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Yemen: 40 People Killed in Torrential Rain Storm

Amira Al Hussaini · 23:53 · Middle East & North Africa

lingua → fr · es · bn · it

More than 40 people have been killed and about 30 are missing in Yemen after torrential rain hit Hadhramout.

Writing at Moments In Words From Hadhramout, Omar Barsawad brings us the story.

Traveling in and around Hadhramout is not safe and can be dangerous, at the moment. For the last three days, it has been raining continuously in most parts of Hadhramout, Mahra and Shabwa; at times, the rain is heavy but for the most part, it's continuously drizzling. This is no good at all.

In our Arab custom, we celebrate rain - a blessing from God. Barsawad explains:

People, especially Bedouins, celebrate when it rains; as that means water. Water: which in such a dry place like here, is so precious and a luxury to many. But when it rains this heavily and so continuously, it causes only problems; sometimes causing extensive damage and many times - it takes lives.

He further adds:

With the earth here not that porous, torrents of floods are now sweeping in several places; as of today: several bridges, houses cultivated lands - have been swept away by the floods. Many roads are now impassable; including the main road from Al Mukalla to the Wady, inland. Within the Wady itself, many villages and towns have now been cut off from each other by flooded or swept away roads. As the rains are forecast to continue for the next few days, there will undoubtedly be more destruction; very hopefully, no lives will be lost.

Sadly this wasn't the case - and many people have lost their lives. According to Reuters:

Floods killed 41 people and around 31 are missing in Yemen after torrential rain left swathes of the impoverished country under water, President Ali Abdullah Saleh said on Saturday.

Around 1,700 homes have been destroyed, he said, displacing hundreds of families in the floods that swept the southeastern provinces of Hadramout and Mahra following 30 hours of heavy rainfall.

Barsawad cautions people travelling in the region, saying:

Any one traveling around, must take extreme care. It's very easy to be swept away by floods; most people who lose their lives from floods, are those who are ignorant about what it can do here, or those who are reckless. It's most advisable to listen to what elderly locals say; they know best. Wherever one is, if the locals advise against traveling further or in a certain direction, it's best and safe to listen. Never cross any flooded road however still the water seems or safe it looks - unless many people are already crossing that road. Never park or stay long in a valley; try to keep on upper grounds.

In an email to Global Voices Online, Barsawad writes:

There's no electricity or piped running water in most of Al Mukalla; and the Internet is very slow and shuts down most of the time - from late Wednesday to yesterday, I didn't have any Internet connection. For me to write that last post, I had to do so on Word and then quickly copy and paste in my blog and get all the links done within minutes.

This morning the sun is shining brightly, and Insha Allah (by the will of God) water will dry up. The biggest problem now here, is in Wady Hadhramout (where there are now thousands of people who have fled their homes - including my relatives. I am afraid when all is finally assessed the damage will be huge and the death toll will rise. As you know, most houses in Wady Hadhramout are built of mud - with the heavy rain, floods and pools of standing water, many houses are simply melting down; and as the villages and towns are cut off from each other, supplies like vegetables and other essentials becomes a problem too (as most shops are closed). Anyway with the President here now, I am sure all will be done swiftly to get things back to normal.

Our prayers with our friends in Hadhramout at this difficult time.

1 comment · read »

Malaysian Media Council: Double handcuffs or media freedom?

Daniel Chandranayagam · 20:58 · East Asia

lingua → es

Amidst a number of recent journalistic blunders, Malaysia’s Home Minister, Syed Hamid Albar, announced that the government has full intention of establishing a national media policy, together with a regulatory body over Malaysian media. Syed Hamid said that that a policy is currently being drafted and also that the foundations of a National Media Council is being established.

Syed Hamid’s announcement is notwithstanding long-held objections by journalists, activists and civil society groups.

The government has not been precise on why a National Media Council and policy should be implemented. The purpose for setting up a Media Council in 2001, according to the then Information Parliamentary Secretary, Zainuddin Maidin, was so that journalists remain sensitive to the political and social scenarios, and to enable chief editors to contend with bigger problems.

