Yawning Heights

We rank 102nd. This fact, shameful for a major European state, is likely to lay the groundwork for future doctoral dissertations on topics like the Degradation of Ukraine, 1994-1999, although the population will not find anything new or surprising in the UN report. As the saying goes, "we have what we have," and only the blind cannot see it. We are not going to discuss here the causes, which are already common knowledge, or gage the effectiveness of the current regime, which will be done by our voters in the October 31 presidential elections. Still, we cannot help noting the very indicative reaction by our government. Could you guess which of the three statements is correct?

1. The Prime Minister shot himself.

2. The government has offered its resignation as a body.

3. The ministers have locked themselves in Kyiv's Ukraine Palace for an urgent meeting to brainstorm the problem of paying off wage and pension arrears and improving the situation in public health and education.

Your guess is wrong. In reality, the Ukrainian government challenges the UN conclusions about this country's place in terms of human development. An analytical report the government prepared for Verkhovna Rada states, "Expert examination has found a considerable number of errors in the UNDP Report on Human Development resulting in a reduced integral appraisal of the human development index in Ukraine in comparison with the true situation."

According to the Ukrainian experts, that Ukraine should rank "at least 85-90th." And this, no doubt, radically changes the whole picture. In other words, if we are 102nd, it is shameful when old people go hungry and not so old people are not paid wages and salaries for months on end. But, if we are 85th, it ceases to be shameful, although the elderly still starve and pay arrears remain.

The scientific expert examination of the UNDP report was done by the Institute of Economic Forecasting of the National Academy of Sciences on request of the Cabinet of Ministers. The Ukrainian government believes that "far from all indices of the Report on Human Development are based on the official statistics of countries. These indices are based on statistical data which differ fundamentally from State Statistics Committee data."

In no way do I want to cast a shadow of doubt on the professional background of our statisticians. On the contrary, I simply recall the old saying, "There are lies, a damned lies, and statistics," and suggest that under current circumstances it might be amended to "There are lies, a damned lies, and the presidential election campaign."