Posts Tagged ‘peace’
Between peace and war by a thread
15
Mar
Negotiations between Ukraine and Russia show signs of progress at
the same time as delicate points such as the closing of the humanitarian corridor to the city of Mariupol, which is experiencing a calamity in several aspects and the recent bombing of the military base in the region of Lviv, just 25 kilometers from the border with Poland which is a member of NATO.
The tension is already developing from a possible attack on a NATO country, in Norway NATO forces already carry out training, since Sweden and Finland already have tension with Russia, it is worth remembering that both want to be part of NATO, but they still don’t.
What makes you imagine that an agreement is possible is that both the president of Ukraine and Russia admit that there has been some progress, a failure now would be disastrous for both sides, on the Russian side greater external pressure on its economy and on the Ukrainian side possible loss of control of their capital, which could result in loss of government by imprisonment or death.
The pressure on Kiev is immense, but taking the capital would be an effective Russian occupation of the region and the climate with NATO would be unsustainable, in addition to a conflict with some of its members, the closest to the region: Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and Poland in addition to Sweden and Finland, these countries are all closer in both humanitarian and military aid to Ukraine and fear for Russian proximity.
Today there will be a new round of negotiations and a major breakthrough is expected, Ukraine can give guarantees of its neutrality in relation to NATO and Russia can return some occupied areas, but Mariupol must be the most problematic, just look at the map where you can see the control of the Sea of Azov (see map), where Mariupol is an important port, and control of the region is an ancient conflict.
I n addition to demonstrations around the world for peace, there are solidarity actions for refugees, for example, Airbnb receives thousands of accommodation reservations from people who may never occupy those places and the company itself using these reservations will allocate 100,000 homes to refugees.
There are exciting things like the hostess Olga Zvirysanskaya who received a reservation for March and replied “we will be delighted to see you in the peaceful city of Kiev and hug you”, when fleeing with her children she left the apartment available for the people who remain in Kiev.
From just human to supernatural
11
Mar
All forces that focus on polarization see only the human aspect of 
a conflict, such as the current one in Ukraine that could at any moment become global, already with some visible signs with the visit of the US vice president to Poland and the Russian reactions. to sanctions.
In the hope of peace and a solution to such a dangerous conflict, fortunately some technicians from Ukraine will be able to adjust the problems at the Chernobyl Plant, but there are countless others in Europe, including the one already occupied by the Russians, the one in Zaporizhzhia, one of the biggest in Europe.
There is a supernatural side, like the values we outlined in the previous post, but there is a deeper one, they are not just prophecies like those of Medjugorje (not yet approved by the Catholic Church) that speak of an apparition of Mary as “queen of peace” It has been 40 years since the first apparition seen by 7 visionaries, there is a lot of contestation and no evident proof of this, only people who believe and who have witnessed extraordinary facts.
The important thing is to believe in forces beyond the human ones that can be mobilized, including the struggle for peace and respect for peoples and nations, all those who defend this position are in some way cooperating with the supernatural aspect of defending peace and human coexistence.
In this case it is extreme, because civilization itself can be at stake in the event of a nuclear war, the limits begin to be exceeded, on the one hand, bombs even in maternity hospitals, and on the other, a Russophobia that wants to abolish even classics of literature such as Dostoevsky, who had a free course canceled in Italy, we cannot confuse radical criticism of dictatorial attitudes with practices that are also authoritarian.
For Christians, the moment of revelation of the supernatural aspect of Jesus is on Mount Tabor, where he chooses three to present his supernatural reality to the apostles: Peter, John and James, the choice in itself is interesting: Peter the apostle called to found His church, John the apostle that Jesus loved and James called a lesser apostle, but he was a great apostle.
A well-known biblical episode Jesus “Walking on water” was portrayed in the painting by Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovskii (1817-1900) born in Crimea, precisely a region of conflict.
The reading says that when they arrived at Mount Tabor, while he was praying (Lk 9,29-30): “his face changed and his clothes became very white and shiny. Behold, two men were talking with Jesus: they were Moses and Elijah”, of course to those who believe, there Jesus reveals himself as God.
