Ukraine’s parliament failed to pass legislation prohibiting workplace discrimination on the basis of gender, religion, race, and sexual orientation. We are talking about a country where job ads often say, “The candidate should be an attractive unmarried woman under the age of 30” or “Nobody over the age of 35 should apply,” so the law was urgently needed. Besides, the passage of the law is necessary for the establishment of a visa – free travel regime with the EU which has a colossal symbolic value for Ukrainians.
Still, none of this persuaded Ukrainian law-makers to vanquish their inner barbarian and pass the legislation. Civilization advances at a slow and stumbling pace but let’s hope that love of barbarity perishes in Ukraine sooner rather than later.
Clarissa's Blog 
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has just announced yesterday the appointment of Chrystia Freeland, MP for University-Rosedale riding, to the post of International trade minister in his new cabinet. She wrote an article in May of this year for the Brookings Institute entitled, “My Ukraine.”
“In late November, President Petro Poroshenko celebrated the formation of a new government following October parliamentary elections with a tweet that made this point to his 237,700 followers: “The main difference between Ukraine and Russia isn’t just linguistic, it lies in our differing political cultures and attitudes to freedom and democracy.”
http://www.brookings.edu/research/essays/2015/myukraine
Let’s hope that the Chocolate King’s comment applies to workplace discrimination as well.
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Poroshenko is in favor of the law. It’s the parliament that is resisting because these old Soviet apparatchiks have suddenly found religion.
Honestly, whenever I hear a person who grew up in the USSR blab about their religiousness, I get extremely angry.
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Unfortunately, Ukrainians elected what can be called the best parliament ever, but still not good enough to make reforms. Hopefully, people will understand their mistake sooner than later.
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Well, in Russia Orthodox priests march at nationalistic gatherings giving the Nazi salute, so compared to that Ukraine is a hub of civilization.
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That’s right! But we should not compare Ukraine to Russia. The latter can only be compared to the Nazi Germany I believe.
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I’ve seen a lot of this kind of transformation up close and it’s not pretty (though it is ultimately kind of exhilarating).
The general rule is two steps forward and one (or one and half) steps back and progress sometimes seems to stop dead in its tracks before lumbering back into slow erratic motion. It’s not for the weak of nerves.
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Yes, absolutely. People in Ukraine (and sympathizers outside the country) are in a permanent state of a freak-out because of this stumbling and tumbling but there is simply no other way.
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” We are talking about a country where job ads often say, “The candidate should be an attractive unmarried woman under the age of 30” ”
I love that in the US, employers don’t ask for your picture along with your CV. It was definitely the case in India (not sure if it has changed) and I know some european countries that still do this. I detest this practice.
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This is also very wide-spread in Latin America. All it does, of course, is promote discrimination.
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Yup.
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Speaking of Ukraine I think I will put this important link here.
http://euromaidanpress.com/2015/11/07/history-identity-and-holodomor-denial-russias-continued-assault-on-ukraine/
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Great article, thank you!
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