Meanwhile, the opposition in 2001 wanted an “independent high-powered Media Council” to promote free and responsible press, with powers to expose all instances of irresponsible foreign and local reporting.

Going on this premise, Malaysia might possibly need a media policy and a regulatory body, as there has been allegations of several alleged breaches of journalistic ethics this year alone, including non-verification of facts and alleged hate journalism.

Bloggers, including former premier, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamed, are less than convinced. According to the Malaysia Update blog, Dr Mahathir said:

“It is not necessary. It is up to the media. If you deal in a lot of rumour and speculation, then you will not sell newspapers.”

He added that the media should be self-regulating.

A commenter on Malaysia Today, the website of detained blogger Raja Petra Kamaruddin, said:

“No point having national media council if the Printing Presses and Publications Act and the broadcast restriction using Multimedia Commission is not lifted. Contrary to TDM [Tun Dr Mahathir], it still won't be self regulation if all these laws are in place. Of course, TDM may not think so because he does not subscribe to the view that these provisions stifle the press as they are still able to criticise him when he was in power.

“Anyway, the point of having the media commission is not to punish people like Malaysiakini, but rather [to] ensure objective reporting of [the] like[s] [of] NST [New Straits Times] and Utusan Melayu. It should definitely not be a place to seek remedy for defamation because that would be duplicating the function of the court.”

In fact, Home Minister Syed Hamid has been non-committal about the abolition of the Printing Presses and Publications Act 1984 (PPPA), which requires anyone seeking to publish or print to obtain a licence from government. According to Malaysiakini, more than 900 journalists had signed a petition for the repeal of the licensing provisions under the PPPA.

Blogger, Masterwordsmith, had a ten-point response on her blog. She questions the need to “waste government resources/taxpayers' money by creating a media council as another regulatory authority over the print media”.

Mastwordsmith also asks why nothing has been done about the short story written by Chamil Wariya in the Malay language newspaper, Mingguan Malaysia, which allegedly incites the public towards violence against a Member of Parliament. Chamil Wariya, is the president of the Malaysian Press Institute (MPI), which is said to be assisting in the formulation of the proposed Media Council and Policy.

Blogger Kean-Jin Lim, a Malaysian working in Finland, stated, in response to Syed Hamid’s citing the UK as having a press council:

“Min[i]ster used UK as example in this case. They told us before we should not learn from Western world. Now, they gave you example from Western world. Selective choice isn’t it? We see many complaints made to several commissions we already have; however, the outcome so far?”

It also appears that most new media are unaware of the ‘new media policy’. Blogger and now politician, Jeff Ooi, stated at a forum on Blogging and Defamation that most of the online press he had spoken to only found out about this development through the press. Ooi added at the forum that having a media council would be like being “double hand-cuffed”.

It should be noted that a survey conducted by Centre for Independent Journalism (CIJ) and Merdeka Center on media independence, 35% of the respondents said the government should play the most important role in improving media independence in Malaysia. Furthermore, the media is seen by some members of the public as important. For example, PJ Moorthy, ends his post on the issue on his blog, on this note:

“Perhaps, then if the proposed National Media Council actually did cover the blogosphere, then maybe… these personal opinion maestros of the blogs might just succumb to authority. As it is, the likes of [anonymous] bloggers will continue to mesmerize their readers with imagined fowls and miraged post men with their fairy tales!

This writer believes that these personal pages (otherwise known as Blogs) remain….oh so personal and should not be looked at as THE SOURCE for news.”

However, the idea for a Media Council has been mooted for many years. Only time will tell when it will be established and how effective it will be in its role of regulating media in Malaysia.

2 comments · read »

Jordan: Rumours, Gap Year Foreign Students, and Body of Lies

Mohammad Azraq · 16:11 · Middle East & North Africa

Ola Oliwat talks on 7iber about a film made by a new youth group in Jordan called Fekra. The 14-minute film talks about rumours that could be deadly weapons killing innocent people. In the post entitled: “Rumors Can Kill“, she writes:

“She was in the car with him when her brother caught her in the act.”

