Seems Like FINA may be Against Russian Aggression

The FINA World Masters Championships are being held in Montreal from August 2-9th and there was something that caught my attention while I reviewed the schedule, and could be an indicator that FINA is against Russian aggression in Ukraine. This is not the first time that an international sports governing body has made, or what seems to have been a decision that will not affect the participants in their sport, but does clearly send a message of disapproval of some political events in the world. FINA or the Fédération Internationale de Natation oversees the sports of swimming, open water swimming, synchronized swimming, water-polo and diving.

Some of us can remember the boycott of the Moscow Olympic in 1980 shortly after the Soviet Union sent troops into Afghanistan. In total sixty-five countries did not take part in the Moscow games that summer in protest. The following Summer Olympic Games in Los Angeles were boycotted in a kind of knee-jerk reaction to the previous Summer Olympic Games, led by the USSR and their friends, totalling either sixteen or eighteen nations boycotting the Los Angeles Summer Olympic Games in 1984, depending on the source you want to believe.

As a volunteer for this international competition in one of the sports I dedicated a good part of my young adult life to, I decided to explore the schedule. Everything seemed pretty normal. With competition of Synchronized Swimming and Waterpolo beginning as early as tomorrow Sunday July 27th. A few days for swimmers to train and acclimatize before a competition at such a level starts on Sunday August 3, 2014, and with the official Opening Ceremonies taking place on Saturday, August 2, 2014.

As I scrolled down the page what hit me were the words which followed the words Closing Ceremony was followed with the following: There will be no Closing Ceremony on Aug 9th as requested by FINA and because of the presence of the mayor of Kazan, Russia, at the Opening Ceremony. When I first read it I had to think twice. In fact it was a similar knee-jerk reactions as the Soviets had had in 1984. Why couldn't have his presence been refused in the first place for the Opening Ceremony. Hostilities, towards Ukraine from the part of Putin's Puppet army have been going on for some time now, but now in retrospect it must have been the downing of Malaysia Airlines MH 17 on July 17, 2014 which would have been the last straw and drew FINA's attention to what is really going on in Ukraine.


Schedule of the 15th FINA World Masters Championships, july 27th to August 10, 2014
While all sports can be very political, FINA isn't the big money-maker that FIFA though seems to have in this move at least made a minor statement. It is time that the international communities pressure FIFA from taking away the World Cup in Russian in 2018. Please visit http://boycottputinnow.com to put pressure on the World Cup's sponsors and join other such efforts on social media to take away the WC-2018 from the evil empire of pariah Putin.

Whether we can consider this as a vote against Russian aggression in Ukraine can not be certain, but I'm sure many are asking why did it have to take the lives of 298 innocent victims for the world to wake up. I know I will have to treat anyone I meet at this competition fairly, as a volunteer of the organizing committee, but so help me if I meet anyone who watches and believes the blatant propaganda being spewed out by Putin's Propaganda Prostitutes. I may just have to direct them to someone who doesn't know better of what is going on in the world, after politely telling them what I think.

Vasyl Pawlowsky Independent Consultant
The commentary of this was first published on the WPawlowsky.com site.

EURO-2012: Ukraine, why bother?

Back in September of 2011 I wrote up my “Travel Advisory Euro-2012”. It seems to me, all joking aside, that someone has heeded this message. However, I highly doubt it! Clearly the powers that be in Ukraine have not been able to convince the world that they actually deserve hosting the European football championships this year. Somehow it comes as no surprise to me that 13 of the 16 teams involved in a glorious sporting event have actually decided to set up their team home-bases not in Ukraine but in Poland! So why is this?

It seems to me, that the national football federations of the countries involved clearly understand that the facilities available in Ukraine are minimal. Why on earth would they want to subjugate their top players to Third World conditions? Yes, Third World conditions!

Ukraine's own Euro-2012 has in fact become one of the sore points for many Ukrainians, and only an idiot could not see this happening over the last 18 months. It is not a secret to anyone that government financed sporting facilities benefit no one, other than those who build them. This is currently a debate in Canada, regarding one hockey arena that certain individuals want to build in Quebec City, in order to try to draw an NHL franchise back to the city. It will not work on public funds, and most in the West know this, however, there were and still are politicos in Canada and Ukraine that always try to manage to obfuscate the truth when dealing with the public.

In Ukraine we know that the public was never involved, to build or reconstruct stadiums in Kyiv and Lviv. Decisions were made in the personal interests, and not in the public's interest. So how much of the public purse was stolen on these ventures by public officials? I'm not keeping an official record now, but I am sure we are not far from possibly a couple of billion dollars! No, not hryvnia but cold hard green backs. The results, in fact, are not very commendable, from many different points of view: be they architectural, engineering, or even more importantly a return on investment and plans to further exploit these apparent architectural wonders! Or should I say eye-sores?