No matter the belief, what matters more is the idea of a humanity capable of living in peace and enabling the civilizing process that moves us away from injustices, scourges and hatred.
Moral force and warfare
10
Mar
Those who promote hatred and intolerance, even if beyond
values, only see it as dependent on human capacity, Mahatma Gandhi who won the English domination without using military force said: “Strength does not come from physical capacity”.
It inspired many pacifists in the 1960s, including those who were against the war in Vietnam, which was also a war of invaders, in this case, Americans.
Military analysts are surprised by Ukraine’s ability to resist amid a huge disadvantage of war power with Russia, although in military jargon there is the idea of ”troop morale” it is associated only with the battlefield and not with values.
For a moral force to exist, it must also exist in the spiritual field, in the case of Gandhi it was Hinduism that for decades inspired and attracted many in the Western world, including personalities from the pop world, such as the Beatles.
Thus, the moral degradation of the western world is also indirectly responsible for the war and in its logic, which is also the logic of NATO, only the military force is victorious and protective of its “values”, but these are in crisis and do not recognize it.
Ukraine thus ended up turning to its neighbors and the threat they also fear of Russian invasion, which hides an expansionist interest, gave rise to a third bloc to help Ukraine defend its territory: Poland, Lithuania, Estonia, Sweden, Finland and Canada. , countries previously seen as “pacifist”.
This bloc broke a tradition of not using weapons to help the defense of Ukraine, completes this bloc the United Kingdom, which is good to remember is out of the European Union, due to Brexit, which attracts them in addition to the fear of being the next targets of the Russia is the defense of values beyond those warlike, which ultimately also defends NATO.
It is true that they oscillate between the use of weapons and pacifism, but they realize that there is no way to prevent Putin’s expansionist desires, whose historical narrative begins with the formation of the Soviet Union, with no previous history, of the native peoples.
The logic of hate, whichever side it is on, is ultimately war, that of love is peace.
Power and service to peoples and nations
09
Mar
Wars bring out the worst in humanity, but they also bring the
best: solidarity, the greater desire to live in peace and respecting individual, collective and cultural rights of all peoples.
When the logic of power is dominated by a non-humanist vision, it seeks personal or group interests, the idea is just to submit the other by force and conquer more power, there is no predominance of the idea of leading and serving the people who need it most. of aid, your nation and all humanity by extension and respect.
The logic is one of force, and the logic of force taken to the extreme leads to war, to personal conflict, of peoples, nations, cultures and personal interests only without a reasonable collective rule.
There are also true leaders and people who really want to serve, not only because of their generous spirit, but because of the courage, the determination that can only come from human and social values, there are even those who think about the preservation of cultural heritage, animals, in short, everything. .
The principle of self-determination of peoples, in which each nation, cultural or religious group has the right to exist and the freedom to exercise its values, of course does not include non-values of extermination or intolerance towards the principles of other cultural groups, because these serve only the power and the autocrats who lead them.
There are people who think of peace and solidarity even in war (photo Russian soldier who did not fight receives food and sends an emotional message to relatives).
We have warned in several posts of the ongoing civilizational crisis, with the war some aspects become clear, but without the enlightenment of the individual conscience it is difficult to understand the ways in which the logic of war, intolerance and discrimination advances, each one must reflect about this.
There is no lack of people and groups that adhere to this type of thinking and reasoning, when power becomes exacerbated it becomes clearer, but there are micropower structures where these values are manifested.
Thus, there are structures of hatred, intolerance, and, ultimately, war, which puts life, values in check and can even put civilization itself in danger, like nuclear weapons.
No deal and Kiev besieged
08
Mar
The war remains horrendous and with no prospect of a ceasefire,
the third round of talks yesterday did not even result in a ceasefire for the humanitarian corridor that would allow civilians to leave, especially from regions where the fighting is bloodier. .
Russia has declared a series of hostile actions by the adopted sanctions that strangle its economy, among them: USA, Canada and the 27 countries of the European Union, in alphabetical order the other countries: Australia, Albania, Andorra, United Kingdom, Iceland, Japan, Liechtenstein, North Macedonia, Micronesia, Monaco, Montenegro, New Zealand, Norway, South Korea, San Marino, Singapore, Switzerland, Taiwan and Ukraine.
