Category Archives: news

London 2012 Olympics wraps-up with a Hopak

The Olympics wrapped up with its closing ceremony last night, here are the final results in the medal race:

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On the final day, Oleksandr Usyk won Ukraine’s first boxing gold medal of the games and celebrated with a quick in-ring Hopak:

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Ukraine

Klitschko proud as classy Lomachenko wins gold

Ukraine‘s professional heavyweight champion Vladimir Klitschko was on hand to see his compatriot Vasyl Lomachenko prove once again why he is the best in the amateur ranks as the lightweight romped to a second successive Olympic gold on Sunday.

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Putting two fingers in the air to acknowledge both his second gold and the second for Ukraine at the Games, Lomachenko left the ring draped in the Ukrainian flag.

“I’m really proud of my countryman Lomachenko, it is not a common thing to win two times,” Klitschko said from ringside. “It would be really exciting to see him in a professional ring.”

Gold medallist Yana Shemyakina of Ukraine kisses her medal during the award ceremony for the women's epee individual fencing competition at the ExCel venue at the London 2012 Olympic Games July 30, 2012. REUTERS/Damir Sagolj

Epee (Fencing
Ukraine’s Yana Shemyakina won gold in the women’s individual epee after a nail-biting 9-8 extra-time win over reigning Olympic champion Britta Heidemann of Germany at the London Games on Monday.

Twelfth seed Shemyakina was a surprise winner, having worked her way through the preliminaries.

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And of course there were a few controversies:

Boxing
In another fight, Ukrainian world champion Evhen Khytrov was ruled to have lost to Britain’s Anthony Ogogo after an 18-18 countback, despite two knockdowns. The National Olympic Committee of Ukraine protested the decision to AIBA.

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Ukraine Men’s Gymnastics ControversyHi-res-149542564_crop_exact

For a glorious moment, the team (Ukraine) was able to revel in the fact that, after a late miracle, they were the bronze medalists in the men’s team gymnastic competition in the 2012 Olympics.

Unfortunately for them, that miracle proved to good to be true, and Ukraine was all of a sudden out of the medals in fourth place. That fourth-place finish is territory that very few felt Ukraine could occupy. Most did not consider them a legitimate medal threat.

Consequently, that fourth-place finish should be a great source of pride for the team. Instead, it will now be tinged with the memories of losing a medal they very temporarily owned. Due to a judge’s error, the Ukrainian team must now reconcile the feelings of losing out on a medal they thought they had.

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The scoring error occurred on Japan’s Kohei Uchimura pommel horse routine. He fell on his dismount and was initially awarded a score of 13.466. This was low enough that it caused Japan to fall from second to fourth, which moved Great Britain and Ukraine up to second and third respectively.

However, Japan filed a protest and after minutes of deliberation it was concluded that the judges did not give Uchimura a high enough difficulty score, and his score was raised enough for Japan to hold onto second. As a result, the sport now has a new, highly-visible black eye.

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And some bazar actions are revealing true intentions:

Russian annexes Ukraine

Ukraine and Georgia have protested that descriptions of some Russian athletes’ birthplaces on the official London 2012 website make the countries seem like part of Russia.

Karolina Sevastyanova, a Russian rhythmic gymnast, is listed as from “Ukraine Region (UKR)”; canoeist Alexey Korovashkov apparently hails from Ukraina Region (RUS).

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And with the newly minted Russian language law in Ukraine, local governments didn’t waste any time implementing the new rules:

Deputies of Odesa City Council have approved an instruction on the implementation of the law of Ukraine on the principles of the state language policy in Odesa at a special sitting on Monday and gave Russian language the status of a regional language in the city.

According to the city council’s instruction, from now on the Russian language may be used on the territory of Odesa as a regional language in offices, official documents, at schools and universities, for advertising and in the municipal toponymy.

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Canada

CBC did a great job recapping all the highs and lows for Canada in the Olympics:

The fact Canada captured only one gold medal in London doesn’t mean the nation is in crisis. In truth, Canada — aside from the 10 gold medals won at the boycotted 1984 Los Angeles Games — rarely reaches the top of the podium at a Summer Olympics with regular frequency.

Beginning with Atlanta in 1996 and right through to the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Canada has won exactly three gold medals in each of those four Games. In terms of overall medals, Canada’s 18 in London equals its Beijing output, and ranks second to the 22 earned in Atlanta — the most ever by a Canadian team in a non-boycotted Olympics.

