The Lost Metro Muse
Where did that warm, Slavic culture go with all this war ? Fierce intellectualism is certainly a trait that doesn't always help in sorting out differences.
It's sort of an entire region on edge, from Budapest to Minsk, KIEV ,
where will the disruptive geopolitical maneuvers cease to mess with people's lives ? Can't we all just get along ? and when does the pipeline style of thinking end it's cyclical discourse?
Perhaps my favorite memory of recent times was to see two older ladies get on the metro during the busy rush hour, only to find that the seats near the doorway had opened up, and they quickly sat down together enjoying the chance to chat with each other, they held each others hands lightly, their faces filled with a happy joy of an easy victory, finding the easy seats near the door just waiting for them.
Seeing a burgeoning economic cauldron like my home city of San Francisco, how it moves people, what people's issues are : Ukraine is a long ways away, but still people ask me how's it going ?
I tell them that the fighting is as bad as ever, maybe more civilians have cleared out, ut they are still getting hurt and killed : It seems like such a senseless war. And people ask me what we could have done to stave it off, diplomatically or militarily. Quite honestly I still don't know what to say. It seems like we ought to have dealt with Mister Putin differently, that the US and Europe needed a more cohesive assessment of what he was prepared to do to shore up his political and strategic base. People here still think it had something to do with the language (or something like that ) And even some of my friends in Ukraine, Patriots they may be, have started to slip into calling the control points between Crimea and Mainland Ukraine as "the border " All of the social and economic chaos stemming from this forcible annexation, it's not going to settle out for a long time I think. And the Ukraine crisis is going to be an inevitable football in the US Presidential race. What is often referred to as Obama being a softy, I prefer to think of it as a modicum of deference towards the side of caution. Mister Putin does control an inventory of Nuclear weapons capable of pretty much throwing all of us half way back into the stone age. And when warships air force flights, submarine patrols scuttle about in various places, there is gonna be some encounters. All of these folks out there operate on specifically rigid parameters, and each side pretty much knows what the other will do , or avoid doing, but vagaries and uncertainty can arise, either through human error, computer glitches, or intentional misconduct.
As most of us go about our stuff, worrying about how we're going to get laid (or not laid ) / what the best strategy to move up the career ladder , who is to say that the Third World War won't happen tomorrow, or next week ? I wish they could have resolved the Ukraine crisis by now, stop the war and the economic devastation, get back to some normal, yet it seems farther than ever . Russia is digging in, emergency strategy sessions at the Kremlin : the foot soldiers' summer leaves cancelled, heavier shelling than ever.....Maybe Russia enjoys being pugnacious ? I asked a friend of mine who manages the Premier Palace Hotel in Kiev "Do you remember when Vladimir Putin stayed at your Hotel in April 2013 " and he said no, he didn't remember it. I mean to say, it's not a huge hotel, how do you not notice Mister Putin coming to stay at your Hotel for a day or two ?
The EU and US seemed to have not got their heads around the idea of what Putin was ready to do to protect his perceived interests. I think the Kremlin does want to keep every strategic inch they have at this point, they don't mind seeing Ukraine hobbled by war and a continued energy dependence (Crimea has a good stash of off shore oil and gas, waiting for that future when other supplies run dry)
. In the long run social, economic pressures may change the equation, but how long will it be ? And how do those socio-economic pressures create the change ? Is it a combination of top down and bottom up ? Or will the change come from the base of working , everyday people who are tired of being manipulated and taken advantage of ?
Now I come from a left leaning family, I certainly don't celebrate far right views. Neither do I find the views of the far left realistic. I attended the big Right sector rally in Kiev on my last day of my recent visit, I found the tone of what they were saying to be rational, and I kind of understood what the mood was all about. They were being trashed in the media , and their sacrifices , efforts to resist the hybrid warfare unleashed on Ukraine were being held over the fire, like a marshmallow on a stick neglected, left to cook black and drip into the ashes. I am not going to hold my breath waiting for Mister Putin to allow a small army loaded up with tactical knives to march and assemble in Red Square and trash talk his administration over loudspeakers for an entire evening. The new UA government seems to have a measured restraint towards criticism, it's all about the freedom to say what you think, without a filter. And that's progress in my book.
Well, who knows how it will go, let's hope they can get it sorted out in one way. Incidentally I wrote in my earlier post about what a Native American would have to deal with if she or he got a significant role in the US State Department : I picked up a hitch hiker of sorts the other week, young guy > I sensed he was American Indian, he was slightly plussed that I figured it right
He is Crow and Apache, a potent combination. Working for a financial firm as an intern, but he said he was interested in a career in the State Department. now he is a guy I could see as President of the United states if he matures and evolves. I'll leave out further details for privacy reasons .
