Thursday, March 6, 2014

Don't Cry for Me Argentina but do cry for the Ukraine

The Russian Bear roars again in the Ukraine.  The Ukraine, plus many other countries, has been through so much in its recent history.  Now, President Putin in his desire to bring back the Baltic countries into Russia's sphere of influence and regain the glory days of the Soviet Union, has moved into the Ukraine on the pretext of "protecting Russian citizens," those who live in the Eastern half of the Ukraine.  So he sent 150,000 Russian soldiers for "maneuvers" to that area and today the Russian Navy sunk one of their own junked ships to block Ukrainian Navy ships from leaving a nearby Navy base in the Black sea and preventing the Ukrainian Navy from going to sea.

The Ukrainians who want to be part of Europe and the EU, want no part of this, but whether the European countries can have enough economic clout to force Putin to retreat, remains to be seen. Words have to be backed with action, and so far, from both Europe and the US, it's just words.

During the 1930's, Stalin starved the Ukrainians, shipping food out of the country which the Ukrainians had grown themselves.  25% of the Ukrainians died from starvation, which included 3 Million children.

The Soviets, at that time, set up a kind of Potemkin Village for visiting Europeans, which hid what was going on.  Among those visitors was George Bernard Shaw who visited a set-up collective farm and declared there was no famine.

Then came World War II and more horror and hardship.

You can read more about the famine on-line.

And you wonder why the Ukrainians want self-determination to continue?


14 comments:

  1. Thanks Jo, I realize that this is a political post, so I appreciate your comment. The situation in the Ukraine is getting worse.

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  2. World politics are a complex game . . . Although my blog is about humour, I do sometimes discuss politics from my own slightly quirky viewpoint.

    Anyway I am passing by from the A to Z as I work my way up and down the list in a rather random way, so I wish you luck, and as I am helping a bit this year may be back very soon.

    Rob Z Tobor

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    1. Thank you for helping with the A-Z Challenge and working your way through to #1091, which is me! I am looking forward to the challenge and meeting more bloggers. My blog will not be so serious, but I just had to write something.

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  3. It is extremely suspenseful waiting to see what will happen next. When megalomaniacs are at the helm anything could happen. Thank you for this post succinctly put.
    Your Alaskan photograph is beautiful - a reminder of the wonders of nature


    Garden of Eden Blog

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    1. Thank you Susan. I loved Alaska and would like to go there again (in the summer of course). How lucky we are at this moment, to live in free countries and be able to travel and do what we do.

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  4. It is extremely worrying - when megalomaniacs are at the helm anything could happen. Thank you for putting this situation so succinctly and graphically.
    The photograph of Alaska is beautiful and a reminder of the beauty of nature. Thank you

    Garden of Eden Blog

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  5. Hi Susan: I did sign up for your blog via email. Is there another way to comment when you are writing for the A-Z?

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  6. I wonder what will happen with the people of Crimea and their vote, to align either with Russia or with the Ukraine.

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  7. They will probably align with Russia. The vote is happening in the next two days, we shall see, Thanks for your comment.

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  8. thank you so much for vising me, i came right back, I will enjoy following you, what an amaing photo on your header!!

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  9. it is such a sad situation, such an uncertain future,

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  10. Hi Tasha .. and 9 days later .. it's even worse. Ukraine supplies Crimea's water, gas and electricity ... so the whole thing is likely to be a nightmare ... the Ukrainians have insisted that their people aren't armed - interesting that the Russians feel they need to be ...

    I hate to think what's going to happen ... the next fortnight will be quite defining ... we are so globalised and so dependent on each other ... the Russians are taking their money out of the global market -

    Yet we are open, but they appear to hide behind the bullies ... Putin being number one ... I just sincerely hope calm with reign and we'll have peace somehow ... but it does look as though Putin is determined to grab all of history he can ...

    I won't thank you for the post - but I appreciate it ... we need to be aware ... Hilary

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