Canadian women’s soccer team steals show

it was the controversy with Canada leading 3-2 that will always define this contest. That’s when Norwegian referee Christiana Pedersen transformed herself into one of the most infamous figures in Olympic history.

In a sequence of calls that set off a firestorm from both the Canadian players and a few media outlets outside the U.S., Pedersen called goalkeeper Erin McLeod for holding the ball too long, which led to a free kick inside the Canadian box. While a six-second infraction does exist in the rulebook, the enforcement usually comes with a warning, one McLeod said she never received.

The referee then awarded the U.S. a penalty kick when Marie-Eve Nault was charged with a handball. Abby Wambach converted that chance with less than 10 minutes remaining before Alex Morgan’s header in the final minute of extra time buried Canada, and sent the Americans on their way to another gold medal following their 4-3 win.

The loss could’ve ruined Canada’s chances against France in the bronze match, but the women were still playing for history. Diana Matheson’s dramatic goal in the 92nd minute gave Canada a 1-0 win and landed the country its first medal in a traditional team sport since 1936.

MacLennan captures lone gold medal

Canada’s lone gold medal of the Games came from an unlikely source.

Heading into London, Rosie MacLennan competed in the rather large shadow of three-time Olympic medallist and trampoline great Karen Cockburn. That changed when MacLennan, of King City, Ont., executed a brilliant routine to capture gold.

MacLennan has to wait to celebrate as 2008 Olympic champion He Wenna of China pressed hard during her last routine. To everyone’s amazement, He tumbled on her last manoeuvre, sending MacLennan into Olympic history.

Heymans, van Koeverden leave mark

By winning a bronze medal in the women’s three-metre synchronized springboard event with partner Jennifer Abel, she became the first Canadian ever to win a medal in four straight Olympics.

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How a Ukrainian Canadian helped draft the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms

Yesterday was the 30th anniversary of one of the most important Canadian documents – the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, that finally allowed Canada to fully govern itself outside of British parliament. It had made Canada a truly independent nation,  allowing courts and judges to defend the citizen against the state and guarded the minority from the excesses of a parliamentary majority.  It successfully defended freedom of choice in abortion, homosexual rights, same-sex marriage, wearing religious symbols, and aboriginal and minority language rights. The Charter has replaced the American Bill of Rights as the constitutional document most emulated by other nations.

But the Harper government planned no celebration of this milestone, possibly because it would promote the accomplishment of a rival Liberal-Trudeau government, or that it stands in the way of his ideological stances on mandatory minimum sentences, electronic surveillance and enhanced police powers. The Harper government seems more interested in reverting Canadian identity back towards the British with a celebration of the bicentennial of the War of 1812, restoring the ‘royal’ designation of the Air Force and Navy, and ordering all Canadian embassies and missions abroad to display a portrait of the Queen,  while the Charter aimed to further a distinct Canadian identity without the Queen.

The signing of the Charter was a very difficult, complex journey that involved many players to see it through, and one of them was a Ukrainian Canadian:

Trudeau wanted the Charter. The premiers worried over loss of provincial power. The logjam was broken in a dramatic few hours by four people — Jean Chrétien, federal minister of justice; Bill Davis, Conservative premier of Ontario; Roy McMurtry, Ontario attorney general; and Roy Romanow, the NDP attorney general of Saskatchewan.

By Day 3 — that was Nov. 4 (1982) — the participants were going nowhere.

That’s when Chrétien, McMurtry and Romanow forged what became known as the “kitchen accord.”

“It was not the kitchen, actually, but rather a pantry,” recalled Romanow. “We happened to be there by accident — one Anglophone from Ontario, me a Ukrainian socialist from Saskatchewan, and this French Canadian from Shawinigan.

“Those two did most of the talking. I happened to be carrying a note pad, so I took down notes. Chrétien, having gone through one referendum in Quebec, was determined not to go through another that would end up dividing the country and dividing families. “I also dreaded a national referendum on such divisive issues as language.”

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Romanow was born to Ukrainian parents in Saskatoon, and after helping draft the Charter became of premier of Saskatchewan in 1991.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper is on “the wrong side of history” by failing to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms to avoid stirring up lingering resentment in Quebec, says former Saskatchewan premier Roy Romanow.

In an interview with Evan Solomon, host of CBC’s Power & Politics, Romanow believes bitter divisions have dissipated over time, and that Harper is in a “very, very small minority of Canadians” not marking the occasion as a historic milestone.

