying to Russians and to a lot of Ukrainians as well. The long and deep historical and cultural ties between Russia and Ukraine can't be dismissed out of hand.
On the other hand, the decades-long effort to condition and accustom Ukrainians to reject Russian influence and culture and to turn toward Europe instead has had results in repeated overthrows of more Russian-friendly governments, including the latest one.
"Democracy" -- on the European model -- is still a somewhat foreign concept in Ukraine, and the people and governing class are clearly unskilled in its operations. "Democracy" is still largely seen through the Soviet lens which is both more inclusive and more authoritarian than that of Europe or the United States.
"Free markets" and "capitalism" are likewise muddled and confusing notions. When oligarchs are provided with so much and the people get little or nothing for their devotions to free markets and capitalism, it's hard to justify either one, and yet both are supposedly among the benefits Ukrainians are to receive once their official association with the EU is achieved. Of course many understand that this association will come with requirements for "reform" -- which means austerity on the Greek model or even more severe than the Greek model.
Is this what Ukrainians really want?
From appearances, they aren't asked, and they don't have an alternative option, as the 'interim government' is rushing headlong into the arms of the EU, damn the consequences, damn the people, damn everything.
It's not clear how things will settle out, but it is more and more clear that the situation now is pretty much what the EU enthusiasts set out to accomplish, even if it had to be done with the use of fascist and neo-Nazi shock troops. "Whatever it takes" seems to be the motto for the advocates of EU integration.
I'm only half way through the list -- if that far -- and what I've found so far can be fairly characterized as a coordinated and concerted effort to inject (shall we say) pro-EU and anti-Russian attitudes and perspectives into Ukrainian politics and culture over many years, decades in fact, openly funded by US and EU interests through the regular channels of USAID and NED along with many others, some of which are acknowledged, but it appears many are not.
"New Citizen" is an umbrella for 58 orgs, most of which are focused on integration of Ukraine into the EU orbit, even if it means Ukraine is on the Periphery indefinitely. "New Citizen," in turn, is a project of "Center UA" -- which I haven't had time to explore more than superficially, but which appears to be a front for US and EU interests in Ukraine.
What, exactly, are those interests? From a geopolitical and strategic point of view, those interests seem to pivot on "stopping" the Soviet Union (er... Russia) from expanding to the West. But that's silly. Russia is not expanding to the West. Russia is organizing and protecting its borders. Whether it needs to or should do so "in the 21st Century" is a question for consideration, but that it is doing so shouldn't be.
Russia has a historical and national interest in protecting its western and southern borders from incursions from would-be conquerors. The idea of detaching Ukraine from Russian influence (which is the obvious point of attaching Ukraine and the other Eastern Territories to the EU) and -- let's say -- from Russian "oversight" must be psychologically terrifying to Russians and to a lot of Ukrainians as well. The long and deep historical and cultural ties between Russia and Ukraine can't be dismissed out of hand.
On the other hand, the decades-long effort to condition and accustom Ukrainians to reject Russian influence and culture and to turn toward Europe instead has had results in repeated overthrows of more Russian-friendly governments, including the latest one.
"Democracy" -- on the European model -- is still a somewhat foreign concept in Ukraine, and the people and governing class are clearly unskilled in its operations. "Democracy" is still largely seen through the Soviet lens which is both more inclusive and more authoritarian than that of Europe or the United States.
"Free markets" and "capitalism" are likewise muddled and confusing notions. When oligarchs are provided with so much and the people get little or nothing for their devotions to free markets and capitalism, it's hard to justify either one, and yet both are supposedly among the benefits Ukrainians are to receive once their official association with the EU is achieved. Of course many understand that this association will come with requirements for "reform" -- which means austerity on the Greek model or even more severe than the Greek model.
Is this what Ukrainians really want?
From appearances, they aren't asked, and they don't have an alternative option, as the 'interim government' is rushing headlong into the arms of the EU, damn the consequences, damn the people, damn everything.
It's not clear how things will settle out, but it is more and more clear that the situation now is pretty much what the EU enthusiasts set out to accomplish, even if it had to be done with the use of fascist and neo-Nazi shock troops. "Whatever it takes" seems to be the motto for the advocates of EU integration.
Saturday, March 8, 2014
More What and Who
Besides the fact that there may be dozens or hundreds of other leads to follow besides the named organizations and individuals on the "New Citizen" member list, another difficulty I've run into is that the Translator doesn't always translate.
For example, on the last listing of the previous post (Centre for Development of Society) the text I was trying to translate came up with the first and last words of each sentence transliterated from the Cyrillic to Latin alphabets, but the words weren't translated. Odd. In order to make sense of the text, I had to re-transliterate each word that had been missed, then translate. A chore, to say the least. Sometimes, too, the translations are gibberish, and they have to be massaged in order to make any sense of them at all, and the process of massaging them can introduce errors. Some of the text that comes up gibberish, for example, may be idiomatic expressions that the translator software doesn't recognize, but I wouldn't know never having learned Ukrainian, and barely knowing Russian.
I point this out not to complain -- I couldn't have done this at all before the days of Google and other online translator wizardry -- but to explain why it's taking so long to get through this list.
