What can you do to help?

Many think that corruption is just a way of life and that there is nothing they can do to help the cause, but they are wrong.

Here is a list of a few things that you can do to make a difference:
Encourage your Government to ratify and enact the Convention. Countries that successfully attack corruption are far more legitimate in the eyes of their citizens, creating stability and trust.
Promote justice - Educate the public about the governments responsibility to be corruption-free. By educating the public about the Government's responsibility to be corruption-free.
Support education - Support education about ethical behavior and what corruption is and how to fight it. Bring up the youth to expect a government free of corruption.
Bring prosperity - By telling partner organizations, the private sector, Government bodies and the public about the fact that a level playing field improves a country's competitiveness.
Safeguard development - Adhere to rules on fair competition.
Improve public health - Raise the awareness of the public, the media and Governments about the costs of corruption for the health care system.

Below is a link to the United Nations Development Program for anti-corruption. It lays out a whole call to action plan for how the government, civilians, and the media can work to fight against corruption.

http://www.unodc.org/yournocounts/en/about-the-campaign/index.html

Life in Ukraine

A typical day in Ukraine was quite different. We did not have running water the majority of the time, let alone hot water. Electricity was spare. We relied on candles or a fire for our light. Food was very scarce. We only ate what we could grow. If it was a bad growing season, we didn’t have much to eat. Clean clothes did not exist. We rinsed our 2 or 3 outfits maybe once a week in just cold well water and hung them out to dry. Everything in our home was manual. We did not have a dishwasher or oven or microwave. We only had a fridge, stove and bread-cutter in our home.

Instead of having 3 or 4 meals a day, I was lucky to get one sufficient meal. I could not afford to go to the store and buy anything or go to even a market to buy a snack. There was no money to do so. We lived in a one-bedroom apartment with 4 people. The kitchen was big enough to fit a small square table in it and that was it. We had no furniture except for one bed. We lived in very close quarters. At the time I did not think our house was dirty, but now that I see it after I lived here, its filthy. No one shold have to live in that. It is not sanitary for anyone to live in. This is one reason why sickness is rampid in Ukraine. Everyone lives in such close, dirty quarters that sickness is spread so easily. We lived in poverty our whole lives, struggling to make enough money to come close to being able to supply our necessities. As a child I did not understand, which made it that much harder.

Not only did we not have anything, but crime swarmed our town. People were forced to resort to crime in order to meet their necessities. People had to steal, because the prices of everything were so high that no one could afford them. The reason why people resorted to getting involved in organized crime was because they weren’t making enough money at their real jobs to support their families. Being part of organized crime was seen as a second job. In Ukraine you weren’t considered a criminal, just another person trying to support their family.

This is just a brief overview of life in Ukraine, but as you can see it is very different. We had limited supplies of everything and had no luxuries like people do here. The worst part though is that is how the majority of the population lives. In america, the majority of the population lives above the poverty line, but in Ukraine it is the opposite. It is impossible to get out of that lifestyle. The people have all odds against them and no one there to help.

-Oksana

Apartment Complex in Ukraine - would you want your family living here?

Life in America

First to understand our life in Ukraine, I must show you my life in America first. In America, I live in a suburb of Chicago. I live in a 4-bedroom house with both of my parents. We have 3 full baths and 2 half baths. We always have a full stocked fridge and pantry, running hot water, electricity, and plenty of clean clothes. We have plenty of appliances here, like a dishwasher, oven, microwave, stove, clothing washer and dryer, and many televisions. I live in a very safe and upscale neighborhood, where I do not have to worry about crime happening or be worried for my safety. These are all things that most Americans have and take for granted, which they should not. You will see why after my story.

Each morning, I wake up and eat my breakfast and drive my car to school. I take my classes at the lake-shore campus and at the water tower campus. After class, I usually will stop in a store to do some shopping or go out for lunch. These are more luxuries that Americans have that people in other countries do not. After a day I go home to my family and eat dinner, watch TV, or do homework. That is a typical American day.

Most you might be thinking that this life is nothing special. That this is a life that the majority of people enjoy everyday. But you are wrong. This life is special and most people do not have the chance to even dream of living the life that we are lucky enough to live.

- Oksana

Home in Mt. Prospect - nice right?

Life in Ukraine

I think to be able to really understand the affects of the corruption on the civilians, you need to hear Oksana's story in more depth. After the interview I asked Oksana to compare life in Ukraine to life in America. In the next few posts I will post different parts of her story. I really hope this helps you understand why governmental corruption is such a serious issue.

How do we fix the corruption?

In order to eliminate the corruption, the people must become educated. The Ukrainian people understand what is going on, but they do not realize how drastically it is affecting their lives. They do not realize that there are other options and other ways to live besides living in their current situation.