“I’m saddened a bit that the prime minister would not recognize it as an important contribution to Canada’s nation-building, an articulation of our values and our responsibilities,”

“There will be separatists who don’t like the process or perhaps even the substance – what can we do about that, except to explain in Quebec and elsewhere to Canada and elsewhere in the world that this country is one of the greatest, most fair-minded, most opportunity-filled nations in the world?” he said.

“I think that’s what we should be celebrating, and harbouring, in fact, raising the spectre, I find it tough to accept that a prime minister would raise it.”

Romanow was Saskatchewan’s attorney general and intricately involved in the high-stakes political negotiations in the run-up to the patriation of the constitution in 1982. Failure to bring home the constitution would have had “unconscionable and unfathomable” consequences for Canada, he said.

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Weekend catchup: March 30

Here are a collection of news items that I didn’t get a chance to write posts about this week:

Ukrainian woman whose rape caused protests dies

An 18-year-old Ukrainian woman who prosecutors say was gang-raped, half-strangled and then set on fire in an attack that sparked street protests in a provincial Ukrainian town, has died, a hospital official said on Thursday. Hundreds of people took to the streets earlier this month after police released two of Oksana Makar’s three suspected attackers whose parents had political connections, re-igniting a public debate on corruption in the ex-Soviet republic. Interior Minister Vitaly Zakharchenko confirmed earlier this month that the parents of at least one of the three suspects were former government officials in the Mykolaiv region.

 

What Goes on in There?: Taras H. Shevchenko Museum

the two-storey building that houses Toronto’s

Taras H. Shevchenko Museum is a cultural oasis, wedged incongruously between a dentist’s office and an employment agency. Inside, visitors will find a two-storey homage to Shevchenko, a 19th-century Ukrainian poet, artist, and rebel. The museum’s original location north of Oakville was damaged by arson in 1988. In 2001, its three-metre bronze statue of Shevchenko was sawed down and stolen by hooligans. Only the head was returned, when a Hamilton antique dealer tried to sell it back to the museum last November, apparently unaware of its criminal origins

 

Child coal mining film banned at Kyiv festival

After scooping 10 awards at international festivals, a Ukrainian-Estonian documentary on child labor in abandoned mines finally made it home to Ukraine. It was scheduled to premiere at an international documentary festival on March 24. But instead, in a bizarre and unprecedented turn of events, “Pit Number 8” was banned by its own Ukrainian producer.

I actually had the opportunity to see the film last year at HotDocs, and it shows the grim life of people who work the dangerous coal mines – the heart of Yanukovych’s fan base. The entire movie is up on YouTube.

 

The Economist has the worst style guide when it comes to Ukraine

Style guides are used by newspapers to ensure the same guidelines are used by multiple journalists referring to the same thing, but I was completely shocked by what they have in their entry for Ukrainian names:

Since Ukrainian has no g, use h: Hryhory, Heorhy, Ihor (not Grigory, Georgy, Igor). Exception: Georgy Gongadze.

There very much exists ‘g’ in Ukrainian, it’s ґ, and ‘h’ is г. Conversely in Russian there is no ‘h’, just ‘g’ which is г . So a Ukrainian ‘h’ is a Russian ‘g’ which is why sometimes you’ll see golubtsi instead of holubtsi, and Golodomor instead of Holodomor.

Use the familiar British renderings of placenames: Chernigov not Chernihiv, Kiev not Kyiv, Lvov not Lviv, and Odessa not Odesa.

Those Soviet spellings went out decades ago. The Economist likes to think if you disagree then ‘it’s time to get a life’.

 

Anti-advertising for Euro 2012: We’re going to Ukraine

“Are you finally taking me to Paris?” “Better… we’re going to Ukraine!”

 

Easter

It’s April 8th 2012 for the Gregorian Calendar (ie. the Western world). For the rest of us who follow the Julian Calendar it’s April 15th.

 

Inside Ukrainian Dance


A local author takes us behind the colourful curtain of Ukrainian Dance. In his book, Dr. Andriy Nahachewsky explores the differences between what the audience sees on stage…and what would happen in a small Ukrainian village.

 

Baba’s medicine

We’re stepping back in time for some medical remedies Baba used in her kitchen. It’s all in a new book by a local author.

