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Where there is no law, but every man does what is right in his own eyes, there is the least of real liberty
Henry M. Robert

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 24: OUR DESCENDANTS WILL HAVE NOTHING TO WORRY ABOUT

13 November, 2012 - 00:00

Money was last week’s watchword. Parliament set up a special commission to investigate in cases of bribery during votes. There is even a new anecdote on the subject: the chairman of the commission of inquiry is summing up its work, saying “It has been established for a fact that Faction N did pay Faction M a thousand dollars a vote...” A voice from Faction N: “They gypped us! They made us pay $20,000!” Anyway, the Deputies say they have no such information. One of them, Zadorozhna, no longer a Progressive Socialist who used to vote for Hromada, said she would be interested to know how much her voice costs.

As for voting in Parliament, the process seems to have acquired an ad infinitum status. First, the Solons voted for two Wednesdays. June 24 is still here, meaning that that day’s session has not be adjourned. When this did not help they decided to nominate candidates with each faction taking its turn. Since they will all hold back their “strike forces” for later, every Deputy is likely to become a nominee, so in a year’s time or so we will all know their faces and ideas like the back of our hand, and what others think of them. Incidentally, this will be when Wednesday June 24 will finally end. Personally, I am glad, because radio broadcasts from the audience sound more intriguing than Shakespeare or a soap opera.

Getting back to money, it was an even more dramatic story. At first, Mr. Pustovoitenko said the government will take extraordinary measures against tax evaders and that these measure will yield two billion hryvnias, precisely what the budget needs to pay for domestic government bonds and foreign debts. I thought he meant the Hr 1.5 billion fine levied on UESU by the special government commission. But then the IMF’s Stanley Fisher came and promised $2 billion worth of EFF. Everybody thought about that pretty sum. But then the Cabinet approved the “procedures of withdrawal of cash from taxpayers with tax liabilities.” After I read it I realized that I underestimated our government. Indeed, one-time measures cannot solve the problem and we have steady income reserves still to be used. By the way, do you know why people still find medieval treasures in Ukraine? The Middle Ages were an extremely troublesome period. Anyone – a domestic or foreign lord – could come and rob the working masses of their last cent. So people buried their meager funds and this was one of the reasons for the economic decline at the time. In other words, our descendants will have nothing to worry about. There will be enough treasures left after us and to spare.

 

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