633: Unbuttered Parsnips - Ukraine V

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Well there have been plenty of fine words expressed on the subject of Putin's blatant aggressive stance and actions in a country other than his own: Ukraine.

I am ashamed of the behaviour of the United Kingdom government; yes there have been a few stern words, but the breathtaking incompetence - the carrying of a document in public view, showing apparently this country's lily-livered position, is profoundly embarrassing and indeed, pathetic.

So far - as is always the case - only the US has actually done anything and as usual, Europe sleepwalks, wringing its powerless hands.  Pathetic.  And I doubt if NATO would ever actually do anything; I wonder how much NATO costs us? What's the point of it? And the UN is a talking-shop every bit as impotent as was the League of Nations in the 1930s.

The Tsar declares that the Ukrainian government is one of "fascists and anti-semites (rubbish);" he describes the Ukrainians as having carried out an "armed coup."  He is a liar, a bully and a fascist/NKVD/Chekist thug.  It was his puppet then in Kiev who ordered snipers to shoot down unarmed protestors.  Now he is metaphorically goose-stepping around, allowing his invading soldiers, and more sinisterly, some half-uniformed thugs, to attempt to provoke the Ukrainian soldiers WHO ARE ON THEIR OWN TERRITORY, into defending that territory.

Last night, I saw on the television, an interview with American senator Mr John McCain; I was pleased to hear him refer to the events of the 1930s in  Central Europe just as I did on this blog a few days ago; perhaps he is one of my readers?  And US Secretary of State, Mr John Kerry was fairly robust today. 

I should add that I groaned in despair at the sight of Russian-speaking Ukrainian citizens, gathered around a statue of that murdering tyrant Lenin, carrying Soviet flags; how stupid are these proles?  Have they never read a book? Have they never heard of the starving to death (by Stalin) of millions - yes millions - of their countrymen in the 1930s, all in the name of "progress" under that self-same flag?

Amongst the books I am currently reading is Sir Winston Churchill's first volume of his history of the Second World War, The Gathering Storm.  I now appreciate to the fullest extent that no-one ever seems to learn  the so-called "lessons of history." The book (written in 1947) is full of nicely-expressed (and apposite) sentiments, and I shall end this post with the following quote:

"Virtuous motives, trammelled by inertia and timidity, are no match for armed and resolute wickedness."*

Amen to that.

Until the next time.

*Sir Winston Churchill The Gathering Storm, Cassell 1949 p.171

More Nonsense in the Far East

God knows how many times I have written about the utterly bizarre "Democratic People's Republic of Korea" - North Korea to you and me.  Certainly it is a republic - of a sort, though as the ruling dynasty has now reached the third generation, one might be forgiven for viewing it as a sort of monarchical banana-republic.  It is not democratic of course (though I should add I am not much of an enthusiast for democracy, taking as I do the Marquess of Salisbury's view on the matter) and it is definitely NOT "the people's."  It is in the Korean peninsula however, making the name about 25% accurate I suppose.

The idea of a sort of monarchy without any aristocratic principles is depressing; the results speak for themselves.  A tragic (for the people there) situation where a substantial part of the population are near to starvation, whilst the state is ruled by a stupid, inexperienced fat boy, desperate to establish himself as a "strong man" in front of all those silly be-medalled (what for?) generals and the vast ill-equipped army they command.  To this end, the state persists, in the face of universal opposition, in developing missiles and attempting to develop viable nuclear weapons.

Now the silly clown is ranting about making "thermo-nuclear war" something he is of course unable to do; he is able only to upset Mr Ban ki-Moon at the UN and annoy his erstwhile friends, the Chinese. 

There is a nicely-contemptuous article on ZeroHedge.com which suggests that after months of ranting from  Pyongyang, the yawn factor has begun to come into operation.

Hardly surprising - even the silly boy must know that if he were to be foolish enough to try anything, it would most likely be the last time he did.  It reminds me of that famous James Cagney film, where we see Cagney standing on top of a gasometer shouting "Made it Ma - top of the world!" at which he fires his revolver into the gas-holder with predictable results.