Demjanjuk update: German law leaves him innocent after death

It’s not being publicized as much as his death, but John Demjanjuk’s vindication may have come as the result of his passing last week:

Munich state court spokeswoman Margarete Noetzel said this week that under German law, Demjanjuk is “still technically presumed innocent,” because he died before his final appeal could be heard, and “a person is presumed innocent until proven guilty.”

Asked by Haaretz if that means there is no record of Demjanjuk’s conviction, Noetzel replied, “Yes, it means Mr. Demjanjuk has no criminal record.”

Since Demjanjuk’s conviction cannot be validated legally, due to his death, the conviction remains “merely as an historic fact,” Noetzel said.

The car accident lawyers in McAllen told Haaretz that the Munich court published the statement regarding his client’s presumed innocence at his demand. If you wish to hire an attorney, visit you can get the best  divorce lawyers in Kingston

“After my client’s death, a false statement was distributed to the effect that Mr. Demjanjuk died as a convicted war criminal,” Busch told Haaretz in an exchange of e-mails. “The German and international media accepted this version and sullied my client, portraying him as one who led 28,000 people to the gas chambers.”

Busch said he demanded the legal authorities in Germany issue a clarification saying his client “died innocent and without conviction,” and that his conviction by a lower court “is invalid.

“The statement issued now clears my client’s name and restores his dignity,” he said.

“It’s a great consolation to his family, which is grieving over the loss of a husband and father, who died alone in far away Germany,” Busch added.

Good news for Demjanjuk’s family, as now they face a new hurdle in attempting to give him his final resting place in Ohio:

Efraim Zuroff, who leads the Nazi-hunting Simon Wiesenthal Center in Jerusalem, believes funeral in his adopted hometown would turn into a spectacle

He said: ‘I have no doubt that a funeral in Seven Hills would turn into a demonstration of solidarity and support for Demjanjuk, who’s the last person on earth who deserves any sympathy, frankly.’

Unfortunately for German law, the verdict remains and leaves the new and dangerous precedent:

The Demjanjuk judgment set a major precedent as this was the first time a German court convicted someone solely on the basis of serving as a camp guard, with no evidence of being involved in a specific killing

Sixty years after the end of World War II, Demjanjuk was one of a handful of living Nazi prison camp guards who can still be brought to trial. After years of reluctance, German authorities are now racing to bring the others to trial.

The so-called ‘evidence’ of him being a camp guard was being appealed, as even an FBI agent concluded the only piece of evidence (which came from the KGB of all places) was a fake. Will the new precedent be used to prosecute top-ranking Nazi officials? No – many of them were exonerated and even participated in the new government of a ‘free’ Germany:

A total of 25 cabinet ministers, one president and one chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany — as postwar Germany is officially known — had been members of Nazi organizations

For years, the notion that partisans of the Nazi regimes were able to manipulate their way into the top levels of government in the young federal republic, and that former Nazi Party members set the tone in a country governed by the postwar constitution in the 1950s and 60s has been a subject for historians.

Just how brown — the color most associated with the Nazis — were the first years of postwar West Germany?

Klitschko cruises after Chisora spits dummy: Unsavoury antics by challenger fail to hinder superiority of world champion [Article]

No surprise here, as Vitali Klitschko defeated Chisora, sweet revenge from being spit in the face a night before – but disappointingly it wasn’t by KO:

After the slap, we expected the slaughter. But it didn’t quite turn out that way, even though Dereck Chisora was predictably beaten by the Ukrainian giant Vitali Klitschko in Munich last night.

The 40-year-old champion held on to his World Boxing Council title with a unanimous points decision, Chisora becoming only the fourth man to take him the distance in 46 fights. It was a clear-cut victory by 118-110, 118-110 and 119-111 on the cards of the judges but at least Del Boy proved he was no pugilistic plonker. He gave it a go but ultimately lacked the class and clout of Klitschko.

It was the gutsy performance of a warrior who at least in some way redeemed himself for the ridiculous scenes which had preceded the bout. Chisora had warned Klitschko he would be wild and unpredictable and at times he was. He was certainly fit and fast, and possibly gave Klitschko his most arduous night since Lennox Lewis nine years ago.

Although no blood was spilled during the contest there was plenty of bad blood beforehand and this continued right up to the bell and even after it. Yet the wide points
The World heavyweight championship has become something of a family fiefdom with brother Wladimir holding four other titles, which he defends against Jean-Marc Mormeck in Düsseldorf on 3 March.margin, a difference of eight rounds according to the three judges, indicated Klitschko’s superiority, if at times he began to look his 40 years.

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