Parliamentary Elections

Today’s session of the GABFEST Club in the information and resource center "Window on America" (Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine) was dedicated to the topic “Parliamentary Elections”. On the eve of the early elections in Ukraine (due on Sunday) the topic was welcomed by the majority of the participants. The presence of our American volunteer Mr. Josh was very motivating as it allowed the group to demonstrate their knowledge of the Ukrainian election legislation, as well as the vocabulary for the topic.
 

We started with the conversation about the major political parties in the USA, their symbols; the seat of the US Congress – United States Capitol - and its architecture. From that point we moved to the Ukrainian realities and introduced Mr. Josh to the building of the Ukrainian parliament, its architecture and other relevant things – the interiors of the Verkhovna Rada, the MPs’ work seat equipment, etc. The most challenging task was to explain what was depicted in the huge painting in the lobby of the Ukrainian Parliament. The Club’s activist Larissa was the only one who knew the story behind the impressive painting. Several American news videos about parliamentary elections in Ukraine were demonstrated to the group to introduce relevant vocabulary.
The funniest part of the conversation was about the American influence on one of the Ukraine’s political parties.

The Ukrainian party exploits the world known character from the Star Wars saga – Darth Vader – as the party representative in all recent elections in Ukraine. We discussed the political technologies behind this phenomenon. 

For those who were not fans of the Star Wars we demonstrated short videos about Darth Vader’s suit and its purpose. The impressive music – the Imperial March – used by the Ukrainian party was also presented to the group.
The final part of the session was used to introduce the big group of the newcomers.
A short Q@A session with Mr. Josh wrapped up this educational meeting of the Gabfest Club.
Number of participants – 27 persons.
Have a look at more pictures, please