• Українська
  • Русский
  • English
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

A WEEK OF RHETORICAL QUESTIONS

13 November, 2012 - 00:00

The marching miners reached Kyiv and put up a tent town on Trukhaniv Island which a Kyiv guide mentions as local residents’ “favorite place of rest.” Maybe it is still favored by many, although it is anything but clean, and considering that the miners are resolved to stay put until they are paid their wages, and that the government cannot afford to pay them, one can only try to imagine what this place will turn into shortly. It is also likely to be frequented by various party activists, Protestant preachers, officials of a “Canadian wholesale company”, etc. One thing is certain: Trukhaniv Island will be another open-air political discussion club, like the one on Independence Square not so long ago. What will be the outcome? One consolation is that high temperature and rain are not among factors that foster revolutionary outbursts. On the other hand, we know from history about how crusades, reinforced by all the riffraff along the way, finally were not so much interesting in defending the Holy Sepulcher as in plunder.

Another question arises from several similar events. First, the President presented awards in commemoration of Journalist’s Day. In this sense, the question could be formulated, Can a journalist be “Meritorious” and not sound like fried ice? Then after the head of Interfax-Ukraine was appointed Deputy Head of the Administration, one could wonder how many times can one stumble over the same block? It suffices to remember how Boris Yeltsin made a similar appointment, so his head of Interfax could provide information support to his campaign. That time it worked, but how can Mr. Kuchma be sure that the same trick can be pulled off again? The point is not that Mr. Martynenko is worse than his Russian counterpart. The point is that their bosses are different.

Finally, a foreigner demonstrated that polling is important, but the skill in formulating questions even more so. At the Twenty-First Century Leaders Seminar, Mr. Loman of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation said the West is concerned about the “lethargy of the Ukrainian population,” and that here betting on a “strong leader” is worrying. In a word, they seem well aware of our problems, meaning that a dialogue with the West is getting to be practical, although unlike his many colleagues, Mr. Loman has spent quite some time in Ukraine.

 

Rubric: