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- It's the first session of the Ukranian parliament
- and Kravchuk is presiding. He's a little nervous
- because of all the Western press and he wants to make
- a good impression:
-
- He thinks: "Who shall I get to give the opening speech?"
- He looks across the room: "No, not Kalinev from the
- Nationalist Party. He'll say that we should hang all
- the Westerners."
- He looks to the other side: "Hm. I better not call on
- Korlenko from the Slavic Union Party. He'll say that
- we should drown all the Jews."
- He looks way in the back: "Ah. I'll call on Orlovsky
- from the Green Party."
-
- Orlovsky gets to the front of the room:
-
- "Fellow countrymen and representatives of the Western
- press, I'd like to talk to you today about the environmental
- crisis that is upon us. The years of Soviet control have
- left us with a devastated countryside. Our forests have
- been destroyed; our rivers are polluted. This is catastrophe
- for our new nation, for if our forests are destroyed, where
- shall we hang the Westerners? If our rivers are polluted,
- where shall we drown the Jews?..."
-
- (Origin: somewhere in the Commonwealth of Independent States.
- Told by Neil Carrick, my housemate recently returned.)
-