Posted 4:10 PM by Paul

United States of the Ukraine

It is a very serious situation, but there is something deeply comic about the White House lecturing another country on the accuracy and probity of its elections. As I write, Ohio has not yet declared and there is still no Mayor of San Diego. They are still counting. It descends into absurdity when the reasons given for doubts about Ukrainian democracy are that

- The winners had much more money than the losers.
- The winners had privileged access to the media.

Have these people sense of irony?

That said, it is clear that the goings on the Eastern Ukraine make the disenfranchisement of Black American voters in Florida look like small beer. It was, as they say in South London, SCAME. The Russian backed party rigged it so that they would win. Any sensible person thinks that at the very least the election should be re-run purely on the basis that a turn out of 102% is statistically unlikely. Although, I am sure that software engineers for a Texan touch screen voting machine supplier could give us a good reason why this was well within the margins of statistical error.

So, as I write 100,,000 people are on the streets of Kiev blockading the Government offices crying “We were robbed!” If I were Ukrainian I would probably be with them. Particularly now that they are handing out free food and bright orange clothing. Day by day the Opposition’s demands get more confident. They are now insisting that the PM is not only made to admit he that he rigged the election but that he should resign. Long Live People Power! Or maybe not.

400 kilometres to the East in the industrial heartlands 100,000 people are in the streets complaining that the sophisticated Western Ukrainians are just bad losers. Ring any bells? Some would say they have a point. Because if the Ukraine were to operate an Electoral College system based on which candidate won most regions, the pro-Russian ex-Communist would have won…even though he polled 500,000 fewer votes.

So now, dressed in Sky Blue the hard liners are threatening to secede and maybe even re-join Russia. The Orange Opposition has cried cry foul and are even demanding that anyone suggesting such blasphemy should be charged with treason

Two ideologies are in conflict. One pro-free market and one centralist. Broadly speaking two religious outlooks are also in conflict. One Uniate Catholic and one Russian Orthodox.

Also two huge marketing machines are battling it out for share of media time and public opinion. The Opposition (cynics say backed by a US Marketing Services Giant) latched on to the power of branding and unifying symbols very early on. Swathed in orange and waving banners they were joyously televisual. The ex-Commies hit back a few days later with a swathe of Sky Blue and banners of their own. The Communists are not new to the trade. In fact they are one of the pioneers of modern branding theory. If the proletariat had been made to read Das Kapital before storming the Winter Palace, the Russian Revolution would have never happened. Instead Lenin and Trotsky reduced 20 years of philosophical critique to four words and a symbol. PEACE-BREAD-WORK-FREEDOM and the Hammer and Sickle. The brand may be devalued but once upon a time the Red Banner was a brand right up there with the Golden Arches and Coca-Cola.

My desperate hope for the future is that in all of this turmoil no one is killed and if they are to separate, they do it peacefully. It is not worth one drop of blood. Not one orphaned child

And what of the past? What if Gore had martial led millions of Democrats to take to the streets? He could have included some of those Black Floridians who showed up to vote and found that they were not in to list. What if they had lobbied the Supreme Count in December 2000 and halted Washington all dressed in Democratic Blue chanting " Count Every Vote!"

Dream on buddy. Dream on.