Masters Degrees – Study time extended by 2 years

The Education Ministry of Ukraine has approved a new plan for master’s degrees, with the term of education being increased by up to two years.

The education programs for master’s degrees will be divided into research, professional and career programs, the press service of the Education Ministry reported.

In particular, research programs foresee in depth research in one scientific sphere, while professional programs foresee the development of professional and the formation of management qualifications in a certain sphere of activity. Career programs, in turn, foresee the development of theoretical knowledge and practical experience for career growth, as well as preparation for management activity.

According to the plan, terms of education for master’s degree programs will be gradually increased by one and a half or two years.

Well dear readers, a Masters Degree takes 2 years in Ukraine, on top of the standard Bachelor’s Degree which takes 5 years.

So it will now take 9 years to have a Master’s Degree in Ukraine and then add on quite a few more to become a Professor.

There are many detractors of the Ukrainian (and Russian) education systems but having seen both in action and comparing them to my own I would say they are as good if not better than mine.

Of course the detractors base this on the corruption in the education system and the ability to buy your degrees……in fact that is true, you can buy a Bachelor’s Degree, Masters Degree and even a Professor qualification if you have the money and know the right people who can not only generate the degree itself but also back date all attendence records and create the academic work, should anyone check……but it is not cheap.

This is not a fair reflection on the quality of the education as far as the detractors are concerned but simply a justified damnation of a corrupt system if you can afford to buy the results…..and we are talking about tens of thousands of US$ for a Masters or higher.

It is completely impossible to buy qualifications in the fields of anything practical anymore…….so a Doctor here is indeed a genuinely qualified Doctor in terms of medicine etc etc.

Of course a Doctor in Psychology may or may not have bought their “Doctorate”…….but this is Ukraine and psychologists normally cannot afford tens of thousands of US$ to buy such a qualification as most academics here are undervalued, underpaid and over worked…….like the State doctors, nurses, police, civil service, teachers…….and anyone else associated with the government payroll of Ukraine…….except the politicians of course!

Despite having a couple of Bachelor’s Degrees myself, I have to say that the thought of school from the age of 6 years old to 17 years here, followed by a 5 year Bachelors Degree and now a 4 year Masters degree even before spending another 5 years to become a Professor……totalling 25 years of education to become a Professor…….or 31 years old at the earliest before you get any experience of life outside of education…….well it doesn’t do it for me folks!

Tymoshenko wants 3rd round of voting for President…..How very “European”

Kyiv, February 16 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Ukrainian presidential candidate and Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko believes that the results of the second round of presidential elections should be declared invalid, and the Central Election Commission should announce a revote.

This demand is contained in Tymoshenko’s suit against what she branded as the Central Elections Commission’s unlawful actions, inaction, and decision related to the presidential elections, which she has filed with the Higher Administrative Court and whose text is available on Tymoshenko’s personal website.

Viktor Yanukovych, the leader of the Party of Regions of Ukraine, who has been preliminarily named the winner in the elections, figures as the third party in Tymoshenko’s suit.

Tymoshenko asks court to oblige the CEC to schedule a revote in Ukraine’s presidential election for the third Sunday from the day when the court’s ruling comes into force.

Along with the lawsuit, Tymoshenko handed over nine volumes of documents substantiating her case to the court.

Now now dear readers, I know you think I am being cynical is stating that in seeking a third round of voting Ms Tymoshenko is being anything but “European”…….

Lisbon Teaty anyone?  That was very European and people had to keep voting until they got the right result….no matter how many times they kept getting it wrong!

What should outgoing President Yushenko do next?

Now dear readers, here is a good question, what should soon to be, on 25th February, ex-President Yushenko do next with his time?

During his years under Kuchma and certainly during his 5 years of President, he has become an incredibly rich man way over and above his official salary of course…….enough said!

Having got just over 5% of the national vote, he is entitled to start his own parliamentary faction……”Bloc Yushenko” or whatever……should he want to……the next time there are parliamentary elections……so probably quite soon.

However I do not see it as a worthy or particularly wise move for a one time President to become a largely irrelevant parliamentary deputy.  Like most ex-Presidents, he should really dissappear from the politcal scene for the most part.