“I’m not assuming anything, but it’s obvious there’s something wrong about her.”

“She had it coming, if you ask me! I always sensed she was hiding something.”

Many times we hear things like this, from neighbors, friends, relatives or even when we overhear two perfect strangers chatting the time away while waiting for a bus. It is established we do hear this all the time, but the question is, how often do we question the source of that gossip, or wonder about its consequences.

The sad fact is, many of us tend to take this lightly. We use gossip as a pastime and think that it’s OK to mention a rumor or too as long as we make it clear that we’re not sure about it and that it’s just a rumor, forgetting the most important feature of rumors: they snowball. So, you hear something, think it could be an interesting material for conversation over a cup of coffee and, after all, what’s the worst that could happen?

The following movie, Dandana, tackles the issue of rumor and gossip in creating such situations and disturb the peace of families. It may start as small as a molehill and end up as huge as a mountain. You never know how it started or how it will end.

Dandana was done by Fekra, a group of Jordanian youth who don’t have much, but are trying to make the best of what they have to carry their ideas to the world. Dandana is the group’s first movie.

This short video, with subtitles in English, is very much worth watching:

This video is posted courtesy of Ikbis

Kinzi talks about foreign students taking a gap year and coming to Jordan whom she refers to as Gap Year Guys/Gals (GYGs). She writes:

Since Nas’ post on foreign language learners and my previous post on Stray American Girls In Amman (SAGA) I have discovered another angle on the curiously increasing number of young foreigners hanging out in our fair city - GYGs: Gap Year Guys/Gals.

The concept of a gap year, a year taken off either while in undergrad studies or after uni graduation, has long been a staple of the British and European ‘youth experience’. It seems now to have caught on in the US as well, and with the increase in the number of Middle Eastern Studies majors in the US, is channeling many young Americans to Amman. They come to learn, and most importantly, they come to serve. Not as in-depth as the Peace Corps, but more than a ‘Middle East Lite Cultural Experience’.

The of course, you get the Just Plain Weirdos. We had a tall, elegant-looking black woman come to church in hijab AND jilbab. Thats not a problem, except she introduced herself as a Christian, called herself “Il Ukht Yasmine”. Folks were their usual welcoming selves, even though it seemed a little strange. She came to Bible study and told a couple ladies off when they called her just ‘Yasmine’, that they weren’t respecting her properly. She would come over for a visit, stay all day, and announce she had no place to live and no money and God told her she would live with you! She did this several times before someone came to the church leaders to complain. When confronted, she said we were all a bunch of racists (even though it was an African family who called her on her game). Had I known the K-Town ladies then, I would’ve warned them! There is a division of American Citizen Services who make sure people like this get on a plane to go back to the US.

Korea: US$100bn Package for Stabilizing the Market

Hyejin Kim · 14:22 · East Asia

lingua → es

South Korea's government has agreed to guarantee foreign-currency borrowing by the country's banks to help stabilize financial markets. The announcement doesn’t bring positive views from netizens. The netizens also have different interpretations.

불과 금요일까지만 해도 정부의 은행지급보증은 일말의 가능성에 불과했다. 유럽에서 너도 나도 지급보증 들어가서 지급보증이 멍멍이 짖는 소리처럼 들리는 판국인 데, 지급보증은 최악의 모럴 해저드를 의미한다. 이미 공적자금 투입때부터 미국은 모럴 해저드이긴 하지만 우리는 아직 그런 상황도 아니고, 소문여하에 따라 뱅크런이 일어나면 100% 국민의 세금으로 떠넘겨질 정부지급보증을 할 정도는 아니라고 본다. 근데 애초에 이 얘기가 나왔던 건 저번 주 S&P의 한국신용등급에 대한 썰이었다. 무슨 얘기냐 하면, 한국 7개은행의 유동성이 무척 불안하니까 두 달 후에 신용등급 낮출지도 모른다고 얘기를 꺼내면서 한국 니들도 은행 100% 지급보증 안서주면 신용등급 낮출 수도 있다는 식으로 보도됐다. 이건 그냥 협박이다. 지급보증 안서주면 신용등급 얄짤없다는 얘기. 외국인들의 예금 보호를 위해 적극적으로 나서지 않으면 국물도 없다는 거다. 과연 일개 사기업이 국가를 협박하는 현 상황이 온당한가? 바꿔 말하면 무디스와는 샤바샤바할 정도로 입심이 강했던 한국정부가 S&P의 파워에는 그냥 굴복했다는 말이 된다.[…]