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The next is Committee of Voters of Ukraine. From what I can tell from a brief glance, the site largely parrots Western propaganda and the declarations of the "interim government" in Kiev, particularly with regard to the Crimean situation. At least in some American news media, the issues of voting and democracy and referenda and regional parliaments and such are not declared "settled" all the time. Questions can be and are raised on occasion. Not at the Committee of Voters, however. No, there, whatever the decree from Kiev, and whatever Western propaganda asserts, is not just "settled," it is essentially law. This harks back to a previous era somehow...
The Commitee's leaders are Alexander Chernenko (COB) and Vitaly Teslenko (Deputy Chair and Executive Director). I note that in the Teslenko piece, it is stated that the Committee is "an election monitoring group funded by Western donors..." Oh. I see... That may explain some of their devotion to Western propaganda...
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Following is Center for Public Examination. (No link because of malware warnings). Their statement on their somewhat sketchy site pretty much says it all if you understand "think-tank-ese" and "consultant-ese". To wit:
The leaders are: Lubomir Chornij, Olha Romaniuk, and Konstantin Ryzhkov (Romaniuk was deputy housing minister during the Yanukovych regime... hmmm.... Lubomir also seems to have housing ministry background. What I found on Ryzhkov was confused because there is someone with that name in Russia, a banker and probably oligarch, whereas the only one in Ukraine I could find was an AIDS activist with no stated connection with this outfit. So... who knows?)
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Next up is the Media Law Institute a free speech and free press advocacy outfit run by Taras Shevchenko.
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My! Elections! is next. It appears to be an online music/radio/candidate/elections site. Maybe propaganda? Who knows! The leader is Stanislav Shumlyansky. Interesting
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Eastern Center for Civic Initiatives "Total Action for Human Rights and Democracy" is next. Their website is down, "Account Suspended", but this comes from the National Endowment for Democracy site, just as an FYI. This grant was in 2009. There appear to have been no subsequent grants from NED to this outfit.
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National University of "Kyiv-Mohyla Academy" is next. It's a fascinating story of an institute of higher learning with a very long history in Ukraine, beginning in the 1600s. Much of that history seems to be extravagantly nationalist. But as there have been many changes over the centuries, the nationalism of the academy may be somewhat overplayed. It's gone through Jesuit and Russian periods, and it seems to be focused on business and science education for the moment.
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Ukrainian Reform Education Center is next. (The site is malware, so no link.) It seems to be primarily focused on media monitoring and land rights education. Irina Movchan is the person in charge. She seems pretty well connected with the EU... but then, under "New Citizen's" wing who isn't?
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Next up is Europe Without Barriers mostly concerned, it would seem, with the complete integration of Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia into the EU complex and removal of all visa barriers. And interesting note:
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Stopping again. I've run into numerous sites that are red-flagged for malware (seems to be some connection in Romania that's setting off the claxons, but I don't know exactly).
It's pretty clear by this point that "New Citizen" is principally interested in coordination of pro-EU, anti-Russia programs and propaganda on behalf of EU partners. Russian interest in Ukraine is ignored or denied. Even Russian history in Ukraine is largely expunged from the record. Nationalism is all. Looked at from the "New Citizen" perspective, Russia is an alien invader -- to the extent it is acknowledged at all. Most of the "educational" programs seem to be concerned with separating Ukraine from Russia once and for all, and intensely re-conditioning Ukrainians to accept EU rather than Russian "values."
Obviously, this work has been going on for a long time. Many of those on the member list or on other lists connected with members are old hands, going back to the break up of the Soviet Union and the independence of Ukraine. They've been ringing this bell for years. It seems that the putsch came when these folks decided that the Ukrainian people had been conditioned sufficiently to accept the diktats of Brussels and Berlin.
There seems to have been no comparable Russian effort, however. In other words, it appears that actually, Russia doesn't want Ukraine, at least not as a part of any imaginary revival of the Soviet Union. Russia wants its interests protected, but beyond that, no.
As for what the EU wants with Ukraine...
What do they want with Greece? Portugal? Italy? Spain? or Ireland?
For example, on the last listing of the previous post (Centre for Development of Society) the text I was trying to translate came up with the first and last words of each sentence transliterated from the Cyrillic to Latin alphabets, but the words weren't translated. Odd. In order to make sense of the text, I had to re-transliterate each word that had been missed, then translate. A chore, to say the least. Sometimes, too, the translations are gibberish, and they have to be massaged in order to make any sense of them at all, and the process of massaging them can introduce errors. Some of the text that comes up gibberish, for example, may be idiomatic expressions that the translator software doesn't recognize, but I wouldn't know never having learned Ukrainian, and barely knowing Russian.
I point this out not to complain -- I couldn't have done this at all before the days of Google and other online translator wizardry -- but to explain why it's taking so long to get through this list.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The next is Committee of Voters of Ukraine. From what I can tell from a brief glance, the site largely parrots Western propaganda and the declarations of the "interim government" in Kiev, particularly with regard to the Crimean situation. At least in some American news media, the issues of voting and democracy and referenda and regional parliaments and such are not declared "settled" all the time. Questions can be and are raised on occasion. Not at the Committee of Voters, however. No, there, whatever the decree from Kiev, and whatever Western propaganda asserts, is not just "settled," it is essentially law. This harks back to a previous era somehow...
