But does that mean Yuschenko is the next Tom Paine? I'm not holding my breath. My old colleague at the eXile in Moscow, the writer/politician Eduard Limonov, put it best: The choice between two swine-looking bureaucrats is not so exciting. Ukrainians have not choosen [sic] between say, Che Guevara and Yanukovitch, between capitalist development and Revolutionary way of life... Coal miners better to drink their Ukrainian vodka "Goritka," [sic] stay home and fuck their huge wives.
It's gorilka, stupid.
All these stories about "Yu=Ya, they're all swine, what's the difference?" are so lazy and easy to write for the alternative crowd. Of course Yushchenko is not the next Tom Paine. For one thing, Paine was a propagandist (for a worthy enough cause), not a presidential candidate concerned with the realities of governance. And Limonov is just obnoxious as usual.
ReplyDeleteScott Clark has an interesting rebuttal to a similar type letter slamming Tymoshenko in the Moscow Times:
"Yuschenko has the power he has for one simple reason: the people. If it weren't for the people, he would not be in the position he is in. These people got out of their houses, some of them left their jobs, braved rumors--well founded as it turned out--of imminent attacks by thugs or of a crackdown by the military, and gathered on the square and around public buildings to get things changed. This represents a fundamental change in this country. No politician has ever ridden to power here on the backs of a popular movement. And that is a good thing. To be a bad thing, Yuschenko would have to turn his back on the people and rule like Kuchma ruled. Is that likely? I don't think so now. The people can take to the streets just as assuredly for Yuschenko abuses as they have done for Kuchma/Yanukovych abuses. And it doesn't even have to be the threat that they will do it. It's the fact that they might do it that would be a source of problems for a government that would seek to rule like Kuchma/Yanukovych did."
http://foreignnotes.blogspot.com/
Glad to hear about your kitties, Neeka!
Julie