Last Friday, foreign currency payment guarantees for domestic banks of the Korean government was hardly a possibility. Many European countries started providing payment guarantees and it seems not so effective. The payment guarantees mean the worst moral hazard. In the case of the US, it has been facing moral hazard since they started throwing public capital in. However, our situation is not that bad. If a bank run starts, this payment guarantees will be from 100 percent of public tax. If we track back to the origin of this incident, it started from credit rating of S&P about Korea last week. They said that mobility of 7 Korean banks has not been stable. Therefore the report said that there would be the possibility that they downgrade our credit rating two months later if there is no 100 percent payment guarantee for banks. This is a threat. If we don’t do any actions to protect foreigners’ savings, we don’t get anything. Is it a right attitude that a private company threats a nation? In other words, while the government was strong to deal with Moodys, it surrendered to power of S&P.

After this post was on Agora [a netizens’ discussion channel at a major portal site], the government authority, the Ministry of Strategy and Finance, also used this site in order to have communications.

[대한민국 정부가 신용평가사에 협박당하지는 않습니다]

우리 정부가 국제적인 신용평가사인 스탠더드&푸어스(S&P)의 신용등급 하락 협박을 받고 은행권 외채 지급보증 정책을 발표했다는 ‘코끼리손’님의 글은 전혀 사실이 아니기에 다음과 같이 정부 입장을 밝힙니다.

첫째, 정부가 은행의 대외채무에 대해 지급보증을 하게 된 것은 금융위기 극복을 위한 국제공조의 일환입니다. 미국, 유럽, 호주 등 주요국이 자국 금융기관을 보호하기 위한 조치를 취한 상태에서 우리 정부 역시 우리 금융기관이 상대적인 불이익을 받지 않도록 신속히 대응할 필요가 있었습니다.

둘째, 우리 금융기관은 미국이나 유럽 금융기관과 달리 투자손실로 인한 자본잠식 상태가 아닙니다. 따라서 은행이 채무를 이행하지 못해 정부가 대지급을 할 가능성이 거의 없으며, 국민의 세금부담으로 돌아가는 경우 역시 없을 것입니다

셋째, 정부가 국제신용평가기관인 S&P와 무디스의 압력에 굴복해서 금번 조치를 취했다는 주장은 전혀 근거가 없습니다. 금번 조치는 정부가 현 경제상황을 고려해서 국익을 보호하기 위해 내린 결정이었음을 말씀드립니다.

앞으로도 정부는 미국발 금융위기가 우리 경제에 미치는 영향을 최소화하기 위해 최선을 다하도록 하겠습니다
아울러 일부 외신이나 투자은행 등의 한국경제에 대한 악의적 보도나 언급은 자본의 이익과 관련된 특정한 의도를 갖고있을 수 있기에 네티즌 여러분의 신중한 판단을 당부드립니다.

= 기획재정부 =

[The Korean government is not threatened by S&P]

The government would like to announce that we didn’t decide to provide foreign currency payment guarantees because Standard & Poor’s threatened to downgrade the credit rating as ‘koggirison’ said.

First, the reason why the government decided to provide foreign currency payment guarantees about bank debts is in order to overcome the economic crisis as mutual assistance in international society. Major countries, such as the US, Europe and Australia, have been through this process in order to protect financial institutions of their own countries. It was necessary for the government to swiftly react this way in order not to take disadvantages.