The Commitee's leaders are Alexander Chernenko (COB) and Vitaly Teslenko (Deputy Chair and Executive Director). I note that in the Teslenko piece, it is stated that the Committee is "an election monitoring group funded by Western donors..." Oh. I see... That may explain some of their devotion to Western propaganda...
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Following is Center for Public Examination. (No link because of malware warnings). Their statement on their somewhat sketchy site pretty much says it all if you understand "think-tank-ese" and "consultant-ese". To wit:
"Effecting systematic change...." Um-hum. "Projects..." Yes... "Familiar with international standards...." Of course... "Platform for the implementation..." Uh-huh... Even if it's not quite clear what this outfit is all about, it's clear enough that I would be skeptical even if they were folded in to the typical USA think tank model. The verbiage alone gives me the willies. I've seen too much of it...
Center for Public Examination - an independent think tank Ukrainian non-governmental and non-profit organization dedicated to informational, analytical and expert support effecting systemic changes in both the public and private sectors of Ukraine.
At its center building public examination is a network of independent experts. Institutional capacity of the Centre is based on the integration of knowledge, skills and experience of network members who are experts in various fields: economics, investment and regional policy, public administration, urban planning, practical sociology, law, and regulatory policy, business development, public finance, fiscal and social policy, civil society, information and communication and so on.
Specialists of the public examination have extensive experience as leaders of social and business projects, consultants, advisors, coaches, Kouchera. They are familiar with international standards of analytical performance and reporting: UNDP, USAID, CIDA, EC / TACIS, OSCE, Sida, SDC, DFID, MFA of Denmark, many international organizations, private and public origin, international consulting companies and more.
Center for Public Examination builds its activities in the project basis and serves as a platform for the implementation of various projects. Specializes in the Centre are research, development, consulting and infrastructure projects.
The Center public examination is to conduct various social topics and feasibility studies, design methodologies and creating innovative models of social processes and monitoring of market research, formation and maintenance of public ratings.
The leaders are: Lubomir Chornij, Olha Romaniuk, and Konstantin Ryzhkov (Romaniuk was deputy housing minister during the Yanukovych regime... hmmm.... Lubomir also seems to have housing ministry background. What I found on Ryzhkov was confused because there is someone with that name in Russia, a banker and probably oligarch, whereas the only one in Ukraine I could find was an AIDS activist with no stated connection with this outfit. So... who knows?)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Next up is the Media Law Institute a free speech and free press advocacy outfit run by Taras Shevchenko.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
My! Elections! is next. It appears to be an online music/radio/candidate/elections site. Maybe propaganda? Who knows! The leader is Stanislav Shumlyansky. Interesting
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Eastern Center for Civic Initiatives "Total Action for Human Rights and Democracy" is next. Their website is down, "Account Suspended", but this comes from the National Endowment for Democracy site, just as an FYI. This grant was in 2009. There appear to have been no subsequent grants from NED to this outfit.
Eastern-Ukrainian Center for Civic Initiatives “Total Action for the Support of Human Rights and Democracy” ProjectIt's in "grant-speak" so it's wise to take the statements with a grain of salt. Nevertheless, reading between the lines indicates that the funding may have been for propaganda purposes. The leaders are said to be Vladimir Shcherbachenko and Julia Rashupkina.
$30,000
To facilitate citizens’ access to information, stimulate civic activity, and promote government accountability in Luhansk, a major city in eastern Ukraine. Total Action will provide training to local activists to carry out advocacy campaigns and will hold a series of roundtables, public hearings and seminars to promote access to the Luhansk City Council, encourage local government accountability and support civic participation.
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National University of "Kyiv-Mohyla Academy" is next. It's a fascinating story of an institute of higher learning with a very long history in Ukraine, beginning in the 1600s. Much of that history seems to be extravagantly nationalist. But as there have been many changes over the centuries, the nationalism of the academy may be somewhat overplayed. It's gone through Jesuit and Russian periods, and it seems to be focused on business and science education for the moment.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ukrainian Reform Education Center is next. (The site is malware, so no link.) It seems to be primarily focused on media monitoring and land rights education. Irina Movchan is the person in charge. She seems pretty well connected with the EU... but then, under "New Citizen's" wing who isn't?
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Next up is Europe Without Barriers mostly concerned, it would seem, with the complete integration of Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia into the EU complex and removal of all visa barriers. And interesting note:
06.03.14
PASOS calls on EU to lift visa requirements for Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia upon signature of association agreements
EU member states should show long-term commitment to Ukraine’s European integration by swift easing of visa requirements, followed by full visa liberalisation with Ukraine, Moldova, and Georgia upon signing of association agreements, according to a statement sent to top EU officials and states by PASOS and member organizations.
“The dramatic events in recent days in Ukraine have demonstrated once again the high commitment of Maidan protesters and the citizens of Ukraine to become more closely integrated with the European Union. Ukraine now faces immense challenges in terms of democratic transition, territorial integrity and constitutional stability, as well as pressures, not least from Russia, in trade relations and energy security,” the statement reads.
