Prime Minister of Ukraine Yulia Tymoshenko has congratulated Barack Obama on his victory in the presidential election.
In a telegram for Barack Obama Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko noted that “Your victory is an inspiration to us. That which seemed to be impossible becomes feasible”.
The Prime Minister of Ukraine is confident that leadership and inspiration of a new President of the United States of America will change the world for better. “You assume this presidential office in hard times for the whole world but Your gift for leadership, I am sure, is that what is needed now,” Yulia Tymoshenko’s telegram reads.
I missed this until I caught the Colbert Report’s Un-American News:
The recent military actions between Georgia and Russia have stirred significant debate about the status of Ukraine as it is also a country in transition that hasn’t quite made up its mind about NATO and has significant ties to Russia.
Although Ukraine is in a different position than Georgia, that does not mean Ukrainians feel safe. It does not mean they feel confident that Russia would never turn its resentful glare backed by military power towards Ukraine. In fact, some feel that because Russia moved into Georgia, Ukraine should never feel comfortable with its position again. And it does not mean the politicians here are not brass enough to do something to really provocative at the expectation that Europe and the U.S. will back them up.
What has Ukraine done so far in its response?
- President Yushchenko just left today for Tbilisi, along with the leaders of Poland, Lithuania and Estonia, to meet with President Mikheil Saakashvili of Georgia.
- In a more bold move, Ukraine is considering its options for not allowing the Black Sea Fleet to return to the Crimea, from which Russian warships were sent to Georgia. (For those that don’t know, Russia still has a lease on ports in Crimea until 2017. Yushchenko has made it clear he does not support the existence of this arrangement, people living in the Crimea are split on the issue).
In the morning of August 10, the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs informed its Russian counterpart that in order to prevent Ukraine from being drawn into an armed conflict, Ukraine might take measures to prevent the Russian Black Sea Fleet (RBSF) vessels from returning to their base in Sevastopol in the Crimea if they were involved in combat operations against Georgia. This ban might last until the conflict in South Ossetia is “regulated,” the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine stated. -Eurasia Daily Monitor
- Ukraine has decided not to send military assistance to Georgia, although Russia has accused Ukraine of supplying Georgia with weapons that were used against Russian troops.
The last two points are already eliciting some rather threatening language from Moscow.
“The Ukrainian government, which has been enthusiastically arming Georgian troops from top to bottom, was in fact encouraging Georgia to attack and carry out ethnic cleansing in South Ossetia,” the ministry said in a statement on its website www.mid.ru. -Reuters
Russian statements took on more ominous tones later that evening after Russian troops began an assault on the Georgian city of Gori. The Ukrayinska Pravda website quoted a spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry as saying, “The actions by the Ukrainian side are contrary to Ukrainian-Russian agreements and are hostile to the Russian Federation.” At approximately the same time, Interfax, citing information released by the Russian navy, reported that a Georgian military ship had been sunk by the Russian fleet off the coast of Abkhazia. -EDM
It is all risk-taking for Ukraine. With the West showing little ability to be able to respond effectively to the situation and Russia touting justifications for its actions, Ukraine is in a vulnerable position. Yushchenko has a long standing anti-Moscow relationship with the Georgian president. Is Ukraine in as vulnerable a position as Georgia was before the conflict? No. However, Ukraine is not in NATO, Russia feels the same resentment towards Ukraine about its Western ambitions, and Ukraine is tied through economic and energy ties with Russia that it can’t afford to break. Russia knows all of this meaning that Russia has all the tools to reassert its influence over Ukraine.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has ordered an end to military operations against Georgia, the Kremlin says.
He told officials he had taken the decision to end the operation after restoring security for civilians and peacekeepers in South Ossetia…
Before the announcement, there were fresh reports of Russian warplanes bombing the Georgian town of Gori.
Witnesses told the BBC that several people were killed when a bomb hit a hospital in the town, which is 10 miles (15km) from the South Ossetian capital, Tskhinvali.
A reporter for Reuters news agency said several bombs exploded in front of his vehicle, while a photographer for the agency spoke of seeing dead and injured people lying in the streets.
News of Mr Medvedev’s decision emerged as French President Nicolas Sarkozy arrived in Moscow expecting to press Russia on the need for a ceasefire.
