Post 16: past conflict, future threat

 

SCHISM              January 1993

Splinter shiver, shake apart
Diamond shard pierce to the heart
Crack, crumble, break asunder
Never heeding warning thunder
Tunnel vision followed through
To spotlight glare. A chosen few
Dance, moth like, to the naked light
Dazzling, blinding, brightest bright
Not heeding all who’ve gone before
And perished on the killing floor
When ideology hits the heart
It strikes cohesion far apart

This 77 year old, like many many others this last week, have watched with growing realization, that the forces of evil ideology still have the power to wreak havoc on the world stage. I was born in 1944; a war baby, who didn’t know the privations of rationing; except for drinking delicious concentrated orange juice, bottled in prescription like medicine bottles, and eating dishes using dried egg; also exceedingly tasty. Due to the ‘Dig for Victory’ campaign everybody along our road had plentiful veg. It has often been noted that our generation were one of the healthiest; post war.

A bit of a random sideline thought there. But recalled when listening to the desperate stories coming out of Ukraine. Already the threat of starvation looms, as Russia blockades Kyiv. But that brave populace have made it clear that they wish to stay a sovereign nation; and are fighting back.

I am as guilty as the next person in assuming that world war three was a myth that would not come to pass; and, after thousands had marched with the CND in the sixties, the threat of nuclear annihilation had been prudently removed from the table. But, one paranoiac psychopath has changed all that; one powerful leader has, unbelievably, decided that his ideology must prevail; even if it causes countless death and pollution across large swathes of our world.

LOVE THY NEIGHBOUR?

Am I being too optimistic to think
Old neighbours don’t want
To be brought to the brink
Of fighting each other

And maybe those neighbours
Can resist the crazed call
Of kleptocrats who
Couldn’t care less at all
About killing of brother

If we let fascists win this cruel fight
The free world will be
In hock to the might
Of the rigid far right
What price then is all liberty

 

Since posting this blog, I have felt more hopeful that there IS hope. The European countries seem to have realized that they have to stand together against this existential threat. Rifts that were opening inside the Union have been put aside, for now. Adjacent countries are opening their borders. I heard that there is a rapidly forming International brigade, supported by charitable donation, preparing to leave for Ukraine, fully kitted out with a flood of donated supplies.

Russia is gradually being cut off from banking systems, air space, travel and assets abroad. It is reported that a lot of the Russian soldiers are reluctant conscripts who were told that they were on training manoeuvres, and were expecting to be met with cheers and flowers from a welcoming populace; not stubborn resistance by a country apparently united against a common foe. Many Russian families have had phone calls from their sons; who tell them a different story to the version they see and hear on State run media. 

It is rumoured that the Russian supply chain is already stretched. Having assumed that it was going to be quick and easy to take the country, everything was concentrated on the first big push. A tale that brings some light relief to this is one I heard today on LBC, my favourite go to radio channel at the moment.

Evidently a Ukrainian driver came across a Russian tank that had run out of fuel. He stopped, got out of his car and started chatting to Russian soldiers; in Russian. After a few minutes the Russian soldiers asked if the Ukrainian knew for some fuel. He replied that he couldn’t help them there; but offered to give them a tow back to Russia!

More about hope and unity in the next blog