Stop the War !!!

We don’t want this, Why are we doing this?

“The war will end. The leaders will shake hands. The old woman will keep waiting for her martyred son. That girl will wait for her beloved husband. And those children will wait for their heroic father. I don’t know who sold our homeland. But I saw who paid the price."

Extracts:

These are the words of the late Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish, who saw death and destruction in his homeland. Darwish was writing not just about Palestine but the cost of war waged anywhere in the world. It could be anywhere in the jungles of Africa or urban warfare in Iraq, Syria or Europe, the result is invariably the same: Ordinary civilians bear the brunt for the folly and ambition of leaders.

Some world leaders are pushing for peace in Ukraine, but some people/media are questioning their motives. “They claim to be honest brokers, but it is just a fig leaf to cover their moral bankruptcy”. Whatever !

Our inscrutable Putin wants to talk. He’s demanding four things.

The first two are that Ukraine cease military action — one assumes as part of a wider ceasefire — and change its constitution to enshrine neutrality, likely meaning it must pledge to stay out of NATO. Putin is also demanding that Ukraine and the West acknowledge Crimea as Russian territory and recognize the separatist republics of Donetsk and Luhansk as independent states.

These should be seen as a starting point for meaningful discussion, something sadly lacking before the invasion.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine is a catastrophe and should be condemned in no uncertain terms.

We live in a messy, complicated world in which effective diplomacy that saves lives requires give and take. We hope the leaders of all involved in the current crisis spare no efforts to contain the conflict, secure a ceasefire and push for negotiations.

10Prakash Neerohoo, Raj Ramlugun and 8 others

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Two different interpretations of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Francis Fukuyama of the "End of History" fame : “Putin’s war on the liberal order” and

Arta Moeini of the Institute for Peace and Diplomacy, “How Western elites exploit Ukraine”

Francis Fukuyama has described the invasion as Putin’s war against the liberal democratic order. "The problems facing today’s

liberal societies did not start and do not end with Putin, and we will face very serious challenges even if he is stymied in Ukraine. Liberalism has been under attack for some time now, from both the right and the left. Freedom House in its “Freedom in the World” survey for 2022 notes that global freedom has fallen in the aggregate now for 16 years in a row. It has declined not just because of the rise of authoritarian powers such as Russia and China, but also because of the turn towards populism, illiberalism and nationalism within longstanding liberal democracies such as the US and India".

Arta Moeini “So far as the Western legacy media is concerned, we really do live in the post-historical age Francis Fukuyama triumphantly proclaimed in 1989, with liberal internationalism the only acceptable paradigm through which to understand the world. Alternative views are now tantamount to championing tyranny. In each instance, the dictator comes to personify internationally Hegel’s thymotic, if savage, primitive man — the inhumane antithesis of the “last man” — fighting maniacally against liberal democracy, the march of modernity, and progress itself. Assad, Ghaddafi, the Taliban, and Vladimir Putin all fit this archetype as reactionary actors par excellence necessitating a holy alliance to confront and civilise.

Such a melioristic framing of international politics justifies and indeed privileges a Manichean narrative of good and evil. In this context, rationality itself is bound to the good, defined as effective conformity with liberal hegemony."

A comment : "You think you are capable of making your own mind up but unfortunately you have been bamboozled by your own moral righteousness or tinted glasses in an area and region you know nothing about. ...let us get out facts right first and learn more about.... Which ones, from where..?

4Prakash Neerohoo, Paul Lismore and 2 others

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A message of hope amid the dark times

The dark times :

“The Russian army’s attack on Ukraine is a flagrant violation of international law and the UN charter. ….. For years, though, Russia has highlighted its fear that NATO will set up camp on its borders, breaching non-expansion commitments the US made when the Soviet Union split apart . This broken promise was a major mistake on the West’s part, even a provocation. …..IT IS MOREOVER MORALLY UNACCEPTABLE, AS WELL AS COUNTERPRODUCTIVE, TO MAKE THE UKRAINIAN PEOPLE, WHO ARE VULNERABLE AND WITHIN RUSSIA’S REACH, PAY THE PRICE FOR THE SUPERPOWERS DANGEROUS SCHEMES.

Like the US’s illegal invasion of Iraq in 2003, which also occurred against a backdrop of misleading propaganda widely disseminated by the media, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has opened a particularly dangerous chapter in international relations. It will have negative impacts on politics and on the global economy. In the face of the UN’s paralysis, the world order is now more than ever characterised by threats, blackmail and armed aggression.” Serge Halimi of the Monde Diplomatique..

