Over the past couple of weeks Ukraine has been experiencing protests that are reminiscent of the Occupy London movement. The protests have been equally as violent and the scenes in Kiev look like something out of the Book of Revelation. While the government has been attempting to stand its ground, they’ve failed to appease the protesters by granting the Prime Minister position to opposition leader Arseniy Yatsenyuk and the repealing of anti-protest laws. For several days I heard about these protests through social media sites, but heard of nothing about them through mainstream media. It wasn’t until I did some research before I understood the true nature of the protests. I had an inkling that it had something to do with corrupt leaders, as all “revolutions” tend to be attributed to, so in no way was I surprised to find this to be true in Ukraine’s case. President Yanukovych has allegedly faced two convictions, both of which dealt with violent crimes. These previous violent acts come as no surprise to me as three protesters have died in the process, one by torture.
With a country on the verge of civil war, I think the most appalling part is that, as stated before, I had to find out through social media. Certainly, these news sources cannot always be trusted, but if I can’t hear about things like this on the news then I have to find some way to hear about what’s going on in the world. I think it’s frightening that people have to actively seek out news of utmost importance. With the Occupy Movement of 2011 spreading through Facebook, it’s come to the point that people have no other choice than to wait for something serious to show up on a newsfeed or, as luck would have it, the twitter page of human rights organizations such as Amnesty International, which is where I first heard about this grave situation. The fact that news of such severity is not readily available to everyone is alarming and this needs to be changed.