ORANGE DYKUN

DIRECT FROM KYIV, A HOPEFUL MESSAGE

(Note: this was one heck of an optimistic note generated on that exciting day. . .)

Greetings Everyone,

I am writing to you from an internet club on Independence Square in central Kyiv. Yushchenko was just inaugurated inside the parlaiment buildings, and there is a huge crowd of 100,000 or more gathered on the square, and who knows how many more thousands are milling about the streets of the capital. The atmosphere is positively jubiliant, and for the moment, people are standing in the crowd, shaking hands, hugging, some I saw crying, and chanting, going through each of the chants one could hear during the course of the Orange Revolution:

"Yu-shchen-ko Pre-si-dent"

"Together We are Many, We Won't be Overcome!"

"East and West Together!"

etc. Where I was standing at least, people around me dwelled on this last chant, as within our midst were a few Yanukovych demonstrators.

That's it for now--I now have the dubious task of finding my family and friends from Pidhajtsi once again, through this jubiliant crowd. However, milling through this crowd or multitude is positively energizing. I have seen here that a government can be made by the people; and I have great hope that here, it will remain for some time for and of the people, too--so much potential has been unleashed in this country. It took so much to turn the lights on again in this country, and so many of the people who labored here in the dark seem very ready to work in the light. People can change as much as governments. There are sincere people doing good work here, who at one point played the oligarchy game--they played it, they changed themselves, and they worked with the people to change this country. Change is quite possible, on personal and social scales, or so I hope time and the Orange Revolution well tell. . .

Stefan

PS--as I was about to hit send, someone came walking in the door of this club, and through the open door blew in not only a blast of frigid winter air, but a decibel breaking cheer of "Hooray!"

People are sticking around on the square. Its time to celebrate!

SEE PHOTOS OF THE DAY IN THE POST BELOW. . .

I was standing next to this guy during the inauguration who was holding one Ukrainian and one Russian flag. He spoke to his mother in Russian and to Tato in Ukrainian; his mother was born somewhere in the midst of Siberia and was the one holding the Yushchenko flag. He told me that he saw Ukraine and Russia as cousins within an European extended family, but that Russia was a cousin that had always been a bit estranged from the family, always rocking the boat and tyring to bully its cousin to go along with his shenanigans. He said that he hoped that the OR would be an example, and that the Russian grassroots would be emboldened by this display of pro-democracy sentiment in Ukraine. He said that one of his cousins--from his mother's side, from Russia--who was working in some EU country (I can't remember which) had, during the OR, walked near the Russian embassy in whatever country, drinking Fanta while others ate oranges or also drank Fanta.

This girl was from Ivano-Frankivsk. She came to Kyiv, so she said, the first day of the OR in November, and had been sleeping in the tent camp ever since. She was among the thousand or so who had, after the end of the mass demonstrations, declared that they would not be leaving the camp until Yushchenko had once and for all been inaugurated as president. However, their numbers dwindled after the Xmas holiday in the beginning of January, as of course many wanted to be home for the holidays. Nonetheless, a few hundred remained for the inauguration. However, just before the inauguration, Yushchenko and gang, especially through the agency of Roman Bezsmertnyj, had attempted to convince those who had remained in the camp to clear out in time for the inauguration ceremony. The idea was to have a "civilized" appearance for the events, and that the camp whad become unnecessary. This made a lot of people mad. I was too. Those people who stayed in the camp should have been honored, rather than treated as a nuissance who were supposedly making the inauguration ceremony seem uncultured. Yushchenko should have felt only so honored that these people had been willing to see the active phase of the OR to its real conclusion. But again, as always, Yushchie was operating with some idea of what it means to be a gentleman. I understand that he wanted to be inaugurated in a way that demonstrated his intention to be a president for all of Ukraine; but by making such a big deal about the continued presence of the camp, Yushchenko et al gave more cause for the divisions within Ukraine to be expressed rather than transcended.

Anyhow, this girl said (I am paraphrasing here, as I don't recall her exact words and don't have time at the moment to look them up on my computer), "I am not going anywhere. I did not demonstrate to have a new authority come to power and tell me when I should demonstrate or not. I said that I was going to stay until the inauguration, and that is what I intend to do. I will go home after today."

The next night, Monday night, was an emotional goodbye as the remaining people in the tent camp kept their word and moved on.

I thought it was beautiful and great that a portion of the camp still stood during the inauguration and that the thousands who milled on Khreshchatyk on inauguration day could interact with those who had remained.

The inauguration, however one wanted to cut it, was a celebration of the victory of the OR. If it was not to be so, the columns of the Palace Ukrainy should not have been orange; orange balloons should not have been flown; no speeches about the OR should have been made, etc. The attempt to remove the camp was ridiculous and unnecessary.