“We call upon the European Council to recognise the need for a signal that the EU embraces the “European choice” of the Ukrainian people, and to de-link the issue of visas from conditionality on the Ukrainian authorities, just as it did so in 1990-1991 with regard to Central Europe. Poland, the Czech Republic and other post-communist countries did not have to meet elaborate conditions in order to see visas dropped; they met these conditions afterwards, and it is time for the EU to recognise the reforms already introduced in Ukraine and other Eastern Partner countries, and to drop visa requirements as they did with Central European countries.”
The statement was addressed to Herman Van Rompuy, President, European Council; Catherine Ashton, Vice-President, European Commission, and High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, European Council; Štefan Füle, European Commissioner for Enlargement and Neighbourhood Policy; Cecilia Malmström, European Commissioner, Home Affairs; Martin Schulz, President, European Parliament; and the foreign ministers of EU member states.
The statement continues:
“One of the most negative and enduring perceptions about the EU in Ukraine, and other partner countries (Georgia and Moldova) that allow EU citizens visa-free travel to their countries, has been the strict visa requirements for travel to the EU. Since these three countries have all initialled association agreements with the EU, and embarked upon visa dialogue with the EU, and all have completed phase one of the dialogue (Moldova has in fact also completed phase two, so met all the technical requirements set by the European Commission), we call upon the EU member states and the European Council to bring forward full visa liberalisation to the date of signature of the respective association agreement with Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine.
With the release from prison of former prime minister Yulia Timoshenko in Ukraine, and the will of the interim government in Ukraine to sign the association agreement, the conditions are now in place for the EU and Ukraine to sign the association agreement, and for the EU to expedite signature with Moldova and Georgia. As the signing of an association agreement marks the beginning of intense co-operation between the EU and the signatory countries, the introduction of visa-free travel for citizens of all three countries – all facing strong pressures from Russia concerning trade and territorial integrity, compounded by energy security in the cases of Ukraine and Moldova – is a necessary response to the clear “European choice” made by the citizens of the three countries in the face of strong pressures.
With immediate effect, the EU member states should demonstrate their support for the European choice of the Ukrainian people by introducing more favourable conditions for issuance of Schengen visas (including waiving visa fees, shortening of waiting times, and transparent terms of the procedure in compliance with the Schengen Visa Code). EU member states can also go a step further by issuing national visas to citizens of Ukraine with the minimum of delay and conditions.
The burden shouldered by the citizens of Ukraine since the Vilnius Summit requires a historic response from the side of EU member states, demonstrating that the EU actively supports fundamental freedoms, which should include the freedom to travel, and not least the opportunity for all citizens of Ukraine to visit the member states of the EU and to see the benefits of democracy, the rule of law, and freedom of expression.”OK then. Oleksandr Susko is the man in charge. He's quite well integrated with the EU/NATO already.
Download the statement in full in PDF format here.
Source: PASOS Secretariat, Czech Republic
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Stopping again. I've run into numerous sites that are red-flagged for malware (seems to be some connection in Romania that's setting off the claxons, but I don't know exactly).
It's pretty clear by this point that "New Citizen" is principally interested in coordination of pro-EU, anti-Russia programs and propaganda on behalf of EU partners. Russian interest in Ukraine is ignored or denied. Even Russian history in Ukraine is largely expunged from the record. Nationalism is all. Looked at from the "New Citizen" perspective, Russia is an alien invader -- to the extent it is acknowledged at all. Most of the "educational" programs seem to be concerned with separating Ukraine from Russia once and for all, and intensely re-conditioning Ukrainians to accept EU rather than Russian "values."
Obviously, this work has been going on for a long time. Many of those on the member list or on other lists connected with members are old hands, going back to the break up of the Soviet Union and the independence of Ukraine. They've been ringing this bell for years. It seems that the putsch came when these folks decided that the Ukrainian people had been conditioned sufficiently to accept the diktats of Brussels and Berlin.
There seems to have been no comparable Russian effort, however. In other words, it appears that actually, Russia doesn't want Ukraine, at least not as a part of any imaginary revival of the Soviet Union. Russia wants its interests protected, but beyond that, no.
As for what the EU wants with Ukraine...
What do they want with Greece? Portugal? Italy? Spain? or Ireland?
Friday, March 7, 2014
What and Who Is "New Citizen" and "Center UA"?
These are the outfits Omidyar Network has funded to the tune of $1.105 million over two years, not a huge amount by any means, but enough, it seems, to have an effect. And that's what any billionaire philanthropist/investor wants his or her money to do. Effect the outcome of events. Cause events if need be.
Over the last several days, I've been looking into "New Citizen" and "Center UA," the two outfits Omidyar admits to funding in Ukraine. Strangely, the admissions are somewhat incomplete. For example in announcing the grant/investment in "New Citizen (Center UA)" in 2011, Omidyar omits to mention that "New Citizen" is a project of "Center UA", and in clarifying their funding in Ukraine, they fail to mention, again, that "New Citizen" is a project of "Center UA," and they further muddy the waters by claiming their investments were in "Center UA," not mentioning "New Citizen" at all -- except in the title. An observer might suspect deliberate obfuscation. A lawyer would say, "It's in the title, and the link within goes to "New Citizen," and besides, everything -- except that $770,000 grant-or-investment -- was already disclosed long ago. There is no news here..."