One of his worst traits to my mind was that he passed the stage of being a Patriot and crossed the line into Nationalism…….a particularly ugly position to most people……..nationalism I mean.

His most recent moves in the dying days of his presidency has manage to annoy Russia, Poland and Jew alike in his attempts to re-write history and make national heros from questionable and contrevercial figures of the past…….Stepan Bandera being but one.

There is, however, at least to my way of thinking, definitely a place for a man who is determined to gouge out a Ukrainian history seperate from that written by Polish, Russian and USSR empires respectively…….without trying to re-write every history schoolbook on the face of the planet…….let alone Ukraine.

Is there a better man, with such a strong sense of “Ukraine” and with more money than some small nations annual GDP…….regardless of the underhand ways he aquired it……….to look after the arts and written works generated through Ukrainian history…..regardless of the Empire it was subjected to of the time?

Viktor Pinchuk, relation to Kuchma, Yushenko’s predecessor, has bought and built galleries in Kyiv and displayed numerous works of art……..although sadly Mr Pinchuk has a liking for Damien Hirst……rather than Ukrainian artists like Ivan Aivazovsky, Ukrainian philosophers like Lev Shestiv, Ukrainian writers such as Issac Babel or Ilya Ilf.

The legacy of his Presidency is a disaster, however it has put him in a position to leave a legacy in Ukrainian Art which few can hope to do…….and is very much in keeping with his determination for Ukrainians to recognise thier cultural history seperately to that of the Polish, Russian and USSR empires…….if they can ever truly be seperated.

What do you think?

Presidential or Parliamentary Governance?

Well dear readers, whilst Ms Tymoshenko is challenging the now official result of Mr Yanukovych winning the presidential race, there is more than one way to skin a cat…….

Interfax-Ukraine The Bloc of Yulia Tymoshenko (BYT) has proposed creating a working group to draft amendments to the Constitution of Ukraine and hold a nationwide referendum so as to determine which form of government Ukrainians would like to have.

“We think that our proposal is constructive. Now nothing prevents us from creating a working group, because there are a lot of proposals about constitutional amendments,” BYT faction leader Ivan Kyrylenko said at a briefing on Monday.

He stressed the need to consult with the people and conduct a referendum on a single issue – whether the Ukrainians support a presidential or parliamentary form of government.

“We think that that there is a post that is unnecessary in the state,” Kyrylenko said, without saying which post he meant.

Hmmmm – of course the post which is not necessary in the State would be the one which Ms Tymoshenko does not hold, namely President if she cannot overturn the decision…..which it is likely she won’t…….or Prime Minister if she can.

Now even before the election, Ms Tymoshenko, Mr Yanukovych, Mr Yushenko, Mr Tigipko, Mr Yatseniuk, Mr Lytvyn and any other candidate and party you can mention have all stated the current Ukrainian constitution needs re-writting.

At the moment, due to some seriously misguided and actually piss poor horse trading when Mr Yushenko took power in 2005, the roles of Parliament and President overlap in more places than they do not.

The power of the Executive and the power of the Legislature do actually need seperating.  That much everyone agrees on, however no politician has called for the scrapping of office of President or Prime Minister.

Quite how you can have a parliament without a Prime Minister I am not sure as the legislature needs a figurehead and regardless of the title given, that figurehead is in effect the prime minister……even if the are officially titled “Head Ruber Stamper”.

It will be very interesting to see what systems are proposed by which parties over the next months actually.

Obviously the UK does not have a “President” but it does have a Head of State in HM Queen, albeit she is very much symbolic and does actually have some power, she is predominantly a figurehead and does not set policy home or abroad.  This is the responsibility of the Prime Minister and Cabinet.

France of course has a President and a Prime Minister.  10 bonus points to a reader who can name the Prime Minister of France without the aid of a search engine……but no bonus points for knowing Sarkozy is the President of France.

There are quite a few systems in Europe, some of which have President and Prime Minsiter and then others with only Prime Minister…….all of which seem to muddle along OK……with or without a written constitution.

Then again, the majority of these countries are not as new to “democracy” as Ukraine.  They also do not suffer from such “open” corruption…..excepting Bulgaria and Romania…..or the personal hatred as Ukraine has amongst it’s politicians.

