On March 1, just as the world was debating whether it was time to say “Goodbye” to two years of the horrible pandemic that took millions of innocent lives, we have run into another “situation” that is as deadly and dangerous as the previous one from which we have not even fully emerged yet. While both situations are man-made–the outbreak of the virus might not have been intentional. It was, in all probability, an accident that happened due to human error, negligence, or carelessness.
The second situation, on the other hand, is totally different–it reflects the desire of a dictator to bask in the glories of an era gone by, or to restore the classical European balance of power that governed relations amongst the European countries in the age of American isolationism, or simply to put into operation the venerable “Monroe Doctrine” in reverse.
No matter what the reason might have been, the unfolding human catastrophe in Ukraine is an unforgivable crime against humanity and a crime against the people of Ukraine whose only sin was to decide to align themselves with hopes for the future, rather than live under the shadow and ‘protection’ of a bully bear. Isn’t this the aspiration of most human beings? To be free and to be able to decide on our own futures?
A few minutes ago I saw a news item on BBC News that the cherry blossoms have arrived (in London). I also know that the Sakura is ‘scheduled’ to arrive on Tuesday, 29 March in Tokyo. While this news may not be enough to mitigate the misery and gloom around us, I think it might bring hope to millions of people who have only been seeing their hopes dashed, and their jobs and homes taken away by the forces of evil. The Ukrainians may have been racist, as some people have tried to imply, but they did not barge into another man’s home or country, they certainly did not occupy and colonize a neighbor’s territory, and they did not kill thousands of people in the process of achieving their horrific and satanic dreams. What they have done instead is to build institutions of higher learning and education, especially medicine, where our young hopefuls go to receive an education that would empower them to serve humanity. I know there are tens of thousands of young people from Africa, Asia, and Latin America, who go to Ukraine to become a doctor. Many receive scholarships.
By sending Russian forces inside Ukraine, Putin has shown his baser instinct and desire to subjugate an independent country and neighbor, who built bridges of goodwill, international friendship, and cooperation. Every time a self-conceited dictator does this kind of thing, he drags the progress made by the international community by more than 200 years.
