Euro 2012 – Racial insults & Ukraine

Elsewhere in cyberspace a heated debate amongst the Ukrainian Expat community and some English football fans is engaged, fueled by media coverage in the UK of Ukrainian and Polish supporters football violence and racist actions and chants.

Now there is no denying that there is a racist element amongst certain fans and in particular those associated to certain football clubs in Ukraine.

There is also one Ukrainian football club whose supporters are associated with anti-fascism (not that such a thing would be reported in the UK media).

However,  this heated debate between the Ukrainian Expat community and traveling English fans has now centred over the word “nigger/negro” (негр).

It is time to be crystal clear.  In Ukraine and Russia there is no racial derogatory slur attached to the word “nigger/negro”.  It is not an insult here and neither is it meant to be insulting!

Despite the negativity attached to the word in the UK and other nations, historically and currently, the word nigger has no such undercurrent in Ukraine or Russia.  It is not a word that Ukrainians or Russians would use to insult a black person.

In Ukraine and Russia, the word nigger/negro simply means a black person and nothing more.  It is politically correct here.

If a Ukrainian or Russian wanted to racially insult a black person, nigger is most definitely not the word they would use to do it.

They would use words like chernomazy (черномазый) or several others I won’t bother to list that have the same distasteful connotations as those attached to the word nigger in the UK.  Anyway, you get my point.

So, if you are in Ukraine for the football (or Russia or Ukraine for any other reason) and hear the word “nigger/negro” – it is not the insult you will automatically associate it with if you are an English football fan or western tourist.   It is a politically correct word with no insulting undertone whatsoever!

Do please remember not all words have the same insinuations or inferences in all cultures and languages.  Taking a drunken swing at somebody you hear using the word nigger here will land you (and not them) with a robust response from the police as they have said nothing wrong – in fact they have been politically correct.

Cultural, linguistic and historical awareness is a necessity if you are looking for an excuse to call racism over words like nigger in Ukraine.  Wonder if the BBC or UK media will actually highlight this, or whether they will simply be so ignorant as to see it as a racial insult – that it isn’t?

Are bloggers journalists? – A question with Lord Justice Leveson

OK – This has nothing to do with Ukraine – yet – but legal precedents have a habit of seeping across international borders if they suit the establishment in other nations that have similar issues and can see similar solutions.

For many, many months I have been following the Leveson Inquiry via the website and the live podcast supplied by the Guardian On-line here in Ukraine.  It is an inquiry set up by the British Prime Minister in the wake of the News of the World phone hacking issue but has a broader remit to look at all matters journalistic, from ethics (or the lack of them), paparazzi, invasion of privacy (and thus hits the difficult issue of Article 8 verses Article 10 of the European Human Rights Act), press regulation etc.

It has, to be fair, been extremely interesting and has brought about statements from people such as Lord Puttnam that “Leveson has uncovered a Banana Republic.  Corrupt press, corrupt police, corrupt politicians.”  It all sounds very Ukrainian, despite the fact he is talking about the UK.

Amongst the issues that could affect each and every one of us, aside from the clashes between a right to a private life and the right of freedom of speech within the European Human Rights Act, another major issue which affects us all, has been the Internet.

Within the Internet issue the subject of bloggers has been raised several times.  Now some journalists blog (or tweet or both).  However many bloggers are not journalists.  Many have no journalistic training, are only vaguely aware of what may or may not be libelous or defamation, have no concept of where the line between “public interest” and “interesting to the public” falls, and may be completely oblivious to any national or international laws relating to electronic communications etc.

In short, most bloggers are the writers, editors and moderators over any comments they allow to be published under any entry they write.  They are entirely responsible for anything that is publicly available on their websites but without any real accountability as long as they remain within the rules of the hosting server – which could be anywhere on the planet.

Under whose laws does a blog fall if the author is of nation A, the entry is written in nation B, but the website in hosted in nation C and yet the reader is in nation D?  (Which is the case with most of my websites and international readers.)

As more and more people turn off from the main stream media and get their news from blogs, twitter, Facebook, VK, Futubra etc., is there a greater responsibility for the more popular blogs and bloggers?  Why should they have more responsibility than unpopular blogs or the same responsibilities as journalists?