I am not sure that there needs to be the removal of either post to be honest, although I am also not sure there is a need for both roles either.

What I am absolutely certain of, as is any serious politician in Ukraine, the constitution here is in serious need of revision……or completely scrapping and starting again…….where the executive and the legilature have specific and clear boundaires with no overlaps to cause the current political farce to continue unabated.

Unfortunately to arrive at a constitution which serves Ukraine and not those which will write the constitution is a particularly big ask given the likely authors.

The only politician to have submitted a constitutional reform so far has been the out-going President Yushenko…..but to say it is “flawed” is somewhat of an understatement.  

Anyway, it is too early to look towards Ms Tymoshenko’s party’s ideas of which office should go……until she is told her court actions have failed…….when of course, then office of President, which she is fighting so hard to get……becomes surplus to the requirements of a democratic Ukraine.  

Strange that!

Delay the regional elections…….Why?

Our Ukraine-People’s Self-Defense (OU-PSD) MP Oksana Bilozir has proposed postponing until this autumn the elections to the local councils, as well as the election of city mayors and village heads, the parliamentarian’s press service reported on Friday.

She registered a bill to that effect in the Ukrainian parliament on Friday.

The bill of amendments to a Verkhovna Rada resolution scheduling the election of deputies to the local councils, as well as the election of city mayors and village heads in 2010, proposes postponing local elections from May 30 until September 26, 2010.

An explanatory note to the bill says that the elections could be disrupted due to the difficult financial and economic situation in the country and the absence of the state budget for 2010.  – Interfax-Ukraine

Now you see dear readers, it is hardly surprising that Ukrainian politics is always disfunctional when the politicians are always working against the best interests of the country is it?

Firstly, the OU-PSD……which is a completely rediculous name in my opinion…….I mean when written in full and not abreviated obviously………managed to gain 5% of the vote in the Presidential elections under the stewardship of that fine, dynamic, invigerating and inspirational figure of soon to be, ex-President Yushenko.

The reason for this idea has much more to do with the OU-PSD having time to “regroup” in the hope of seeing a continuing farce in Ukrainian politics, to make the most of it by delaying the regional elections until October when they can say…….”Look, nothing’s changed!”

I will grant that it is more likely than not that the farce will continue through no fault of the new President.  The farce will continue because of the constitution being shambolic and there being no mechanism to sort out the powers of the executive and legislature respectively without re-writing the constitution.

The chances of an effective consititution being re-written and agreed by the politicians of Ukraine…….well, they are about the same chance of Ukraine being a world superpower next week.

Since when has a democratic process been halted for the reason of finance?  Hardly the democratic and “European values” as proclaimed by her party’s leader Mr Yushenko over the past 5 years is it?

What is a few $ million needed for these regional elections to keep to the laws of the land and the democratic values in the scheme of things, for a nation tens of $ billions in debt?

The money was found for a Presidential election which not only cost hundreds of $ millions but also cut of the IMF funding as it occured…….something regional elections won’t do.

If there can be no functioning parliament……which seems likely…….should snap parliamentary elections also be stopped through lack of money and Ukraine have no functioning government because of it?

Could the real reason for this be a fear from within the OU-PSD that there will be a mirrored vote in the regional elections of those in the presidential elections…….meaning they will be lucky to control anything other than their own bladders after the regional elections?

The OU-PSD no longer have the office of President (well soon) or any chance of having anyone in any powerful position in the Presidential Secretariate either.  Their judges will be removed from office as well as their few highly appointed people……as appointed by their out-going President, Mr Yushenko.

They are an incredibly weak parliamentary force, much weaker than Party of Regions, Bloc Tymoshenko and several other much smaller parties too.

The loss of regional administrations will doom them to becoming a small and irrelevant political faction in the RADA at the very best……..unless they can buy time to show nothing has changed under the new leadership…….which this seems cynically to be trying to attempt, under the guise of saving the country expense in the time of financial hardship.

Nothing can change under the new leadership unless the President manages to get a functioning parliament or has a strong powerbase in the regional administrations…..although of course both would be ideal to see any form of meaningful progress.