Brazil was left out, perhaps because of the president’s speech explaining the reasons for “neutrality” on Sunday, it managed to unite right, center and left: at least a diplomatic discomfort since a large part of the world has already condemned and imposed sanctions on Russia, including China and it would have more reasons than Brazil to join: ideological.
With no prospect of peace now, attention and tensions turn to Kiev, close to the city there are small towns and forests such as the Zalíssia National Park that presented some forms of resistance, however they were rejected with denouncements of violations and war crimes, there was no negotiation that would allow the evacuation of civilians, so many civilians are in the city.
In the evenings, the curfew comes and people go to improvised air-raid shelters, train tunnels, hotel basements, buildings and even churches (the crypts), which are the usual refuges.
Whatever the outcome of this struggle, the Ukrainian people and their president have won respect and admiration around the world, while Putin and Russia will come out as villains, even though there have been peace protests, Putin’s position is strong within Russia and there is a strict control of media and narrative.
Kiev lives on hope and a motivation to defend its people (in the photo a cloud that looks like an angel photographed by resident Oksana Kadiivska, from Kiev’s Darnitsa district).
To those who have some form of belief, there is hope for a better time, also in mentalities, since warmongering, intolerance and little empathy walk the streets.
The Three Temptations and the Three Scourges
04
Mar
There is a strong connection between the 3 vicious scourges of
humanity: famine, war and pestilence, and the three great temptations of Christ in the desert: food (Jesus in the desert was fed by angels), power and contempt for divine things that can limit us morally. and civilized.
Yesterday, in the conversation between the President of France and Putin, he said: “the worst is yet to come”, the lands of Ukraine are fertile and are major producers of food and Russia of fertilizers.
On Wednesday we begin Lent and perhaps the great trial of man, according to the biblical readings about the temptations of Christ in the desert (Lk 4,1-13) (see the painting by Ivan Kramskoi, sec. 19):
The devil then said to Jesus, “If you are the Son of God, command that this stone be changed into bread.” Jesus replied, “The Scripture says, ‘Man does not live by bread alone”.
And (afterward) I said to him: and I said to him: “I will give you all this power and all its glory, because all this has been handed over to me, and I can give it to anyone I want. Therefore, if you bow down before me in adoration, all this will be yours.”
Jesus replied, “The Scripture says, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.
And contempt for the power of evil and not accepting God: Then the devil took Jesus to Jerusalem, placed him on the highest part of the Temple and said to him: “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down! For Scripture says, ‘God will command his angels concerning you, to guard you carefully!’ And even more, ‘They will carry you in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’
But Jesus replied, “The Scripture says, ‘You shall not tempt the Lord your God.
This must serve first of all for religious: not to put themselves in the place of God and then for all of humanity to avoid evil is to distribute bread, renounce human power and dominion while maintaining respect for the Other and respecting sanitary rules to avoid let the plague spread.
We cannot (as humanity) break through any of these temptations, but there is hope.
Russia’s Condemnation and Solutions Desert
03
Mar
The UN General Assembly condemned the invasion of Ukraine
by Russia by 141 votes in favor (photo) and 5 against (Belarus, North Korea, Eritrea and Syria, in addition to itself), but the list of abstentions is long (35 countries) and include Russia’s traditional allies: China, Venezuela and Cuba.
Brazil voted in favor in contradiction to the position at the OAS and the president’s recent visit.
In the speech of the Chancellor of Russia at the UN 100 countries withdrew from the room in boycotting his speech, in the end the Russian Chancellor said that the economic sanctions of the West are the only possible thing threatening with nuclear weapons any other solution of military support.
Today begins the second round of negotiations between Ukraine and Russia in a desert of solutions Ukraine’s non-participation in NATO may be negotiable, but Ukraine has already asked to join the European Union, and Volodymyr Zelensky’s speech was given a standing ovation by the assembly of the EU that discussed including it, but the process is long and perhaps due to the negotiation it is not the time.