Second, compared to financial institutions of the US and Europe, our financial institutions are not submerged due to investment losses. Therefore, it is not going to happen that banks can’t perform debts and therefore the government has to pay instead. In the end, it will not be covered by public tax.

Third, the rumor that the government surrendered to the threat of the S&P and Moodys is baseless. Considering the current economic situations, the government made a decision in order to protect national benefits.

The government will do the best, so that economic crisis that started from America will influence our economy as least as possible. Ill-intentioned reports and reference from foreign news and investment banks can be related to profits for their own sakes. Therefore we would like to ask netizens to make prudent judgments.

Ministry of Strategy and Finance

Extremely negative views are shown as well.

이번 1000억 달러 지급 보증은 은행 부실 실토이자 오히려 우리 정부의 마지막 패를 보여준 거란다…….안해도 되는 일, 해도 꺼꾸로 하는 일이 자꾸 반복되면서…. 결국 외국인들 손바닥위에서 춤추는 거지………

아니………생각을 해 보자고……… 한국이 무슨 외환 보유고가 중국이나 일본처럼 1조 달러가 넘어가는 수준도 아니고………. 단기외채가 1200억달러가 넘어가는데 1천억달러는 3년간 정부 지급 보증??? 외국인들이 웃는다는군……지금 코메디 하자는 거냐고… 이게 가능할려면 매달 무역 수지흑자가 최소 50억 달러 이상은 나와야 가능하다는데 뭔 놈의 수로 지금같이 어려운때 매달 무역 수지를 50억 달러 이상씩 올리냐???
한 마디로 말장난이지………..[…]이미 한국의 외환보유고는 낭떠러지위에 매달려 있다는 거지…오늘 정부는 우리 모두에게 고백한거야…그럼 우리는???????????뒤도 안 돌아보고 몸조심…….. 튀어야지!!!! 무조건 현금 갖고 튀어라~~~~~~~~~~~

The 100 billion dollar payment guarantees prove the mismanagement of banks and the last card of the government… Things that they don’t have to do and things that they do conversely are repeating on and on… It seems that we’re dancing on the palms of foreigners’ hands.

Think about it. Foreign exchange holdings of Korea are not the level of having more than 1,000 billion dollars like China and Japan… Short term foreign debt is more than 120 billion dollars. At this moment, the government will provide 100 billion dollar payment guarantees for three years??? Others are laughing… It’s a comedy. If this is feasible, trade account surplus every month should be at least more than 5 billion dollars. How can this be possible in such a difficult time? It’s nonsense… […]That is, it shows that foreign exchange holdings of Korea is hanging over a cliff… Today, the government confessed to us. Then how about us????? We should run away!!! Run away with cash~~~~~~

Many netizens are interested in the reaction of the government to a netizen’s opinion.

[…]재정부가 아고라의 글들을 그렇게 꼼꼼히 모니터링하고 있는줄을 몰랐다. 그거 아니더라도 할일이 태산같을텐데……재정부의 정보와 시스템에는 위험신호가 아고라로부터 나온다고 판단하고 있는지….. 재정부의 변명에는 중요한 사실을 빼놓고 있다는것이다.(의도적인 냄새가 남..) 정부의 지급보증을 하는 국가들은 재정부말대로 자국의 투자 금융기관들의 손실에 대한 전보적 성격의 것이다. 그것은 미국의 구제금융과 금리하락등의 팽창정책에 대응하는 전략의 일환으로 볼수있다. 물론, 미국 이외의 다른 나라의 경우 추락한 달러가치 보다 상대적으로 덜 떨어졌다.

그러나 우리는 아주 다르다. 재정부의 변명대로 우리금융기관의 자산건전성은 문제가 아니더라도 현재 대한민국의 금융시장을 얼어붙게 하는 귀하신 달러는 증시와 채권시장을 이탈하는 셀코리아때문이다.
셀코리아의 원인은 여러가지지만,현집권세력인 정부와 한나라당의 책임이 막중하다 할것이다. 물론 변명을 하고 있는 당사자도 현정부와 정치적인 관련이 있는 인사일가능성이 크다.

