TROUBLING TIMES IN UKRAINE

As I write this short note, I do so hoping that it will be yet another viewpoint that my daughter can always revert to in her journey forward. I doubt most of you will take the time to read it, and more so that it will make a difference. But nonetheless, it’s an expression of my sentimentally saddened view of this moment in time in my own existence — of my own generation, certainly past and present.

We are bearing witness to troubling times, and a potential outcome that will certainly scar humanity yet again. For some the suffering of the Ukrainian people is conveniently thousands of miles away. Faced with an omnicidal maniac, who somehow has managed to solely command the future of our planet, it begs the question as to why we simply have not been able to evolve as a species. It is a question I so often ask myself. Equally the images coming from yet another country being levelled by a super power must give us all reason to pause.

After much reflection and thought as to the reason behind COVID-19, I certainly believed, and now more so, that it was a message to warn us, to remind us that we are all together in this fragile vessel called earth, our only home, at least for now. And the warning was vast, and global. Yet, we failed to heed its meaning.

Today we are faced with a villain, called Vladimir Putin, who is rewriting Europe’s future, and likely humanity’s path forward – certainly he is not the first, nor the last. One man is directing humanity’s future while the rest of the world, the United Nations, NATO, America, China, the middle east, Israel, the Churches and other developed countries refuse to act, believing that a lack of a powerful unified response is safer than facing this bully head on. In doing so, we not only give the bully more power, but we also invite lunatics from around the world to destroy our future, especially if you possess nuclear weapons — it has come to that.

I had hoped that humanity’s collective effervescence would help us come together to realize that the world is far more than a country, politicians, beaurocrats, or those with an insatiable thirst for power and wealth — rather it is the collective responsibility of all fellow human beings, regardless of culture, race, belief system, socio-economic background, religion or whichever characterization we humans have devised to demark ridiculous differences.

This morning I listened to #CNNInternational and interviews with politicians across continents and could not help but noting how everyone commented that “it’s their war, we can only help, but it’s their war." Not only is the Ukrainian situation not a war, it’s a dangerous step towards annihilation and social cleansing — history repeats. In that context we ALL carry the responsibility for fellow human beings. Regardless of our own past mistakes (and all countries have committed atrocities against mankind), we have a collective responsibility for fellow human beings and that must be and should be part of our evolution forward as a species. Why the views of politicians who eagerly want to ensure they follow a popularity contest to remain elected rather than doing the right thing for humanity, is accepted, rather than condoned is just mind bending.

None of us want a third world war, none of us. Sending young men and women to fight in a faraway war, is the last thing we would want yet again. And a nuclear war, is without a doubt something we must avoid. But standing back, burying our heads in the sand, relying on sanctions to turn the tide and hoping this will come to pass, while a country, its people, its history, its future and its children are being wiped out is perhaps a far more dangerous stand to assume.

There is still time, but I wonder what it will take, for the world to realize that this path forward could eventually lead to the annihilation of our entire species. Our universe may evolve, the question is whether we, barbaric humans will be part of its journey forward or whether we will self-destruct, because simply we are unwilling, or perhaps unable to evolve within the context of our limited biological and evolutional construct.

I wonder….