The Western Press

[Sergiox]

The press in the west are portraying the Ukraine election as a pro=west pro-Russian contest. My gut instinct is that this is an oversimplication of a quite complex situation. The western newspapers are now rejoicing for Ukraine that they have the just Yushchenko in power and the demonised Yanukovich has been banished, this is also simploistic. I would be delighted to hear the thoughts of Ukrainians on this. Feel free to reply here or email me if necessary

[Alex_Ivanov]

Majority of Ukrainians here live somewhere around Canada, so I doubt you will hear something different from western press view here.

[Sergiox]

That's a pity Alex, and I never realised. I think good journalism shouldbe about balance, but often in the west it is down to who owns the newspaer and what they are into. However, if there are any Kiev/Ukraine based Ukrainians out there I would like to hear from them.

[Voyager13b]

To be fair, Alex doesn't live in Ukraine either, so that places his opinion on the same footing as mine (American), or those Ukrainians living in Canada. Ukrainians living in Canada probably have the edge though.


Voyager

[Voyager13b]

Originally posted by Sergiox
That's a pity Alex, and I never realised. I think good journalism shouldbe about balance, but often in the west it is down to who owns the newspaer and what they are into. However, if there are any Kiev/Ukraine based Ukrainians out there I would like to hear from them.

Hmm... What does that say for eastern journalism? Where is the balance when the state owns most all of the media? How reliable are personal opinions drawn from a never ending stream of state sponsored political "understanding"? On my cable box, I can choose between stations that are owned by a variety of people, who hold a variety of political points of view. That includes Euro and Russian stations.

The situation in Ukraine is not so eclectic. Because of the language division, people in the east and south tend to watch Russian programming, while people in the west seem to prefer more local content. In either case, the news sources do not represent "journalism" as you would like to think of the word. The state is the arbiter of useful knowlege there, and maintains tight control (for the "protection" of the people). Much of the "interference" pointed to by supporters of Kuchma and his appointed successor was the wide availability of opposing points of view to the population.

I think that concept should be championed by all, east or west. In America, the global left outspent the right by a wide margin. People were swimming in information, both good and bad. When the vote was cast, it didn't matter who spent the most, as the people made their own choice.

The same responsibility should be granted to every other nation. Let the information flow, and let the voter make sense of it. A person cannot make a valid choice if he is locked out of the debate. If the wrong choice is made, fix it next time around, as neither candidate is going to have unlimited power to cause drastic change in a few years.

I think you paint the western press in the wrong light. Yanukovich would have been embraced by the west if he won a clean election. They might have preferred his opponent, but he would have been the man of the hour, and even Bush would have beaten a path to his door if the election had been clean. The fact that his party (notice I didn't accuse him directly) was responsible for rampant vote fraud, and that he didn't take a stand to correct it, is what soured his image to the western press. That is also the time when his criminal past became an issue. In other words, he screwed himself.

To prove my point, look at the results of the election a few days ago. The international focus, free flow of information, and the mass demonstrations in Kiev didn't do much to change the minds of voters at all. It actually helped both sides by making sure that all interested people would get their butts to the polling place on election day. The only thing that changed is that the election was fairly honest this time around, and the number of votes counted more closely matched the number of actual voters.

A clean election that expresses the will of the voters is a much better place for a nation to start than a phoney election that was engineered to protect it's beneficiaries from having to assert their rights in the day to day political boxing ring called representative government. I think Ukraine won this election. Not the west, not the east, but all of Ukraine.

Voyager

[Yaroslav]

Originally posted by Voyager13b
...I think Ukraine won this election. Not the west, not the east, but all of Ukraine.

Voyager

I totally agree with this statement. Thank you Voyager. A very right conclusion.
I am a citizen of Ukraine. I live in Zhitomir. Right now I am in the US for several months that's why I can use internet so often. I keep in touch with my Ukrainian friends all the time by e-mail and phone. Here is what my Dad wrote to me about elections by e-mail:
"Hello Yaroslav. I was so excited about elections. I am glad it's over. Uschenko won, I voted for him. But this is only a first half of the game. There will be a second half. It will be difficult for him to stay in charge. Oligarchs (people who have a lot of money) do not want to surrender. For example think about the murder of the minister of transport Mr. Kirpa. Always those people who have the money also want to have the power, disregarding their occupation and knowledge. Ukrainian oliharchs are the thives beyond the law. Lazarenko is one of them. Find out why Americans do not want to send him back to Ukraine? Does he know too much? Anyway, I hope that with Uschenko as president the situation will be changed. It must be done. We are good and rich country. We can do it."

[Voyager13b]

Yaroslav,

Thanks for the support, and your Dad is right. Ukraine has an uphill battle ahead. It is one thing to be determined to root out corruption, but it is a very powerful force, and will not go away quietly. Also, it seems as though there are many people people who are bent on distracting Ukraine from forming a unified, free nation, where the rule of law towers above the power of corrupt government officials, or equally corrupt Oligarchs. I hope Ukraine maintains it's national integrity, and improves the economic condition of all of it's citizens by leaps and bounds over the next decade. It will be a tough test on the ability of the new government to bring different factions into a working relationship, but a positive result will be well worth the effort.

By the way, where are you staying in the US?


Voyager