It's sort of an entire region on edge, from Budapest to Minsk, KIEV ,
where will the disruptive geopolitical maneuvers cease to mess with people's lives ? Can't we all just get along ? and when does the pipeline style of thinking end it's cyclical discourse?
Perhaps my favorite memory of recent times was to see two older ladies get on the metro during the busy rush hour, only to find that the seats near the doorway had opened up, and they quickly sat down together enjoying the chance to chat with each other, they held each others hands lightly, their faces filled with a happy joy of an easy victory, finding the easy seats near the door just waiting for them.
Seeing a burgeoning economic cauldron like my home city of San Francisco, how it moves people, what people's issues are : Ukraine is a long ways away, but still people ask me how's it going ?
I tell them that the fighting is as bad as ever, maybe more civilians have cleared out, ut they are still getting hurt and killed : It seems like such a senseless war. And people ask me what we could have done to stave it off, diplomatically or militarily. Quite honestly I still don't know what to say. It seems like we ought to have dealt with Mister Putin differently, that the US and Europe needed a more cohesive assessment of what he was prepared to do to shore up his political and strategic base. People here still think it had something to do with the language (or something like that ) And even some of my friends in Ukraine, Patriots they may be, have started to slip into calling the control points between Crimea and Mainland Ukraine as "the border " All of the social and economic chaos stemming from this forcible annexation, it's not going to settle out for a long time I think. And the Ukraine crisis is going to be an inevitable football in the US Presidential race. What is often referred to as Obama being a softy, I prefer to think of it as a modicum of deference towards the side of caution. Mister Putin does control an inventory of Nuclear weapons capable of pretty much throwing all of us half way back into the stone age. And when warships air force flights, submarine patrols scuttle about in various places, there is gonna be some encounters. All of these folks out there operate on specifically rigid parameters, and each side pretty much knows what the other will do , or avoid doing, but vagaries and uncertainty can arise, either through human error, computer glitches, or intentional misconduct.
As most of us go about our stuff, worrying about how we're going to get laid (or not laid ) / what the best strategy to move up the career ladder , who is to say that the Third World War won't happen tomorrow, or next week ? I wish they could have resolved the Ukraine crisis by now, stop the war and the economic devastation, get back to some normal, yet it seems farther than ever . Russia is digging in, emergency strategy sessions at the Kremlin : the foot soldiers' summer leaves cancelled, heavier shelling than ever.....Maybe Russia enjoys being pugnacious ? I asked a friend of mine who manages the Premier Palace Hotel in Kiev "Do you remember when Vladimir Putin stayed at your Hotel in April 2013 " and he said no, he didn't remember it. I mean to say, it's not a huge hotel, how do you not notice Mister Putin coming to stay at your Hotel for a day or two ?
The EU and US seemed to have not got their heads around the idea of what Putin was ready to do to protect his perceived interests. I think the Kremlin does want to keep every strategic inch they have at this point, they don't mind seeing Ukraine hobbled by war and a continued energy dependence (Crimea has a good stash of off shore oil and gas, waiting for that future when other supplies run dry)
. In the long run social, economic pressures may change the equation, but how long will it be ? And how do those socio-economic pressures create the change ? Is it a combination of top down and bottom up ? Or will the change come from the base of working , everyday people who are tired of being manipulated and taken advantage of ?
Now I come from a left leaning family, I certainly don't celebrate far right views. Neither do I find the views of the far left realistic. I attended the big Right sector rally in Kiev on my last day of my recent visit, I found the tone of what they were saying to be rational, and I kind of understood what the mood was all about. They were being trashed in the media , and their sacrifices , efforts to resist the hybrid warfare unleashed on Ukraine were being held over the fire, like a marshmallow on a stick neglected, left to cook black and drip into the ashes. I am not going to hold my breath waiting for Mister Putin to allow a small army loaded up with tactical knives to march and assemble in Red Square and trash talk his administration over loudspeakers for an entire evening. The new UA government seems to have a measured restraint towards criticism, it's all about the freedom to say what you think, without a filter. And that's progress in my book.
Well, who knows how it will go, let's hope they can get it sorted out in one way. Incidentally I wrote in my earlier post about what a Native American would have to deal with if she or he got a significant role in the US State Department : I picked up a hitch hiker of sorts the other week, young guy > I sensed he was American Indian, he was slightly plussed that I figured it right
He is Crow and Apache, a potent combination. Working for a financial firm as an intern, but he said he was interested in a career in the State Department. now he is a guy I could see as President of the United states if he matures and evolves. I'll leave out further details for privacy reasons .
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