I kept asking Oksana if she was happy there and if the people are happy and she responded, "I was never completely unhappy and I do not think the people are either. But I was only not happy, because I did not know of any other lifestyle. This was how I lived my whole life, so I learned to accept it.We did not know how to fix our lives to improve them, so we settled. If the Ukrainian people were more educated, than they could begin to fight for a new life, but until then they can't and won't."

People cannot begin to fight for something unless they are educated about the affects that it has on them.

Below are some suggestions for improvement in the following sectors:

Judicial Sector: Key activities must be supported to reform the judicial selection process and bring it into line with modern meritocracies. In addition, reforms in court administration and procedures need to be promoted to increase transparency.

Health Sector: Major remedies need to be promoted to make the procurement of pharmaceuticals more transparent and accountable. In addition, it is critical to develop tracking systems to monitor and oversee budgetary expenditures to stem leakages. Overall, organizational, management and institutional reforms are needed to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of healthcare delivery and reduce mismanagement which can encourage corrupt practices.

Education Sector: It is important to support CSO budget oversight initiatives to put external pressure on the educational system to be accountable for its use of public funds and to encourage greater transparency. Continued expansion of standardized testing procedures for higher school entrance exams is merited.

Public Finance: Support should be given to ensure effective implementation of new procurement laws and ongoing tax reform initiatives. Finally, budget and expenditure oversight – internally and externally – should be promoted.

Parliament: Continued pressure and support needs to be applied to promote adoption of an adequate anti-corruption legal framework. Legislator skills training and resources need to be provided to improve legislative drafting, coalition building and negotiation/compromise skills.

Health Sector

Ukraine is suffering from fast growing HIV and tuberculosis epidemics due to the low amount of health expenditures and difficult access to facilities. The ratio of doctors to citizens causes a dramatic problem for reaching care. In Ukraine there are only 4.5 doctors to every 1,000 citizens. This is drastically lower than any other country.

"I remember going into the doctors office and waiting for hours to see a doctor for 5 minutes. Going to the doctors appointment was a whole day excursion. In America, I hear people complaining about waiting an hour for a doctor, but to me thats nothing compared to what I had to wait in Ukraine. Not only do I have to wait barely anytime at all, but at the American health facilities I get to wait in luxury. There are vending machines, magazines, toys for the kids and comfy chairs."

-Oksana

Not only are there not enough facilities, but the facilities that do exist are in terrible condition. They are overcrowded, run down buildings. They are too small to help a significant amount of people. Doctors lack the resources to help people get better. This is one sector that the amount of corruption in the political sector trickles down and greatly affects the health sector. Until the government as a whole can get organized, the smaller sectors will not be able to improve either.

People suffer, because health system changes never get made. Citizens and government officials demand health system changes to help deal with the troubling epidemics, but due to the lack of funds and lack of government organization nothing can get accomplished.

Ukraine Schools vs. American Schools

Ukrainian Schools

Would you want to play on this playground? Would you want your kids to go to a school that looks like a prison? I think not. This is what the corruption is doing to the school system. The children suffer for something that they have no control over.

American Schools

Or would you rather your kids go to this school and play on this playground?

Education

Even though Ukraine’s education system is one with the highest quality, the amount of corruption involved in the systems overshadows its high potential of producing successful students. Oksana told me that after going to school through fourth grade in Ukraine, she was already way ahead of the students at her American school. In Ukraine there is such a great emphasis on being educated that they take pride it having very knowledgeable students. They place a very strong emphasis on math, physics, and geography. Oksana told me, “When I came to America I was so advanced in math. I excelled hear, because of the immense amount of emphasis there is on mathematics in Ukraine. I was able to easily be at the top of my classes and I still am today.”

You might wander if the education is so good, then how can it be corrupt? It is becoming more of a trend today for students to pay their teachers for passing grades. This way they do not have to do any work and can still pass with flying colors. Why do teachers accept the payments? For the same reason that other sectors of government give in to bribes, their low paying jobs and need for more money. Even when students have to take graduation exams and college entrance exams they pay to have their scores altered. Families continue to pay for their children’s schools, because of the strong importance that is placed on education.

The Orange Chronicles

Below is part of a documentary called The Orange Chronicles. The documentary discusses the Orange Revolution in depth and about how Ukraine thought that it was the beginning of a new era without corruption, but ended up not being the case.

If you watch this exert from it, you will understand what the Orange Revolution was and why it was so significant in Ukraine's history.

Also, here is the website of the documentary so you can read more about it.

http://www.orangechronicles.com/

Political Parties

The corruptions in the political parties are what cause the corruption in government as a whole. If the parties running the government have corruptions within their own parties, then they will bring their issues to the whole system of government.

