Pics of Protest

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This and the folowing picture depict the mourners, protesters, and concerned passers-by that watched the procession carrying the body of Tent City's only casualty to date.

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Protesters carried candles for the processional.

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The dead man's name was Slava. He was from the very small village of Morshin in L'viv region. He died on Christmas Eve, Dec 24, of a heart attack.

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The instrument this protester is playing is the traditional Ukrainian kolisna lira. Close up it looks like a cross between a monkey-grinder-type music box and a violin, and makes a sound that is also something of a combination of both.

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The next six pictures are all of different tents in Tent City. After the declaration was made that there would be a round three, the tents cleared out enough that all the remaining residents were moved into the much bigger military tents, whic were also much warmer than the tiny camping ones.

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As part of some Yushchenko activism, a local art academy had its professional painters come in and each decorate one of the tents. The result is an assortment of tents which are quite attractive, if a bit heterogeneous.

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I still have no idea why they were shooting off fireworks on western Christmas, since they celebrate Orthodox Christmas. Perhaps it is the same kind of love of celebration that motivated a fellow traveller on our L'viv flight to pass out chocolate to everyone on the plane in celebration of the Day of Energy Industry Employees.

More Lampooning

Just more lampooning propaganda. I especially dig the Rambo-style chick. It is cute and fuzzy. (The chick is just another riff on Yanukovych's Egg Incident.)

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Georgiy Gongadze, the journalist for Ukrainska Kriminalna newspaper whose headless body was found in a ditch outside of Kyiv. Tapes of President Kuchma saying he should "be dealt with" shortly before his murder were released by a former Kuchma bodyguard.

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The caption around his picture reads "Georgiy, you are with us!"

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The sign reads, "the salvation of Ukraine is in Jesus Christ".

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blue tree

Is it just me, or did they choose the blue color as a snub back when they ordered the lights for this Christmas tree?