APVictory must be even sweeter on the world stage when so many predicted your failure. That’s a feeling that Vitali Klitschko, the pride of Ukraine, might have after defeating Samuel Peter on Oct. 11.
Klitschko, 37, known as “Dr. Ironfist,” regained the World Boxing Council heavyweight championship in his bout against Nigerian Samuel Peter, 28, who lost the match by technical knockout after he couldn’t return to the ring after the eighth round.
The Klitschkos – Vitali and younger brother Volodymyr – dominate the heavyweight boxing division. Volodymyr Klitschko holds two other major titles.
Many pundits predicted Vitali Klitschko’s defeat by the younger rival.
An Africa News report was typical: “Most boxing experts feel that Klitschko will look good for a minimum of four to six rounds, and then quickly begin to fade badly. You can expect to see Peter rally at that point, and take the fight to the tired-looking Ukrainian fighter, and possibly stop him by the 9th or 10th … [Vitali is] now 37 years old, and has been out of the sport for way too long to compete with a fighter with as much power and determination as Peter has.”
Chornobyl shouldn't be shorthand for disaster
Americans and others have taken to substituting the word “Chornobyl” to mean “disaster,” as in something is a “cultural Chornobyl” or “fashion Chornobyl.” In an Oct. 13 letter to Newsweek magazine, Kirsten Giebutowski of Poltava, Ukraine, objects: “Is it really in good taste to appropriate another country’s national tragedy and use it as shorthand to mean ‘something terrible’ in reference to just about anything? ... Chornobyl refers to a specific tragedy. Careless use of the word disrespects victims of that tragedy and also degrades the English language.” Dozens of deaths and hundreds of cancer cases are blamed on the April 16, 1986 meltdown of the nuclear power plant near Chornobyl, just south of Ukraine’s border with Belarus.
EU, Russia not happy with new elections
Not only Ukrainians are tired of Ukrainian elections.
The European Union sent its regrets about President Victor Yushchenko’s decision to call a pre-term election on Dec. 7, the third parliamentary election in as many years.
Javier Solana, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, said in a statement, according to Interfax-Ukraine: “We regret that the effort that had taken place in building a coalition has failed at a time when Ukraine needs, in particular, political stability to respond to so many challenges. We follow the situation very closely.”
The Russians didn’t sound any happier. Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko said: “Unfortunately, of course, the Ukrainian problems – I mean, first of all, socio-economic ones – are now on the back burner, because the country now needs to hold parliamentary elections, and only the new parliament will be able to make decisions on this category of issues.”
Malevich painting worth $60 million at auction
The artistic and financial strength of Kyiv-born Kazimir Malevich lives on, long after his death in 1935.
Sotheby’s auction house expects the Russian avant-garde artist’s 1916 painting “Suprematist Composition” will fetch at least $60 million in a Nov. 3 auction in New York.
“’Suprematist Composition’ is a magnificent modern work of art of enormous art historical importance and cultural resonance,” RIA Novosti of Moscow quoted Emmanuel Di-Donna, the auction house’s vice chairman, as saying. “It ranks amongst the finest paintings of the 20th century.”
Malevich reportedly left Ukraine for Moscow in 1904, but evidently Ukraine never left his thoughts.
One of his more haunting works, “The Running Man,” was completed just before his death. It shows a peasant fleeing across a landscape with crucifixes in the background. Many consider the work to be an indictment of the 1932-1933 Great Famine, or Holodomor, in which Stalin starved seven to 10 million Ukrainians to death.
Sex trade puts Ukraine back into the headlines
According to an Oct. 9 story in London’s The Daily Telegraph newspaper, “altered euro banknotes embellished with images of prostitutes are being used to discourage Ukrainian women from getting caught up in the sex trade.”
What makes the story strange is that the author, Matthew Moore, didn’t identify the organization or people supposedly behind this campaign. But a Google search turned up an article in Polish newspaper Dziennik that attributes a similar campaign to the handiwork of Femen, the Kyiv organization led by Anna Hutsol. The goal of the group of mostly university students is to end sex tourism to Ukraine. Hutsol, reached for comment, said Femen created fake dollars bills at a protest last summer, but wasn't involved in the fake euro notes.
The bad bills “show underdressed women – obviously prostitutes – leaning against the grand examples of European architecture that have been printed on the currency’s bills since its launch in 2002,” the Daily Telegraph article said. “Messages warning about the real price of seeking black market employment abroad are printed across the top of the ‘fake’ notes.”
The story cites International Organization for Migration estimates that 117,000 Ukrainans have been forced into prostitution or involuntary labor since independence, more than any other Eastern European country. The Daily Telegraph also writes: “Prostitution is widespread in Ukraine, which is home to more than 12,000 sex workers. The rise of sex tourism, fueled by wealthy visitors from the U.S. and the European Union, sparked demonstrations from students in the capital Kyiv this summer.” Those were Femen-sponsored protests.
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