According to a statement, Mr Medvedev told his defence minister and chief of staff that “the goal has been attained”.
“I’ve decided to finish the operation to force the Georgian authorities to peace. The safety of our peacekeeping forces and civilian population has been restored.
“The aggressor has been punished, having sustained considerable losses. Its armed forces have been disorganised,” he added.
The BBC’s James Rodgers, in Moscow, said there is no sign yet that Russia is willing to engage in talks with the government in Tbilisi.
I know everyone in the States probably knows about this video already, but I just absolutely love it. I heard about it earlier, but caught it on my cousin’s blog today while trying to distract myself from paperwork. So just in case I catch a few people who haven’t seen it yet
Ok, so this is a belated birthday post, but here is a video from our small celebration and card signing in Kyiv on the 18th. The event was held by the Eastern European Development Institute, the Nigerian Community of Kyiv and the African Center. Special guest speakers included the Ambassador of South Africa and Mr. Stanislaw Cieniuch, the first Ambassador of Poland to South Africa.
Of course, this pales in comparison to the crowd of over 40,000 that came out for the celebration in Hyde Park. 46,664 to be exact.
46664 is an African response to the global HIV AIDS epidemic that invites the whole world to take the fight in hand. It’s our aim to raise awareness overall and educate the younger generations in particular. By gaining global backing for the cause, we will also raise funds to directly assist the many HIV AIDS projects we support. We intend to do this by using our international ambassadors to spread our messages of hope, our calls to action, our pleas for compassion and our requests for assistance and support for those living with HIV AIDS.
46664 (we say four, double six, six four) was Nelson Mandela’s prison number when he was imprisoned on Robben Island, off Cape Town in South Africa. He was jailed in 1964 for 27 years for leading the liberation movement against apartheid and for his impassioned stance on the rights of everyone to live in freedom. He was prisoner number 466, imprisoned in 1964. The Robben Island prisoners were never referred to by their names, but rather by their numbers and year of imprisonment - hence 46664 was Nelson Mandela’s number…
It was for precisely this reason that Mr. Mandela decided to use this powerful, symbolic number in the fight against HIV AIDS. Through this simple, poignant means he has demonstrated and communicated to the world that people must never be reduced to simple numbers - we are human beings, all equal, and those infected and living with HIV AIDS have the same right to live and to be treated as equals…
It is continually imperative for us at 46664 to make an impact on a global scale in order to draw attention to the HIV AIDS issue; so far we have had success thanks to a worldwide audience of over 1 billion people either viewing or listening to our concerts on TV, radio and the internet…
We will continue to produce these unique concerts combining international, local and African artists joining together symbolically onstage to demonstrate their support for Mr. Mandela’s 46664 campaign. We will also be staging significant sporting and other entertainment events worldwide. Nevertheless a major part of our effort now will involve promoting community outreach campaigns that will encourage people to participate in discussions, educational activities, volunteer work and prevention, care and treatment support programmes. To do this we often partner with governments, NGOs and the private sector.
The above quote came from Savik Schuster, whose show, Svoboda, is a popular political discussion and debate forum that attracts some of Ukraine’s most prominent personalities to banter over topics while a live audience electronically agrees or disagrees with the statements of the speaker.
He said, “It seems to me that Lutsenko has gone crazy.” Yuriy Lutsenko, who is the current Minister of Interior of Ukraine, made a statement on Tuesday that has ignited debate not only in Ukraine, but has attracted media attention in Russia and other CIS countries.
Interior Minister of Ukraine Yuri Lutsenko is opposed to attracting foreign workforce in Kyiv.
Thus, speaking at a session in the Kyiv Directorate of the Interior Ministry of Ukraine, the Minister asked the citizenship, immigration, and natural persons registrations department chief about how many residence permits were given to people from the far abroad. Having heard the answer “seventy”, Yuri Lutsenko said: “Do we lack our own workforce? If you want to go to China – you may buy a ticket and often go there on vacation. You may call me a racist, but I will not allow to turn Kyiv into another Kharkiv or Odessa. The instruction is as follows: we give a residence permit only if he marries to our girl. Because shortly I will have to invite the Vietnamese or Chinese to work in police instead of you!”.