Is there a responsibility for the international blog directories?  At the moment, if you look at Technocrati, one of the biggest international blog directories in existence, you will find my very own Odessatalk is categorised as a world leading blogging authority on Ukrainian politics.  Very humbling, however in making that claim as a directory, do they have any responsibility to their users for directing them to me?

Fortunately I am very careful about libel and defamation.  I am very considered in what comments, and their content, I allow to be shown that are made by my readers.  If I am told something interesting by somebody important who would prefer to remain anonymous, then I invoke the Chatham House Rule (as I would being a Chatham House Member) to protect their identity but allow for their  comments to enter debate and discussion on the blog.

As I rank so highly amongst the millions of blogs at blog directories such as Technocrati, I have a moral and ethical duty to those who will find me via such a directory and read my site when trying to discover matters Ukrainian, to do so in language free from academic jargon, management speak and associated gobbledygook whilst trying to impart my thoughts on any issue Ukrainian (or regional) I may decide to write about.  Above all however, I think  I must be honest and remain impartial unless I otherwise state a certain position.

For somebody who’s interest lays with policy rather than political party or political personality, it is fairly easy to remain impartial, as a good, bad, or indifferent policy can come from any source.

But -

That is not true of all blogs or bloggers and rightly so.  Some blogs are written to convey a certain party or social line quite deliberately.  Some of those bloggers who write these blogs are well connected within certain parties or social groups and are paid by them to promote a certain slant on issues to meet their paymasters bias.  Some NGOs and many think-tanks are no different, so why should blogging be exempt?

Many of these blogs are extremely popular because of the access they have to influential people and thus become a quasi official PR/media outlet for the paymasters.  Again quite rightly for that is what they were set up to do.  The issue then becomes just how close to journalism is this type of blogging?

This is the issue now being wrestled with by Lord Justice Leveson over in the UK, for it is he that must make recommendations on the future of the media to parliament and it is the media representatives and witnesses that are continually highlighting the fact that a great many extremely popular websites and blogs are not so very far removed from (if at all) traditional journalism.

The UK media is attempting to smudge the line between traditional media and copy with certain areas of the blogosphere  and state any regulations recommended for the media will have to be made for bloggers as well given that some blogs are just as influential as any printed newspaper.

Just where and how Lord Justice Leveson can or will draw the line on this remains to be seen.  It also remains to be seen just what will seep across national borders when it comes to other nations following the UK lead when conclusions are eventually reached.

Hmmm

Do I consider myself a journalist? – No.

Do I consider myself an authoritative commentator?  That depends upon what specifically I am writing about on any particular day.

Do enough people read what I write for me to take some care over legal issues? – Yes (and thank you all for reading).

Am I a dedicated blogger?  Hmmm – I write daily about Ukraine but I am not paid to do so, it was simply a new hobby that became a habit some years ago.

Should I be subjected to any decision reached by Lord Justice Leveson or a Ukrainian counterpart in the years to come? – I don’t think so.

Another international PR disaster for Ukraine – Or is it?

In yet another international PR disaster, forgetting the domestic ones, it seems Volodymyr  Gerashchenko from the Ukrainian National Olympic Committee has been caught in a British media sting relating to the sale of Olympic tickets on the black market.

In a nutshell, he apparently agreed to sell about 100 Olympic tickets to a journalist posing as a ticket tout, although no tickets were actually sold and indeed no juicy details such as prices are mentioned in the article suggesting this story broke before it got to the stage of financial negotiations.

Anyway, on the face of it yet another international PR disaster for Ukraine, although not of the government’s making this time, that includes robust statements from British MPs and the Metropolitan Police investigating the allegations relating to a well placed, senior Ukrainian official and corrupt practices.

However, if the Ukrainian authorities move quickly and bring Mr Gerashchenko back to Ukraine with immediate effect whilst inquiries are underway in the UK, accompanied by the right diplomatic noises and statements relating to his removal pending the investigations, there maybe some mileage in it for the current authorities and their so-called fight against corruption with an international spin.

