I have not posted on my blogsite for some time now and apologize to all those handfuls of people worldwide who rely upon my biased views. I had finally developed some more pictures of the city, but the scanner in the office of the university has mysteriously been borrowed. Now the workload has hit a peak as documents must be filed towards the end of the first half of the fiscal expense year - I do not believe in balanced budgets fortunately. My internet budget line is well surpassed - I am not sure how to mark notes on my files - maybe by claiming that budget limits were seen as healthy suggestions - much like speed limits on most roads. Then came the Ukrainian elections - the final runoff between the two major candidates, Yanukovich and Yuschenko and I managed to see the protests on the streets here in Odessa - the Orange Yuschenko protestors are much more visible and loud. I do not speak Ukrainian very well - I only know a few phrases like "another beer please" and please and thank you, vodka, bread, and some others. But I understood exactly what the crowds were saying since it was one name repeated. I have a sense of humor and was tempted on several occasions to raise my voice and yell back, "what, who???"
I guess the Canadian embassy has already warned Canadians not to travel here, and I am not sure what their warnings are so far on those who are here. The place is peaceful where I am and the heart of protests are really based in Kiev, and this is to where everyone is headed if they want to hit the streets. It is actually very calm and peaceful given the seriousness of the events. In fact, I have been surprised by 1. how few visible police are on the streets (invisible police – by the very word, I cannot say I observed, but suspected they were there in comfortable numbers and at both camps), 2. the lack of any violence, and the ability of people to stand side by side opposing each other’s views to very serious degrees of tolerance. To be sure, I hardly ever take any of the embassy's suggestions on local conditions seriously - the same embassy recommends not to eat the food or go out of doors on election day for fear of being beaten up. My chances would be higher of being brutalized in any way shape or form by going into a bar in downtown Halifax and saying Alexander Kieth's beer is worse than Bush lite. Also, it seems to me a bit more than strange that a country with few government positions up for vote (The Senate, Queen and governor General are not elected) could turn to a presidential system and republic for that matter and cry about lack of democracy. Of course, I have no trouble agreeing that there should be free and fair elections everywhere – why restrict our attention to only Canada and why doesn’t Ukraine suggest Canada elect the head of state – that would be great.
Well, the news is full of pictures, views, slogans, chants, and so much that I can hardly believe it. But sometimes I think this - what am I not seeing? For every protestor on the street there are ten at home. Given the seriousness of the situation and the divide of the country, the meddling by outside powers, I am surprised that an all out revolution has not already happened. Think for example of the severity of the decline of the USSR. Millions of people lost their pensions, jobs, homes, futures - stability. Roads have been left unpaved, schools have had an exodus of teachers. The quality of most goods and services came into serious question, and factories shut down. People who never thought they would lose their job suddenly found there is nothing to do for the market economy to earn a living. Political careers were lost, and the vast bulk of the resource industries were stolen by a small handful of well connected rogues. These same industries and resources were the very ones built by taxes paid by the vast bulk of the population. How angry would most people in the world be to go through all this? Yet, the water runs, buses run, most people get at most 100 bucks a month, trains run on time, people are polite, friendly, hospitable. I have travelled all over the place and in some pretty dodgy ways - and people have shared their food, lives, and only I was robbed twice over 4 1/2 years. Actually given the circumstances I am surprised that this place works at all - especially given the strong disincentives - the fact that the USSR is not worse is proof that it is much stronger and more fit than what we think by looking only at what is going wrong instead of what is going right - what continues to work - there have not been massive deaths - murders - and I strongly believe that most places here feel safer than most parts of America and Canada in the cities. Shouldn't we witness the reverse if all that is on the media is true?
The same is true of these elections. If there is a despotic hand controlling what has happened - why a 49 to 46 split, why haven't police cracked down on early rioters, why is there no violence yet? Aren't people supposed to be free in a democracy to hit the streets? Are they hitting the streets? Are authorities, Putin included, discussing? What didn't Bush, Powell, Rumsfeldt, et al do when confronted by the people? They stuck to their plans and actually have re-written the rules. I think at this stage it is far more interesting to look at the numbers of people not on the streets, the vast majority of people in Ukraine, and what else we are not seeing.
Those are my impressions for now. The same holds true as always. Since I do not know if what I see is 100% accurate, I have the right to change my views as events unfold and prove my old views completely wrong. I will not state how often this happens.
понедельник, ноября 29, 2004
воскресенье, ноября 14, 2004
Top Ten Reasons to be Happy With the US Election Results
10. There can be no doubt in anyone’s mind now that there are serious structural problems with the way America does democracy. All those who held such high hopes for Americanization and adopting US styles institutions, replicating them – can now have no doubt that there is much more to having a peaceful affluent society than having a nice looking constitution – which appears to be a piece of paper after all. The likely result of this is to spark international debate and discussion over “then what” if the American way cannot guarantee citizens freedom of choice, the right to pursue happiness and have a meaningful, fulfilling, life.
9. That the USA, as the single largest consumer of the world export market, might be forced to import less as it experiences financial difficulties from paying for the war and growing trade imbalances. This is great news for the vast majority of the world’s population – it means that international export prices will go down, there will be more available for the other 95% of the world, and maybe a lot of people in third world countries will get to eat their own foodstuffs rather than being forced to export it for nothing in return. Maybe this will indirectly cause a reduction in world poverty. If the USA chooses not to engage with the rest of the world on issues that affect us all, it would be at least consistent to ask them to stop drinking all the rest of the world’s water, burning all of the oil in big cars, eating the food, and taking all the clothes.
