On the Maidan, the birth of a real Ukrainian civil society

The Globe and Mail ^ | Published Friday, Feb. 21 2014, 12:55 PM EST | Daniel Bilak

[FBD]

Snip: ... "Unlike those on the Maidan, no one is prepared to die for the regime of Viktor Yanukovych regime. There will not be a civil war; claims to the contrary are attempts by eastern and Crimean political and economic elites to manipulate the situation to preserve their wealth and local feudal power. Most Ukrainians see this as a war between a dictatorial president and his people... (snip)

....The Maidan, therefore, has not spawned a civil war, but the birth of an authentic Ukrainian civil society. It is the culmination of an agonizing 20-year process of de-Sovietization of Ukrainian society, a process that has progressed faster in some regions than in others. The Maidan is a watershed moment, when the nation shed the mental chains of Soviet paternalism. One opposition leader described the statues of Lenin being spontaneously hauled down around the country as Ukraine’s psychological Berlin Wall. It is characterized by a shift in mentality – a distrust of all of the country’s institutions, including political parties, governing or opposition.

[FBD]

About the author:

Daniel Bilak is a Canadian international lawyer based in Kiev and a former UNDP senior governance advisor to the Government of Ukraine.

[FBD]

Ping to a positive outlook on Ukraine’s future.

[FBD]

Would appreciate your comments and perspective on this article by a Canadian lawyer who resides in Ukraine, since you’ve been there too!

[LowTaxesEqualsProsperity]

Fantasy.

[FBD]

Fantastically fantastical.
Better that, then a cynical view such as yours. :-)

“A cynic is a person who looks around for a coffin, when he smells flowers.”

-I wonder if you were around during the American Revolution, if you would have given those rebels even a farts chance in a hurricane? What's wrong with a little positive outlook for the Ukrainian people? They toppled a bunch of Lenin statues, that's worth something. Lighten up and try not to be so cynical.

http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/52a4b7dcecad04706219d04c-523-509/screen%20shot%202013-12-08%20at%201.16.56%20pm.png

[GeronL]

love that pic

I will have to use it for something

[Dead Corpse]

I hope he’s right.

Prayers up...

[FBD]

Reminds me of this poem:
Ozymandias

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: `Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear —
“My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!”
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.’
-Percy Bysshe Shelley

[FBD]

He makes a great point here:

“Fear of losing jobs and pensions makes these people easy to manipulate at election-time, something the ruling clan has used to great effect.In this context, state, oligarch-owned and Russian television has effectively demonized the Maidan as a U.S.-EU-sponsored plot supported by western Ukraine to destabilize the peace and harmony of the country.

Because they were paid to stand at demonstrations in favour of the regime, easterners were quite cynical regarding arguments that no one was paying the protesters. That changed when people on the Maidan started dying in mass numbers this week.” ----------------------------------------

He's right. Those protesters weren't dying for the European Union

[FBD]

Ping

[FBD]

Give this a read:

“Point of no return”

http://khpg.org/index.php?id=1393096910

[null and void]

What??? Just because when I smell flowers I look around for a coffin does not make me a cynic! Does not! Does not!!!

[GeronL]

I heard the cops and media ask people for forgiveness.

lol

I hope not.

[FBD]

Hehe! :-)

[FBD]

Some things are the same world round:

---

“Where is the investigation into last week’s carnage?”

http://khpg.org/index.php?id=1393209847

[FBD]

Blood and Berkut Sniper Bullets on the President’s Hands

http://khpg.org/index.php?id=1392772605

[PGR88]

Was not Viktor Yanukovych previously elected President by a majority of Ukrainians? I heard of allegations of fraud, but was it any worse than what takes place in USA Presidential elections? Certainly Yanukovych still has a large number of supporters, doesn’t he?

[PGR88]

One of my favorites

[GeronL]

“You really don’t want to go in there!”

[PGalt]

How could their “charter of negative liberties” (constitution) have failed the citizens of the republic of Ukraine against corrupt, socialist/totalitarian leadership? Sheesh, it was just upgraded 10 years ago.

http://www.refworld.org/pdfid/44a280124.pdf

Or, are citizens of a “free” republic getting it right?

http://www.infowars.com/ukrainians-demand-2nd-amendment-in-new-constitution/