Russia | Ukrainian Canadian

Ukrainian news round-up – August 11, 2008

August 12th, 2008 Andrew No comments

I haven’t been able to keep up to date on the Georgia-Russia conflict, luckily Cyber Cossack hasn’t missed a beat. There has been a lot of news coverage despite the Olympics.

Ukraine picked up its first medal – Roman Gontiuk won the bronze in Judo (Men’s 81kg). Sergiy Derevyanchenko advanced in boxing but others are not favouring so well due to the alledged bias of officials.

Ukrainianization is flourishing!

The number of schools using Russian as the language of instruction is rapidly diminishing even in Russian-speaking areas, and higher education is conducted in Ukrainian… Ukrainian state television only broadcasts in Ukrainian, and the presence of Russian in radio and television is minimal, though many still rely on broadcasts from Russia... The progressing Ukrainianisation of the country has left many Russian speakers uncomfortable, but for several decades it was Ukrainians who complained of language discrimination, and only slowly has the Slavic language begun to erase the ‘peasant language’ tag.

Last week, a Ukrainian Catholic Church in Utica, NY was broken into where the thieves broke the tabernacle to steal a gold plated chalice and incense burner. There have been no leads in the investigation (video)

Thirty Ukrainian orphans arrived in the Orange County in hopes of being adopted by American families and educating them on their plight.

Tufts University graduate students have launched the Child’s Right to Thrive Student Group leading a grass-roots effort to improve the lives of children living in congregate care in Ukraine among other countries.

Kindness in Action, a nonprofit from Severna Park, MD, that sponsors an orphanage in Lviv, delivered 17 quilts during a visit from June 13 to July 3.

This week’s Nash Holos (Vancouver) and Ukrainian Time (Montreal) radio shows are available to download.

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Categories: news, ukraine Tags: conflict, georgia, olympics, russia, ukraine

Russian anthem for the Toronto Zoo?

June 28th, 2008 Andrew 2 comments

This is a commercial for Stingray Bay at the Toronto Zoo where two sailors are looking for the elusive Sting rays. One of the sailors reminds them they have to head back to Minsk first and the commercial ends with the Russian Anthem playing.

Perhaps someone should have pointed out to them Minsk is in Belarus and not Russia. Also the coordinates they show at the beginning of the commercial point to the Black Sea, where the Russian Black Sea fleet is stationed in Sevastopol, Ukraine until 2017. Ukraine has stated they will not renew the agreement to lease its Crimean base, but Moscow insists it will be there forever.

Former Soviet Republic + Tsar’s Anthem + Imperial Outpost begs the question… who’s making these ads?