Politics Revisited

I must be learning a lot about politics because I am very frustrated! For a month, I have been trying to understand what is going on in the Ukraine with regards to politics and corruption but it is difficult to learn when you cannot trust your information sources.

Putting my own frustrations aside, become harshly aware of the anxiety Ukranian people must feel as they not only blinded by the corruption but also stuck in the middle of it.

This blog is going to discuss corruption and my efforts to understand Ukranian politics.

Corruption: I am sick of hearing it and sick of writing it. It seems like a catch-all term for problems without a definitive meaning or, even worse, solution. It seems like an excuse - like something you can say to get people to stop asking questions. Well, I'm still asking those questions. What is corruption, exactly? What are its effects?

Frazzled by thinking about the word, I collected a few opinions before putting my own into text:

According to Jordan, corruption is "When you have a lot of responsibility and people put a lot of trust in you, and you misuse that trust for your own gain." Put in other words, it could be seen as an "abuse of power."

Sarah says corruption is when something that was good and orderly becomes evil and unorderly.

Corruption could also be considered a lack of integrity, moral perversion, dishonest preceding, and putrefactive decay. (www.dictionary.com) It's putrid alright.

These and my own views in mind, I would say that corruption is the process of taking something that would seem or is meant to be good (for example, a leader or mentality) and changing it for the worst. It's like a surprise attack - you think something will work out for the best but it switches to be your worst nightmare under the shield of darkness.

Thus the term "corrupt," would refer to something or someone who was first perceived okay to now be perceived as evil.

I think the effects of corruption would include betrayal of trust, confusion, frustration, rebellion and chaos (to name a few). First, as mentioned above, corruption involves an changing from good (or bad) to worse.  Thus, whatever faith was put in the good, or at least the consistently bad - or a situation was lost as corruption took place. This, I think, would cause confusion: Was it a misunderstanding from the beginning? Why the change?

This would be frustrating because, after trust is lost, it would be difficult to be able to tell who or what to trust. It would be difficult to learn and difficult to more forward. Out of this frustration comes rebellion. When people are unhappy and cannot trust anyone to make them happy, they take it upon themselves all fired up and ready to do what it takes to get what they want the best way they know how. Whether this happens outwardly or behind closed doors, the battle over power and conflicting agendas is an undeniable source for chaos.

Let's apply this to my experience with Ukranian politics:

When I ask for people's opinion about the political atmosphere un the Ukraine, the majority of responses included (with some also being limited to) the word "corrupt."

I take this to mean that they shrouded personal vested interests and questionable processes, and straight-out lies. Conversation usually stops there or, if I choose to press on with questions, it ends with a brief comment about the leader of the country and some kind of Russian influence. From these conversations I learn that: a) Ukrainian leadership is considered to be "corrupt," b) people do not like to address political issues about the Ukraine. This is confusing and frustrating because the people I trust don't want to talk about it and what I learn on my own will probably be littered with inconsistencies.

With that in mind, this is what I gather:

The Ukraine has been separated from Russia for ~20 years. There must have been some Ukranians happy with this separation because someone must have made it happen. I know what I would have wanted but I'm not sure what the majority wanted at the time or what the majority would want now. I'm also not sure if the majority would know what is best (because of lack of education, controlled media, or different views).

 In any case, the past few years have involved Ukraine transitioning from command to free market and democracy. Yulia, a former leader, was working on legislation to ensure human rights and freedoms. A new economy is also in progress.

Viktor is a current leader. I have heard that he came into power through questionable methods but am not sure what happened or if he is even the person who is responsible for bad deeds that led to the change of power from Yulia.

I have also head of orange revolutions. These are actions towards democracy that have taken place in the Ukraine and that have inspired similar responses in surrounding regions.

Currently, the Ukraine is split between people who would like more of the Russian culture and people who want to continue to separate from Russia and become a full member of the European Union. I believe the Ukranian president, Viktor, (I am sticking to first names because I think they are more distinguishable from each other), has strong Russian influences. Before he was elected, Viktor vowed that, if he become leader, he would make Russian the second official language. This debate of where or not to include Russian as an official language would have cultural implications of Russian speakers being oppressed vs. decreased independence from Russia.

I hope to continue to learn about Ukranian politics through conversations with people but would like to move on so I am done writing about them. 

http://rt.com/politics/yanukovich-denies-russian-status/

http://www.nyulawglobal.org/Globalex/Ukraine.htm

http://timelines.ws/countries/UKRAINE.HTML