그리고….세계적 금융위기에 대응하는 세계의 전략이란 부제로3번에 은행국유화를 들고 있는데, 이건 좀 그렇다…이명박 정권과 한나라당의 정책 방향은 재벌의 은행 소유를 가능케하는 금산분리 완화등과 산업은행 민영화등 국유화가 아니라 민영화가 아니었던가…..? 통화스왑은 거의 물건너 간것같고……

금리인하….이것도 이해못할것이 지금 정부가 지급보증을 하는것도 외환시장의 불안때문이 아니던가…?
유독 대한민국의 원화가치가 폭락을 하며 외환시장의 불안을 가중시키고 있는 상황에 금리인하를 하면 어떻게 되겠는가…?

정부의 지급보증….
소식에 우선은 외환시장에서 환율이 잦아드는것 같다. 그러나 그것은 언발에 오줌눟기에 지나지 않는다는 것을 정부당국자들도 알고 있을것이다. 설령 당장은 달러의 수급에 안정을 기할수있더라도, 차후의 고환율등 외환시장의 불안이 재현될 가능성이 훨씬 높아진다는것이다. 세계적인 경기침체에 경상수지 흑자를 기대할 수 없을 뿐더러 국내적으로 내수침체. 신뢰를 잃은 나머지 자본수지마져 긍정적으로 기대할 수 없다.또 커져가고 있는 금융위기의 이면 싸움과 이명박 정권과 한나라당의 스텐스에서 오는 한반도 리스크의 증가는 외환시장의 불안에 박차를 가할것이다.

[…]I didn’t know that the Ministry of Strategy and Finance is monitoring posts of Agora in detail. I thought that they have more important things to do. Maybe Agora is marked as a danger signal in information system of the MSF. The MSF omitted an important fact of their announcement. Countries that receive the payment guarantees from the government are preventing from loss of investment and financial institutions. It can be interpreted as a strategy to react relief loans and interest rate cut that the US government performs.

However, our case is different. The reason why US dollars became rare in the money market of Korea is due to the ‘Sell Korea’ symptom that investors leave securities markets and bond markets. Then why does this happen? There are several reasons, but the main reason is because of the current government and the Grand National Party. Even the man who is explaining of the necessity of the payment guarantees might be closely related to the current government.

The government emphasizes that banks should be nationalized as a global strategy. It doesn’t make sense. Did their policies focus on privatization? They emphasized the division of financial capital and industrial capital so that chaebol (conglomerates) can own banks and privatization of the Industrial Bank of Korea. How about currency swap?

Reduction of interest… what I can’t understand is that the government said the reason why they have to perform the payment guarantees is due to instability of foreign exchange markets. Now the value of Korean money has been declining heavily and it weights instability of foreign exchange markets. Under these circumstances, is the reduction of interest necessary?

Payment guarantees of the government…
This news seems to bring more stable foreign exchange rate in the market. However, the government even knows that this is like peeing on your frozen feet. Right away, it can generate stability of dollars, but there would be the higher possibility that instability of foreign exchange markets will reoccur. During the economic recession all over the world, it is impossible to expect current account surplus. In addition, due to stagnation of domestic consumption, we can’t see the positive view at present. Increasing tension inside due to financial crisis and increase of the risk of the Korean peninsula due to the current government and the GNP might bring more instability to foreign exchange markets.

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Ukraine: Politics Versus the Economy

Veronica Khokhlova · 02:20 · Eastern & Central Europe

lingua → fr · es

Ukraine's tumultuous internal politics has long stood in the way of the country's economic development - and even now, at the time of an economic crisis, there seems to be no sign of respite.

