Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Yanuk fails marshmallow experiment

Many years ago, in the now-famous Stanford marshmallow experiment, children were led into a room, empty of distractions, where a treat of their choice (Oreo cookie, marshmallow, or pretzel stick) was placed on a table, by a chair. The children could eat the marshmallow, the researchers said, but if they waited for fifteen minutes without giving in to the temptation, they would be rewarded with a second marshmallow.

Years later the experiment revealed a strong correlation between a children's capacity for deferred gratification and their success in later life.

As Oleksandr Motyl points out, president Yanukovych could have waited for EU association and free-trade agreements to be signed late this year before 'setting the dogs' onto Tymoshenko. She posed no threat to the president, and the country's organs of power were all under his firm grip.

He would have basked in the glory of successfully signed agreements, and the future would have looked rosy. There would have been plenty of time to 'deal with' the Tymoshenko problem if there were to be any sign of uplift in her ratings.

Playing off the EU against Russia in order to obtain the best possible result for his country makes some kind of sense, but why mess all of this up with the Tymoshenko trial and sentencing?

The man couldn't wait to gobble up the fluffy marshmallow..

3 comments:

elmer said...

Well, there's also this.

http://tvi.ua/ua/watch/author/?prog=90&video=4276

Almost halfway through the clip, Rabid Dog Chechetov (sorry - I did not mean to insult rabid dogs), the one who "conducts" voting in Parliament, shows up to bark out the following, through gritted teeth:

"I really liked the Sovok Union. Noone in the world DARED to tell the sovok union what to do."

Meaning, of course, that it's all about NOONE DARING to tell the sovok mafia in Ukraine what to do.

Soooooo - it appears that this sovok mafia idiot putz thought that the sovok mafia in Ukraine could simply join the EU - and do absolutely nothing about bringing Ukraine up to European standards.

Or, to put it differently:

If Rabid Dog sovok mafia idiot putz Chechetov was standing in front of you with a rod up his ass, and a spear through his head, and you said:

"hey, Chechetov, you have a rod up your ass and a spear through your head, you better go to the hospital right away"

Chechetov's reply would be:

"DON'T TELL ME WHAT TO DO"

Vasyl Pawlowsky said...

Just remember one thing, Yanukovych is not a child, he is a bully child at thug. He also recently made a statement along the lines of "you are not playing by our rules!".

The rules have nothing to do with the Rule of Law, nor according to international norms, they are the rules which have been set out by bandits. He is clearly a part of that clan, and he wouldn't know what to do with a marshmallow pie if it hit him in the face. Come on now he may have even "shit himself" when he was hit by an egg!

Anonymous said...

I was looking after a friends apartment in Ukraine for a couple of weeks, and I eat a bag of marshmallows she had, thinking I could just go down the road to the supermarket and buy a replacement packet the next day. Boy was I wrong. I spent three days looking for marshmallows in Ukraine and I could not find any. None. My friend was not happy and I apologized profusely and explained the effort I went to to try and have them replaced. I was guilty of stealing her marshmallows but with the honest of intent. As I was due to fly out the next week, I had to buy replacements abroad and bring them back with me when I returned. When I arrived back I borught with me a few bags just in case. So I wish Yanukovych all the best in getting hold of some marsmellows. Maybe there is market and a supplier for them now.