Protest Break Due to Long Weekend

All the political protesters downtown have left their posts because of the long weekend. Many people had Friday off and Monday is an official holiday. I was downtown Friday and there were about 75 people gathered near the Communist tents. It was a rather disturbing scene. But another reminder that the Communist party simply won't make it into the next parliament (whether it's this year or next) because too many of their supporters die each year because of old age.

In the English outreach on Friday, I was told that talk among university students is mostly about how much protesters are being paid. Apparently, waving a flag pays about $10 an hour--but you have to wave it, you can't just hold it. Others are being paid $2 an hour with free food.

It's definitely not the same as the Orange Revolution. It's impossible for the prime minister's party to maintain large-scale mass demonstrations because, while there some party ideologues, many support the prime minister out of fear--fear of the west, fear of Ukrainian nationalists, fear of instability, fear of being forced to speak Ukrainian. That political party offers very little in terms of ideology, something to really believe in. Historically, the party has simply promoted what it is against. Of course, this is only high-scale manipulation. Once the current prime minister came into office, he immediately dropped the Russian-language issue, claims now to want Euro-integration, and instead of being blatantly opposed to NATO calls for a national referendum. In other words, other interests (mostly oligarchical) shape the party. It's not to say that this isn't true for other parties. Certainly there are business interests and oligarchs on the Orange side of the table. The difference, I think, though is that those parties have maintained more consistently their ideological positions--pro Europe, pro NATO, pro market reforms, anti-corruption, pro Ukraine--even while working toward protecting their own personal interests.

I have had some discussions with Ukrainians who seem to think that unless politicians are up for sainthood, there is no reason to support a candidate or party. But this sort of thinking--in a fallen world--is nihilistic at best. Someone will run the country. In politics, it's almost always a choice between the lesser of two evils. Isn't it better for Ukraine that the lesser evil run the place? Just my idea.