At any rate, I've been trying to find out what this "New Citizen" is and what "Center UA" is supposed to be.
New Citizen's website is in Ukrainian only, and basically what they say they are is an umbrella "service" organization for 58 other organizations, including "Center UA," although a project of "Center UA," whose website is in English, and whose website appears to be down at the moment...
Of the New Citizen members that have functioning websites, however, we may begin at the beginning and go through the list:
Mama-86 is a water resources management NGO (interesting in and of itself) which posted a communiqué in November from Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum condemning the Ukrainian Government's decision not to sign and implement the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the EU and demands the resignation of the Cabinet of Ministers and the immediate signing of the Agreement. (By whom?) Interesting, too, is that Mama-86 says it is a member of
The chair of the coordinating council of Mama-86 is Anna Golubovska-Onisimova, who has apparently very strong EU connections.
An environmental NGO, focused on integrating and managing Ukrainian water resources with those of the EU could hardly be called pernicious, could it? Well, it's hard to say, isn't it? One can't know from the looks of things.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Internews UA is the next member with a working website. Its mission as stated on its home page is:
At any rate, they sponsor a lot of projects and programs to inject -- shall we say -- these values of which they speak into Ukrainian consciousness and to promote them through "successful media." They will be sponsoring fora shortly to discuss and promote EU connections.
Just a sampling of what they offer and what they do.
-------------------------------------------------------------
Next we find something called "Democratic Initiatives Ilko Kucheriv" headed by Irina Bekeshkina. A quick glance at their home page shows item after item of anti-Russian propaganda, not exactly the promotion of "democratic initiatives," but I guess it is necessary to denounce Russia before any "democracy" can be initiated in Ukraine. Or anywhere else for that matter. They also have many projects, which I didn't investigate for the simple reason that their homepage was cluttered up with so much overt anti-Russian speakers and propaganda. It's sort of the counterpoint, I guess, to Internews's pro-EU stuff. Hand in glove as it were.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Up next is something called "The Ukrainian Center for Independent Political Research" which is also filled with anti-Russian propaganda. Huh. Practically everything they have on their homepage is about protesting in the Maidan, getting rid of Yanukovych, and denouncing Russia. There seems to be a theme here.
The center is headed by Yulia Tyshchenko and Kostyantyn Mykhailychenko. The link goes to a email post by said Kostyantyn Mykhailychenko which is interesting in and of itself for it describes a book published in 2009 called "EU's Eastern Partnership: Additional Possibilities for European Integration of Ukraine." How charming. But it doesn't stop with Ukraine. Included in the EU's "Eastern Partnership" are Ukraine, Georgia, Belarus, Azerbaijan, Armenia and Moldova. The book, it seems, was being distributed free online within Ukraine by request to the Center, printed copies available by application. Looks like there might be long term plans to "coordinate" all of these Eastern lands bordering Mother Russia with EU. Perhaps Mr Putin in the Kremlin isn't quite so "paranoid" and "desperate" as he is made out to be by the Western media.... but then again, he's Russian...
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Then we have Mvarta, the Ukrainian Youth Guard. It appears to be organized as a political pressure and lobbying group composed of young voters advocating the interests of children and youth throughout Ukraine and holding politicians accountable for fulfilling their promises to youth. How refreshing. Mvarta is headed by Evgenya Malykh. Interesting...
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Next is Debate Academy. They announced a workshop last October that seems pretty straightforward:
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We have something called "Elite State" the function of which is not entirely clear, but from what little I could glean from their webpage (which is considered malware, so beware) they are primarily involved in coordinating information on behalf of graduates of the National Academy of Public Administration of Ukraine. And offering some interesting "psychological games" of power. The head is Olga Piddubchak who says of herself: (translated from the Ukrainian via the Google Machine)
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We move on to: "Ukrainian Strategy" headed by Anatoliy Pinchuk (this site is also considered malware). I won't link to this one because it is firing off warning after warning, so better not. At any rate, it appears to be a very pro-active neo-liberal political and economic endeavor. Anatoliy Pinchuk is very closely tied into the international neo-liberal think tank community.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Following "Ukrainian Strategy" is the social activist Alexey Pogorelov who is CEO of the Ukrainian Association of Press Publishers which is an umbrella organization for 114 independent media outlets and which seemed to be aligned with those determined to overthrow Yanukovych. More malware, so I won't link.
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Thence to: "Community" Foundation, a Eurocentric outfit headed by Taras Peter, a media consultant to various government and non-government organizations.
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Next we have "Center UA" the umbrella under which "New Citizen" is formed. Center UA is headed by Oleh Rybachuk, who is considered quite notorious by some. Here's Mark Ames' description:
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Following "Center UA" is "Bukvoid" -- an online and print publishing outfit which seems pretty straightforward. It's headed by Sergey Rudenko, but not the Soviet General...
