On Monday, April 16, the HAB hosted another "halo" event: presentation of the publication in the Ukrainian language of the collection "The Struggle for Ukraine". A small group of Odessa citizens, among whom there were about a dozen public activists, read several statements by Western experts on the situation in Ukraine from the point of view of independent Western experts.

Those who came to the meeting could drink coffee, tea, eat pies with apples and meat, cakes - in general, the comfort of this meeting was provided almost at the highest level. And they said, in general, the right words: not foreign experts are called upon to solve our problems, but we ourselves. Therefore, the attempts of some social activists, including the author of these lines, to talk about their vision of our problems were fairly coldly received by Western representatives. They are right: why tell them that we have a bad life? It is necessary to say this to the authorities. But our power, the farther we are from the spring of 2014, the less listens to social activists, so We are increasingly turning into wolves who howl at the moon.

It should be noted that neither the organizers of this meeting (the Vidrodzhennya Foundation) nor Western experts, did not seek any discussion. All served such a civil service: we need to talk about this - we talked. One of the experts expressed the opinion that the amount that is given to Ukraine will be reduced, as Ukraine does not carry out any reforms. I said that you do not need to give money in this case. Experts diplomatically kept silent.

From the point of view of common sense, all this seemed somehow an absurd theater, but we generally live in the era of the victorious Godot: Samuel Beckett and Slawomir Mrozek - our everything!.

And only one question arose in my conversation. This is what really pisses me off about Western experts.

I asked why all those recipes that we are offered in the form of reforms represent the next attempts of bureaucracy. Why do not we help reform through the empowerment of people, the elective system of the proper persons, the reduction, rather than the expansion of the bureaucratic procedure?.

From the reform of education and health care, to the fight against corruption, our Western experts always offer purely bureaucratic methods. I tried to explain to these people that in our country any bureaucratic system is becoming an imitation of activity. There will be no reforms in the country, while the whole bureaucrat's stake.

I spoke these words, and these famous words felt to me like a skin: "The voice of one crying in the desert".

Under the guise of foreign experts, the process of creating a new generation of Ukrainian bureaucrats is put on stream. And this despite the fact that the society completely lacks understanding of what is happening, a vision of the situation, a discussion about real problems.

After this meeting, I really wanted to quietly raise to the moon. Although the moon is not at fault.