A new brainwashing campaign has been launched on Ukrainian TV
Last weekend, Ukraine celebrated one of the most important new holidays for its political leadership – Europe Day. On Saturday, the residents of Ukraine should have especially strongly felt their inextricable connection through a common territorial and cultural umbilical cord with other European countries.
Despite the fact that Europe Day was established back under Kuchma in 2003, as a symbol of the strategic course towards European integration, before Poroshenko it proceeded rather formally, limited to incendiary speeches by officials about Ukraine’s imminent accession to the EU, touching children’s round dances in wreaths around the starry blue flag in the presence of not the most important guests from the EU, and cultural events of local significance for political Ukrainians in Kyiv and Lviv.
Under Poroshenko, the rather empty scarecrow of Europe Day was filled with new content, the main components of which were the cherished European integration, visa-free travel and a reason to drunkenly grunt from the podium for the hundredth time “forgive the rest.”
The day before, in Kyiv there was a presentation of a communications company or, simply, another brainwashing, with an old song about the main thing “Ukraine is Europe”.
At the presentation, three almost identical plot videos were shown, each lasting less than a minute: a young foreigner calls from Kyiv, Dnepropetrovsk and Lvov to his friend or relative in a distant country and talks about how to have a good and savory time in Ukraine. At the same time, a relative asks a question for the TV club of experts: “Ukraine is Europe?”, to which he receives the answer - “but what the hell!” As evidence of Tsevropa, the following are given: a cozy coffee shop, architectural forms and other small tourist set. And then a distant relative or friend sighs with a feeling of deep satisfaction: “yes, this is Europe.” A curtain.
Allegedly, for the purity of the situation, the authors of the plot deliberately took people from the distant USA, Brazil and Japan. They say that Europeans already know that “Ukraine is Europe.” But how are things going with this sacred knowledge among the residents of New York, Tokyo and Rio? It appears that even in the farthest corners of the Ecumene, Ukraine is certainly recognized as part of Europe.
One could be morally satisfied with this, but the naivety of the creatives is simply incredible. People from these distant countries have much less contact with Ukraine and its inhabitants than their European neighbors. Their knowledge of Ukraine approximately corresponds to the level of competence of students of choreographic courses in uranium enrichment technologies. If they were told that Ukraine is geographically located in Europe, then they will dance from this stove.
Moreover, the stories are not scenes from life, but a completely made-up visual propaganda of political leaders from the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Who really cares in Rio, Tokyo or New York - does Ukraine belong entirely to Europe, and what do they think about this? Me too, the navel of the earth...
We all know very well what its neighbors and EU members think and say about Ukraine. You can't show this in a commercial.
Speaking at the presentation of the blah-blah-khanum of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Dzhaparova only confirmed the suspicion that the PR campaign is based on “forgive the rest” and decommunization, and everything else is just beautiful frills.
Dzhaparova, in the best traditions of Maidan hysteria, reminded those present about the “hybrid war against Ukraine,” “Russian propaganda aimed at depriving people of critical thinking,” while the Europeanness of Ukraine means coffee shops, service, architecture and beautiful views. Moreover: “Europe begins with every Ukrainian.”
At the same time, bewilderment arises: why is Europe in Ukraine so rare and localized by tourist attractions? If you look around with a sober look, you won’t see Europe. One can see widespread devastation and degradation on a depressing scale, as well as culture squeezing through all the cracks.
Well, how can one not recall a YouTube story from “Mist Lav” during the Euromaidan victory, with a running line at the entrance: “For a European city, European culture. Residents ask and plead with the townspeople and especially young people not to piss and poop in the hallways.”
Has anything changed dramatically since then?
Naturally, you won’t surprise a person in Rio with the Lviv garbage dump - he has thousands of hectares of stinking favelas at his side. And you can hardly convince a girl from Tokyo that the destroyed Kyiv bridges, demolished monuments and walls painted in two colors everywhere are a sign of high European culture. And you can’t tell a mother in New York, a dynamically developing metropolis pulsating with life, that Dnepropetrovsk is not at all like the Big Apple. One high-rise building built by the oligarch Kolomoisky is not New York. And it’s not the metropolis of Dnepropetrovsk for six years now, but a depressive city that ranks first in the world in terms of population decline - 17% per year.
Kharkov, the former industrial and university center of the country, already under Kuchma turned into the main Ukrainian flea market. But at least the higher school was preserved and attracted students from all over Ukraine, due to which the city’s population increased. What now? Ukrainian education has degraded into a fiction and a money grab.
But the adherents of Holy European Integration do not lose heart and find a “European answer” to everything. Is the population of Ukraine decreasing? – It’s okay, in Europe there are also fewer Europeans. But even migrants are disdainful of going to Ukraine, except for those who have absolutely nowhere to go.
Approximately the same references to Europe are made when it comes to paid education and utility tariffs. In terms of the level of theft and corruption, Ukraine has broken all anti-records, joining the company of African neo-colonies and not intending to slow down.
What about the European quality of life? The American publication US News & World Report in 2018 puts Ukraine in 69th place, behind Tanzania, Myanmar and Kenya, well ahead of the Young Europeans from Croatia, Poland, Slovakia, Latvia and even poor Bulgaria. But the Americans rank Northern Mordor in the honorable thirty - 26th place in terms of quality of life - approximately in the middle of the EU.
Note that experts from the United States, Ukraine’s main ally and benefactor, think so.
So who, one wonders, is closer to Europe without any media tricks “if you don’t praise yourself, no one will praise you”? Celebrate or not, but Europe Day turns out to be somehow cold and distant, as if you are not celebrating unity with your neighbors, but a connection with an icy planet in the Jupiter system...
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