TulipGirl

The boys got a book on Ukraine from the library. I got an e-mail from a teammate in Kyiv with greeting from Babushka. I haven’t done well in e-mailing our Ukrainian friends.

I’m feeling sad and sentimental and missing Ukraine.

That’s our Yulia! And yes, the women in Ukraine are tall, gorgeous and well-dressed.

(Via Google News)

After a meeting yesterday, Hubby and I went to one of our favorite coffee hangouts, the Fashion Cafe. The decor is great, they broadcast fashion shows all day long, they have two walls of English language books for sale, and they have some of the best cappuccino in town.

I was browsing through the business section of the Kyiv Post, when I came across this article,

American firm claims ‘key role’ in revolution

Rock Creek Cooperative says they helped coordinate online media for Orange Revolution, but gov’t begs to differ

5 Comments »

A guy who regularly comments on Hubby’s blog e-mailed this week about tonight’s Speeding Lisa concert at Art Club 44. It was great. There is just something about good rock’n'roll that is balm to the soul.

They started the set with a rousing rendition of Razom Nas Bagato, but leaving out Ми не бидло, Ми не козли. A bit of whimsy came across in Back in the USSR. The Ukrainian girls behind us went wild for Basket Case and I’m a Believer (during which I couldn’t help but think about Joe’s recent post and wondering if any seeker-types out there had already fiddled with the lyrics and included it in a church service.)

The rest of the show rocked, and I must say my fave is still Anarchy in the Ukraine. The only thing that could have improved the music would be adding Bullet with Butterfly Wings. *hint, hint*

We saw a few people we knew there, and had a chance to visit with Castor after the show. It was a great night and I don’t remember the last time I got home from a date at 3:30 am. Check out Hubby’s blog for some pics.

Yes, our dear Yulia Tymoshenko was appointed Prime Minister today. She’ll be confirmed by parliament in mid February.

(Via Kyiv Post)

Victor Yushchenko was inaugurated today.
What a victory for the people of Ukraine! A triumph over corruption!

President Yushchenko with his daughers, Sofia and Krystyna
Photo: AP/Efrem Lukatsky
Via Neeka’s Backlog

My Mom wrote to me from Chicago, Today I watched the inauguration of Yuschenko and felt joy for the Ukranians as they sang with their orange scarves bundling hopeful hearts….and felt close to you. . . I am glad you will take home a greater part of history. . .

Both the inauguration and that note made me smile and cry.

More inaugaration photos at Le Sabot, Orange Ukraine, Blog de Connard, and Neeka’s Backlog.

In some corners, people still refuse to accept the validity of the Orange Revolution. They do not want to see that it sprang up from the Ukrainian people themselves. They find comfort, or political advantage, in positing elaborate political conspiracies in an attempt to minimize the truly momentous, peaceful revolution it was.

Those of us who live in Ukraine or intimately understand the region clearly see that the Orange Revolution did come from the hearts of the people of Ukraine.

Over at Le Sabot, Hubby is dialoging with Justin Raimondo of antiwar.com. He’s well known for his attacks on basically anything America does. Raimondo’s anti-Yushchenko (and anti-Ukraine?) rants are simply grasping at air. Why is it some people seem so set upon seeing machinations and conspiracies instead of appreciating this movement for democracy and true freedom?

If you’ve heard any of the American money bought the election screeds, you need to go over and read Le Sabot. Be sure to also read Hubby’s commentary on Jake Rudnitsky’s slapdown of the pro-Yanukovich crowd.

Update: Instapundit gets in on the action: A fly, SWATTED.

Also joining in are BloggledyGook, Fire Ant Gazette, The Senescent Man, The Argus here AND here, and in the comments were Orange Ukraine, Aris Katsaris, Ivan Lenin and Mr. Tom G. Palmer. If I were Justin Raimondo, I think I’d go crawl under a rock. . .

Dan and Lesya over at Orange Ukraine have taken on the unenviable task of trying to supply Orange Revolution stuff for those outside of Ukraine. They’re working out the details.

Get yours while it lasts. Or do the Ukrainian thing, and apply orange liberally and creatively wherever you go, whatever you wear.

My boys, getting ready to go down to Independence Square for Yushchenko’s inauguration and to welcome in the New Year!