A new round of negotiations for peace begins today, an immediate ceasefire must be considered, the desert of ideas is wide, at the moment each country presented only its demands, even China was willing to intermediate, but the two countries continue a direct dialogue.
Crimea is already an annexed territory, handing over the two regions of Donetsk and Luhansk to Ukraine means ceding part of its territory, a unilateral disarmament of Ukraine can be considered if the NATO issue is negotiable by the Russians.
A regional peace that does not raise a new iron curtain seems distant, Putin is weakened within Russia due to sanctions, but the impasse continues, at the world level follows a bipolarization, although Russia diplomatically leaves the UN Assembly very fragile.
It is necessary to rethink world peace, the conflict showed the fragility of the nuclear balance, territorial issues such as Taiwan and part of the former Soviet republics remain unbalanced, and many abstentions hide a veiled support for Russia and its warmongering, from which many countries do not escape of NATO without ceasing to include the United States.
There is a desert of solutions that do not involve the armed solution and the war industry grows.
Ashes of a Wednesday
02
Mar
Christians all over the world celebrate Carnival Wednesday at the
beginning of Lent, the 40 days until Easter, there was no carnival but a feast of flesh and death which is the war in Eastern Europe, we implore the growing involvement of many countries do not create a 3rd. World War.
Several ucranian cities were razed and taken by Russian military forces, to the north the already declared people’s republics of the Donbass (Don River) region Luhansk and Donesk, and now to the south Mariupol and Kherson, in the north there is still resistance in the second largest city in the world. Kharkiv parents.
Russian troops, the biggest military convoy since the second world war, arrived in the vicinity of Kiev, the night there will be extreme fighting, a communication tower was torn down and a Holocaust memorial was hit, showing that the rhetoric of fighting neo-Nazism is just a pretext for war, Ukraine was also attacked by Hitler and the memorial reminded this, of course there are neo-Nazi groups in Ukraine as in many countries.
At the beginning of the pandemic when Easter could not be celebrated in public to avoid agglomerations, we say here that it was a significant Lent, perhaps this one with so many dead we should think no longer about the passion and death of Jesus, but about the agony of our civilization, in the networks the manifestations of hatred and “twisted” are widespread, yes there is any manifestations for peace.
It is also true that all over the world there are manifestations of solidarity for peace, a lot of welcome for refugees whose number can be surprising because a country is completely destroyed and Ukraine is not a small nation, it is one of the biggest countries in Europe, below Russia it is clear.
We can pause to think about our civilizational process in crisis, think about the mothers and children who lose their parents, relatives and friends in the war, the young people who will have no future, the countless deaths, on the Russian side alone there are already more than 6 thousand soldiers who did not return home.
On the ashes we will be able to build a new civilization, without submitting nations to despair and disgrace, without barbaric processes of colonization, including the cultural and, finally, we will be peoples who live in peace, who resolve conflicts at a negotiation table and look at children and old people with appreciation. .
May Ash Wednesday remind us that we are dust and that life has a sacred value.
Avoid the nuclear nightmare
01
Mar
The war in Ukraine is rising in tone and becoming a threat to all
humanity, on the battlefield the Ukrainians present a resistance and heroism that few believed, the pressures on Russia in the UN Security Council and in the UN itself increased, despite many abstentions, such as India and China, the tone is one of condemnation for the principles of sovereignty of nations, the economic sanctions imposed first on Russian millionaires and Putin himself, now for the entire Russian economy are already felt, in the battlefield only increased the tone, and the first attempt at dialogue failed, the issues of each side were enumerated and a next meeting.
The war has already produced an enormous scourge, there are more than 5 thousand Russian soldiers killed in battle and certainly the number of Ukrainians must be greater, in addition to the civilians who pay innocently for the war, there are more than half a million refugees and the entry of the European countries at war create a greater fear: nuclear weapons.
These weapons are in Russia’s exclave in Kaliningrad, a discontinuous territorial part of Russia that lies between Poland and Lithuania where long-range missiles were taken, but now all European airspace is closed to the Russians, as is the passage of the Black Sea. for the Mediterranean that Turkey has closed, this country is a member of the European Union, which begins to get involved militarily in the conflict and Putin’s threat of using nuclear weapons is for this case, analysts say is a bluff, but the risk exists .