In my opinion, to which you are free to disagree as always dear readers, this is once more politicians putting their personal interests ahead of the nation of Ukraine…….so no surprise there then eh?

Court challenges begin…….

Unfortunately the court challenges for the presidential result have began in earnest.

The diplomatic and political “nudge” by world leaders congratulating Mr Yanukovych on his victory, backed up by the international observers stating there were no major violations and the vote was free and fair, has failed to stop Ms Tymoshenko starting a continued effort to overturn and challenge the election results.

The smooth transition of power which had been hoped for by the “international nudging” will not happen.

On Wednesday it is likely the Central Election Committee will annouce Mr Yanukovych the winner, confirming exit poll predictions, despite the on-going court challenges of Ms Tymoshenko.

This of course, now, is a personal struggle for power hidden under the thin veil of democracy and whether the court appeals are successful or not, it will mean political chaos until September.

Whether Ms Tymoshenko can get enough judges on her side…..and money talks, not impartiality, doing the right thing, or thinking of the “greater good”……..remains to be seen, but money she is not lacking.

The question is, even if she is successful and overturns the results, where does that leave her in the eyes of the nation or the international community who have already congratulated Mr Yanukovych on his victory?

Internally, it is hardly going to be a shock to most Ukrainians to see a corrupted system bend to political will, but of course she will be seen as having corrupted the system by half the country and suspected of doing so by the rest……even if they voted for her.

Her mandate will never be seen as a democratically achieved one either internally or internationally now.

Her EU crusade will take a severe blow from forcing her way into power if she is successful……..as that is not the “European way”……..and particularly after all the leaders of the nations individually and the EU as an organsiation have already congratulated Mr Yanukovych on his victory and Ukraine on a free and fair election.

For these leaders to suddenly welcome Ms Tymoshenko as the winner not only makes them look foolish but also undermines the position of the international observers they place great reliance and credibility on.

Of course there is the option to “spin” it and say the observers cannot be everywhere all the time……although there were thousands of observers here…….so that really won’t hold much water with the international public even if it will ease the position of the politicians as an excuse to recognise her should she manage to pull this off.

A pariah leader is hardly what Ukraine needs now when it is in such a poor economic and social condition.

……..Ah well, it wasn’t an unexpected event…..we’ll see how it plays out.

As Leaders of Foreign Nations Congratulate Yanukovych……Tymoshenko still refuses to concede defeat

Well dear readers, as you will know, Mr Yanukovych has won the election, even if it has yet to be formally announced by the Central Election Committee (CEC).

The CEC cannot formally announce the result as it has agreed to recount some 900 polling station results, although this will not be reduce the majority enough to overturn the result even if there are some votes previously counted to be discounted on the recount.

The CEC is quite right not to announce the official results until this has been done.

Meanwhile, Presidents and Prime Ministers from Turkey, USA, France, The EU block, Russia, NATO and many other nations and organisations are congratulating Mr Yanukovych on his victory. 

I can understand their thought process of course, if they ratify the results by congratulating him now, it makes the eventual CEC announcement much easier to uphold from further challenges by Ms Tymoshenko and whilst the result is yet to be formally announced, all the exit polls and first vote count did not have much differences between them…….at least certainly not enough to raise any cause for concern internationally when backed up by international observers stating it was free and fair.

Their aim, of course, is to get President elect Yanukovych into power and Mr Yushenko out of power without fuss or further instability.  That is quite understandable.

So what is Ms Tymoshenko playing at, when she claims to be a champion of democracy and European values?

If that is true, why does she not concede defeat and return to her Prime Minsterial duties as a gracious loser of a free and fair election?

There are probably many reasons for why she has not…..as yet….conceded.

Firstly, she has a duty to the 45-46% of voters who voted for her to go through with the recounts she has asked for.  Not to do so would be a failure to confirm the national vote.

Secondly, the longer she can delay the swearing in of Mr Yanukovych, the longer she has to either form a new coalition powerful enough to insure she remains Prime Minister in the RADA……should she want to of course……in addition to the 30 days she has from one when he is sworn in.