A more positive note ….a message of hope -We want no War!

Amid the ongoing crisis, instead of interpreting the events to suit one's beliefs and shooting at people on social media though he strongly believes on the priciple of territorial integrity, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor shared a picture on his official Twitter profile that gave out a message of hope amid the dark times. The Thiruvananthapuram MP shared a picture of a man and woman standing close to each other. The man has the flag of Ukraine wrapped around him while the woman has the flag of Russia.

“Poignant: A man draped in the Ukrainian flag embraces a woman wearing the Russian flag. Let us hope love, peace & co-existence triumph over war & conflict,” Tharoor captioned the post.

This image, however, is not a recent snap from Ukraine or Russia. The photograph was taken in 2019 during a concert in Warsaw by Belarusan rapper Max Korzh. It has once again gone viral after Russia invaded Ukraine.

13Nalini Burn, Akhil Mishra and 11 others

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The comedian president rising to the moment!

“Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, a comedian who had no experience of politics when elected less than three years ago, has suddenly emerged as a convincing war leader.

He has rallied the nation with his addresses and video selfies and given voice to Ukrainian anger and defiance of Russian aggression.”

Appran Pinochio ! Sa nou appel leader !!!

Dan plas to rally tou morisyens pou défier zot- tou ban ki pé empés Ocean Indien vin enn "Zone de Paix"- to pé fer politik lor Chagos et pé zoor to ban kritik et ban journalis de “anti-patriote’. ! Dir to ban advisers à PMO alle appran avek Zelensky and his team lor communication !

To dépense Rs 40 million lor yacht de luxe pou étude scientific lor Blenheim Reef(sic) et to tap lestoma « Je suis fier d’avoir réussi cette première visite aux Chagos depuis l’indépendance » ...dépense Rs 40 million kan to dejà pé touille nou avek l'inflation- a direct consequence of your incompetent and irresponsible management of the economy ....pour le moment nu bizin mangé, social housing,drains, subsidies, pro-poor policies....

When the next boat-pas Blue de Nimes s’il vous plait, mangé pas bon…surtout les pâtes….- to AGALEGA and TROMELIN ?

Pas fer démagogie, aim to be of the calibre of this Guy, a comedian who…! Cent fois li mem !

We are neither pro US nor EU and not at all for the corrupt and megalomaniac Putin

( On Feb 9, 2022, Putin's super yacht abruptly left Germany for safer quarters amid sanction warnings over Russia-Ukraine tensions)

They are playing their bloody political and economic games and we are paying the consequences.

Added: In the new global context that saw the emergence of the nation-state in place of the multi-national dynastic empires or spheres of influence, US, EU and Russia are still clinging to or have problems in adjusting their imperialist ambitions…

It is not as simple as it is being presented by Chandan Jankee, our High Commissioiner in Russia.

Que pensent les Russes de cette menace de guerre et de cette hostilité -Chandan Jankee affirme que d'après les conversations qu'il a eues avec des citoyens et officiels russes, ce n'est, pour eux, qu'une agitation dc plus des Américains qui ne veulent pas que la Russie vende davantage de gaz aux Européens et devienne encore plus puissante….Les Américains voient aussi d'un mauvais oeil la montée de la Chine at de la Russie qui, en plus, sont alliés.

Partly true ; perhaps these Interesting readings may help to get to the bottom of some of the complexities of this Russian aggression.

• Russia's Lethal Identity Crisis by Carl Bildt - Project Syndicate

• The Other Russia ,Discontent Grows in the Hinterlands By Mikhail Dmitriev and Daniel Treisman, Foreign Affairs

• Bill Browder, one time largest foreign portfolio investor in Russia , the man behind the Magnitsky Act . Listen what he has to say on Putin-Bill Browder: Putin’s Foreign Enemy

• 5 Russian words that explain Vladimir Putin by Vijai Maheshwari -Politico Europe

• Ukraine : Les médias vous mentent-Le Canard Réfractaire

• David Teurtrie, “Standoff over Ukraine: why this, why now?” - Le Monde diplomatique

• "Why Ukraine Matters" posted on Facebook - a comment -“Much of the data included in the viral "why Ukraine matters" post are true. Some of the items on the list had become outdated, but more recent numbers still showed that the country had a strong standing in various categories of reserves, production, and exports. However, we were unable to find figures to confirm a few of the claims, and a small number of them were flat-out false.