Our turn will come!
Today marks the first anniversary of the Ukraine’s ‘Orange Revolution‘. The BBC has a timeline to remind us how the events unfolded. Tonight is a time for celebration:
Tents, scarves, ribbons and banners, all in orange, will fill the Maidan, the square where protesters remained for 17 days to defy the fraudulent re-election of Viktor Yanukovich and call for fresh elections that gave power to the reformist candidate, Viktor Yushchenko. (link)
Music will play a big part in the celebrations, just as it did in the revolution:
When sub-zero temperatures tested the endurance of the Orange Revolution crowds in Kiev a year ago the country’s rock bands came to the rescue, performing almost non-stop.
But change brought about by the Orange Revolution also has its problems, and reminds us that the fight for freedom goes beyond one night, or one event: freedom and democracy are long term ideals that need to be protected and fought for on a daily basis. This is something that Zimbabweans should keep in mind as we endure our own dark days of disappointment now.
A year after Ukraine’s color-coded Orange Revolution, the excitement and ideals that brought hundreds of thousands of demonstrators to the capital’s main square are already the stuff of orange-tinged nostalgia. Reality has taken on a darker hue, muddied by unfulfilled promises and fallible heroes.
Read what other people think one year on by following the comments section on Publius Pundit, a blog “started based on inspiration drawn from the Orange Revolution“.
On a positive note, Eurasia Daily Monitor discusses the ‘Orange team’s’ achievements in the following areas: Human Rights and Democratization, Civic Empowerment, Democratic Political System, Media Freedom, The Internet, Political Parties, Corruption, Oligarchs, Social Welfare, Religious Freedom and Divergence from Russia.
To many commentators these may seem modest gains and I am sure they wil be stringently debated and examined. But right now, to this envious Zimbabwean, they look like small steps in the right direction, a chance, something to be hopeful about.
Our turn will come!
November 23rd, 2005 03:09
I’m with you on this one. The Orange Revolution is significant not so much in what it accomplished practically, but what it sympolized.