Does Kuchma Think Corrupt Officials Dart Out of Entryways?

Interfax-Ukraine reports that, speaking on television in Vinnytsia, the President said that in Ukraine the situation in combating corruption is “far better than in many countries.” Frankly speaking, one would like to hear from the President in what country the corruption situation is worse than here. This writer is so far in possession of only the results of a Harvard Development Institute research paper in which we hold honorable 59th place among the 59 countries studied. But this is only idle curiosity. The Harvard study is most likely not to include those with whom we are used to comparing ourselves, let alone those with whom the President calls upon us to integrate.

But that's not all. The President, Interfax continues, stressed that corruption “is not a Ukrainian invention” and “in such developed states as the US, for instance, people are advised to keep in the evening... Don't you yourselves feel that you can now breathe easier on the street, and you can walk down the streets in the evening?” Mr. Kuchma asked television viewers. Honestly, I reread this passage several times to make certain that I had understood it properly. Remembering the above definition of corruption, I conjured up horrible pictures of American cities, where in the evening honest working people are being assaulted by the crowds of bribe-extorting bureaucrats. I might have believed this if I had not seen with my own eyes: there are no such things there. Perhaps in Lypky, where the President must be going for his walks, he was attacked by the unruly bureaucrats, but any Kyivan will confirm that an official who accosts passersby is so far quite a rare phenomenon. The President must have confused corruption with street crime, but the dropped rate of the latter can be easily explained: there is nobody to and nothing rob! It's a losing business.

One last thing. Mr. Kuchma thinks the Ukrainians, “like nobody else,” are undermining their own image on the plane of corruption. “Let us combat this evil together, and not only shout about it.” What can I say here? I only recalling what we used to say when we were children, “Now I'm closing my eyes, and you'll all disappear.”