8. Canada might now decide to not adopt the US dollar as its currency and decide instead to Euro-ize. I think Bush would label this process “Eura-ification”.
7. That semantics matter – United States of America is easy to say, but united they clearly are not.
6. For all those who believed that high income per capita was the sole goal and indicator of a great nation, there is now evidence to rethink in a healthier direction – there is more to a nation that having high average incomes – there are all kinds of other factors that affect social well being such as democracy, freedom of speech, religion, peace, human rights, etc. all of which are being removed in the current USA.
5. Except for Bush’s religion, all others now see what happens if one religion claims to be the right one for everybody and uses the government as a tool to inflict its values on the rest of us in every way it can. I can only see this as promoting secularism in almost every way – and allowing all other religions to realize the value of letting people choose their own faiths for themselves peacefully.
4. That economists have been right all along – you cannot trust intentions and give blind faith to your government – although most people most of the time are sane, generous, nice, the fact of the matter is that we must build government institutions to protect ourselves from being taken advantage of by the 5% of the population who will organize and abuse that power at the expense of the rest – like we all lock our doors and keep our money in our pockets, we have to actively take part in democracies and building institutions to keep people like Bush out of power as much as possible in as many countries as possible.
3. The rest of the world can have no doubt or excuse of what it will be up against for the next four years as the Bush administration makes more cases for war(s) and tramples on more human rights and freedoms around the world. The election result, albeit an indicator of very rough times ahead, is also a wake up call to the rest of us that democracies are never completely achieved, they need to be constantly maintained and defended.
2. Often people need to see what happens when something is absent to appreciate its presence. Seeing the election results in the USA must mean that universal access to education is essential to the well functioning of a democracy – without it, you may end up with presidents like George W. Bush.
1. It has allowed the rest of the world to unite in a way that has never been possible before. Virtually every country and ethnicity in the world now stands together in its opposition to the Bush administration, including half of the USA. All events cause reactions and in spite of the fact that I do not like Bush being president, I am convinced that this will cause the opposite action which is for the rest of the world to see the value in developing common commitments to human rights, democratic development, peace and freedom to pursue happiness since these are no longer a goals in the USA for US citizens and certainly the welfare of other nations is nowhere on the agenda. I would guess that most of us do not want to see what has happened in the USA happen in our own countries.
9. That the USA, as the single largest consumer of the world export market, might be forced to import less as it experiences financial difficulties from paying for the war and growing trade imbalances. This is great news for the vast majority of the world’s population – it means that international export prices will go down, there will be more available for the other 95% of the world, and maybe a lot of people in third world countries will get to eat their own foodstuffs rather than being forced to export it for nothing in return. Maybe this will indirectly cause a reduction in world poverty. If the USA chooses not to engage with the rest of the world on issues that affect us all, it would be at least consistent to ask them to stop drinking all the rest of the world’s water, burning all of the oil in big cars, eating the food, and taking all the clothes.
8. Canada might now decide to not adopt the US dollar as its currency and decide instead to Euro-ize. I think Bush would label this process “Eura-ification”.
7. That semantics matter – United States of America is easy to say, but united they clearly are not.
6. For all those who believed that high income per capita was the sole goal and indicator of a great nation, there is now evidence to rethink in a healthier direction – there is more to a nation that having high average incomes – there are all kinds of other factors that affect social well being such as democracy, freedom of speech, religion, peace, human rights, etc. all of which are being removed in the current USA.
5. Except for Bush’s religion, all others now see what happens if one religion claims to be the right one for everybody and uses the government as a tool to inflict its values on the rest of us in every way it can. I can only see this as promoting secularism in almost every way – and allowing all other religions to realize the value of letting people choose their own faiths for themselves peacefully.
4. That economists have been right all along – you cannot trust intentions and give blind faith to your government – although most people most of the time are sane, generous, nice, the fact of the matter is that we must build government institutions to protect ourselves from being taken advantage of by the 5% of the population who will organize and abuse that power at the expense of the rest – like we all lock our doors and keep our money in our pockets, we have to actively take part in democracies and building institutions to keep people like Bush out of power as much as possible in as many countries as possible.
3. The rest of the world can have no doubt or excuse of what it will be up against for the next four years as the Bush administration makes more cases for war(s) and tramples on more human rights and freedoms around the world. The election result, albeit an indicator of very rough times ahead, is also a wake up call to the rest of us that democracies are never completely achieved, they need to be constantly maintained and defended.
2. Often people need to see what happens when something is absent to appreciate its presence. Seeing the election results in the USA must mean that universal access to education is essential to the well functioning of a democracy – without it, you may end up with presidents like George W. Bush.
1. It has allowed the rest of the world to unite in a way that has never been possible before. Virtually every country and ethnicity in the world now stands together in its opposition to the Bush administration, including half of the USA. All events cause reactions and in spite of the fact that I do not like Bush being president, I am convinced that this will cause the opposite action which is for the rest of the world to see the value in developing common commitments to human rights, democratic development, peace and freedom to pursue happiness since these are no longer a goals in the USA for US citizens and certainly the welfare of other nations is nowhere on the agenda. I would guess that most of us do not want to see what has happened in the USA happen in our own countries.
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