Party of the Regions and Communists are dancing to some gypsy pop singer at Maidan:
Tuesday, April 03, 2007
The first video, of a scary woman, a Communist or from the Regions. She's saying that Ukraine's in mortal danger and that Tymoshenko is selling us to America, et cetera. Even if I had more time, I doubt I'd survive translating and explaining more from her speech. I think her face and her intonations are more than enough.
P.S. The sound is lagging behind, for some reason.
P.P.S. "Again, the neo-Orangists are raising their heads and want to drive Ukraine into slavery to their masters across the ocean. Tell me, where, in what other country, the president of Ukraine forces East and West, South and North to collide with their foreheads? Where is such a thing possible?!"
Right. In what other country does Yushchenko do all those outrageous things he's doing here?
P.S. The sound is lagging behind, for some reason.
P.P.S. "Again, the neo-Orangists are raising their heads and want to drive Ukraine into slavery to their masters across the ocean. Tell me, where, in what other country, the president of Ukraine forces East and West, South and North to collide with their foreheads? Where is such a thing possible?!"
Right. In what other country does Yushchenko do all those outrageous things he's doing here?
I wanted to upload a few videos, but it's taking too long, so here're a couple pics...
"In memory of Yevhen Kushnaryov" t-shirt on this guy at Mariinsky Park...
Kharkiv tents are also dedicated to him:
Kushnaryov got shot to death by his buddy while hunting illegally in mid-January.
One more from the same Kushnaryov batch:
"Tymoshenko, Lutsenko, leave Ukraine alone!"
"In memory of Yevhen Kushnaryov" t-shirt on this guy at Mariinsky Park...
Kharkiv tents are also dedicated to him:
Kushnaryov got shot to death by his buddy while hunting illegally in mid-January.
One more from the same Kushnaryov batch:
"Tymoshenko, Lutsenko, leave Ukraine alone!"
Just back from Maidan, the Communist crowd and their leaders' speeches is something, but there arent't that many of them. It's not just the economy and poverty that they're blaming Yushechenko and Tymoshenko for, it's also the opposition's inability to write a single good song, build a single good building, paint a single good painting, etc. What a circus.
A tiny opposition group - with one Our Ukraine flag and two flags that I can't identify right away - stands across Khreshchatyk from the main coalition crowd.
(More later, because I have to go downstairs and drag Marta's stroller up - the elevator's still not working... Sorry!)
A tiny opposition group - with one Our Ukraine flag and two flags that I can't identify right away - stands across Khreshchatyk from the main coalition crowd.
(More later, because I have to go downstairs and drag Marta's stroller up - the elevator's still not working... Sorry!)
Ah, I can post again - couldn't just a few minutes ago, and so I left myself a comment to the previous post, saying that everything's quiet, both on our end of Khreshchatyk, and at Maidan. I'm watching Maidan through Channel 1+1's webcam - here - but I'll be going out in that direction soon. There are a few flags visible there, but I read at the Ukrainska Pravda Forum that people would be gathering there around 5 pm - it's not weekend, after all, most people are at work.
By 6:30 pm, all the old women were gone from the park and only the young guys remained, sweeping the garbage away and fixing the tents. I told my mama, and the news must've thrilled her, because she took Marta and papa for this really late stroll - to the park.
They were still there after 9 pm, after Yushchenko had announced his decision. A young man from the tents came up to them and said that it was probably better for them to go home now - because the president had just dissolved the parliament. Mama pretended to be surprised, even though she already knew about it from me. She asked the guy what would happen next, he said maybe they'd introduce curfew. She asked him whether bus #24 was still running, and he replied he had no idea - because he was from Donetsk. A very friendly young man, she told me, eager to help.
They were home around 10 pm - but Marta likes to throw things out of her stroller, and this time it was her new shoe that got lost along the way. Mama was very upset and insisted on going out again and looking for it, and if mama makes up her mind about something, there's no way to talk her out of it, so I didn't even try to stop her.
She returned when Marta was falling asleep, at 11:30 pm, with the shoe - which, I suspect, wasn't the main reason why she stayed out for so long.
I guess she waited for Maidan to begin right away - but it hasn't yet.
