SIXTH Annual Ukrainian Best & Worst List 2008

By Oksana Bashuk Hepburn

Almost everyone has a favourite list this time of year - best movies, books, person of the year.  For the sixth year, here are my lists of Ten Best and Ten Worst comprising governments, individuals, publications and organizations which made the global Ukrainian community the way it was in 2008.

BEST

1.   The newly reconstituted coalition government under Ukraine’s Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko comprising her political Bloc, Our Ukraine-Party of Self Defence, and Volodymyr Lytvyn’s eponymous Bloc - for providing political continuity at the “11^th Hour”. 

2.   Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper - for hosting the Official State Visit for Ukraine’s President Victor Yushchenko and undertaking to support Ukraine’s bid for NATO membership.

 3.  Again, Prime Minister Harper - for recognizing the Holodomor, the Kremlin generated Great Famine Terror of 1932-33 that starved upwards of some 10 million Ukrainians, as genocide and a crime against humanity.

4.   The growing number of states, some 20 - for recognizing the Holodomor Famine as genocide and a crime against humanity.

5.   The Ukrainian Canadian Congress and the Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association - for obtaining 10 million dollars as compensation for the interment of Ukrainians in Canada during WWI. 

6.   Ukrainian President Victor Yushchenko - for paying attention to Ukraine’s national symbols: Ukrainian, as the Official Language of Ukraine; the Holodomor as genocide and a crime against humanity; the Ukrainian Insurgent Army [UPA - in WWII], as a legitimate military defence unit of Ukraine.

7.   The Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association - for starting the “No KGB in Canada!” campaign to have veteran members/former members of the Communist Soviet secret police apparatus - KGB, SMERSH, NKVD – now residing in Canada, tried [in court as alleged criminals] and illegal immigrants, [subject to denaturalisation and deportation].

8.   The remarkable Klitschko Brothers - Vitalij and Volodymyr - winners of world heavyweight boxing championships - for serving to remind Ukrainians that victory and success are attainable in a year [times] of political and economic catastrophes.

9.   The United States of America - for moving to open a consulate in Crimea, Ukraine.

10.  The Ukrainian people because they have and shall overcome trying times.

WORST

1.   Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin - for threatening Ukraine with nuclear warheads and not just once!

2.   Ukrainian President Victor Yushchenko - for denying Ukraine an ambassador to work the corridors of NATO in Ukraine’s favour prior to the April 2008 NATO summit in Bucharest.

3.   President Yushchenko - for failing to mount an appropriate educational program for Ukrainians on the benefits of Ukraine joining NATO, prior to the summit.

4. President Yushchenko - or failing to live up to his Orange Revolution commitment to get Ukraine closer to the West, among others via membership in NATO.

5.   President Yushchenko - for stoking the break-up of the “Orange” coalition in parliament thereby leading to a political crisis, precipitating a sense of hopelessness in the population, and creating opportunities for the Russian Federation to make inroads into Ukraine.

6.   NATO Members, in particular France and Germany, - for acquiescing to Russia’s pressure and voting twice, in this year alone, against Ukraine’s NATO membership.

7.   The world’s Ukrainian Diaspora organizations, under the leadership of the World Congress of Ukrainians and its constituent national counterparts -- for inadequate pressure on their governments to ensure closure to the absurd 19 year-old game of being “half-in/half-out” in NATO.

8.   The Russian Federation - for failing to recognize the Holodomor, which starved upward of some 10 million people as genocide and a crime against humanity.

9.   The State of Israel-- for failing to recognize  the Holodomor as genocide and a crime against humanity, a particularly inappropriate position given its own Shoah tragedy and ongoing demands for ever greater exposure of the Holocaust. 

10.  Ukraine’s Our Ukraine Party - for failing to demand President Yushchenko’s resignation after two unsatisfactory elections in which the President’s party support dropped from its Orange Revolution high rating of 60%+ to its current popular rating in the low digits. 

Oksana Bashuk Hepburn is a political commentator, long-time special policy advisor to Canadian governments and President U*CAN Ukraine Canada Relations Inc., a consulting firm. Comments: oksanabh@sympatico.ca