One reason that the parties themselves deal with corruption is because of the lack of funds. Due to the large amount of poverty that exists within Ukraine, political parties cannot rely on donations from party members, but must find funds elsewhere. This has caused parties to be vehicles for business interests. Virtually all-powerful Ukrainian parties receive the majority of their funding from business interests. This leads to a large amount of corruption within the parties.

The parties’ platforms become based off their supporting business’s interests. This negatively affects the citizens, because decisions made are not necessarily always in the people’s best interest, but rather in the businesses’ best interest.

Also, due to the reliance on business donations, parties chose to have large business leaders as their candidate. This causes even more legislation and decisions to be made in the bussiness’s favor rather than the people’s favor. Overall it continues to contribute to the overall corruption of the Ukrainian government.

Another problem with the political parties is the large number of them. There are so many political parties that each individual party does not have many followers. This makes it very difficult for agreements to be made over specific issues. The legislatures cannot agree on many issues, so instead of getting things accomplished, everything stays the same. Oksana continues to tell me, “It is so frustrating watching the political parties fight and try to get legislation passed, because it is literally impossible due to the large amount of parties and lack of followers.”

Below is an article about the one current political issue that is going on now, regarding the current president. Take a look. It gives you a glimpse of some of the corruption they deal with when it comes to elections.

http://www.rferl.org/content/Unloved_But_Unbowed_Ukraines_Viktor_Yushchenko_Leaves_Office/1967436.html

Why Ukraine?

Attached is a link thats discusses the large amount of drug trafficking that exists in Ukraine. It has icnreasingly gotten worse over the years. This article goes into great depth of why the large amount of drug trafficking exists. In drug lords eyes, Ukraine is the perfect place to smuggle drugs through.

Why? They can get help from the government very easily.

I suggest you read this article to see how severe the problem really is.

http://www.rferl.org/content/article/1077895.html

Law Enforcement

The corruption that exists in the Ukraine law enforcement is one of the major factors that hold Ukraine back from competing with the rest of the world. One reason for the extreme corruption is because almost all crime in Ukraine combines the use of government officials’ access to information or goods with the use of organized criminals. Almost all crime is organized crime. The corruption in Ukraine’s law enforcement sector is seen as one of the worst in the world.

Drug traffickers, as well as other domestic and foreign crime groups, launder money through casinos, exchange bureaus, and the banks. The banks provide groups with businesses’ profitability and asset information to help the criminal groups extort money from them. Criminals and public officials often collude in this effort. Criminals, for example, extort money from businesses by threatening to sell the information they illegally obtain from banks to the tax police. Tax officials are sometimes willing to share their information about businesses with crime groups in return for a share of the money they extort from businesses. These are only some examples of organized crime in Ukraine.

The organized criminals are not shy when doing their “jobs.” Unlike in most countries, where criminals try to hide their acts, in Ukraine they do it out and in the open. Citizens witness acts of crime everyday. Oksana remembers witnessing many different trafficking crimes in act. One of her scariest experiences she said was when her mom and her were on vacation.

“My mom and I were in our hotel room when all of a sudden someone bangs on the door. My mom answered the door and a man was there. He told us we must leave our room now. My mom realized what was going on and told them that she refused to leave. So we stayed in the room and watched them do their business. They came and started removing all of the tiles from the ceiling, pulling all of the pictures off of the walls, tearing the bed frames apart, and cutting holes in the wall. Then they started pulling large amount of cigarettes out from all of those places. They just pulled hundreds and hundreds of cartons out of the room and moved them outside. We stepped outside and realized that they were doing this in every single room of the hotel. There were tons of families waiting outside for their rooms to be emptied. What made the event more odd was that there were police officers outside supervising the event. It almost seemed as if they were making sure nothing got out of control and no one tried to fight the men. After, everyone went back to his or her lives, just like nothing had happened. This was one of the largest crimes I have ever witnessed”

Oksana told me the only reason her mom understood what was going on was because she had seen it happen before. It was nothing that they had never experienced before. One reason why public officials have the incentive to resort to partaking in criminal activities is because they face such a low income and there is very little opportunity for advancement. They feel the only way to support themselves is to be paid off by the criminals. Unless the Ukrainian government accepts adequate laws and procedures nothing will be fixed.

Corruption in Judicial Sector

Judicial sector:

The judicial sector of the government is usually seen as the most corrupt system in Ukraine. The judicial sector is supposed to offer its citizens fair and equal justice, but instead, it supplies the opposite. Political leaders have the power to make many decisions on business deals and property without risk of any judicial review. This makes the Ukrainian civilians not able to have any trust in their government. People should be able to trust and support their government, but in Ukraine it is impossible. “Only 10 percent of Ukrainians have confidence in the judicial system, according to the MCC survey. The unfairness of the judicial system was viewed as a serious problem by 79.3 percent of respondents. The same survey indicated that 49 percent of Ukrainians perceived the court system as corrupt” (Neutze). The people greatly see the amount of corruption in the government, but have no way to fight against it.

