Maidan

I am just about to fire this off to a long list of unsuspecting people - starting about 2 hours from now, I think, but it will take days to send all the copies. Suggestions for e-mail addresses to add to the list will be helpful, too.

I was itching to put my 2 cents in about corruption, re-privatisation, Aslund and Tymoshenko, but thought better of it and deleted that paragraph.

*****************************************************************

Horror of slow-death camps for children in Ukraine

Urgent appeal for investigative journalists to verify and expose this outrage, and for media outlets and individuals everywhere to raise the alarm. The source and details are here: http://eng.maidanua.org/node/581

Gathering evidence, I am afraid, will be like extracting teeth, due to the conspiracy of silence and secrecy which has evolved to ward off whistleblowers and (possibly, though it has yet to be established) protect corrupt vested interests. This extends to foreign aid workers being blackmailed that future aid will be blocked if they disclose names and locations. Clearly, somebody is trying to protect somebody else, however misguidedly.

Appalling conditions in eastern European orphanages are hardly news; but the sheer scale and severity of the suffering being claimed in recent reports, more than justifies this wake-up call. Thousands of Ukrainian children are literally left to die in pain and squalor: denied medical assistance and adequate subsistence because they are considered to be a lost cause. These are children with a range of illnesses, learning disabilities and mental health problems. The common factor is, they are all classified (whether officially or unofficially) as low-priority cases, having been rated as unlikely to become fully-functioning, productive citizens, even if their essential medical and other care were provided. It would be 'throwing good money after bad'.

Worse, this is a self-generating, cumulative condition, not an isolated occurrence. The more the orphanages and care institutions are starved of resources - and such funding as they receive is diverted by corruption - the more vulnerable their residents become to acquiring the illnesses and developmental problems that result in being classed as 'human write-offs' and effectively condemned to death.

Lack of money, particularly officially-allocated money, is not the only problem. However, many or most of these children probably could and would become productive citizens if given the chance; thereby justifying additional funding in callous, utilitarian terms, as a long-term investment in human capital and the future of Ukraine. Ukraine's future as part of the European Union, however, will depend on the ability of the State to demonstrate its commitment to European values and standards, in which human rights don't need any justification.