typical diseases of Ukraine

[fractal-vortex]

Two typical diseases of Ukraine, and in general of the post-Soviet area, are: 1) extortions of the officials, 2) lies of businessmen. An example of the first: the bribes extorted by cops on the roads. How it is done: on an interstate highway, suddenly there appears a sign limiting the speed to 30 mph. If you didn’t notice this sign in time, there are cops behind it, and they “milk” all the passing cars. An example of the second: gas stations on the road. The price for a liter of gas may be a little less than at the other gas stations, however, at this station they cheat you of a couple of liters of gas. They manage to fill you with some air. Another variant of the same: the price at a road sign may read 10.30 hrivnas per liter, but they charge you 10.45, when you drive in to fill your tank.



The situation is complicated by the attempts of one group of bandits to appear as struggling with another group of bandits, in the eyes of the population in general. For example, the capitalists try to appear as struggling against the theft of the officials. Today, these are Ukrainian nationalists, the party of “Svoboda” and Co. Meanwhile, the officials try to appear as supporting the Constitution of Ukraine, which is a “social republic”, as being against privatizations, against theft of state property (which they themselves initiate, though secretly). Today, this is the party in power, “the Party of Regions” (to which the current President of Ukraine belongs).



The people start understanding that neither party of the gangsters represent their interests. We should think for ourselves and create own party, against the bureaucracy and the capitalists.

[khad]

Two typical diseases of Ukraine, and in general of the post-Soviet area, are: 1) extortions of the officials, 2) lies of businessmen. An example of the first: the bribes extorted by cops on the roads. How it is done: on an interstate highway, suddenly there appears a sign limiting the speed to 30 mph.

http://www.speedtrap.org/

Happens all the time, everywhere.

[Thirsty Crow]

The situation is complicated by the attempts of one group of bandits to appear as struggling with another group of bandits, in the eyes of the population in general. For example, the capitalists try to appear as struggling against the theft of the officials.
The same situation occurs here where I live (also a post-"socialist" country).

The narrative of bureaucratic corruption, lack of responsiveness to the needs of the entrepreneurs and workers (in the sense of regulations and papers needed for, e.g., starting a business or obtaining a building permit), and general lack of qualifications and expertise was a huge part of the ideological discourse driving public perception and opinion in recent times.

The result is a specific kind of politicization of what is not entirely political (as in pertaining to the state and administrative apparatus and its actions) in origin. I'm talking about the perception of the crisis here. I believe that the most wide spread illusion is that the political and administrative bureaucracy is responsible for the crisis.

Thus, any attention is diverted away from the structural antagonism between labor and capital, and specific problems of capital accumulation.

There are at least two prominent forms this takes:

1) populist moralism and anger towards the politicians - I'd say that there is a widespread disillusionment with the political establishment in general, and with administrative apparatus in particular - this latter aspect becomes particularly damaging when it is transformed into the imaginary battle between public workers (parasites, lazy, damaging the economy) and workers in the private sector.

2) quasi-technocratic, national unity politics coming form within the establishment - you all know the story, we're all in this together and need to endure, and so on, but the twist is that a certain section of the political and administrative apparatus is heavily involved in this insistence on corruption, nepotism, and other signs which they interpret as evidence of a general lack of education and expertise. In short, the story here is let the experts decide on the matter (rationalization of the state-administrative apparatus).

[ANTIFA GATE-9]

Everything is different in each country but like khad said these things happen everywhere maybe not as politically complicated as in Ukraine though.