More New Year’s photos from Maidan, courtesy of Hubby.

Yushchenko Boys

These aren’t my boys, but my boys would certainly join them in accessorizing with orange ribbons.

Photo from obdymok, thanks to Hello.

“I met Kathy during the Cold War days, doing rallies and events in support of freedom and democracy for the Soviet bloc. (She loved Ukraine deeply — to this day most of what I know about Ukrainian culture is what she taught me — but she cheerfully worked to free all the Captive Nations.) At the time, most people thought the Cold War would go on for decades. Only true believers did the work Kathy did. There was no glory in it; certainly no money (one usually had to supply one’s own money) nor prestige. . . . But Kathy wanted Ukraine to be free and she was in the cause because of that love. I can’t say I am surprised to see that she is still on the job, because I never met anyone more dedicated to the freedom of her homeland than Kathy.

Amy Ridenour has a great post about when she knew and worked with Kateryna Chumachenko Yushchenko.

Quite a vivid difference from Lyudmilla “And their hands reach out for another orange” Yanukovich.

(Via FeebleKnees)

55.21% Yushchenko!
44.01% Yanukovich

From the Central Election Committee
99.09% of the votes tabulated
Reported at 3:38 p.m.

Watch the celebrations here and here. The boys are going around the flat singing, Yushchenko! Tak! Yushchenko! Tak! Nash president, tak, tak! They’re even more excited about Yushchenko’s election than they were about Bush’s. . . And that’s saying something.

If you are just starting to follow what is going on in Ukraine, let me help you find the heart of the matter. As our friend Lena wrote,

“. . .2 month ago I guessed that I live in the worst country in the world. I was oppressed when I could not see a dignity in my fellow citizens, willingness to freedom and happiness. . . . November, 22 I started to be really proud of my co-citizens. Now I can see that they are not passive mammals who want just to dig comfortable burrow, to generate they own posterity and to finish life in poverty, pretending that there is no another way. Since November, 22 there are not a crowd on the main square of my country. This is the PEOPLE. . . . And now I know for sure that there are a lot of us. But we are not only the force who able to be the opposition to criminals and cads. It can’t be enough for me, I think. We are the people in the most exalted and humane sense of this word. And not only number turns us to be the force, but exactly these LOVE, FAITH and HOPE which live in everyone now. . .”

Serhii Rakhmanin writes in the Mirror-Weekly,

“Ukraine has been awaiting this day since 1991, when independence fell to the people’s feet as an overripe fruit from a dried tree. At that time we were not ready to digest it. . . .The number of sincere dreamers was too small. There were too few new heroes to form a new type of elite. The same old people kept their offices, having only modified their rhetoric a bit.We got a new state. . . . Yet it proved insufficient to become a nation.

. . .

We have stood this test to be rewarded with a new generation of people.

We do not want to be disillusioned again. Yet even if it happens, today’s events will be remembered by generations to come.”

And please take the time to read Oksana Zabushko’s essay on Ukrainian Solidarity.

From Ovozrevatel:

Observers shot at in Zaporizhzhya

At polling station №83 of constituency № 215 in Zaporizhzhya an hour ago, observers found a violation of the law, which centered on dozens of applications to vote at home written in the same handwriting. As soon as the observers began to draw a judicial act about the violation, the members of the election commission began to expel them from the polling station by beating them.

The observers, with a video-tape of the violations, tried to leave the constituency. At that time they were shot at. As a result, the driver was wounded near the heart, and was hospitalized.

I hope this early report is an exaggeration of what happened, and I pray the driver and all involved will sustain only minor injuries.

the Center for Social Monitoring: YUSCHENKO – 58.1%, YANUKOVYCH – 38.4%

The Razumkov Center: YUSCHENKO – 56.5%, YANUKOVYCH – 41.3%,

The Interfax-Ukraine Exit Poll: YUSCHENKO – 53%, YANUKOVYCH – 41.3%

The Luntz Research Company at the request of ICTV: Yuschenko – 56%, Yanukovych – 41%

Poll numbers courtesy of InterFax.

Note: The polls have been closed for over an hour now. These polling results, to my knowledge, reflect the results from the whole day, not just part of the day (as the misleading Kerry-leading-polling was.)

(Via OrangeUkraine)