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Next is the Independent Media Trade Union of Ukraine which boasts of more than 600 journalist members and affiliation with the International Federation of Journalists. It is headed by Ukrainian Media Personality Roman Skrypin (though their history page says he resigned in 2011.)
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Then we have the Institute of Political Education which appears to be primarily dedicated to the EU integration project. Headed by Oleksandar Solontay and Andrey Strannikov, both associated with "Youth Guard" and other NGOs active in Ukrainian Politics.
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Next is the Institute of Media which appears to be an anti-Russia propaganda outfit. Its head is Victoria Syumar.
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Tired now, must take a break.
Over the last several days, I've been looking into "New Citizen" and "Center UA," the two outfits Omidyar admits to funding in Ukraine. Strangely, the admissions are somewhat incomplete. For example in announcing the grant/investment in "New Citizen (Center UA)" in 2011, Omidyar omits to mention that "New Citizen" is a project of "Center UA", and in clarifying their funding in Ukraine, they fail to mention, again, that "New Citizen" is a project of "Center UA," and they further muddy the waters by claiming their investments were in "Center UA," not mentioning "New Citizen" at all -- except in the title. An observer might suspect deliberate obfuscation. A lawyer would say, "It's in the title, and the link within goes to "New Citizen," and besides, everything -- except that $770,000 grant-or-investment -- was already disclosed long ago. There is no news here..."
At any rate, I've been trying to find out what this "New Citizen" is and what "Center UA" is supposed to be.
New Citizen's website is in Ukrainian only, and basically what they say they are is an umbrella "service" organization for 58 other organizations, including "Center UA," although a project of "Center UA," whose website is in English, and whose website appears to be down at the moment...
Of the New Citizen members that have functioning websites, however, we may begin at the beginning and go through the list:
Mama-86 is a water resources management NGO (interesting in and of itself) which posted a communiqué in November from Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum condemning the Ukrainian Government's decision not to sign and implement the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the EU and demands the resignation of the Cabinet of Ministers and the immediate signing of the Agreement. (By whom?) Interesting, too, is that Mama-86 says it is a member of
Ukrainian National Platform Civil Society Forum of the Eastern Partnership, which brings together 186 NGOs from all over Ukraine...Well now, first I've heard of that, and look, another umbrella! As I mentioned in discussing this exploration, you go down so many diversionary corridors and blind alleys it isn't even funny.
The chair of the coordinating council of Mama-86 is Anna Golubovska-Onisimova, who has apparently very strong EU connections.
An environmental NGO, focused on integrating and managing Ukrainian water resources with those of the EU could hardly be called pernicious, could it? Well, it's hard to say, isn't it? One can't know from the looks of things.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Internews UA is the next member with a working website. Its mission as stated on its home page is:
The promotion of European values in UkraineSo that's good. Only what does it mean, exactly? Media promotion of "European values" could be anything, I guess, but the upshot would be propaganda, would it not? And what is this apparent assumption that Ukraine's "values" aren't those of Europe? Interesting.
through the development of successful media
At any rate, they sponsor a lot of projects and programs to inject -- shall we say -- these values of which they speak into Ukrainian consciousness and to promote them through "successful media." They will be sponsoring fora shortly to discuss and promote EU connections.
Headlines
EU invites you talk about the relationship of the EU-Ukraine in Ivano-Frankivsk
March 12 at 10.00 in Ivano-Frankivsk, a workshop on "EU-Ukraine relations: where next?". EU Delegation to Ukraine invites experts on European integration, international affairs experts and analysts, representatives of local governments and the business community, civil society activists and journalists to discuss the most pressing issues on the agenda of relations between Ukraine and the EU. moreTraining on Europe - invite journalists to participate
March 14-15 in Kiev held a training on "Discovering Europe". Invited journalists from Eastern and Southern regions of Ukraine. Deadline for applications - 10 March. moreExclusive interview with the chief editor of the site MediaPort Zurab Alasaniya
Journalists Project EaP Media Freedom Watch an exclusive interview taken in Kharkov editor of the most popular online news portal MediaPort Zurab Alasaniya on freedom of speech in Kharkiv. more
Just a sampling of what they offer and what they do.
-------------------------------------------------------------
Next we find something called "Democratic Initiatives Ilko Kucheriv" headed by Irina Bekeshkina. A quick glance at their home page shows item after item of anti-Russian propaganda, not exactly the promotion of "democratic initiatives," but I guess it is necessary to denounce Russia before any "democracy" can be initiated in Ukraine. Or anywhere else for that matter. They also have many projects, which I didn't investigate for the simple reason that their homepage was cluttered up with so much overt anti-Russian speakers and propaganda. It's sort of the counterpoint, I guess, to Internews's pro-EU stuff. Hand in glove as it were.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Up next is something called "The Ukrainian Center for Independent Political Research" which is also filled with anti-Russian propaganda. Huh. Practically everything they have on their homepage is about protesting in the Maidan, getting rid of Yanukovych, and denouncing Russia. There seems to be a theme here.