Remember that World Bank report that said Ukraine needs more foreign workers to sustain economic growth because of population issues, etc.? Well, apparently Lutsenko disagrees and this is how he chose to express himself. Not to worry, though. Here comes his press agency to the rescue:
The Press Service of the Ministry of Interior has just confirmed Lutsenko’s recent statements, however noted that Mr. Lutsenko’s comments should not be taken so literally, and all he was trying to do is make a point ‘that
registration of aliens is a very serious issue’.
“The Minister’s concern is based on the fact that foreigners in Kyiv committed three times more crimes against Kyivites than crimes committed by Ukrainians against foreigners. This year we deported to their historical homeland 1309 individuals of whom 485 are from the Caucases. It is this category (Caucases) who steal and rob. The Minister, who is aware of these statistics, acted in defence of his own citizens”.
In fact, this defense isn’t even creative. The Russian government has been known for quoting the exact same reasons for slacking on combating racist and xenophobic violence within its borders. Yet when these numbers are quoted, the corruption that occurs in the court systems, particularly in dealing with cases against foreigners is, of course, never mentioned. The lack of respect for legal or human rights during the court process is not mentioned. As well, in Ukraine, the recorded number of attacks against foreigners is far below the actual number of violent crimes committed because they’re often too scared to go to the police. And not without reason. And, for example, these statistics also include the arrests of foreigners who have defended themselves after being attacked.
Can you see why Ukraine will have an extremely difficult time combating the rise of racist and xenophobic violence if even the top level of the government cannot look at the problems and issues for what they are, and instead merging everything together to create an unclear and misleading picture of the situation?
The World Bank recently released a report on what gaps Eastern European countries need to fill if they want to sustain their current growth, Innovation, Inclusion, and Integration: From Transition to Convergence in Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union.
Countries of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union have put the crisis of the 1990s behind them, but they need to innovate, include all their citizens in the development of their countries, and integrate with the broader global economy if they want to sustain growth, says a new World Bank report.
The International Herald Tribune focused in on one of the suggestions that the report makes concerning the workforce of these countries, which is to bring in more foreign workers to fill the gaps created by population decline (both natural and due to native workers going elsewhere):
Countries in eastern Europe will have to open up to new waves of immigrants to prevent their economies being hobbled by labor shortages caused by rapidly aging populations, a senior World Bank economist warned Wednesday.
After years of exporting workers westward, Poland, Ukraine, Bulgaria and the Baltic states must bring in labor from outside Europe to offset their demographic decline, or forget hopes of catching up with Western economies, said Pradeep Mitra, the World Bank’s chief economist for Europe and Central Asia.
“There’s no question that immigration will be needed to fill labor shortages,” Mitra told reporters. “The trade off is: accept migration in a regulated way or don’t be serious about converging with EU 15 living standards.”
Mitra was referring to the 15 Western nations who made up the European Union before the entry of 12 other European nations since 2004.
Launching a World Bank report on the region’s economy, Mitra said falling birth rates were expected to lead to Ukraine’s population falling by a fifth by 2025. Bulgaria, Georgia, Belarus, Latvia, Russia and Lithuania are all expected to see population declines of more than 10 percent over the same period.
U.N. data show just 200,000 foreigners are registered as living in Ukraine, mostly from other former-Soviet nations. Experts warn that without action to address looming labor shortages, the country of 46 million will not be able to maintain its healthy economic growth, which topped 7 percent last year.
“There is not an organized policy to identify those gaps and to seek legal mechanism to fill those gaps,” said Jeffrey Labovitz, head of the International Organization for Migration mission in Ukraine.
Pradeep Mitra also acknowledged that there is the possibility a sudden influx of foreigners may trigger backlash from the native population. The IHT article discusses the already rising rate of xenophobic violence in Ukraine.
It seems that xenophobic attacks in Ukraine will increase whether or not Ukraine decides to boost its efforts to bring in more foreign labor if the government doesn’t uniformly recognize the problem and deal with it appropriately. The government still releases conflicting information and policy statements that do everything from recognize the problem to fall back on statistics that “show” crimes by foreigners are increasing (thus creating further resentment against them) to saying that there is no racism in Ukraine, there are only manifestations of racism. I am not sure where the author of the IHT article gathered her statistics on attacks in Ukraine against foreigners with possible racial motivations. The only source it cites is “the police,” which, not surprisingly, are a weak link in the response to racially motivated-attacks in Ukraine. So, the source seems strange to me.
