Elmer - great translation thanks for doing it - it certainly is not easy to do and I am sure that everyone who reads it will appreciate the time and effort u put into it. (I know I do. :)

FYI - one of the best Uki to Eng dictionaries is Andrusyshen's
http://www.amazon.com/Ukrainian-English-Dictionary-C-H-Andrusyshen/dp/0802064213/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/002-2484269-6860030?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1176132756&sr=1-1

where підтасована means pre-shuffled cards for cheating
and бутафорна means concerning theatrical appurtenances

so the line could be translated fom "Керована, підтасована і бутафорна демократія– це не для нас." as "Guided, stacked deck and sham democracy - is not for us."

PoR is going to get slammed for this one "Organizers cancel rally backing Ukraine PM"
official reason because of weather: cold rain.

Maybe they're starting to see that they won't be getting a good return on the bribes they are handing out?

dlw

I incorporated IIU's suggested translation for the last bit into my post. Now, if only Dan et al would post links to said post...

dlw

http://www.cwnews.com/news/viewstory.cfm?recnum=50408

The All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations sent a letter to the country’s president, Viktor Yushchenko, in support of his dissolution of parliament and call for early parliamentary elections. Metropolitan Volodymyr of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church—Moscow Patriarchate did not sign the letter.

Yulia's doing a good job talking up the need to keep the Orange Revolution from going Sour.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=5&article_id=81284

Is it perhaps time to bring the debate to the public of the East? informing the West is all fine and good but would not a tour Eastward make more sense?

Isn't that part of the problem since 2004? Penetration into the eastern and southern oblasts. Perhaps town hall meetings? Because the only version that people are hearing is the PoR one ...

case in point - press conferences after NSNU mtg. where Pres. Yushchenko was elected as head but declined as he cannot be head of state and head of political party.

Kyrylenko - explained the events to the reporters and mikes and that he was elected head of NSNU

And standing right nearby is Raisa who then went into a rant for the journalists how even his own party did not want Pres. Yushchenko to head it.

Ques.: whose comments were aired in the East and South? and whose were not?

UA electorate need information not propoganda.

Perhaps, an approach may be to talk with the protestors from the East or to provide acts of charity for them or share what the OR was like and how it was different from their protest.

I'm thinking the official media channels will not be too helpful, so it might need to be thru alternatives...

dlw

IIU - Thank you for the link to the dictionary, and for the additional translation.

Foreign notes has a great partial translation, and comments on, Moroz's very strange speech.

Que pasa?
NSNU is planning an action but not BYuT???
I thought they signed a pact and were back together.

All quiet on the Yulia front. [This occurred in the past when a 'wait and see' approach is taken. So the pendulum is still swinging and has not shown who the "Viktor" will be (plus at the same time ... wonderful time for deals brokering --- kaching!)]

Elmer, de nada!
U r very cool to have done it!!! and I was too tied up to EVEN consider a translation plus too ANGRY that it was not posted on the UA Pres. website. (against whom I have many deep and serious beefs - but do acknowledge that they have gotten a bit better than in 2004.)

Tale of how #$$%^&&* imp. translators can be!!!!
Sibel Edmonds
http://www.aclu.org/safefree/general/18828res20050126.html

Every time I see the Party of Regions, I have an absolutely overwhelming impression that I am seeing the Soviet Union. That includes their very poor attempt to copy, or make their own version, of the Orange Revolution, complete with poor young guys, and old ones, standing in front of a stage with some non-descript music, waving blue flags.

Here is yet another neo-soviet tactic - the "mental accusation." Popular during the soviet era, it meant that if you did not appreciate the wonders of the Soviet worker's paradise, you had to be mentally insane, and therefore, were put into a mental institution.

Dissenters were quite frequently the beneficiaries of this "mental health care" system.

So - a deputy from the Party of Regions is initiating an impeachment move against President Yushchenko, on "mental health" grounds.

Complete with massive line-up on stage, soviet style.

Long live the Soviet Union - NOT!

http://www.ukranews.com/eng/article/36205.html


Lutsenko is absolutely right - these guys are dinosaurs, and the cannot let go of soviet rhetoric, techniques and propaganda.

My impression is that noone in Ukraine believes them.

The best these guys can do is to get people to pretend to believe them, if the people get paid a few hryvnias.

It remains to be seen how long they can keep paying people to pretend to believe them.

