On the list of surreal things I've seen in my life, this one is right up there.
One of the company classes I teach is at a fairly swish, new office block in town. It's a somewhat incongruous glass and steel building in amongst the charming brick buildings in this part of town, but unfortunately very much par for the course in this part of the world. Anyway, when I was there on Monday I noticed large, dark shiney blue and purple curtains being hung up. A bit dark and foreboding but not much in itself. However, when I arrived for my class yesterday morning I had to double take as I walked-"isn't that . . . a coffin". The first split-second was spent ascertaining that there was no one in it, and it turned out that the entire lobby has been handed over to become an undertaker's showroom selling what looks to be fairly expensive hardware, complete with a tall and scary looking dark-suited gentleman. The staff of TNK-BP now have to walk through this every day on their way in. Perhaps it doesn't hurt to have a daily reminder of the inevitable. The thing is, my students are at least as shocked as I am about it all. Apparently the building has been bought by a tycoon who wants TNK-BP to relocate. Is this his strategy one wonders?
Thursday, April 05, 2007
Ukraine is not dull
Protestants
On Friday someone said to me "there's going to be another revolution on Saturday". However, when Saturday came it was more of a political rally, or rather two political rallies. Pro-Russian prime minister Yanukovich had bussed in 80 busloads of 'protesters' from Eastern Ukraine. The pro-western opposition supporters gathered during the afternoon in the now infamous independence square. Bizarrely, it seemed that most of these people had in some way been paid to attend these events. You never know if this is true or just cynical sniping from the other side, although there was a fairly convincing story of a guy who came up from Donetsk and was promised 20 dollars for protesting and, as you can imagine, was then not paid. As a friend said to me "they'll vote for him anyway-they're like sheep!" The pro-Russian brigade have continued to protest throughout the week following President Yushchenko's decree that parliament be dissolved, on the grounds that Yanukovich is illegally strengthening his majority in parliament through defections. In Ukraine, under the constitution, MPs are not free to switch sides as they are in, say, the UK. This is almost certainly because MPs here can be easily 'bought' by various means. The President says he had no choice. On the one hand I thought he shouldn't be steamrollering a democratically-elected government just because it's one we don't like. On the other hand, when you look into it you pretty soon find gross distortion of a fragile and vulnerable system. If the President doesn't act soon, another chance might not come. So let's hope the constitutional court rules in his favour. New elections would take place at the end of May.
On Friday someone said to me "there's going to be another revolution on Saturday". However, when Saturday came it was more of a political rally, or rather two political rallies. Pro-Russian prime minister Yanukovich had bussed in 80 busloads of 'protesters' from Eastern Ukraine. The pro-western opposition supporters gathered during the afternoon in the now infamous independence square. Bizarrely, it seemed that most of these people had in some way been paid to attend these events. You never know if this is true or just cynical sniping from the other side, although there was a fairly convincing story of a guy who came up from Donetsk and was promised 20 dollars for protesting and, as you can imagine, was then not paid. As a friend said to me "they'll vote for him anyway-they're like sheep!" The pro-Russian brigade have continued to protest throughout the week following President Yushchenko's decree that parliament be dissolved, on the grounds that Yanukovich is illegally strengthening his majority in parliament through defections. In Ukraine, under the constitution, MPs are not free to switch sides as they are in, say, the UK. This is almost certainly because MPs here can be easily 'bought' by various means. The President says he had no choice. On the one hand I thought he shouldn't be steamrollering a democratically-elected government just because it's one we don't like. On the other hand, when you look into it you pretty soon find gross distortion of a fragile and vulnerable system. If the President doesn't act soon, another chance might not come. So let's hope the constitutional court rules in his favour. New elections would take place at the end of May.
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