The Young Thinkers' Society

[Lena Tashkevych]

Hi, everyone. I'm not sure if anyone really looks at these forums any more, but I am doing this translation of a Ukrainian political party's goals, so if you happen to have an extra five minutes, please read it and tell me what you think. I am trying to keep the language as clean and well-written as possible, but i'm having a lot of dificulties because of how incredibly confusing and vague the original is. Anyway, tell me what you think.


The Manifest of Justice

We choose the way of justice, the way of unity and liberty, for our country the Ukraine. The mission of the Ukrainian people is to build a society of high morals, where liberty, protection and well-being will unite in perfect harmony.


1. One cannot live alone. All of one’s life, one is surrounded by others. To succeed in life, one must learn how to cooperate with different people and to use each person’s talent for the wellbeing of the entire group.

Our path, which we call solidarity, is the commencement and constant improvement of justice by way of conscious search for problems, their accurate comprehension and their systematic regulation, all accomplished by the very people that the new system of justice will serve and protect. Without going against the interests of human beings or restricting their free decisions, solidarity will help improve the lives of Ukrainians everywhere.


2. Each child should receive free and unhindered access to religious schooling.

We will stop the propaganda of immorality, and even out the status of religious and academic learning in our society. We will also unite the efforts of the government, the religious congregations, and the everyday people in the battle against alcoholism, drug abuse, crime, prostitution, itinerancy, and AIDS.


3. The manipulation of information makes justice unattainable. We will give all means of freedom possible to all people of the press, no matter where, when, or in what situation. The foundations of the freedom of speech will spread throughout Ukraine, taking on the status of laws and strengthening the roots of our country, as well as developing a more modern public television and radio network throughout Ukraine.


4. We will bring the law out of the corruption of politics, and make the judicial branch financially independent of other parts of the government.

The citizens of Ukraine will, with their own hands, elect judges.

We will form committees, independent from any branch of government, to monitor the entire judicial system as well as judges themselves, the before-said committees attaining power to discipline judges found guilty of taking advantage of the judicial system, whether for personal gain or not.

We will make the court tax illegal and give all those who need it the chance of free defense by a lawyer in court.


5. We will eradicate the government’s unlawful hold over its citizens, and work with the citizens themselves to create a plan, which we will then use as guidelines in our fight against corruption.

Punishment shall be relative to the degree of lawbreaking. Imprisonment shall only be used as a response to great crimes against humanity in general as well as persons in particular, while fines, confiscations, or public service shall punish all other crimes.


6. We will eradicate the corruptive unification of money and capital in the government.

Uncontrolled power cannot be just.

Only serious parliamentary opposition with its unique rights and tasks can truly control the assimulation of power in the government.

We will give the opposition the right to appoint their own people to control the governmental finances, to check the upkeeping of human rights, and to check the work of the government committees.

We will take back the juridical invulnerability of politicians and government officials.

The heads of all government offices will be elected by the direct vote of the people.

We will turn provincial self-government into a part of the actual government network, capable of helping the people and upholding the law, and financed by the government of Ukraine.


7. Fueled by a natural desire to rise in our materialistic world, one does anything one can to earn enough money to lead a normal life. However, one income is never going to be enough. We are willing to change our position on employment in order to change the status of the employee in our society. To do this, instead of changing the amount of money itself, we will reformat the income so that the statuses of the employers and the employees are in better relation.

The income of any human should be composed of three parts:
a) A just monetary pay
b) A fraction of the profit of the company
c) A fraction of the shares of the company
This, once and for all, will undo the division of the classes in our society, a horrible custom left over from the Middle Ages. Instead, it will make every employee or owner of small shares an independent man.

And for those currently in ownership of capital, we will secure the balance of interest by way of drastic reduction of taxes.


8. The injustice of our current system lies simply in the fact that regular citizens do not have the means of taking charge of their own life and creating their own business. The middle class, based mainly on the incomes of smaller businesses or family organizations, should be the one to stabilize the economy of our country. So in order to open the way for small businesses, we will begin a system of motivation for banks which will make the said banks' taxes be relative to the “start-up” credit these banks give to their small-business customers, and will take some of the banking risks about backing new businesses onto the shoulders of the government itself.


9. The tax system active in Ukraine today is unjust. Because of it, our economy is a shadow of what it could be. We will make a tax system where the tax will be relative to the cost of the product and will be taken from the consumer automatically at the time of purchase. In this way, our “universal” tax will be cancelled without any problems with the government budget.


10. Only those citizens will own land who have proved themselves able to live on it and care for it. However, they will not only get certificates, but will be the true owners of the land. We will also protect the rights of the renters of land and, to those who have proved themselves able to take care of their property, we will give the stability of ownership of land.

We will go from unsystomatic financing of the villages to the development of the vilage as a typical business project, which will include not only increasing the project outcome, but also the improvement of the physical and social environment of all those involved with the project.

These projects shall be financed, as any capitalist venture, by commercial banks and insured by the government.

Through these projects we will decrease the gap between city life and life in the villages.


11. Only outside investment into our country can really increase the possibilities of the average Ukrainian, which is why we will cancel the import tax on all products which cannot be manufactured in Ukraine for the duration of five years. Also, we will destroy the beurocratic borders which currently keep out outside investment into our economy and instill an auctioned selling of public land to bring capital to the currently-stallow economies of the provincial areas of our country, capital which can then be used to instigate such much-needed improvements as updating the schooling system, asphalting the public roads, and many many others.


12. We will overcome the social injustices of our school system toward socially disadvantaged children by commencing with a program of financial aid aimed toward the stabilization of the cost of schooling for all of the children of Ukraine, no matter what race, religion, or social status.

Health cannot be dependent on the money in one's pocket or on one's job as it is currently. We will solve this problem by a system of health insurance, with financial aid available as needed. We will also assemble a list of medical procedures which everyone will have a right to, no matter if they have the money, or the health insurance, to pay for it, or not.

We will approve a new retirement policy which will automatically transfer a small portion of a person's income into a retirement savings account, insured by the government.

We will raise the level of financial aid for college and university students at least to the level which matches the minimal living needs.

We will help families with disabled children by giving them a stipend of no less than 2,000 grivni (about $500) a month.

We will make government institutions dedicated solely to the education of disabled children and will provide work for disabled people in the social structure of our society.


13. We will establish national priorities and we will protect them on all levels. Political relations with other countries shall be held in the name of the entire nation, not just a small fraction of the government, on the base of peaceful equal relations with all nations sharing common interests with our country.


Justice does not come by itself, it needs to be established by the people, for the people.


(if anyone speaks russian and wants to look at the original, here's a link for you: http://www.tymoshenko.com.ua/rus/elections/manifesto/)


anyway, so i'm trying to decide whether, once i finish revising it, i should send it to the party or not. technically, they need a translation. they have an english version of their official site, but it's been like a year since they first put up the "the translation of this document is not yet available" for this page and they still don't have anything up there. so, my other question to you is: do you think i should submit it?