How ironic, I was just writing about you ... I mean, you in a generic kind of way. I translated
this article from the Dutch newspaper Trouw, and then, having looked around a bit at Indymedia and the Free Republic, jotted down some notes
in this post here, that seem to refer to you too.
Hey, I dont mind anyone pointing out that Yushchenko also just rose up through the ranks of apparatchiks, and that he was himself a Prime Minister under Kuchma not so long ago. He left not because he was already possessed by a revolutionary fervour for systemic change, but primarily just because he proponed a course of stricter market reforms than Kuchma would allow. Ever since though, he's become a focal point for the opposition against the corrupt, authoritarian Kuchma regime, and now the fraud that kept him from the Presidency has become the focus for much of the Ukrainian people's impatience and longing for something more normal, something more like the West, more like Europe, something more free and more fair and more transparent. That used to be the people the West would support; Reagan surely did.
Now is Yushchenko, or Yulia Tymoshenko, worthy of carrying that hope? When he wins, we'll find out soon enough - I don't think all
that much will change all
that radically - but with this popular uprising under way and the pressure it will put Yushchenko under to actually deliver if he does make it, I'm sure it will be a change for the better.
No, a little scepticism about this or that politician from either of the camps is no shock to anyone. But what of this demonization of George Soros? It seems wildly irrational, and works up to the point where many rabid rightwingers will by definition choose the side of whoever Soros is against - whether it be Milosevic, Meciar, even Lukashenka, or now, Yanukovich. Literally! It's the oddest thing. But I guess no odder than the farlefties who sympathise with Yanukovich even when they know nothing about him, but just because they know the Americans support Yushchenko, and so the Americans and what must be their devious, imperialist plans must be stopped. Really the oddest thing. But the farlefties and the rabid righties seem to even be finding each other here now, as they have long since in Eastern Europe in various appearances of fascocommunist "red-brown" coalitions. Luckily, neither Bush nor the Democrats are on their side.