Category Archives: news

Discover Kyiv’s golden domed cathedrals, cobblestones and charm

The Canadian Press: Discover Kyiv’s golden domed cathedrals, cobblestones and charm

KYIV, Ukraine — Shining with Orthodox golden domes that rise from forested hilltops, crisscrossed by narrow cobblestone streets and speckled by quiet, leafy parks, Kyiv draws visitors with an Eastern European charm.

And for those who seek the exotic artifacts of the Soviet era – Lenin statues, imposing bronze monuments and colonnaded subway stations – Kyiv has those too.

Founded over 1,500 years ago, Kyiv is one of the oldest and historically richest cities in Eastern Europe. The site of the ancient Kyivan Rus state, forerunner of the Russian empire, it is considered the birthplace of Slavic civilization. The city endured the Mongol-Tatar invasion, was an important provincial capital in the Tsarist and Soviet eras and in 1991 finally became the capital of an independent Ukraine.

Today, Kyiv strives to be a proper European city, at the same time preserving its unique Slavic appeal. Cut in two by the broad Dnieper river, the city is a mix of medieval onion-domed Orthodox cathedrals, elegant turn of the 20th century buildings and some stubbornly durable artifacts of the Soviet times, including giant statues and gloomy apartment blocks on the city’s outskirts.

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Cool article from the Canadian Press!

UPDATE: It’s too bad when the Associated Press circulated the article they Rusified the capital. Even in Canada.

UPDATE #2: A very sobering reply to this article

Soviet Union remains in cyberspace

From CTV:

MOSCOW — The Soviet Union may be in the dustbin of history, but there’s one place the socialist utopia lives on: cyberspace.

Sixteen years after the superpower’s collapse, Web sites ending in the Soviet “.su” domain name have been rising — registrations increased 45 percent this year alone. Bloggers, entrepreneurs and die-hard communists are all part of a small but growing online community resisting repeated efforts to extinguish the online Soviet outpost.
Russian nostalgia for the Soviet empire is part of the story. Nashi, or “Ours,” is a pro-Kremlin youth group that gained notoriety for raucous protests against Kremlin critics. The group loyally praises President Vladimir Putin at “nashi.su,” though it denies its choice of the “.su” domain was meant to send a political message.

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According to Wikipedia:

.su was assigned as the country code top-level domain for the Soviet Union on September 19, 1990. 15 months later the Soviet Union ceased to exist. It remains in use today, even though the Soviet Union itself no longer exists, and is administered by the Russian Institute for
Development of Public Networks.

In 2001, the managers of the domain stated that they will commence accepting new .su registrations, but it is unclear whether this action is compatible with ICANN policies. ICANN has expressed intentions to terminate the .su domain, and the IANA states that the domain is being phased out,[1] but lobbyists stated in September, 2007 that they had started negotiations with ICANN on retaining the domain.[2] In the first quarter of 2008, .su registrations increased by 45%.[3]

No surprise here. Nashi is the new Hitler Youth, and their members will defend Czar Putin no matter what with a skewed sense of nationalism. How can you expect less from a leader who still thinks the USSR exists today? Putin reportedly told Bush at the NATO summit:

“You see, George, Ukraine is not even the state at all! What is Ukraine? Some part of its territory is the Eastern Europe, some its part, the greater part, is our gift!”

Of course if you’ve been keeping up with this crowd you would know this has been their mentality for years and everyone knows it.

Democrats post racist anti-Ukrainian ad against Congressmen

A very racist advertisement from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee was put out a few weeks ago, against Republican Congressmen Bob Schaffer from Colorado who’s grandparents were born in Ukraine. Schaffer served actively as co-chairman of the Congressoinal Ukrainian Caucus and made frequent trips to Ukraine during his service in the House of Representatives, including being a member of the US delegation monitoring the parliamentary and local elections in Ukraine.

The ad below is very anti-Ukrainian and the Mexican mariachi music is also quite insulting:

It’s very interesting how they twisted the quote from “he accomplished more in that country [Ukraine] with less effort than I have in my own district” to “he helped the Ukraine more than his own district…”.

Contact the DSCC in Washington with your complaints. It also doesn’t hurt to complain to Democrat candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. There is also a letter of complaint posted from the Hollywood Trident Foundation.

Holodomor Rememberance Flame tours Canada in April to May

UPDATE: Here are photos from the event!

The International Remembrance Flame will arrive in Canada on April 18 launching over a month of commernorative events marking the 75th anniversary of the Holodomor.

The Flame, a joint project of Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ukrainian World Congress International Coordinating Committee, will originate in Australia and travel to 33 countries worldwide in an effort to raise Holodomor awareness.

Travelling between Ukrainian embassies, the torch will be ceremoniously transferred from country to country by Ukraine’s ambassadors or consular representatives following which every community will have an opportunity to organize events around the Flame.

Tentative Itinerary for the Remembrance Flame in Canada

  • April 18 – National Launch prior to the opening of the exhibit Holodomor: Genocide by Famine – Toronto (at City Hall), Ontario
  • April 20 – Winnipeg, Manitoba
  • April 28-29 – Regina – Saskatoon – Yorkton – North Battleford, Saskatchewan
  • April 30 – May 2 – Vegreville – Red Deer – Edmonton – Lethbridge, Alberta
  • May 3 – Vancouver, British Columbia
  • May 22 – St. Catharines, Ontario
  • May 23 – Toronto, Ontario
  • May 24 – Hamilton, Ontario
  • May 25 – Montreal, Quebec
  • May 26 – Ottawa, Ontario

Here are also lists of US dates and International dates for the tour.

Saskatchewan Premier caught on tape mocking Ukrainians

On April 3, 2008 the provincial NDP uncovered a video tape from the ’91 Saskatchewan general election, showing Conservative MP Tom Lukiwski making homophobic remarks.  Also on the tape is now-premier of Saskatchewan Brad Wall mocking Ukrainian and former premier Roy Romanow:

On the videotape (@ 7:10 on the above YouTube clip), Wall, who jokes about being “filmed for posterity,” does a mock interview with a Ukrainian accent, questioning how Romanow “walks upright with his head so far up his ass.”

Unidentified males also call Romanow a “spineless political playboy” and then-Liberal leader Linda Haverstock “a hard-headed slut.”

Wall first apologized briefly saying “It just never was then, and neither would it ever be, in any way an attempt to slight any group”. He later apologized in the legislature yesterday (here’s a transcript and MP3 download), as well to the Ukrainian community, Roy Romanow and Lynda Haverstock.  Also he has decided not to pursue his lawsuit with the Canadian Press.  While some have praised the speech, one sociology professor at U of Sask says that societal attitudes haven’t changed since 1991:

“The strong language that Lukiwski used probably makes it more
offensive to people. But when you imitate someone’s ethnicity and
disparage them because of their ethnicity, I don’t know what the line
between racism and homophobia is but in my opinion they’re both
offensive behaviours,” said Schissel.

The Tories and Prime Minister Stephen Harper effectively defended Lukiwski by refusing to discipline him.