The question is, will the Ukrainian authorities do something that proactive?

Odessa Tourism Festival 18 – 20 May – UK AWOL

OK.  Today I leave the macro-geopolitical and policy realm relating to Ukraine and the neighbourhood and go local.  Namely the Odessa Travel Festival, the bulk and most public part takes place along Deribasovskaya (which is the nominal pedestianised main street in the city centre).

As always in the warmer months, the cafes and restaurants expand from their premises and spread out over the pavements with comfy chairs, tables and parasols to give life to the mañana feel of the city when the hot summer sun begins to camp here.

And what more a pleasant a way to pass a few hours than with a cappuccino  and a cigar watching the beautiful and not so beautiful wandering around the city centre.

What better place to place the Odessa Travel Festival on a hot and sunny day than Deribasovskaya, a street always  brimming with people with time on their hands and money in their pockets?

The point of the Odessa Travel Festival?  Well to promote both domestic and European travel, of course, but also to promote things like language schools, education abroad, and generally encourage Ukrainians (or at least those in Odessa) to think of themselves as “Europeans” and by doing so entice them along the “European path” to values, cultures and people to people contact.  (European Commissioner Stefan Fule would indeed be very pleased with such a strategy, as would the national tourist boards of those taking part.)

Last year more than 10,000 people from Odessa visited the festival.  Approximately 1% of the population of the entire city and therefore quite probably having a small stand for those nations seeking to attract tourists, a worthy and very minor cost.

Now Odessa is not the biggest city in Ukraine.  It is in fact only the 4th biggest.  It is though a tourist destination itself receiving just over 1 million tourists each year.  A ratio of approximately 1 tourist per year to each local,  which is none too shabby considering Odessa does so very little to advertise itself as a tourist destination (and what is does do is disjointed and really rather poor).

The city is also home to about 20 consulates and a few honorary consuls for good measure.   Sadly, the UK does not have a consulate here or indeed an Honorary Consul despite 20 other nations considering Odessa as worthy of one or the other.  An issue I will return to later in this entry.

Anyway, with nothing better than to paint the walls at home, I decided to delay that task until the weekend and wander off and see just who was taking part in this festival organised by the regional administration.

There were numerous other regional oblasts in attendance,  Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk etc luring those from Odessa to visit them and spend money there.

Also present were stalls from Greece, with my old acquaintance Alexandros Ikonomou, Head Counselor of the Trade & Economic Department of the Greek Consulate in Odessa, managing to sneak into this photograph, looking officious as always.  (We have both attended many of the same functions, ranging from the official opening of envelopes, to the more grandiose of functions, although though quite why I am invited and attend such things remains a mystery to me.)

Germany also had a presence.

So did the Czech Republic.

And Bulgaria.

As well as Azerbaijan.

And Turkey.

Not forgetting Italy.

I could go on, but you get the drift.

Where is the UK stall?  -  There wasn’t one!  Where is the British Council encouraging the youth of Ukraine to study in the UK?  - It wasn’t there.  Who was giving advice about IELTS and UK Visas and tourism?  - There was none.  Where was the Union Jack amongst all the international flags and national nick-nacks on display?  There was none.

Why?

Do 10,000 people from Odessa manage to find and enter the British Council office on Admiralsky each year?  I doubt it!  Is part of the British Council’s mission to spread the good word about Blighty or not?  Do the people who work in the British Council and face the Ukrainian public on a daily basis have an in-depth knowledge of the UK education system or tourist industry?  I doubt it as they are Ukrainian.

To be honest, if it wasn’t for my boy having just been offered a place at Trevelyn College at Durham University this October, I wouldn’t know about the application process, IELTS courses and examinations and bureaucratic rigors involved in him studying abroad.

Why does the UK Ambassador in Kyiv regale the Ukrainian public who may read his blog with tales of how good a UK university education is, how essential the English language is, and then there is no presence from the UK at such an event which advertises the fact that education is part of the travel festival perimeters and has done so for months on the Odessa City Website?

I mean literally, the only British thing present was me!