A large Russian military convoy of more than 30 km of trucks transport troops, perhaps among them are the feared Chechens who are waging the pitched battle, and Putin’s once enemies now see him as a commander, of Islamic origin now has relative autonomy and depends from Russia.
All over the world and in Russia itself, there are protests calling for an end to the war, there they are harshly repressed, the role of Brazil in voting at the UN for the condemnation of Russia and neutrality in the OAS abstaining from the vote shows the ambiguous character, the cardboard of the president to have gone to visit Russia days before the war was a huge mistake, to say the least.
Brazil depends on fertilizers from Russia, Europe depends on gas and also on grains of which Ukraine is a major producer, the effects on the economy are already being felt: the Russian ruble has fallen by 30% and the dollar begins a fall that will probably not stop, in practice beyond the economy: food and fuel must rise in price vertically.
In the cyber field that Russia is a power, the Anonymous website declared its war, however the entry of Elon Musk (Tesla owner) into the war should be viewed with caution, the second war was a business for many entrepreneurs, even Vokswagem German and American Ford were successful in the post-war period .
Kiev may not fall, but it will be a miracle, the military aid from the West may have arrived late, the symbol that exists in the central square is the Archangel Michael is the angel of battles, for many Christians and Ukrainians are Christians of their own rite, but linked to Rome (incidentally, the Vatican proposed to mediate the dialogue), that the head of the heavenly army finds a now obscure path to peace, and does not allow a scourge and a nuclear night for humanity (in the picture the angel in Kiev’s Central Square).
Can the blind lead the blind?
25
Feb
In a conflict situation, the parties involved must be arbitrated by
a third party that is neutral, but does not yet exist.
The escalation of the war between Ukraine and Russia continues this Friday morning, Russian tanks approach Kiev as Ukraine’s defense troops resist as best they can with anti-tank attacks and bridge explosions, such as the one on the Teteriv River, that hamper the arrival of the Russians in Kiev, they also managed to hit some tanks with anti-tank batteries.
The Ministry of Defense of Ukraine informs that the Russian tanks would already be 32 km from the capital, and the objective is the fall of the government and the consequent Russian occupation of the country, the Eastern European allies that are part of NATO: Poland, Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia invoke Article 4. of the NATO treaty that any country affected implies a reaction from the 30 member states.
The entry of NATO would be the beginning of a world escalation of the War, certainly China would position itself in favor of Russia while the USA and its allies outside Europe would position themselves in favor of Ukraine, which is already happening, but Brazil remains in a complicated situation due to the visit of the President of the Republic at an inopportune time to Russia, but the vice president has already condemned the Russian action.
In the early hours of this Friday, the situation in Ukraine becomes dramatic with the possibility of an imminent assault by Russian forces on the Ukrainian capital Kiev, without a reaction from the allies, despite having ceded arms to the Ukrainian army, within hours of occupation of the country can be total.
The security council as we reported yesterday has already spoken out against the Russian advance, although Russian rhetoric says that it was only to keep the peace and previously that it would not invade Ukraine, it is already known that they are just war rhetoric.
Who would be the forces, countries and people capable of convening an emergency diplomatic meeting, the sanctions imposed on Russia’s banks hit three of Putin’s allies in this financial market: Gennady Timchenko, Boris Rotenberg and Igor Rotenberg.
Another sanction was the interruption of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline that is ready and connects Russia with Germany, Putin accused the coup saying that this will make the price of gas soar and Europe depends on it.
But the central problem remains, who can give light to a dialogue between the blind, as the biblical reading says that alludes to the fact that a blind man cannot guide a blind man, and adds (Lk 6, 42): “how can you say to your brother?: brother, let me take the speck out of your eye, when you don’t see the beam in your own eye? Hypocritical! First take the log out of your eye, and then you will be able to see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.”
It’s not about the supporters of a football match, but about human lives and the rights of peoples and nations that are at stake, there is no supporter that has light but the one that wants peace, the sides in conflict, that I allude to Biden and Putin, must accept some kind of moderation to avoid a world war, or the return of the cold war.