Finally, there's usually some interesting information to be had on the Deep Black Horizon blog.

Until the next time

Mali

As has been widely reported, the French have responded to the request for help from the Malian government in regard to the insurgency of Al Quaeda terrorists in Mali.

The situation is the subject of a United Nations resolution, and in consequence of this, the French are receiving assistance with logistics from the UK, the USA, Canada, Belgium, Denmark and Italy.  Additionally, troops from a number of Mali's neighbours, numbering in the region of 5000 are to help in repelling the terrorist insurgents.

I note that as usual, no help is apparently coming from those other permanent members of the UN Security Council, Russia and China.  I wonder why?  Surely they do not support these incursions?  Certainly the Russians and Chinese are fairly robust when Islamic extremism appears in their bailiwicks... Are they afraid of upsetting some of their African client states I wonder.

Until the next time.

$7,000,000,000

I have been following with great interest the ups and downs of the world economic situation since the trouble began a few months ago. This has introduced me, as no doubt it has many, many others, to enormous numbers, by which I mean brobdignagian sums of money.

The seven billion dollars in my title seems almost pathetically small in comparison to some of the trillions that are reported almost daily in the financial and business pages of the media.

Well, this "pathetically small" sum has been called for by the United Nations, as aid to four African countries. Readers of this blog will know that I have written in connexion with three of these so-called states; the fourth, which ludicrously includes the word "democratic" in its official name, today makes its debut in these pages.

First we have Sudan, whose president, one Omar al-Bashir is wanted for trial on genocide charges. Basher's régime has been very busy over the last few years, raping and murdering the people of the Darfur region. Curiously the African forces sent there to prevent this have been very ineffective.

Next up, and also in East Africa, we have the shambles of Somalia, in the news headlines as home to large number of pirates who are very busy off the coast hijacking vessels for ransom. Somalia is also notable for its cretinous islamic fundamentalists, mentioned here just a few days ago.

Unlike the two above, this one is not islamic, but given the disgraceful governance and brutality that prevails there, the proverbial visitor from Mars might be inclined to think the reverse. Yes, it's "Doctor" Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe, a particularly disgraceful case, for whilst the two above have never achieved much, Zimbabwe (or really Rhodesia) was the most successful economy in Africa. Thanks to the inspired leadership the country is now an economic ruin.  The Zimbabwe government's website is still available.  A visit to the section  of the Ministry of Finance offers inflation statistics; unfortunately the last entry was for April 2005, at which point inflation was running at 129.1%...  The Finance Ministry offers an informative mission statement: "To effectively facilitate sustainable, socio-economic development, in consultation with stakeholders, through efficient mobilisation and allocation of resources to achieve macro-economic stability in Zimbabwe." So much for that.

And finally to the newcomer, which calls itself "The Democratic Republic of Congo." I suppose that if the population actually voted for a government whose troops instead of defending the people, rape, murder and pîllage the citizens, then I suppose it is democratic. Henceforth I shall refer to the country as Congo. It is there that enormous misery has been caused by the rebellious activities of one "General Laurent Nkunda" who appears to be at least as brutal as the government troops. To me, for whom Africa is nearly always very depressing, it appears that as usual, this war's causes are tribal in origin. 3000 additional UN Peacekeepers are to be sent. I should like such international forces to be given proper rules of engagement, so that when the opportunity arises they can blow away these scum.

So: four countries, all a complete mess. To me the time is long past when "colonial guilt" should apply (despite Mugabe's rantings) but once again the rest of the world must take care of the innocent. After all, contrast these sorry tales with say India; Africa, so rich in natural resources has had many chances and stupendous sums of aid, much of which has ended up in the numbered offshore bank accounts of the pirates who run many of the countries in the continent. 

I find it difficult to hope for much improvement whilst belief in witchdoctors is widespread together with all kinds of other barbaric superstitions - which merely serve to enable the bandits to stay in power to the great disadvantage of the people.

Until the next time

**Source of flag images: Flags.com