Throughout the past week, Edward Hugh of Ukraine Economy Watch has been reporting on the repeated downgrades of Ukraine's rankings by Moody's (Oct. 20), Fitch (Oct. 21), and Standard & Poor's (Oct. 24). But on Tuesday, Oct. 21, Ukraine at least seemed to be “on the point of signing a loan worth as much as $15 billion with the International Monetary Fund.” By the end of the week, however, on Friday, Oct. 24, the situation seemed to have changed, largely due to lack of political will, according to Edward Hugh:

[…] Meanwhile Ukraine parliament chairman Arseniy Yatsenyuk told a packed chamber that Ukraine's talks to secure credit from the International Monetary Fund could collapse unless the parliament acts to pass the measures needed to ease the effects of the global financial crisis.

“It is very important for us to achieve results in a vote on the financial crisis,” Arseniy Yatsenyuk told the chamber, which was deadlocked for the fourth day, after adjourning debate on the issue until next week.

“Bang, Boing, Crash” I think must be the sort of background noises they can detect rudely inter-rupting them from the street outside as one piece of financial scaffolding after another falls away from the building it had been momentarily holding up while they trundle on with their interminable debate about their endangered country's short term future.

An International Monetary Fund mission has been holding talks for more than a week in Kiev on extending credit that Ukrainian officials say could amount to up to $14 billion. Yatsenyuk said no consensus could be reached on six draft laws to tackle the crisis, including a package proposed by Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko's government.

[…]

Parliament has been thrown into disarray over proposals to combine debate on the crisis with measures to finance an early election called by President Viktor Yushchenko. Tymoshenko, at odds for months with the president, opposes the election and members of her bloc have milled about the chairman's rostrum to curtail debate.

The president dissolved parliament this month and called a Dec. 7 election to the assembly after the collapse of a government team linked to the 2004 “Orange Revolution”. He lifted the dissolution order this week and said he was putting the election back for a week to Dec. 14. It remains unclear when the poll will take place.

LEvko of Foreign Notes wrote that while PM Yulia Tymoshenko thought that holding “early elections during a world financial crisis [would] be a crime against the state” and deputy head of the Central Electoral Commission Andriy Mahera “claimed that it would be impossible to hold early parliamentary elections before 21st December,” president Victor Yushchenko believed that “a new coalition and government [would] be formed by January 1st 2009.” LEvko summarized the situation this way:

[…] Recent political history in Ukraine, drawn out, tortuous negotiations in forming parliamentary coalitions, their instability, and recent opinion polls on how any future parliament would stack up, all suggest [president Yushchenko] is out of touch with reality. […]

In another post at Foreign Notes, LEvko reported that Ukraine's second largest metallurgical enterprise - the Mariupol Ilyich Steel & Iron Works - has stopped production:

[…] The plant, a workers' collective, has about 60,000 employees on its books. They have been put on ‘reduced wages'.

LEvko fears this is a significant indicator of the economic crisis facing the country - maybe the greatest in the country's short independent history. Wind-down and start up at plants such as [Ilyich Steel & Iron Works] are major operations - they cannot be switched off and on at will. There could be a possibility now that it will never restart. […]

In the comments section to this post, a reader calling himself Elmer wrote about the alleged personal spending habits of Victor Yanukovych, leader of the Party of Regions, and Rinat Akhmetov, a Party of Regions MP and the richest man of Europe:

I wonder if [Yanukovych] will have to reduce or stop work on his HUGE mansion, “Mezhihirya,” or if [Yanukovych] and Akhmetov will have to cut back on their jets and limos and expensive vans and such.

And Ukrainian MPs do indeed seem to be concerned about the effect that the current crisis may have on their personal finances, as some of them seem to have rushed along with everyone else to withdraw their savings from Ukrainian banks, urging Oleksandr Suhonyako, president of the Association of Ukrainian Banks, to issue this appeal, translated from Ukrainian by Taras of Ukrainiana:

[…] There’s only one thing left for us to do: to be real citizens and to ask… perhaps even MPs will heed the call that…don’t run, don't demand, don't use it to withdraw your deposits before the maturity date. Be an example. […] because the absence of panic is prerequisite for our Ukrainian society to weather this crisis and solidify.

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