Does the 4th biggest city in Ukraine not warrant public UK participation when the total expenditure for a stall and UK nick-nacks would cost no more than a few hundred quid for the entire 3 days?  Is it some part of the UK FCO plan to have as limited a UK presence outside Kyiv as is humanly possible?

I mean seriously?  For £100 I could have sat there for 3 days handing out horrible cheap pens that will stop working within 2 or 3 days with the Union Jack (probably the wrong way up) printed on the side.  I could have handed out UK tourist literature and spoke from tourist experience of everywhere from Edinburgh Castle to Stonehenge, from the Roman baths of Bath to Winchester Cathedral and everything in between.

I could have entertained the passing interested Ukrainians considering sending their children to the UK to study with stories from the student union bars of my youth, just how to apply, where to seek out the IELTS tests, what documentation is required to support any Visa application for the UK and a myriad of UK anecdotes and tall tales as a bonus.

All for a cost far less than an average decent bottle of red in the Ambassador’s wine cellar in Kyiv.

In fact, if asked nicely, I would probably have done it for free.  After all, if it became a regular annual event to semi-officially fly my nations flag  in foreign climes (so to speak) at Odessa’s annual tourism festival (or other things), something like a “thanks very much” letter from whoever is Foreign Secretary in 10 years time, to go with the other official commendations and gongs I have for bravery and/or cleverness under pressure, or both stupidity and recklessness on behalf of The Crown with fortunate and successful outcomes, would be a nice addition and recognition enough should I ever undertake such a role over a prolonged period for free.

Instead, I hang my head in shame that not a single representative of my nation can be bothered to turn up to a festival that not only promotes European tourism, culture and people to people contact, but also the very lucrative business of educating foreigners at UK higher education establishments in a major Ukrainian city.  That is made all the more disgraceful by the fact that the UK Embassy and Consulate in Kyiv is not the smallest UK FCO presence around the globe.

Poor show by the UK FCO and British Council all round.

Latest Freedom House Report – Ukraine, UK and league tables

Well the latest Freedom House Report has been out a week or so and to be honest I was not in any particular rush to mention it, not because it isn’t worth mentioning, many people and governments give it credence and in a time where league tables and benchmarks have become the main foundation for conversation amongst the politicians globally, a mention is thus due.

This though is mostly due to the fact there is a serious lack of creativity and imagination amongst the global political leaders, and the league tables and benchmarks give them something to talk about by making comparisons rather than imaginative policy and meaningful public engagement.   Quite why we as societies have allowed the this to happen I am not sure, but when we allow the politicians to control the political debate the entire time,  we should expect nothing but political grey noise.

Yes, comparisons are interesting, but do I really care if the French or Italians are doing worse than we are going by  some league table if things still aren’t good enough where I am?  Of course I don’t.  I care about what and how the leadership are going to improve the environment in which I live every day.  Even if Ukraine was top of every league (on the positive side) would I still expect the leadership to continue to be creative and imaginative to make that environment even better?  Yes, I would.  I would expect the same if I was in the UK from the British government.

Waffling on about where Ukraine is in comparison to nations X and Y in a league table is simply noise to fill the void of severely lacking imagination and creativity when dealing with the issues of State, agency and society.  The continued political striving for Utopia for all a nations citizens remains the goal whether you are top or bottom of the league as improvements can always be found.

And thus, turning to the latest Freedom House Report, I don’t care that Ukraine is better than Belarus or Iran but worse than the UK.  What I care about is whether it is deemed there have been improvements rather than retrograde steps during the reporting period in any national comparison from the previous reporting period.

I care if Ukraine or the UK is seen to have improved or worsened comparatively to where each nation was the previous year.  Whether it has gone up or down in any league table is an irrelevance  as like I have already said, even topping any such table does not mean there is not work to do.

So reading this report, it states Ukraine’s score has worsened by 3 point over the past 12 months.  I am therefore concerned, not by whether Ukraine has been overtaken by another nation in the league table but simply by the fact it has worsened and I want to know why.

According to Freedom House, the reasoning is “Ukraine’s score fell from 56 to 59 points as a result of  growing government control over the media.  Many national media council members are loyal to the government official and media tycoon Valery Khoroshkovsky and media owners increasingly face political pressure regarding content.”  