A number of months ago I wrote a letter to Bryan Adams to not participate in the opening of the Lviv Arena. Why he did not participate, the world will never know, but we all know that Ukraine's own top man backed out. Why? We still don't have an answer! I think he feared for his own safety regarding the shoddy workmanship that had taken place at the “Lviv Arena”. Or maybe he just didn't want to be heckled. We know how these criminal types can't handle any type of criticism.

As times goes on, everything becomes very clear, at least for those who have some common sense and understand how public officials abuse their office in Ukraine.

I sent a letter off to Bryan Adams on September 23, 2011; shortly after this I made contact with some leaders in the Ukrainian Diaspora regarding the possibility of a boycott of Euro-2012. The feedback by those who are leaders in the Ukrainian community appalled me; many of them seem to think they actually know what is going on in Ukraine. For the most part they haven't a clue!

“What, boycott EURO-2012, there will be all kinds of small business that will suffer if we do this!” This was one comment I received during my series of phone calls. What small business? Who is this person trying to fool?

The small business this individual spoke about will gain nothing from EURO-2012 except headaches and harassment.

Of all the small businesses that are not under the control of the Yanukovych Regime the following will take place. It happened before under Azarov, when he was chief Tax Man and it will happen again. They will have at least weekly raids, and will be extorting any earnings that are made by small businesses during the EURO-2012 Championships. Has any person from the Diaspora been involved in such raids? I've known many business people in Ukraine who have lived through such a matter and have in fact been present when all service stopped as Tax Police shut down a register as they verbally assaulted and in one case physically assaulted an employee of a restaurant. Have, they ever had to deal with Ukraine's tax police at all? Do you want to put people under such pressure? That is what I have to ask those who are against boycotting EURO-2012? How about you go up against those thugs? Do any of you have the balls for it, in a land where the Rule of Law doesn't exist? Sorry folks, this isn't just IRS psychological play or pressure, the thugs from the Tax Police in Ukraine have no qualms about hitting you or a co-worker over the head with a night stick! Or even better they won't hit you over the head they will hit you in the kidneys in such a manner that there will be no bruises to show anyone, and it will be your word against theirs in a system that will not side with you but with the authorities.

The current regime is a criminal one; I think that this was long ago established. Those in power completely neglect the Rule of Law, and we all know that there are plenty of the nation's lawmakers sheltering themselves from being judged by whatever kind of judicial system exists in Ukraine by hiding behind their immunity as People's Deputies of Ukraine.

While the average tourists who visit Ukraine on their own gives a decent indication of what is available if one is on a budget, which most football fans are clearly aware of. For their money they will receive substandard service for anything less than 200 euro a night. This shows just how far Ukraine has come in the area of tourism. In 2001 on the outskirts of Vienna I spent 20 Euros a night with breakfast. And within the last six months the same friend who arranged that stay, told me that now it would cost me about 30 euros a night, and this includes a sumptuous breakfast. If someone can point out such places in Ukraine I would be glad to promote them, but I fear if they exist many of them can only deal in two languages: Ukrainian and Russian. But even still what the average tourist expects and what can be provided for elite athletes are worlds apart. Yes, footballers are elite athletes, and their needs are a great deal different than the average individual.

Regardless, it is now very clear that Ukraine, buy the decision of professionals will not be able to host the most of the athletes participating in the EURO-2012 Championships, and this I am certain my dear readers not based on politics whatsoever, but on concrete facts. If anyone, in the tourism industry that truly understands the capabilities of Ukraine would speak up, and not just in a way that carries the official line of the government, then we would learn that Ukraine is not only unprepared for EURO-2012, but that it will in fact probably create a much more negative image of the country. The peace and love of EURO-CAMP in 2005 on Trukhaniv Island during the Eurovision Song Contest after the euphoria of the Orange (R)evolution is not what football fans are expecting, and they surely most are not expecting to pay € 55 a night in a two person tent. This is what is being proposed by one Kyiv-based booking agency.

So who will benefit at all from tourism during an event that is meant to celebrate sport? Clearly it won't be the average individual in Ukraine, nor will it be the average small business owner. The decision by 13 of the 16 national football teams who have decided to set up their home base camps in Poland sends a very clear message. Stay away from Ukraine. The money you spend there will not help the common people but only a few who already have more money than they know what to do with.

Vasyl Pawlowsky
Independent Consultant

The commentary of this was first published on the Ukraine Business Online site.