They were still there after 9 pm, after Yushchenko had announced his decision. A young man from the tents came up to them and said that it was probably better for them to go home now - because the president had just dissolved the parliament. Mama pretended to be surprised, even though she already knew about it from me. She asked the guy what would happen next, he said maybe they'd introduce curfew. She asked him whether bus #24 was still running, and he replied he had no idea - because he was from Donetsk. A very friendly young man, she told me, eager to help.
They were home around 10 pm - but Marta likes to throw things out of her stroller, and this time it was her new shoe that got lost along the way. Mama was very upset and insisted on going out again and looking for it, and if mama makes up her mind about something, there's no way to talk her out of it, so I didn't even try to stop her.
She returned when Marta was falling asleep, at 11:30 pm, with the shoe - which, I suspect, wasn't the main reason why she stayed out for so long.
I guess she waited for Maidan to begin right away - but it hasn't yet.
Monday, April 02, 2007
I'm drowning in photos, so here's the first set: 70 photos of the people gathered at Mariinsky Park by Verkhovna Rada today.
Mariinsky Park looks like a HUGE gypsy camp. The coalition must've decided to go real cheap: many young people, but even more old women, really tired by now. From what I've heard, they are going to stay there for at least a few more days. Which really pisses me off, because this park is more or less the only place where we can walk with Marta, but with all those people, it's impossible.
Most of the pro-coalition/pro-Yanukovych/pro-Moroz/pro-Symonenko folks at European Square had badges of the "delegates" of something called the National Unity Forum.
***
I loved how Mishah called the opposition/pro-Yulia/pro-Yushchenko/pro-Lutsenko crowd "the pro-presidential opposition" - so absurd.
***
A friend of ours was very impressed with Lutsenko's Maidan speech (which I missed): she said he was like a Ukrainian Lenin, and that made us frown, so she explained he was the most inspired and inspiring of them all.
***
At European Square, I eavesdropped on some Kyiv guys discussing their allies from Donetsk: how totally uncool they looked.
***
They were dancing at both squares, and here are the videos - three from the coalition rally at European Square, and one from Maidan, all shot shortly before I went back home - shortly before the beginning of Yulia's speech:
***
I loved how Mishah called the opposition/pro-Yulia/pro-Yushchenko/pro-Lutsenko crowd "the pro-presidential opposition" - so absurd.
***
A friend of ours was very impressed with Lutsenko's Maidan speech (which I missed): she said he was like a Ukrainian Lenin, and that made us frown, so she explained he was the most inspired and inspiring of them all.
***
At European Square, I eavesdropped on some Kyiv guys discussing their allies from Donetsk: how totally uncool they looked.
***
They were dancing at both squares, and here are the videos - three from the coalition rally at European Square, and one from Maidan, all shot shortly before I went back home - shortly before the beginning of Yulia's speech:
Sunday, April 01, 2007
Some political stories I've been hearing recently made me realize that trying to understand what's really going on up there without any insider knowledge is like trying to understand what all the archangels are up to up there in the clouds.
Other stories - stories from the ground - sound like something from the 1990s: an acquaintance, whose son is in some way connected to Lutsenko, had her apartment searched recently, and she nearly had a heart attack because of that, and although I know little about her and nothing about her son, I suspect he's not a very important person - because she is ... well, it's crazy but I'm not gonna write what she is because I don't want to cause her any more problems... all I'm gonna say is she works hard and earns little. And another acquaintance told me during Maidan's second anniversary that Lutsenko's people had raided his relative's downtown business while Lutsenko was still the minister of the interior. Again, go figure.
Other stories - stories from the ground - sound like something from the 1990s: an acquaintance, whose son is in some way connected to Lutsenko, had her apartment searched recently, and she nearly had a heart attack because of that, and although I know little about her and nothing about her son, I suspect he's not a very important person - because she is ... well, it's crazy but I'm not gonna write what she is because I don't want to cause her any more problems... all I'm gonna say is she works hard and earns little. And another acquaintance told me during Maidan's second anniversary that Lutsenko's people had raided his relative's downtown business while Lutsenko was still the minister of the interior. Again, go figure.
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