Not good, whether that is down to overt threats through licensing, self-censorship, or any other reason.  Ukraine remains, according to Freedom House “partly free” and going in the wrong direction.  That said, even the Ukrainian opposition stated the Freedom House assessment was unfair, and they had political mileage in maximising the report’s statements: “Оцінка свободи слова в Україні на рівні Пд Судану – несправедлива. Але це чітко показує, куди ми рухаємося” – Andrey Shevchenko BYuT

So how is the UK doing?  The UK rating also dropped by 3 points during the reporting period.  The same point reduction as Ukraine.

The reason for this given by Freedom House, “The United Kingdom’s score fell from 19 to 21 point due to the use of super injunctions – which prevent the media from reporting both the targeted information and and the very existence of an injunction – by celebrities and wealthy individuals, as well as attacks on journalists covering riots.  In addition the police and government used the 1984 Police and Criminal Evidence Act to force a number of media organisations to hand over unedited footage of rioting in London and Northern Ireland.”

Neither statements read well, however I am not sure which reads worse, and in the case of the UK, that is before we even consider the on-going, perversely interesting and simultaneously extremely worrying,  Leveson inquiry in the UK over phone tapping, email hacking, bribery, and generally an exceptionally unhealthy and ugly menage a trois between the politicians, police and media  which led to Lord Puttnam stating “Leveson has uncovered a “banana republic”: corrupt press, corrupt police, corrupt politicians.”

Thus, even if Ukraine climbed the league table to equal the “free” position occupied by the UK, it would still have a very long way to go to reach the standards that society expects when we consider the Freedom House and Lord Puttnam’s comments.

Both nations stand at -3 from the previous Freedom House reporting period, both nations are chastised for governmental and legal interference/control over the media and both are therefore seen as heading at an equally rapid pace in the wrong direction.

As far as the citizenry of both nations are concerned, it is that backsliding that is important and not where they sit in the league table, despite the political classes trying to fill the public debating  space with noises of comparisons to others.

I see little benefit in politicians pointing the finger and stating look at them, their cancer is worse than our cancer.  If both know they have cancer, it is a matter of an individual fight to beat it rather than die from it.  It is the self improvement that matters (or the internal backsliding).

The politicians should note that I do not pay taxes in the nation they offer up as comparison.  I am not a stake-holder in those nations.  I am a stake-holder in the nations I pay taxes, whether I can vote in them or not (UK I can, Ukraine I can’t), but because I pay taxes in these nations I have a right to expect the political classes to do their jobs that I pay them for through my taxes.  In short I expect continued gradual improvements as a share-holder in either the UK or Ukraine.

Both nations managing the same rate of decline in the Freedom House report, leave me  equally short-changed on my inverstments in 2011.

UK FCO Human Rights Report 2012 – Ukraine gets a paragraph

As readers of this blog will be aware, as this is not the first time the UK FCO Human Rights Report has been featured.

Every year the Foreign & Commonwealth Office issues a report on what it has done (or not) with regards to human rights around the globe, the threats it sees and the action it takes to  mitigate such threats.

A few days ago, the FCO Human Rights Reoprt 2011 was released.  A lengthy document consisting of 392 pages.  Undeniably the past 12 month reporting period has been a busy one.

There is though, only one reference to Ukraine throughout the entire document that I can find, which reads:

“On 19 December, Ukraine concluded negotiations on an association agreement with the European Union that includes human rights requirements.  That marked the end of a year in which Ukraine’s respect for democratic principles and the rule of law had been called into question, principally over the detention, trial and convictions of opposition political leaders.  Independent experts, including the Danish Helsinki Committee, identified serious flaws in trials that were widely judged to be politically motivated.  The Prime Minister told the House of Commons that the treatment of former Prime Minister Tymoshenko was “disgraceful” and the Foreign Secretary issues a statement expressing his deep concern.  The Minister for Europe issued a  similar statement when an appeal court upheld Ms Tymoshenko’s conviction and sentence.  The UK and the EU have made clear that to ensure that the association agreement is ratified, Ukraine must demonstrate that it can live up to EU principles.”