This post will not argue whether or not Ukraine needs more foreign workers to fill its labor needs. The World Bank report has already come to a conclusion about that with facts and figures. However, can Ukraine really handle an influx of foreign workers when the country has a broken immigration system with a lack of an organized policy and a problem with xenophobic attacks that is increasing in numbers and the level of violence? It will be interesting to see what the official response (more likely responses) from the Ukrainian government will be towards this report.
This article was in the New York Times on June 18:
Refugees From Wars and Persecution Increase, U.N. Agency Says
GENEVA — The number of refugees fleeing to other countries to escape conflict and persecution rose in 2007 for the second year as factors from climate change to over scarce resources threatened to increase the flow, the United Nations refugee agency warned Tuesday.
A total of 11.4 million refugees were under the care of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in 2007, including some 400,000 feeling conflict in their home countries, the agency said. The report for 2006 numbered 9.9 million.
The total was modest compared with the 17.8 million refugees in 1992 at the time of the Balkan wars, but after a steady drop between 2001 and 2005 it represented a worrying trend , the relief agency said.
“We are now faced with a complex mix of global challenges that could threaten even more forced displacement in the future,” Antonio Guterres, the high commissioner for refugees, said in a statement. “They range from multiple new conflict-related emergencies in world hotspots to bad governance, climate-induced environmental degradation that increase competition for scarce resources and extreme price hikes that have hit the poor the hardest and are generating instability in many places.”
The number of people displaced by conflict but remaining within their own countries also rose in 2007 to 26 million, the agency said, citing statistics provided by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, a private organization.
The conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan accounted for more than half the world’s refugees in 2007. More than 2 million Iraqis have sought refuge in Syria and Jordan, and 3 million Afghans in Pakistan and Iran, the refugee agency said…
The latest statistics contradicted a number of misconceptions about the impact and distribution of refugee patterns, officials said, starting with the notion that Western countries admit most fugitives from conflict.
Instead, 80 percent of refugees remain in developing countries in the immediate vicinity of their own country, the UN agency said.
Pakistan accepted more than 2 million refugees and Syria 1.5 million in 2007 while the United States sheltered 281,000, the statistics showed.
The U.S. Committee for Refugees released its 2008 World Refugee Survey, which includes a list of the worst places for refugees to be in displacement or to try to resettle. These countries include Bangladesh, Russia, Europe, Malaysia, China, Iraq, India, Kenya, Sudan, and Thailand. More than 2 million of the world’s refugees are located in these countries. Ukraine, despite the small number of refugees residing within its borders as it rarely grants refugee status, has a serious problem with refoulement, and a rising problem with violence against visible minorities, is also among the world’s least safest places for refugees.
As the New York Times article stated, Iraq produced the highest number of refugees worldwide. According to USCR, this is the third year in a row that this has been the case. Although the U.S. stated in 2007 that it would resettle 7,000 Iraqi refugees, the U.S. only resettled 1,608. Refugees International, UNHCR, and Amnesty International recognize the situation facing Iraqi refugees as a crisis in desperate need of attention.
According to the UN Refugee Agency and the International Organization for Migration in 2007, almost 5 million Iraqis had been displaced by violence in their country, the vast majority of which had fled since 2003. Over 2.4 million vacated their homes for safer areas within Iraq, up to 1.5 million were living in Syria, and over 1 million refugees were inhabiting Jordan, Iran, Egypt, Lebanon, Turkey and Gulf States.
There were reports last year that Iraqi refugees were actually returning to Iraq because of the decrease in violence. However, UNHCR noted that these refugees often returned to Iraq because they had ran out of resources in whatever country they had fled to after violence continued to spiral at home. As well, once they attempted to return home, they often found that their homes had either been destroyed or taken over, which forced them into secondary displacement contributing to an increased number of internally displaced persons.
