 The Irrelevant Wallflower By Michael WILLARD |
Lost in the fog of war - or perhaps merely misplaced - was that nagging little item in Forbes Magazine about Ukraine being the next port of call for the U.S.S War, as if our little country really rates such dubious distinction.
It was, obviously, someone kicking the tires of bellicosity, for surely no one seriously believes - what with the various versions of jihads now playing on the world hit parade - that Ukraine merits consideration for invasion, even if only by a flotilla of Boy Scouts.
We are, happily in this case, an afterthought, or maybe even a suppressed yawn. We are what Condoleeza Rice thinks about as she is opening Meow Mix for her cats, or maybe flossing her teeth.
This lack of awareness, though, doesn't mean the brand Ukraine is flying goes totally unnoticed. In marketing terms, we are a negative brand. Worse than that, we are a tired brand. Put the two together and Ukraine becomes an irrelevant brand.
This is the unkindliest cut of all. Forget marriages of convenience, Ukraine doesn't even get invited to the dance.
If a country becomes irrelevant, it becomes Nicaragua without the coffee beans. It can't form market partnerships. It can't join promising unions or even military alliances - unless with similarly cast or miscast nations.
Recently, a governmental advisor, in a burst of enthusiasm, suggested to me that the current ministry lineup was in the process of making "real change", that for the first time "there is movement on the corruption issue."
Yeah, and honk twice if you saw Elvis today.
An acquaintance of mine, Peter Hart, the well-known pollster, once described a kissing cousin to Ukraine, though, in this case, it was a person prone to embarrassing calamity. He was speaking about a President.
"If someone walks into your office and spills coffee on your new and very expensive Oriental rug, you consider it an accident. If he spills coffee three times running, you realize it is a moronic compulsion."
Ukraine's problem, though, goes much deeper, and moronic compulsion is merely the adjective to describe the end result of what really is carefully planned self-destruction. In other words, long-term national interests are swept aside for short term personal gain.
This is why the crop yield is dismal in a country that has the best, black, alluvial soil on the planet. Why coal prices are artificially kept below the point of profitability. And why "crack down on corruption" automatically conjures the Casablanca line about rounding up the usual suspects.
In my view, the only way to really halt this vicious cycle of Ukraine eating its young is to convince the oligarchs - and we're really only talking a dozen or so people here - that the national interests can serve their own self-interest.
In the last 10 years, the greatest reform in Russia has been oligarchic reform, not tax or any other reform. Either the individual oligarch got pushed way from the table, or he got with the program.
Faced with the argument of inevitability, these overdogs figured out ways to pursue financial goals that could benefit their country as well their pocketbooks. They went from being bandits to benefactors.
Ukraine has talked about reform. It has talked about returning value added tax to multi-nationals. It has talked about cracking down on counterfeiting of products. It has talked, but its words have been just so much fried air.
This equals irrelevancy or worse.
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More in the section:
The Workers' Revolt
The Giverney Truce
Read also previous issue' articles:
Expats: Why Are We Here?
The Luckiest Man Alive
Being Vladimir Putin
The Age of Unreason?
Yes, I Give a Damn
News:
The Rush to Judgment
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