Failure to form a new coalition would mean she would be removed as Prime Minister of course…..so she is using this additional time to insure she has a strong and large enough coalition to remain in post…….or if it appears she won’t, to resign as Prime Minister at the same time of conceding defeat in the Presidential election on the pretext of not wanting to serve as Prime Minister under a Mr Yanukovych presidency.

On a side note, Mr Tigipko has now stated he will serve as Prime Minister under Mr Yanukovych if asked to do so.  If there were snap parliamentary elections and Mr Yanukovych’s party lost a number of seats, which is likely as a backlash, would he still have a strong enough parliamentary influence between his own party, Mr Tigipko who is almost a lone wolf and has not much by weight in the number of MPs he controls , The Communist Party, Mr Lytvyn’s Party and a few assorted additionals to progress with any program he may have.

Add to those, a number of defectors to Party of Regions by Ms Tymoshenko’s MPs……who will want to be on the winning side of the President……then he is still not as seemingly OK as some would think……but this is Ukraine and politicians buy and sell themselves to the highest bidder here all the time…..so we will see.

As I say, Ms Tymoshenko will be using this additional time to consider whether she can hold onto the Prime Minister role with reasonable comfort or to save face and keep an indignant stance towards Mr Yanukovych, moving into the opposition without “compromising her principles” of working with him.

She for certain, would be an absolutely formidable opposition leader and political block.  The question is would the likes of Mr Yatseniuk appreciate being in opposition with her……and associated with her by simply being in opposition at the same time as her, considering the election in 5 years time?

It is an easy thing to unite in opposition after all, but not so easy to differentiate yourself from the actions of others in opposition in an election campaign of the future.

Is Ms Tymoshenko appearing to do all she can to prove to everyone that she insured the election was free and fair before conceding defeat, so that in 2015, if things go horribly wrong here in the next 5 years, she can say it really was your choice Ukraine and I did everything I could to insure that it was your choice, before conceding power to a man I knew would fail?

She will for certain concede defeat as it is not in her best interests to allow it to drag on too long, simply as it will damage her reputation internally and externally of Ukraine the longer she takes to do it……but for now……as recounts are still happening……she cannot.

Thirdly there is also the question of the regional elections to consider which occur in April……regardless of any possible snap parliamentary elections.  With a disfunctional RADA as a prospect a new president will need to build strong relations with regional administrations.

It is quite likely that she is also studying the voting results of the regions in both first and second round of the Presidential election to decide her next move.

Mr Yushenko’s biggest problem, other than his complete lack of leadership and management skills was not only a disfunctional RADA but unruley regional administrations.  The new president needs either a functioning RADA or strong alliences with regional administrations if he cannot achieve both.

There is a good chance that Ms Tymoshenko is also using this time to move chess pieces in the regions as well to further complicate matters from May.

Lastly of course, Ms Tymoshenko is not the type of person to cede power to others, despite this time, she has no choice but to do so.

The power game of Ukrainian politics has just began.  The battle for Presidency has been fought but there are many more political battles to fight this year before the real power over the next 5 years in Ukrainian politics will be known……..not that any western journalists, commentators, main stream media will understand this until the game is almost played out!

Turn East Lady Ashton…….at least that is what The Economist says……

http://www.economist.com/world/europe/displaystory.cfm?story_id=15514888

I will leave you to read the article dear readers, although to be honest it is rather insipid.  If The Economist has something to say to the EU and Lady Ashton then they should be far more pointed and direct as flowery and fluffy speech without wanting to cause too much discomfort and upset is why the EU is so lame in it’s politics and diplomacy alike.

Actually the article is bloody poor the more I read it.

Anyway, I will skip past the useless parallels it trys to draw with other nations, and deal with a few comments which get close to actually having made it worth reading at all.

“The European Union’s leaders also failed to make much of the recent election. Ukraine is a long way from Spain, which holds the rotating EU presidency. Catherine Ashton, the EU’s nominal foreign-policy chief, seems distracted, to put it mildly……….”

“To put it mildly” is an understatement, but the is she distracted or just completely clueless about Ukraine and way out of her depth in the role she has been given?  

“Yet Ukraine is perhaps the one place where Lady Ashton and her new External Action Service could make a real difference. Ukraine badly needs attention, and unlike America or China it is not a place over which other EU leaders will be jostling for influence. Done properly, the gains from renewed EU involvement could be huge.”

