Maidan

First of all, to Pani, I look forward to the remainder of this translation.


At the same time, you (Pani) and other Maidan and Pora "insiders" are aware of my efforts regarding community/economic development and anti-corruption starting in Kharkiv and descended from (my) previous efforts in Crimea and before that in Russia (Tomsk.) Much of those those efforts relate to microentrprise -- assisting poor people without access to financial markets otherwise to obtain loans to start their own businesses and take control of their own lives. The Internet business that you and other activist insiders know about, is aimed at creating revenues especially to provide start-up funding for microenterprises (defined as ten employees or less) first in Kharkiv.


Along those lines, I would like to note that prior microenterprise efforts in Kharkiv -- especially those supported by my (US) government -- have inadvertantly served to support excacly the sort of corruption being described so far in this thread. Upon careful examination of microenterprise support so far -- a key component in transitional community economic development efforts -- I have learned that mafia and organized crime have played heavily in Kharkiv's local small business/microenterprise scene.


For example, Barabashova bazaar, possibly the largest single shopping bazaar in Ukraine, is almost one hundred percent microenterprises. Mafia, commonly attributed to Yanukovich's clan, have routinely pressed business owners in Barabashova for so much money to pay for their "roof" (protection racket, or extortion in other words) costs that many owners were forced out of business. The ONLY microenterprise funding available in Kharkiv at present time is for existing businesses. Thus when a business is forced to close from mafia forces, the only businesses left are existing businesses -- and these are the only ones who can then qualify for microenterprise loans to increase their businesses. In effect, all microenterprise support from such organizations as USAID, Hope International, and ProCredit Bank (US and EBRD money), all goes to support mafia operations because those are mostly what have survived.


In that Mykhailo Prytula wanted assistance from 'public', he is now getting it here. Neither Kharkiv nor Ukraine can survive previous corruption, Orange Revolution notwithstanding. Yanukovich clan has surely not given up their mafia rackets in Kharkiv, and should like nothing more than continuting to crush enterprise in venues like Kharkiv's Barabashova bazaar. It will be very interesting and instructive to see how far such organizations as Organized Crime Division of Kharkiv will honestly and effectively manage such affairs; or, if they must be fired and replaced according to public will by people who will perform that job properly. For my part, I will as always wait, watch, and speak -- fully protected as a foreigner under Ukraine's Constitution, Article 27.


Razom,
Terry E. Hallman
Kharkiv