Every time I want to start feeling marginally optimistic about my country of origin, it goes and does something stupid. Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko signed a law today making the possession of porn a criminal offense. It's still ok under this law to keep pornography for "medicinal purposes." I guess this means that if you bribe your doctor to give you a note saying you will die a painful death unless you watch a certain amount of porn every day, it will be acceptable.
Ukraine faces very grave problems at this moment. The hopeful momentum created by the Orange Revolution was betrayed by lack of real change that Yushchenko 's government was supposed to bring to the country. Instead of working on laws that the country so desperately needs, Yushchenko wastes his time and energy on these senseless, unenforceable and utterly ridiculous statements.
The only reason for introducing such a law in Ukraine that I can think of is the need to mobilize massive amounts of popular discontent for more street protests. You keep the people's sexuality repressed long enough and they will sublimate it into other areas of their lives. The only real consequence of this law, however, will be an ever greater level of corruption. Now there will be a black market that will manufacture proof that people need porn for medicinal purposes.
10 comments:
Why the reasons have to be different in Ukraine and in the US? All those "moral issues" are always raised to get popularity among social conservatives. I can imagine there are a lot of them in Ukraine. Western Ukraine is catholic, and if Eastern Ukraine is similar to Russia, they must be experiencing that orthodox renaissance as well...
I could send you some Russian-language references - the ruling party of Russia just announced they are going to consult orthodox church about all their legislative projects... Secular state, my ass.
Sorry.
V.
"Why the reasons have to be different in Ukraine and in the US? "
-Porn hasn't been outlawed in the US. Or have I missed something and now need to destroy my stash? :-)
"the ruling party of Russia just announced they are going to consult orthodox church about all their legislative projects"
-This is too horrible. I always had more hope for Ukraine than for Russia, though. At least since the Orange Revoluution. And because I'm from Ukraine.
I referred to similarity of reasons, not similarity of actions.
V.
Uff, I got scared there for a moment. :-)
I left 11 years and 4 days ago, so guess I lost touch. Imagining the Ukrainians as religious and conservative is next to impossible to me.
Our most famous writer and the Prime Minister of independent Ukraine, Vladimir Vinnichenko, started a sexual revolution in Ukraine in the first decade of the century. He was and incredibly talented and popular writer. Thee things he wrote about sexual liberation of women are still too progressive even for today's Western world. It pains me to see that my country forgot this so fast.
Look on the bright side: they officially recognized that sex is good for your health.
Medicinal purposes, huh? Anyone know where I can get a prescription?
I wonder, how they will formulate the official regulations describing these "medical purposes" :)
V.
I know! The reason for this "medicinal purposes" exceptions is because Yushchenko wanted to leave a loophole for his own porn use.
Moderate posting....Need to be more informative.....
I hope this blog will do better in next time.
Bathmate
Fifty years or so ago, it was illegal to show pubic hair in any photo unless it was a photo taken for medical purposes. It was illegal even for private unpublished photos, if they should happen to be discovered in a legal search (with a search warrant) for something else.
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