June Blues

With enough influence over local authorities to do as much finagling as the incumbent, Speaker Oleksandr Tkachenko could quite plausibly wind up grabbing the brass ring, although there is plenty of mud to be slung at him concerning the ill-famed Land and People Association and other of his enterprises that cave cost the Ukrainian state tens, if not hundreds, of millions of dollars. As avid a proponent of Slavic (read, East Slavic) solidarity as Batsko Lukashenka, President Tkachenko would be willing to sell out this country's independence for the biblical Esau's mess of pottage. And forget about economic reform. The grossly inefficient collective farms suit the Speaker just fine.

There is no evidence either he or the President understand what is at the root of Ukraine's industrial ruin, which is largely in the way the country was industrialized. In a world where all prices were controlled, nobody really knew what anything really cost, nor did it really matter. A thing cost what they state said it did, no more and no less. The Soviet way of doing things was to keep putting labor and materials into something until it got the product it wanted. Cost-efficiency did not matter. It made no difference that it took, say, four times as much wood to make a given amount of paper than in the West or that 500 workers did what fifty could do with modern technology in Western industry. But when the Soviet system disintegrated and the Ukrainian economy confronted the outside world, it began to matter a great deal. Of course, many of the enterprises built on such principles simply could not survive. They should have been closed. They were not, they simply stand idle, and they are a major force dragging this country into its economic abyss.

Facing boycotts and bans, candidates truly capable of turning things around for the better face an uphill struggle. How can you get your message to the people if you are banned from the airwaves and all but a handful of printed publications? How can you explain that there is no way back to the way things were, when all people know is that what used to be seems better than what is? There are those who will try, and I wish them every success. They are my students' and this country's last hope.