The center is headed by Yulia Tyshchenko and Kostyantyn Mykhailychenko. The link goes to a email post by said Kostyantyn Mykhailychenko which is interesting in and of itself for it describes a book published in 2009 called "EU's Eastern Partnership: Additional Possibilities for European Integration of Ukraine." How charming. But it doesn't stop with Ukraine. Included in the EU's "Eastern Partnership" are Ukraine, Georgia, Belarus, Azerbaijan, Armenia and Moldova. The book, it seems, was being distributed free online within Ukraine by request to the Center, printed copies available by application. Looks like there might be long term plans to "coordinate" all of these Eastern lands bordering Mother Russia with EU. Perhaps Mr Putin in the Kremlin isn't quite so "paranoid" and "desperate" as he is made out to be by the Western media.... but then again, he's Russian...
--------------------------------------------------------
Then we have Mvarta, the Ukrainian Youth Guard. It appears to be organized as a political pressure and lobbying group composed of young voters advocating the interests of children and youth throughout Ukraine and holding politicians accountable for fulfilling their promises to youth. How refreshing. Mvarta is headed by Evgenya Malykh. Interesting...
--------------------------------------------------------
Next is Debate Academy. They announced a workshop last October that seems pretty straightforward:
Bring out the debaters
We invite students to participate in a seminar Debate skills, which will take place on 23-24 November 2013. in Uzhgorod.Of course there are more organizations to track down thanks to this announcement. Dimitry Sinchenko is the go-to guy for the Debate Academy, and he has quite an interesting website which I don't have time to explore in detail, but he seems pretty deeply involved in the overthrow of the Yanukovych government and is a Deputy Head of the UDAR Vitali Klichko party.
Taking part in the workshop you will:- Learn how to shape the debate of national decision-making turned into teaching methods ";- Learn to use the information to confirm the opinion;- To improve their public speaking skills;- Learn the basics of Public Speaking;- Find new friends and meet old;- Learn what a "Debate adrenaline";- Try their hand at debating!Who we are waiting for:Young people from all over Ukraine who want to improve their skills in reasoned debate.Conditions:participation in the event is free. Participants are provided with books, textbook and handouts. Nonresident reimbursed travel expenses and accommodation provided.How to register:to take part in training must complete the online form (http://bit.ly/182Z9nm) and qualify. Applications will be accepted up to 18.00 hrs. November 18, 2013.For more information, please refer to branch of "Debate Academy» http://www.debate.org.ua. For additional questions, please call: 0504112042 Nazar, Vladimir 0637371611.Organizer: branch of "Debate Academy" in partnership with the Foundation for information and education initiatives "Development" and Transcarpathian community centers with the financial support of the "Roma of Ukraine" MF "Renaissance".
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We have something called "Elite State" the function of which is not entirely clear, but from what little I could glean from their webpage (which is considered malware, so beware) they are primarily involved in coordinating information on behalf of graduates of the National Academy of Public Administration of Ukraine. And offering some interesting "psychological games" of power. The head is Olga Piddubchak who says of herself: (translated from the Ukrainian via the Google Machine)
President of NGO "elite of the state" Olga Piddubchak - bright and outstanding personality.At least from that, I kind of like her! Oh well...
From a genetic nature and space volitional qualities as born in the Year of the Tiger, Eastern horoscope.
Honors social intelligence, personal charisma and sunshine of the Golden Fleece, for the Western zodiac Aries horoscope.
It has a strong intuition and inclination to understand the unconscious, because it is hazel - for the Celts, Druids horoscope. And Mrs. Olga was born in Zhytomyr ancient land where long live the western Scythians, the Celts, who worshiped the sun god - Cola and Water Goddess - Dan.
Moreover, on this fertile land, as the philology and toponymy, the village of Ray. Perhaps not everyone knows, but it was the name of the mother of the Supreme God Zeus.
So, given this strong earth girl who graduated with a silver medal and school honors - Zaporozhye Institute for Municipal and Public Administration majoring in "administrative management".
She later graduated from the master's and graduate of the National Academy of Public Administration under the President of Ukraine in Kiev, specialty "State Government". He has practical experience in the law drafting. Years of public service began in 1999.
Ms. Olga has several publications in scientific journals and actively participates in conferences of national and international levels.
Research interests: political-socialization of young executives in terms of administrative reform in Ukraine.
By the ideology of Unique Ukrainian Spiritual Democracy, which combines the irrational (soul), good (democracy) and the historical experience of successful ancestors ancient Ukrainian state.
The nature of Nordic and emotional, the sanguine and choleric limits. That does not prevent him more than three years to manage non-governmental organization that brings together successful and patriotic representatives of state agencies, local governments and scientists.
Combines in his person the lively creative logical and intuitive approaches to solving management problems.
Adheres to the principles of ecological social relations of gender harmony and positive future programming.
Favorite mythological images Olga - First Princess Country Artiniyi, silver Vovkynya in Diamond Crown.
The immediate objective: to create an effective administrative system under which happen gradually replacing the moral quality of obsolete and structurally qualified personnel on the system, positive and patriotic staff with appropriate education in the field of public administration. The first step in this direction - to improve the system of transparent competitive selection to public service.
Projects is working now: Legislative theater Ball Masters and Ministers.