That, as far as any mention of Ukraine goes, is your lot in the hefty tome of UK human rights positions via the FCO.

Not an awful lot.  No mention of whether the UK is supporting (or not) the supposed “fast tracking” of Ms Tymoshenko’s ECfHR appeal which you would think would be poignant as the UK currently holds the Presidency of the Council of Europe and is the driving force behind reforms of the ECfHR.

I know that the UK does support the fast tracking of her case through the ECfHR, but the report doesn’t say so.

Also no mention of the 80+ Somalian refugees indefinitely detained near the EU border.  No mention of human trafficking.   No mention of any human rights issues in Ukraine other than Ms Tymoshenko and a vague reference to “other trials”.  At 392 pages long, a brief mention of the other issues, even if it meant the report went to 393 pages long, really would not have hurt anybody would it?

Returning to Ms Tymoshenko, one has to hope that such support is robust, given the statements referred to in the quote above, and the fact that whether she is guilty or innocent of the actual allegations, a fair trial must be the method to reach that verdict.

The issue as I have written here numerous times, is not her guilt or innocence from an EU perspective, but the method used to reach that conclusion.  In her case, that methodology was flawed (just as in so many other cases that the EU have ignored for everyday Ukrainians for decades) and a transparent due process lacking.

As an aside, recognising the system is flawed for so many other Ukrainians, one wonders how the EU can deny everyday Ukrainians Visas based on the fact they have a criminal record when they received that criminal record through the same system they now decry over Ms Tymoshenko and former colleagues.  If we believe one of the core human rights for everybody is equality before the law and a fair due process, the system is either flawed for all Ukrainians or it isn’t.  (And we know that it is.)  Therefore legal rulings resulting in a dubious criminal record, thus preventing a Visa to the EU being granted in the future must be of less than solid foundation as far as grounds for refusal very often as well.  - Hmm.

It all gets rather messy and unfair when decrying a system as seriously flawed and yet accepting some results for some Ukrainians and dismissing results from the same seriously flawed system for others.

Anyway, a very long read for those of you who want to know what the UK FCO is doing about human rights around the world.  As far as Ukraine is concerned, as you can see from the quote, for now, it is making public statements!  (And hopefully much more behind the scenes that will never see the light of public scrutiny.)

Lord Fowler, AIDS and Ukraine

Yes, no doubt numerous Ukrainians will have been asking the same thing as many of you dear readers.  Who is Lord Fowler?  To save explanation and my time click on his highlighted and embolden name to magically reach his Wikipedia entry.

For those of us old enough to have lived and worked during the Thatcher years in the UK, he needs little introduction.

Anyway, what is a Tory Peer doing in Ukraine?

The answer is AIDS.  He is particularly clued up on all things AIDS and HIV related, not only in the UK but globally.  People in the AIDS arena do actually know who he is outside the UK.  He is actually listened to as somebody who knows what they are talking about when it comes to policy and policy development relating to AIDS.

Lord Fowler was in Ukraine for 3 days (10 – 13 April) getting a feel for where Ukraine is and what Ukraine can do to improve things.   Without belittling the efforts of the past and current government, and there was and is some highly visible effort, particularly in the promotion of condoms and prevention through almost consistent advertising amongst other initiatives, there is of course much more to be done.

Its not really for me to thank him for coming to Ukraine and raising the issue, but I’m very pleased he did.

Happy Easter

Well, today for some of you readers it is Easter Sunday.  For my local readers, well, we have to wait until next Sunday.

Heralding from the UK and living permanently in Ukraine, just like Christmas, I get to have two Easters due to the minor differences in religious calendars.  Not necessarily good for the waistline but a burden I seem to be able to carry without too much difficulty.

That means you dear readers,  get at least four days off from my often far too lengthy mumblings instead of two.  For those of you who do not believe in God, then twice the respite from my daily nonsense than would otherwise occur, may be yet another reason for you to reconsider that position (or not).

Nevertheless, Happy Easter one and all (to whom it applies today.)