But the author does not take into account it will take years for the EAS to set itself up, find it’s niche and working protocols whilst dealing with the staffing issues of X country wanting to head up Y EAS out-post in country Z.

Do not forget the EU is run by consensus and therefore even managing to keep all member nations happy with the who gets to head what and where issue will take a year or two to accomplish whilst Ukraine continues to plod along.

“The European policy so far has been engagement with Ukraine’s political class. This has proved expensive, and mostly fruitless. Attention should now move to the citizenry. Imagine the effect if the EU opened 50 “Europe Houses” in the main towns and cities of Ukraine. The excellent new House of Europe in Tbilisi should be the model. That project aims to be the Georgian centre for all sorts of Europe-related cultural events, as well as debates and lectures, with a library and internet café as added attractions (readers with spare cash please note: it needs donors). It will have far more impact than the piecemeal efforts of individual European countries’ cultural institutes.”

What effect am I to imagine…….we have electricity in Ukraine and the internet.  I can imagine the rent for such premises being astronomical and with what result?  To encourage the population to be more European?  In what way, corrupt European like Bulgaria, Romania or Italy?  Fiscally prudent European like Ireland, Spain or Greece?  Model their political system of which political system in use in the EU?  The French or the British?  Explain the benefits of the Lisbon Treaty and Brussels talking for Ukraine……which is a bit like Moscow talking for Ukraine in the days of the USSR.

If the singular House of Europe in Tbilisi need donours dear readers……you’ll need a bloody lot of donours for 50 such premises in Ukraine.

It is also doutfull it will have more impact than 27 nations holding 27 seperate events, because not all nations only have a presence in Kyiv, others more able than the UK, manage to have a presence in Odessa and Donetsk and Lviv as well.

“In the tense Ukrainian region of Crimea, a big EU presence would make it harder for Russia to hide its mischief-making (that should be a lesson from Georgia, where the EU’s absence was a lethal element in the run up to the 2008 war).”

Until 1956 Crimea wasn’t even in Ukraine.  That is why it is still The Autonomous Republic of Crimea.  The demographic make-up of Crimea would not support EU meddling to combat “Russian mischief making”. 

According to 2001 Ukrainian Census, the population of Crimea was 2,033,700.  The ethnic makeup was comprised the following self-reported groups: Russians: 58.32%; Ukrainians: 24.32%; Crimean Tatars: 12.1%; Belarusians: 1.44%; Tatars: 0.54%; Armenians: 0.43%; Jews: 0.22%; and Italians: 0.015%.

Is it a wise move for the EU to go ploughing into Crimea and immediately upset almost 60% of the people who live in Crimea who are enthnic Russian?  The Crimean Tartars have not had much of a good deal from Ukraine either.  Russian is still the first langauge of choice in Crimea.  Has the author actually thought about the consequences of meddling in an autonomous region which has a heavy Russian leaning with anti- Russian rhetoric and policy?

“More generally, the new policy will focus the EU’s biggest asset: its soft power. The EU’s military capability is meagre; its ability to stand up to Russian divide-and-rule tactics in energy security is feeble. But the EU does have something that the Kremlin doesn’t: attractiveness. Projecting that into Ukraine will give Lady Ashton and her staff something worthwhile to do. It could even work.”

I would suggest that the combined armed forces of Europe……with out NATO and Commonwealth nations help, would still be a match for the Russian military simply by the equipment being less likely to fall apart and more likely to reach it’s destination.  The author of the article is obviously not too hot on military issues……or any others it would seem.

Unfortunately, even if this was a worthwhile thing for Lady Ashton to do……and I have said many times it isn’t, as pragmatic assistance on the ground is the only way EU assistance will be noticed by the average Ukrainian…….hearts and minds and all that……..then Lady Ashton is sadly not that capable of a figure to do what is necessary it seems, at least at the moment.  It is only fair to give her some time to find her feet in her new role after all.

I am tempted to make some juvenile remark about Lady Ashton being the last woman in the EU who is capable of “projecting attractiveness” into Ukraine……but I will steer clear of personal insults.