IIU

Bringing You Nearly All the Interesting News from Ukraine

Just in time for the September 2007 Parliamentary elections, frequent Orange Ukraine commenter IIU has come swooping in to make sure readers of Orange Ukraine can find out what's going on in the country, without trawling the whole of the Ukrainian blogosphere to do so. This emergency service couldn't have come at a better time, because Dan and Lesya were off traipsing around Japan and readers would have gotten nothing if they were depending on Dan.

IIU has been a blogger here at Orange Ukraine since September, but a commenter long before that, since nearly the inception of the site back in 2004, in fact. The bio she has requested for the site:

Opinionated, overweight, middle-aged broad who obviously spends too much time in front of the computer and let's face it--it was either this or becoming a "cat lady".

To which I will add that she also brings to the site an openness to whatever the news brings, and an interest in exploring around the Internet and sharing what she finds in a spirit of camraderie with others who are interested in the country. Those are both core values I try to promote here, so having her join has been quite fortunate.

On a final note: for those who are interested, I believe the acronym comes from "Invest in Umbrellas", a reference to a time when I suggested readers purchase some protection from a deluge of particulalry nasty (brown and runny) political discussion. I've got the the exact link somewhere around here... Prior to that, she went under the handle "Hello" which won an Orange Ukraine award for friendliness, though it placed pretty low on descriptiveness.

Dan McMinn

Blogging Ukraine

My wife, Lesya, and I put together this site. Most of the time, she acts as Orange Ukraine's illustrious graphic designer and translator of Ukrainian articles. We have recently returned to the US after a study program in Japan and are preparing to move to Ukraine for good in the next couple months.

Personal History

I lived in Ukraine from February of 2001 to June of 2005, living in Kyiv starting in June of 2003.

While in Kyiv, I spent the majority of time as Editor for Celenia, a Danish software company. While there I worked with Ukrainian engineers to produce software for Microsoft. I also edited for Eastern European Monitor, a non-profit sorta-monthly magazine focused on non-profit-y/human rights-y goodness in Eastern Europe. The magazine was put out by the Eastern European Development Institute.

Before moving to Kyiv I spent two years with the Peace Corps in its Ukraine group. I was in Kherson, which was a location where I could really make a difference: 95% of results on a Google search of the city yielded dating agencies, the biggest game (industry) in town since shipbuilding, agricultural combine assembly and textiles all failed. (though now shipbuilding and agriculture are on the rebound and IT is showing startling progress - I claim no credit for these)

After finishing with Peace Corps I moved on to edit for two Ukrainian business and economics e-newspapers. Both are now, sadly defunct (I don't claim credit for this, either).

In the Orange Revolution

During the Ukrainian election I was an OSCE observer for both the first and second rounds of the Ukrainian election. It was a great experience, but unfortunately we can't give personal takes on what we saw as individuals, only direct you to the OSCE's findings. I will say I totally agree with their assessment. After reading the OSCE's findings, as well as those of IRI, NDI, the International Helsinki Federation, the EU, and others, I saw that all legitimate observers said there was significant fraud in the second round of the Ukrainian election. This was to be expected, since the campaign was similarly, and obviously, fraught.

What followed is quite well known, worldwide. An astounding number of peaceful and resolved Ukrainians congregated in the center of Kyiv. Their example inspired me, and I created this site as a way of contributing.

After I created the site, I got more involved in the Orange Revolution, eventually signing on to help with the Yushchenko campaign by editing and contributing to their English-language Ukrainian Election Update.

After the Orange Revolution

So why is this site still up? After all, it is called Orange Ukraine, and the Orange Revolution ended ages ago (December 26, 2004, when Yushchenko was officially voted into office, or possibly after the Supreme Court had dismissed all of Yanukovych's frivolous lawsuits and Yushchenko was sworn in on January 23, 2005)

Basically, I've enjoyed blogging on Ukrainian politics. I am interested in whether the Orange Revolution will be thought of as marking a major change in politics in the country, or merely a short bright moment in a dark history. So I will continue to blog about the progress (or lack thereof) of the after the event, in an effort to understand where Ukraine is going in the future.

My wife and I plan to make Ukraine our home when we (eventually) settle down, so I will be keeping up with events in the country. Having this blog lets me keep in touch with other people who are also doing so.