A few reasons why the judicial sector is so corrupt are due to the lack of number of judges and their low salaries. This makes them very susceptible to bribery and extortion. The judiciary is very vulnerable to corruption due to Ukrainian laws. The laws were drafter very quickly after Ukraine gained its independence. Many of the laws contradict each other, so it is very easy to use the laws to manipulate a way out of a situation.

Many people know that the corruption needs to be fixed, but instead of working to fix the problem, many continue to point fingers and place the blame on other sectors of government. The corruption in the judicial sector cannot be fixed until people stop blaming others and come together to create a plan to overcome the corruption.

Sectors of Corruption:

To see all of the parts that the government corruption reaches, each day I will post a new post about the corruption in a different sector. I think it is important to see the affects of the corruption on all parts of the government.

Oksana's Story

How are Ukrainians dealing with the corruption? Ovbiosly this is a tremendous struggle for Ukraine's people. So how do they deal with it?

“Some people stay and deal with the corruption. They have nowhere to go and no money to go anywhere else, so they are forced to stay. The select few who are fortunate enough to have family elsewhere and have enough money to leave, attempt to get a green card to leave. When I say attempt, I mean it is rare for a family to actually get one. Getting a green card is extremely difficult. It took my family 3 tries to finally be accepted and given one. We were one of the lucky ones.”

“My family and I left Ukraine when I was ten years old to get away for the corruption. My family wanted my brother and I to have opportunities in life, which do not exist in Ukraine. We came to gain an education and have the chance to make something of ourselves. Yes, we struggled greatly, but through our hard work and perseverance we were able to live a happy life here. My parents have learned how to make a living and I am here at Loyola University. I could say we have become very successful. We are one of the few success stories to make it our of Ukraine and succeed.”

Why is their corruption?

Many of you might be wandering why does corruption exist?

Well many factors contribute to the amount of corruption that exists in Ukraine. Here is a list of a few:

· An incomplete and inadequate legal framework exists in Ukraine.

· The law enforcement is very selective of what laws are enforced and when to exercise discretion.

· There is an extreme amount of regulation on the economy by the federal government.

· Collusive ties exist between all of the political and economic elite.

· People are unable to gain access to public information of the government decisions and operations.

· The people strongly resist decentralizing the governmental authority and resources used by the government to the regional and local levels. This could help break the corruptive networks.

· The people have a high tolerance for corrupt practices.

Okasana repeatedly told me, “that the corruption will not be eliminated. It has gone to far and the people have learned to accept. Corruption is all they know, so they deal with it.”

In other words, corruption will never be eliminated until other greater forces come in and take it on themselves to fix the Ukrainian government. Another force must come in a take control of all of these factors to create a successful and functioning democracy.

Ukraine Corruption - How is it corrupt?

To give you an understanding of why I created this blog, I will first give you some history and information about Ukraine's corruption.

First off, how is Ukraine so corrupt?

You do not know what the word corrupt means until you look at it in the context of the Ukrainian government. Corruption can be seen in the everyday lives of citizens and business people. Ukraine is one European country that suffers from extreme corruption in all sectors of its government. It is because of the corruption that Ukraine does not have the opportunity to flourish and expand economically with the rest of the world.

You might ask why not end the corruption? What is stopping it? It is because of the elite cartels. Ukraine is greatly influenced by the many top cartels. They hold the power and continue to gain success off of harming the local Ukrainian people. Because of their extreme colluding, it affects every other branch of government that the Ukrainian people rely on: the police force, legislative system, economic system, health system, education system, etc. The people are forced to live in a corrupt society and do not even know it.

My friend Oksana Mayuik once lived in Ukraine and had to deal with the corrupt society. She moved to America when she was 10 and can now tell the tragic story of how the corruption deeply affects the people, including her and her family. I will use her tragic story of her experience in Ukraine to demonstrate how corrupt Ukraine really is.

Purpose of this blog

Hi, guys I am Annie Gudorf a freshman at Loyola University Chicago. I am creating this blog to inform people about the harms of political corruption, specifically in Ukraine. After speaking with a immigrant from Ukraine and hearing her story, it moved me to want to get people informed about political corruption. We barely see it in America and most people do not realize how severe it is in other places. I want this blog to help people see and understand how corrupt Ukraine is and that it needs to be changed. The corruption is not just a small problem, but it is ruining and affecting the lives of the people in Ukraine. These people are forced to suffer, because of something that they have no control over. Through the use of research and the story of my friend, Oksanana I hope I can show you that we all need to take an interest in helping this cause.