By
During her recent visit to the Ukrainian capital of Kiev—where she
stayed at the five-star Intercontinental Hotel—former Secretary of State #Condoleezza_Rice had some less-than-inspiring words of advice for
Ukrainians: If you’re unhappy, look to Liberia.
On March 9, Ms. Rice was invited by the Viktor
Pinchuk Foundation to speak in Kiev, as part of the foundation’s “Public Lectures Project”. (Mr. Pinchuk is a Ukrainian billionaire, philanthropist and son-in-law
of the former Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma).
Ms. Rice’s lecture was entitled “The
Challenges of an Ever-Changing World.”
The event took place at the Diplomatic Academy, where
among the crowd of “Ukrainian students, scholars and opinion-makers,”
Agriculture Minister Alex Pavlenko and head of the National Bank Valeria
Gontareva were spotted. A short, 21-second video of Ms. Rice, as she is
accompanied to her car, is all that is available on the internet.
As it turns out, Ms. Rice’s “public speech” turned out to be not so
public, and only ashort
abstract can be found. Ukrainian
media has painstakingly avoided mentioning her appearance—likely, because it
was loaded with bitter pills.
Though her talking points were abundant, Ms. Rice
kicked off on the wrong foot—opening with the theme of mutual
responsibilities held between Ukrainian politicians and Ukrainian simple folk.
Quoting JFK’s famous “Don’t ask what your country can do for you” line,
her message was clear: Don’t expect too much from your government, dear
Ukrainians.
She continued with civic society: the responsibility of both the strong
and the weak—the strong must share, the weak should stop whining.
Political compromises? Yes, but there must be no
compromises on principles! “It is impossible to negotiate and to compromise
with those who are hostile to democracy in your country!” Mrs. Rice said. What
she meant was: “No negotiations with rebel regions.”
On leadership, Mrs. Rice made a quick hint as
to the dismal future of the current Kiev Prime-Minister, Mr. Yatsenyuk. A
leader is not a profession, she said. A true leader must set a goal for oneself
to find and nurture new leaders.
The United States’ role in world politics was widely covered.
Ms. Rice predicts the European Union will avoid collapse if a unified
position on Russia is upheld. President George W. Bush did
a great job with regards to freedom and democracy, and the
U.S. should continue to determine the world’s political agenda… And not
because the U.S. is the best—it’s not, just look at the primary debates.
But rather, because as soon as there was a change in power in the
White House, the U.S. weakened in the Middle East, weakened in Afghanistan and
Russia emerged as an international aggressor, breaking the
borders of independent states.
Elections in the U.S. are often
outrageous and, quickly after entering the Oval Office,
most presidents forget about their loud, sharp statements and promises
made during campaigns.
Because, once they are settled in their new
role, intelligence officers provide them with the real picture
of global risk, and there is no longer the rhetoric that ushered them
into office. I assure you, Ms. Rice continued, whatever is touted by Mr.
Trump—if he wins, the U.S. will still maintain tense relations with
Russia. Russians should remember they do not have the license to intimidate
their neighboring states, to change borders at their own discretion and to
seize new territory—as happened in Crimea where we fell into another
long-term frozen conflict. Maybe someday we will solve it.
Crimea will return to the Ukraine, but maybe not
so soon. Maybe in 50 years or so. But you, Ukrainians, need to stay positive.
“Let me remind you, that if the U.S. Secretary of State in the late 1940s would
have said that in 50 years the Soviet Union would collapse, he would have been
considered crazy,” encouraged Ms. Rice.
“From the first days of the conflict in Ukraine I
thought that you should be assisted with lethal weapons. However, our
government has decided otherwise. In any case, we will strengthen the military
power of NATO, which is an effective counterweight to Russian aggression,” she
said—but the sanctions on Russia will remain in place.
Wait, wait and wait, dear Ukrainians—and no more
revolutions for now. You’ve had three of them in just 25 years! Maybe it’s time
to learn how to run the country? Real democracy is hard to create. It does not
appear suddenly, but is built through long and painstaking work. Institutional
changes should be carried out within the framework of the Constitution.
Frequent changes to the Constitution do not benefit the development.
And for those Ukrainians who believe that life is
bad in Ukraine, Ms. Rice put some icing on the cake: “You should go to Liberia
where the standard of living is much lower, and then you will be
thankful to be Ukrainian.”
Liberia is one of the poorest countries in the world
with an employment rate of 15 percent and third lowest GDP.
In fairness, this is not the first time Ukraine’s
economy has been compared to Liberia. Last September, Odessa Governor and
former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili “with all due respect to Africa”
compared its economy to Gabon. According to Gallup International, the standard of living in
Ukraine is currently at its lowest level in all the years of
conducted research. In
2015, 79 percent of Ukrainians considered themselves to be “poor.”
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