Alina Pastukhova is an awesome writer. She writes in the Kyiv Post:
In what may be one of Ukraine’s few international successes recently, Kyiv has landed a spot on the game board of the international Monopoly edition. It even beat out Moscow to do so.
If only joining NATO, the European Union and avoiding a showdown with Russia over Crimea were so easy, many of Ukraine’s problems would be solved. ...
My first throught was "Indeed!" My next was what a classic example of "razom nas bahato" this little win was. As I read on, I found Alina one step ahead of me:
The image chosen to represent Kyiv is the tall statue of the woman on Kyiv’s main square, Maidan Nezalezhnosti. She is the symbol of independence.
Monopoly fans got the ability to vote online and choose what cities should be included. There were some limits on voting, but not many, giving the advantage to organized campaigns.
Kyiv finished in 16th place in the voting. The top 20 cities among 68 in contention landed on the board, plus two “wild card” cities chosen by vote also. ...
Kyiv succeeded largely due to a campaign organized by people in Ukraine and Ukrainian Diaspora living abroad, including in the United States and Canada. ...
Full article here.
I know the patina of the Orange Revolution and its musical anthem have dulled considerably, thanks to the cynicism of both elected and electorate, not to mention the deep disappointment emanating from so many dashed expectations.
That's a shame. Its basically like throwing out the baby with the bathwater.
The OR politicians may have turned out to be flawed, but the principle of razom nas bahato is anything but.
I thought that Alina showed tremendous skill in subliminally underscoring the power of that principle for KP readers.
A good journalist, IMO, leaves a reader thinking and drawing one's own conclusions. So after reading Alina's article, I respectfully beg to differ with her on her opening conclusion.
I think it could be "that easy" to join NATO, the European Union and avoid a showdown with Russia ... if only that razom nas bahato sentiment could be recalled, and the principle behind it put into practice.
OTOH, being of Ukrainian extraction, I know that is much easier said than done...
Thursday, August 28, 2008
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I have voted for Kyiv to be listed in Monopoly when I got the community appeal to do so. So, razom we've well done this small project. Now you are talking about some bigger projects as NATO and EU. This need more effort but also faisable.
PS. By the way here is my yesterday's article Five Myths About Ukraine http://narodna.pravda.com.ua/discussions/48b5bbf0eff21
Pawlina, interesting enough, last night I met Mark Rachkevych, one of the Kyiv Post journalists at the pub night at the Canadian Embassy. He was telling me that he pushed Alina to include the line It even beat out Moscow to do so. in the lead paragraph, just to rub it in a bit.
Fortunately, at the press conference on Wednesday, we managed to get Serhiy Rudyk, one of the Deputy Mayor's of Kyiv, and an old friend of mine out.
Before the press conference at UNIAN started, Serhiy asked me. "So what's your role in this whole thing, and what's in it for Kyiv?"
Within the first two sentences Serhiy picked up on the value of having Kyiv on the Monopoly board. Unfortunately, when I tried contacting him at the beginning of January he was too busy, but regardless we did it without the help of the city or other administrations in Ukraine.
Hence, razom nas bahato clearly did apply.
Yes Paulette, the power of having such a network is quite amazing. Looking forward to the next big challenge. RAZOM NAS BAHATO!!!!
Thanks for that article, Stan. I just went to re-read it but unfortunately it's not there anymore. I hope it's still available somewhere.
I believe that anything is possible when "razom nas bahato" is employed, and am looking forward to the next manifestation of the sentiment in Ukraine. :-)
Vasyl, I think you embody the whole concept of "razom nas bahato"! :-)
Thanks for stopping by, Roman. And for your awesome blog. Bravo!
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