September 23, 2011 - My Letter to Bryan Adams

Mr. Bryan Adams, O.C., O.B.C.
c/o Mr. Bruce Allen
Suite 520 - 425 Carrall Street
Vancouver, BC
V6B 6E3
Canada


Dear Mr. Adams,

I am writing to you with regard to your planned performance on October 28, 2011 in the city of Lviv, Ukraine at the opening ceremony for the Lviv football stadium for the Euro-2012 football championship, alongside the event’s reported attendance of Ukraine’s current President Viktor Yanukovych.

While you have been to Ukraine to perform in the past, there are a few things I am certain you stand for as a Canadian and as a member of the Order’s of Canada and British Columbia and that you should be made aware of. These are matters which not only disturbing to me as a fellow Canadian, and should be to you, but also to Members of Canada’s Parliament, as well as the close to 1.25 million Canadians of Ukrainian descent.

Mr. Bernard Trottier (Riding of Etobicoke—Lakeshore, Conservative Party of Canada) made the following statement to our Parliament earlier this week:

"Mr. Speaker, recently we have seen some very troubling events take place in Ukraine. The persecution, arrest and continued detention of Yulia Tymoshenko, along with many others, are cause for great concern both in Canada as well as in the international community….These apparently politically-motivated actions undermine the rule of law and human rights, which are at the core of all democracies. The Ukrainian people, having long lived under the rule of regressive and undemocratic Soviet policies, will not accept a return to darker times. Ukrainians deserve to live in a peaceful and prosperous society, where they can enjoy the same freedoms and safeties seen across other western nations.”

Now, while it can be understood that political rivalries within a country may not be of direct concern to you as a musician asked to perform in that country, and despite the fact that the handling of Ukraine’s two opposition leaders’ (Ms. Tymoshenko’s and Mr. Lutsenko’s) “trials” as well as the conditions of their imprisonment could all be reason enough to reconsider any dealings with Ukraine’s current regime by any Western activist or institution, given the political nature of these particular cases, I shall focus instead on just a few examples amongst the plethora of other examples of serious ethical, political, administrative and humanitarian wrongdoings in Ukraine directly related to Mr. Yanukovych’s regime as well as to the preparations of the Euro 2012 football championship in Ukraine, and in the City of Lviv in particular.

The first example is the completely corrupt tender process that the municipal officials in Lviv ran for the building of the stadium, where they announced a financial tender which was to be awarded to the company that could finance building the new stadium and its infrastructure without burdening the local economy and population. The tender was awarded to a company that had no financing and was eventually given to a Ukraine based company to be fully financed at the tax payer’s expense. When the rest of the world is trying to be frugal, the powers that be in Ukraine continue to try to squeeze the most out of their populace, only exacerbating the country’s deepening economic and societal crisis.

Regarding the building of the stadium, workers who were hired to do so were not paid for four months, and then the company that they were employed for was folded, and they were left without four months of wages. To this day they have not seen compensation for their labor. A lavish opening ceremony of this stadium will be just another blow to the dignity of these workers and their families.

What you will be paid for your performance, is not clean money. It is money that has been stolen from the population and the municipal and national budgets through deep-rooted schemes of endemic corruption, by officials who from day one of the tournament’s announcement have done everything possible to reap personal advantage of this landmark event in every imaginable way. Improvements to the quality of life of the people in the host-cities of the Euro 2012, i.e. creation of job opportunities, economic growth and capital inflow are all a fairy tale that even pre-school kids will not believe anymore.

However, the problems in Ukraine are much deeper than a systematically corrupted and economically ruinous mismanagement of the preparations to the Euro-2012 football championship. There is a constantly growing opposition in all spheres of society to the current regime - a regime that cannot be labeled as anything else but criminal. This opposition is being answered to with increasingly worrisome methods. Among many other unnamed instances, this year’s Amnesty International Report on Ukraine is filled with unaddressed cases of unlawful detainment, torture and ill-treatment of protesters and students that stood up on various occasions to voice their opinion against the current regime represented by Mr. Yanukovych.

Back in July, Sting canceled a concert in Kazakhstan over claims of human rights violations on oil workers in that country. I believe that the current situation in Ukraine gives many more reasons for the same kind of action.

As a fellow Canadian, I would very much like you to reconsider whether you will play in Lviv or not. I know that there are plenty of other performing artists out there who would support you in your stand. A stand which would be just, regarding the current state of affairs in a country with an extremely fragile democracy, and which is turning into a police state run by a few who care very little about those they were elected to represent. I call on you and anyone who believes in democracy to boycott all events related to the Euro-2012 Football Championships in Ukraine.

Sincerely,


William (Vasyl) Pawlowsky
Independent Consultant
B.A.; M.A.; M.L.I.S.

Cc: were a slew of individuals, organizations and media which you can see here in the first published version of my letter.