TRANSCRIPT OF AMBASSADOR TAYLOR'S PODCAST FOR DECEMBER
Dobry Den!
Welcome back to the U.S. Embassy's podcast for December. I'm very pleased to be here with you again, and I'm coming to you today from a different part of the U.S. Embassy. The Information Resource Center is a part of the Embassy that provides information to you and to anyone who wants to link up with our site and come here for the information.
Let me start off on a somber note. There was a mine disaster, as all Ukrainians know, in Donetsk two weeks ago. More than 100 miners lost their lives. We, in the United States, would like to express our sympathy and condolences to those families who lost miners. We have acted to bring a large piece of medical equipment to the hospital where the injured miners are. We have been working on mine safety with Ukrainian miners. The U.S. government has recognized, along with the Ukrainian government along with the Donetsk government, the danger of these mines and we've been working together, the U.S. government and Ukrainian government. We hope for recovery for those miners and rescue people who are injured and are recovering in hospitals, the people who tried to save some miners and save some lives, risked their lives and did heroic work. This was a great tragedy.
The first thing that I want to talk to you after that, of course is a more positive thing, and that is the announcement that the Ukrainian government is on the way to being formed. The first step in that announcement was the election of a Speaker for the Verkhovna Rada. Mr. Arseniy Yatsenyuk, former Foreign Minister, was elected as you all know as the Speaker. We have of course worked closely with Foreign Minister Yatsenyuk in his previous job, several previous jobs in fact, and we are sure he will be an energetic speaker, someone from the next generation, the new generation, of Ukrainian politicians who have the opportunity now to show that this generation can move Ukraine forward.
Not long after the Speaker was elected, a coalition was announced. Again, we have been eager to see a coalition announced for some time. We have been eager to work with a government, and this is the next step toward a government in Ukraine. The coalition nominated a Prime Minister. The Speaker, the newly elected Speaker, sent the name of Mrs. Tymoshenko to President Yushchenko as their nomination for the Prime Minister. The President, in his turn, immediately sent Mrs. Tymoshenko's name back to the Verkhovna Rada where they will vote, we expect next week. This will then lead to the formation of a government, a coalition government, where the Prime Minister will lead a cabinet. And this government will get on to the difficult and important job of governing. There are steps that need to be taken, there are laws that need to be passed, there are decisions that need to be made. Leading these decisions is the final decision to join the World Trade Organization, and this will take one final bit of legislative action. There are economic reform laws that need to be passed. The judiciary needs to be reformed. People's lives can be made better if the government takes these steps to improve the economy, clean up the corruption, improve the judges - the training that they go through. These steps need to be taken in order for Ukraine to move forward. This will move Ukraine into Europe, in the direction that Ukrainians have stated that they would like to go. We're pleased to support that. We're very pleased to support this new government.
The second thing has to do with a commemoration, a marking that we did this week, along with people around the world, of HIV/AIDS Day on the first of December. HIV/AIDS, as you know, is a terrible disease that is still spreading very quickly in Ukraine. It's spreading more quickly in Ukraine than in any other country in Europe. This disease affects people, kills people, it can be treated. What is necessary is information. There's no vaccine against it. The only way that we can reduce the incidence of HIV/AIDS is through information - information on how to prevent it, information on how to deal with it once it's diagnosed, information about how stigma is not appropriate for people living with HIV/AIDS. You remember the big concert that was put on by Elton John. This was an effort to provide information to people around this country. Millions of people around this country saw that. We marked this HIV/AIDS Day around the world and here in Ukraine as well.
The third thing that I would like to mention has to do with the Internet. I mentioned that we are broadcasting this podcast from the Information Resource Center here in Embassy Kyiv. And in 130 sites around the country, we have established - the U.S. government in cooperation with local governments in Ukraine - have established free Internet centers. These centers normally are in libraries. The library is able to provide the space for these Internet centers. We provide the computers, and the Internet connection, the links, and these centers have been great hits. I've visited many. We just opened a new one this past week in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. We opened the newest one in a small town, Verkhnodniprovsk, and this in conjunction with the Mayor and the Oblast Council and the librarians and many people was a celebration of the latest of these Internet sites. The Internet, obviously since you are tuned in to the Internet right now, is evident to you the benefits, the communications that this makes possible, the connections that this makes possible between Americans and Ukrainians, between Ukrainians and people all around the world. So we are very pleased to continue to sponsor and look forward to doing more, and I look forward to talking to you again next month. Thank you very much.