Membership in civic councils: Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Kyiv City State Administration.
Note: NGO "elite of the state" was registered 08/08/08, has representation in 19 regions of Ukraine and 13 community councils in ministries, departments and regional administrations.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
We move on to: "Ukrainian Strategy" headed by Anatoliy Pinchuk (this site is also considered malware). I won't link to this one because it is firing off warning after warning, so better not. At any rate, it appears to be a very pro-active neo-liberal political and economic endeavor. Anatoliy Pinchuk is very closely tied into the international neo-liberal think tank community.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Following "Ukrainian Strategy" is the social activist Alexey Pogorelov who is CEO of the Ukrainian Association of Press Publishers which is an umbrella organization for 114 independent media outlets and which seemed to be aligned with those determined to overthrow Yanukovych. More malware, so I won't link.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Thence to: "Community" Foundation, a Eurocentric outfit headed by Taras Peter, a media consultant to various government and non-government organizations.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Next we have "Center UA" the umbrella under which "New Citizen" is formed. Center UA is headed by Oleh Rybachuk, who is considered quite notorious by some. Here's Mark Ames' description:
When the revolution came to Ukraine, neo-fascists played a front-center role in overthrowing the country’s president. But the real political power rests with Ukraine’s pro-western neoliberals. Political figures like Oleh Rybachuk, long a favorite of the State Department, DC neocons, EU, and NATO—and the right-hand man to Orange Revolution leader Viktor Yushchenko.
Last December, the Financial Times wrote that Rybachuk’s “New Citizen” NGO campaign “played a big role in getting the protest up and running.”
New Citizen, along with the rest of Rybachuk’s interlocking network of western-backed NGOs and campaigns— “Center UA” (also spelled “Centre UA”), “Chesno,” and “Stop Censorship” to name a few — grew their power by targeting pro-Yanukovych politicians with a well-coordinated anti-corruption campaign that built its strength in Ukraine’s regions, before massing in Kiev last autumn.Rybachuk is widely considered to be the power behind the overthrow of Yanukovych, but he is also considered to be the tool of the EU and the US State Department. So are quite a few of the other individuals and organizations under the wing of Omidyar/"New Citizen"/USAID/NED.
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Following "Center UA" is "Bukvoid" -- an online and print publishing outfit which seems pretty straightforward. It's headed by Sergey Rudenko, but not the Soviet General...
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Next is the Independent Media Trade Union of Ukraine which boasts of more than 600 journalist members and affiliation with the International Federation of Journalists. It is headed by Ukrainian Media Personality Roman Skrypin (though their history page says he resigned in 2011.)
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Then we have the Institute of Political Education which appears to be primarily dedicated to the EU integration project. Headed by Oleksandar Solontay and Andrey Strannikov, both associated with "Youth Guard" and other NGOs active in Ukrainian Politics.
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Next is the Institute of Media which appears to be an anti-Russia propaganda outfit. Its head is Victoria Syumar.
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Tired now, must take a break.
Thursday, September 6, 2012
The Greek Thing Redux -- Europe Has Gone Completely Mad
There are reports circulating that the Troika that runs Greece on behalf of its creditors (ie: the European Union, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund) has determined that Greek labor law must be "reconfigured" shall we say to enable/require Greek employees to work 6 or possibly 7 days a week, with restrictions on overtime pay, minimal breaks between shifts at labor, and with sharply reduced or eliminated wages and benefits.
Ah, the industrial model of the late 19th Century returns. What fun.
These recommendations or directives were in a leaked email from the Troika to the Greek Ministers of Labor and Finance, whose only job it seems is to implement the Troika's demands immediately and with a smile on.
These people are crazy. These people are absolutely insane. Europe has been down this path of enforced misery before; it didn't work out so well, not for Europeans and not for many peoples of the world who were, until being plunged back into the darkness, trying to recover from their experience with "European Civilization." (Newsman to Gandhi back in the day: "What do you think of Western Civilization?" Gandhi to newsman: "I think it would be a good idea.")
This is in a country where the official unemployment rate is in the high teens and due to the calamitous economic conditions imposed by the Troika already, it is expected to rise into the high 20s or even 30s soon enough.
In other words, those who can maintain employment for wages will be expected/required to work extra days and hours and with fewer or no benefits, while millions upon millions of Greeks go without jobs, housing, healthcare, education, food and so forth -- in order to satisfy the utterly insatiable demands of banksters.
If the banksters are able to pull it off in Greece, then they can -- and most likely will -- do it anywhere. Germany itself, the Center of the Euro-Core, could easily face the same calamitous conditions and would have no recourse. It is as plain a statement Europe's workers as you could want: "pay or else," nice little country you have here...
This isn't even so-called "Neo-Liberalism." It's straight out extortion.
For a time, I had some hope that the revolt of the Greek People would be able to stop the madness, but that hope has, at least for the time being, proved illusory. The revolt didn't seem to matter. Not to those in power, and certainly not to those who could engineer election victories for the more or less rightist parties (including the Socialists, damn) who would do the rest of Europe's (mostly Frau Merkel's) bidding.
So. Further down the Rabbit Hole.
Madness like this is not likely to end well...
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