With the number of refugees at over 14 million worldwide, there are, of course, other crisis situations that have lacked the kind of international attention needed to provide assistance to people fleeing from conflict and persecution:
Sudan, which is dealing with two separate refugee situations: Darfur/Chad and Southern Sudan. While the resettlement process is ongoing in Southern Sudan, it has been a fragile process as the situation regarding the Peace Agreement tends to shift on a regular basis. The crisis in Darfur continues to destroy the lives of hundreds of thousands of Sudanese, and is especially affecting women. In fact, it has come to a point where gender-based violence is a regular part of the lives of female refugees of all ages trying to survive the conflict that plagues their homeland.
Sudan is also home to over 300,000 refugees from the neighboring countries of Eritrea, Chad, Ethiopia, and the Central African Republic. Unsurprisingly, it has been found that the human rights of these refugees are not protected during their time in Sudan.
Burma (or Myanmar), where refugees are displaced not only by the persecution they suffer in their home country, but also from the recent Cyclone that forced over a million people out of their homes and has shown that the government could care less about the survival and protection of its citizens.
Millions of people are currently forced from their homes in a kind of horror that no one should ever know. Today, we should remember them and pledge to support them as they struggle to survive.
Secretary Rice remarked on the report with the following:
“The 2008 report covers more countries than ever — 170 total. It is the most comprehensive global compendium of human trafficking trends and efforts by foreign governments to eliminate this crime… And as required by Congress, the Trafficking in Persons Report examines both labor slavery and sex trafficking.
For the first time, in this year’s report, we closely examined prosecution data and made a disturbing discovery: Although more countries are addressing sex trafficking through prosecution and convictions, the petty tyrants who exploit their laborers rarely receive serious punishment. We see this as a serious shortcoming, and as we move our efforts forward, we and our allies must remember that a robust law enforcement response is essential.
This report is a key tool in our efforts to abolish human trafficking — by raising awareness, offering clear recommendations to combat these crimes, and offering advice and aid from the United States.”
Two days ago, students from Gaza received a letter stating that their Fulbright scholarship had been revoked. In fact, the State Department withdrew all Fulbright grants to Palestinian students in Gaza, who were supposed to be going to the U.S. to study during this coming academic year. And no one really seems to know what’s going on or why the State Department canceled without any apparent attempts to ensure they were allowed out. Why do I believe this? Because now that the New York Times has released the article, all of the sudden people are looking up from their desks going, “What happened?”
According the Times article, “when a query about the canceled Fulbrights was made to the prime minister’s office on Thursday, senior officials expressed surprise. They said they did, in fact, consider study abroad to be a humanitarian necessity and that when cases were appealed to them, they would facilitate them. They suggested that American officials never brought the Fulbright cases to their attention.”
And then AFP reported that Secretary Rice had no idea this had happened.
“We really have to be concerned about the future of Palestinians and the future Palestine,” Rice told reporters during a visit in Iceland.
“And if you cannot engage young people and give them a complete horizon to their expectations and to their dreams, then I don’t know that there would be any future for Palestine” or the people of the region, Rice said.
“It was a surprise to me and I am definitely going to look into it… I’m a big supporter of Fulbrights for people in places that have been isolated from the international community and we will see what we can do.”
So who knew what was going on and pulled the plug? The Times article said that the U.S. Consulate in Jerusalem canceled the scholarships “out of concern” that the grant money would go to waste in light of the Israeli government’s crackdown on isolating Gaza beginning at the end of last year. The article also cited that internal State Department problems may have contributed to the lack of effort to assist these students:
The State Department and American officials in Israel refused to discuss the matter. But the failure to persuade the Israelis may have stemmed from longstanding tensions between the consulate in Jerusalem, which handles Palestinian affairs, and the embassy in Tel Aviv, which manages relations with the Israeli government.
You would think that if the awarded scholarships were in jeopardy for an entire area, that the Consulates of the U.S. would step up their efforts before canceling a whole program, and in the process, dealing a huge blow to the students who had received these awards based on their merits and leaving the mess to senior officials and the Secretary of State who probably could have intervened before this fiasco. Especially because it appears even if the Israeli government allows them out at this point (along with the dozens of other students with Western scholarships and offers to study abroad), the Fulbright grantees will not be able to go.
However, there is no confirmation that the money has been reallocated and Israel said yesterday that they would reconsider the situation. So there may still be hope to reinstate these Fulbright students.