Check out the following article re: attempt to copy
"The Regions Have Learnt Nothing"
http://www.gpu-ua.info/index.php?&id=157038&rid=02

and I agree with Lutsenko that there should be single unified voting block pro-democracy forces - both NSNU and BYuT and others
http://www.gpu-ua.info/index.php?&id=157118&rid=01

I was shocked to see that they would be submitting lists separately - have they learnt nothing?
United we stand, divided we fall. Razom nas bahato, nas ne podalatu. In unity there is strength. ...

Elmer, Funny --- ur link to story at ukranews.com --- Even Moroz realized that the deputy call for impeachment was way out there.

But again I am angered that PoR gets airtime whereas the NSNU, BYuT deputies sit it out. But again, the Coalition people are only opening their mouths and putting their foots in.

Moroz's stuff was weird was I think he was communicating via News to whom he wanted to communicate. Person must not be answering their phone.

-------------------------
In France, they have billard balls with the faces of the politicians for the coming elections - idea for Ukraine?

I like the "Damn Them Both" article in Mirror Weekly in eng (but need to free register) esp. as it points out that

"There is another open question: even if the Ukrainian political leaders come to terms and even if the election is more or less democratic, who can guarantee that the opponents will return to the negotiating table and reach an agreement on amending the Constitution? The Europeans believe, not without reason, that the primary cause of the current political crisis in Ukraine was the constitutional crisis and that the Ukrainian legal field is a minefield. Therefore, the amendments to the Organic Law must rule out any possibility of diarchy: Ukraine must have one top leader and speak in one voice on the international arena."
http://www.mirror-weekly.com/nn/index/642/

Which IMHO is true - the UA Constitutional/legal system/ judicial institution needs to be improved. It is nation building.

This looks quite serious...
http://www.pravda.com.ua/en/news/2007/4/8/7424.htm

Well a coreporter from PACE thinks Yusch didn't get approval, but that doesn't say anything for what PACE overall thinks, which is what was implied in a blogpost that elided the true content of the original.

Coreporters can be bribed, right?
dlw

Official english translation of the Pres. speech up on Pres. govt site.
http://www.president.gov.ua/en/news/data/1_14908.html

orig. link for UA piece was the PoR website which is interesting as it corrects a wide misperception. The goal was not to get 300 votes in Parliament but 450.

"cannot let go of soviet rhetoric, techniques and propaganda."
<<<VERY TRUE>>>

"The coordinator of parliamentary majority is sure that present enlargement of the coalition – it is only the beginning of massive unity process. “The coalition will be expanding at the cost of all the fraction with no exception. Our target is not to have 300 votes in the parliament. Our target is to consolidate all 450 deputies and unite the Ukraine”, - notes Bogatureova."

(Borg-like attitude - "join the collective".)

This is exactly why the opposition keeps referring to its' self as "the democratic forces".

What absolutely astounds me, still, is that a sick bastard judge, who is supposed to be upholding the law, attacks a secretary in order to grab a court seal.


I think it is symptomatic of the fact that there is no independent judiciary in Ukraine.

The commies, and other zRadniks, keep accusing the President of putting pressure on the Constitutional Court, and of threatening to dismiss judges if they don't rule a certain way.

How do they know?

The fact that judges can be dismissed by either parliamant or an officer in government is appalling.

Judges ought to be elected, and stand for re-election every few years, or they ought to be appointed for life through a hearing and confirmation processes which review their qualifications and possible bias, subject to impeachment for any misconduct in office.

That way, you have an independent judiciary.

Finally, I don't think that a reporter's opinion from PACE is worth anything as any sort of legal precedent in Ukraine.

At least, I hope not. PoRossiya and Moroz and company, are grasping at straws, like drowning men.

So they will grasp at some sort of "legal opinion" from PACE. Or, they will flood the media, together with the commies, about how Yushchenko is pressuring the Constitutional Court - but they don't say how.

These thugs are terrified of elections.

well, speaking of pressuring judges, 5 judges have stepped forward to publicly announce that the unprecedented pressure on the part of certain political parties is improper.

There a 18 judges total, 6 appointed by the President, 6 appointed by the zRada, and 6 appointed by a council of judges.

3 of the 5 who stepped forward are appointed by the President - Shishkin, Kamlo, and Lylak.

Of the other 2, Machuzak, a woman, was appointed by a council of judges, and Steciuk was appointed by the zRada, but he is the only one of the zRada's quota of 6 that is considered to be from the Our Ukraine faction. his appointment having been lobbied by Roman Zvarych.

News story about the judges' announcement here:

http://5tv.com.ua/newsline/266//39517/


Detailed analysis of the individuals on the Constitutional Court here:

http://www.pravda.com.ua/news/2007/4/6/57073.htm