They Rape from
Lysianka to Khasav-Yurt
On Monday, a grenade blew up in the hands of a tobacco packer in Simferopol.
From Samarkand with love! No one knows anything and probably never will.
On Tuesday, a fax from Dagestan: one Oleksandr Rudenko, born in Tinky,
Cherkasy oblast, has been taken hostage in Khasav-Yurt. This failed to
cause even ripple with the Cherkasy oblast authorities. No one knows who
will rescue our compatriot. It was hinted that he might buy his way out
of captivity himself.
34-year-old Mr. N. from Lysianka (Cherkasy oblast) has raped five old
women over the past three months. In general, as the detained rapist confessed,
he has been doing it for the last four years.
As was predicted, the local media are rife with interviews generously
granted by officials about the so-called Cherkasy model of stabilizing
the agroindustrial-complex. As conceived by the oblast state administration,
it is envisioned to set up an information resource center, investment consulting
and insurance companies, and a mortgage bank.
The extent to which such declarations are overtly derisive can be judged
by today's situation in the oblast: wage arrears to agricultural workers
have reached UAH 120 million (nine months on average), the debts of collective
farms to commercial structures for equipment and fuel crossed the line
of UAH 200 million long ago. In addition, only 10% of Cherkasy oblast agricultural
enterprises showed a profit last year (about 60 of 600). People cry rape,
but they are told they are on the right path. Even the blind can see that,
once Leonid Kuchma flops at the elections, all the hype of the Cherkasy
model will stop.
All things are being raped, big and small. Cherkasy Mayor Volodymyr
Oliynyk must be biting his nails over being nominated for the presidency.
The oblast center was visited the other day by an auditing commission from
Kyiv. Several dozen experts will be conducting a "pre-planned" audit of
the city council's financial activities. As many oblast-level auditors
worked here before them. The former did not find anything. The latter will.
This is why they are being sent.
In actuality, we are not so tolerant and compliant as might seem at
first sight. The "Kuchma! Kuchma! Kuchma!" total barrage coming at us from
the radio and television falls on far from sympathetic ears. Indeed, Mr.
Kuchma wants to make up in the 150 days that are left to the elections
with what he lost in the preceding 1500 days of his rule. Ukraine and Ukrainians
have been raped and humiliated for several years in a row, but, you see,
only now it dawned on him to issue urgent decrees. Where were you before,
Mr. President?
The updating of public awareness is most likely to begin at the grassroots.
Helpless, forsaken by the state, "raped" either by African tribes (the
recent case of our seamen), or Khasav-Yurt terrorists, or local maniacs,
but mostly by poverty, despair, and hopelessness brought on by their "sage
leadership," people are soon to choose a different fate. Haven't the Serbs
done an unheard-of thing? They managed to sow grain under the bombs on
a larger territory than in previous years! We can also elbow our way out
of this morass. The woman who suffered from a grenade explosion in Simferopol
will have her wound healed, Sashko Rudenko will be rescued from the bandits'
den by his kin and friends, nobody will dare touch the disgraced mayor
of Cherkasy, the humiliated women of Lysianka district will quickly come
round and forget their sorrow in peace and well-being, and, finally, the
fields will yield a bountiful crop.
By Yevhen BRUSLYNOVSKY, The Day, Cherkasy