Some of the current Fulbrighters have put together an open letter to the State Department and the IIE, which administers the Fulbright Program, to reinstate these fellows and to do whatever is in their power to reverse this backward move on the part of the program. So far, eighty former and current Fulbrighters have signed it. The site also includes links to the latest news on the situation. Although it is true that some of this depends on the Israeli government and not entirely on the shoulders of the State Department, it seems there is willingness on the part of Israel to reexamine this without too much complication. In fact, there seems to be misunderstanding as to why this happened in the first place.
Hopefully the situation will be rectified in time to give these students the opportunity they’ve earned without having to wait another year. The Fulbright’s goals are to increase “mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries” and it serves as “a context to provide a better understanding of U.S. views and values, promotes more effective binational cooperation and nurtures open-minded, thoughtful leaders, both in the U.S. and abroad, who can work together to address common concerns.” It is pretty difficult to accomplish that goal when grants are being canceled without much effort to ensure the ability of the student to start their studies.
UPDATE!
I have just heard from my fellow Fulbrighter in Gaza and he has told me that just a few hours ago, they received this message from the Consulate in Jerusalem:
The US Department of State is working to secure exit permits for you to travel to Jerusalem for your visa interview and for final travel to the United States in order to participate in the Fulbright program this year. We are working closely with the Government of Israel in order to secure its cooperation in this matter.
Therefore, I’m pleased to inform you that the Bureau of Educational and Cultural affairs (ECA) of the US Department of State has instructed Amideast in Washington to continue the placement process at a US university for the 2008-09 academic year for your Fulbright program nomination.
We will notify you when your placement has been arranged to begin the next steps in the grant process.
WOOHOO! Such great news. Although as my contact pointed out, there are still hundreds of students that were granted study through other U.S. programs that are still trapped by this isolation policy that the U.S. has not been to negotiate their exit.
Today, we will celebrate this small victory. These students will not only become an asset to the academic and cultural communities of the U.S., but will also help shape the future and international contributions of their country. Good luck to all of them.
I know I raised some alarm with my last post on racial issues in Ukraine, and there is good reason to be alarmed. But at the same rate, ground has been gained. A couple weeks ago, there was the first conviction of a violent crime using Article 161 of the Criminal Code:
The Darnytsky District Court on Friday issued its verdict over the killing of Nigerian national Kunyon Myevi Hodi* in Kyiv near the metro station “Poznyaki” on 25 October 2006.
Of the group of four people whom the criminal investigation unit believed involved in the attack or present at it, one appeared as a witness and one came under an amnesty as being underage.
The other two were both convicted.
One was found guilty of murder (Article 115 § 2 of the Criminal Code) and sentenced to 10 years imprisonment and of inciting racial hatred and enmity and denigrating a person’s ethnic honour and dignity (Article 161 § 3) and received a four year term of imprisonment. Since the sentences are to be partially merged (under Article 70 of the Criminal Code), he was sentenced to 11 years imprisonment. The sentence is counted from 15 November 2006.
The other was found guilty of inciting racial hatred and enmity and denigrating a person’s ethnic honour and dignity (Article 161 § 2) and received a four and a half year term of imprisonment. This sentence is counted from November 2006.
In passing sentence, among other considerations, aggravating circumstances were taken into account – the fact that at the time of the crime, the men were in a state of alcoholic intoxication (Article 67 of the Criminal Code)
The defendants only partially admitted guilt. They have 15 days from 18 April to appeal against the verdict.
* In all the reports at the time, the name was given differently - Hodnoys Myevi. The victim was 47 years old and had lived in Ukraine for a number of years. He had graduated from the Institute of National Economy, defended his PhD thesis in economics and was married to a Ukrainian.
As well, there have been two more cases opened.
Today, I was able to get a bit more imagery on growing understanding among people in Ukraine. Today was Dehn Evropi (Europe Day) in Kyiv and there were a couple dozen tents and stages set up all the way down Khreshatik representing European countries, EU institutions, and a few others. Among the few others was the Diversity Initiative. We had hand-outs, a quiz, a skit about inter-racial marraige, and we also had an African drumming group. During the drumming, this happened:
These lovely Ukrainian ladies jumped into the circle during a drumming dance contest, and showed everyone what was up. A small reminder that this is not a foregone problem and that a little interaction goes a long way.
