Cities, towns, countries, people, spirit

The original purpose of this blog was to consider the world from as distant a place as could be, imagining it as a spirit seeing with spirit eyes; yeh, ok. But, that was the purpose, then things that seemed very serious, from a spiritual angle, started to happen in the world.

An attempt will be made to steer it back around: not abandoning the unfolding events, however.

A show on PBS last night about the Navatean culture in the Arabian peninsula. This was a city built at the "marshaling end" of a series of desert trade routes, where they converged and offloaded their wares for transshipment to the next stop, the ports of the coasts of Israel. The cargo was frankincense and myrrh, and the city was referred to as "Petra", bound for cities along the Mediterranean shores.

Frankinscence and myrrh, or at least what that is called nowadays, smells very pleasant. One plus, it is neither feminine nor masculine: not too flowery, but some flowery aspects. Not too "leathery" or too much pine-tar, but some of both of those. It smells nice, it is still available in something like what is believed to be its original form, although the original "myrrh" may not be what we refer to as "myrrh" today. It was burned in a great many different places as incense, and my thought is that it helped cut the stink of the various cities in which it was so popular, and because those cities likely stank.

At any rate, these trade routes were so lucrative that this city into which this highly prized product poured was greatly enriched, and was able to build elaborate means to transport, collect, reserve and distribute water. It was a hugely rich place, the rulers could probably hire artisans and architects from all over the world, and their was considerable local talent in the working of stone.

Because it was in the middle of a desert, they needed the water works. Although in the middle of a desert, it surrounded by the sorts of canyons similar to those that are called "arroyos" in the southwest US, where the water drains into when the desert monsoon comes.

Because when the desert monsoon comes, there is more water than anything in the desert can absorb, and it runs off in rivulets into rivers and rivers into unbridled torrents

If you have never seen a desert monsoon, it is a mystical thing. Like, truly mystical. When this was experienced by yours truly, it was a somewhat overcast, hot day in Arizona, east of Phoenix,

Standing on the driveway of my father's house, the clouds darkened, giant thunderheads bearing down like battleships on a dinghy. You feel like an ant. Actually, you feel like less than an ant. My father was there with me, and although I was an adult, I felt like a child. I couldn't believe how this giant storm had gently sidled up and materialized, full blown, with bits of warning thunder here and there.

There was a dry wind, strong; then a moist wind equally strong, steam-like, you could smell the Gulf of Mexico in it: it had traveled all that way. The wind was full of dust, and I had to avert my face. Various dried plant material was picked up in the wind.

But my father stood with his eyes closed, his chin up, feeling the weather, glowingly at peace: he grew up in that area. This was to be his last desert monsoon and he was drinking it in. He know that. I did not.

I realize that now, that at the time I was being so stupid. He had been undergoing treatments, so it seemed like time would be there. I was also deathly afraid of lightning, having had been caught in a near strike before. So I wasn't sure what this exercise was all about, this standing in a storm.

But right then, he was afraid of absolutely nothing, and although I know he loves me, he didn't want me bothering him while he had this experience.

With the moisture welling in the air, the plants on the hills in the distance radiated a deep green-- not the yellowish spring green, they were well past that, but a hugely thankful deep green. The overwhelming smell of this landscape waking up: the tough, gnarled trees, the creosote bushes, the newly green wisps of whatever else, all throwing their scent into this wind-- rough and gentle, irritating and smooth scents alike-- like an outpouring of gratitude, each plant clamoring for attention. The whole desert was sighing with happiness, just that bit of moisture in the air was what the entire landscape had awaited all summer.

Then it started to rain, and it continued to rain. For about three minutes. Despite the winding up of all of that grandeur, the rain was barely enough to wet the pavement. A summer shower anywhere else.

But we were just on the edge of this storm: the sun still shone brightly over our left shoulder. Turning away from the thunderclouds, in the opposite direction one could see the sun, and the postcard bright blue sky.

My father came around, back to mundane existence. We went inside. Later we would see news about various flash floods in surrounding areas, where the rain had been heavier.

This was the sort of rain that the city of Petra was built to store up and supply year round to its inhabitants, the population estimated to be eighty thousand strong at its height. The sort of rain that carves arroyos into the otherwise calm desert of the southwest. Like most ancient cities, it is now a ruin, but it surely holds many important secrets.

My father is gone now, like that brief rain. He brought life to us, his family, like that rain to the desert.

That I could only continually radiate in gratitude.

'Peace talks', 'whitewashing', 'handwashing', 'dirty laundry washing', and new realities

There is an oft-repeated notion about "failures being learning opportunities". With regards to East Ukraine, it would seemingly appear that both Russia and Ukraine emerge as having experienced "failure". Not only there, but the EU has lost many citizens in the downing of an airliner, and the US has clearly failed in seeming to have been both surprised and rattled by this conflict. 

In fact, healthy doses of failure have been meted out all around. But... who has learned more?

With regards to Russia, the government of Ukraine has really only learned what was known all along: that the government of their neighbor is prone to violence when things don't go its way and has never thought of Ukraine as more than a province. But they've also learned that the Ukrainian army had been allowed to rot while former president Yanukovych's hunting buddies enjoyed all manner of luxuries at government expense-- in fact they've learned a great deal about the depth and breadth of the wounds left by that corruption, as well as to the extent to which it still exists. 

While it might seem that the recent UA/EU/RU accords in Minsk have left Ukraine in the lurch, where the "separatists" are being given more than their share of legitimacy, it is really much less the case that this is a failure in terms of the over-arching future for Ukraine. What Ukraine should attend to is ensuring the safety of her citizens by ensuring that this armed conflict is stopped in as advantageous a circumstance as possible, and that it continues to bring grievances to those willing to actually listen to them. 

More importantly, what Ukraine should have learned at this point in terms of "accords" made with Moscow is that these are only valid in the face of a real penalty for Moscow's breaking any such accords can be brought to bear. That any government will make accords that work to their benefit should go without saying. But it has always been the case since the time of the Golden Horde that Moscow has only sought military agreements in order to gain advantage, such as the non-aggression pact with Hitler that brought about the benefit of the devastation of Poland, or in the case of "Minsk I", to re-arm and re-supply Russian forces within Ukraine.

Once that advantage had been gained, Ukraine simply did not have the ability to levy significant penalties of sufficient weight in order to have Putin honor "Minsk I".

If anything has been learned by the EU, it has been what it has learned about itself, for itself, and what Russia has learned about it. 

The EU has had the opportunity to learn the need to diversify energy sources, and to ensure they strongly and solidly align against Russian aggression as the most proximate group to suffer from that aggression. It wasn't until the downing of a commercial civilian airliner that any real cohesion and strong solidarity was crystal clear, but even then there was a decided wishy-washy aspect to that. 

Paris worried about their Mistral deal, Berlin about gas. Brussels was worried about whether the European Union would in fact act as a union, and it didn't seem like the Italians or Spanish were worried about much of anything, whereas Britain didn't like any of it. Politics is a pendulum, and yes it will go to and fro, but Europe now finds itself in a position where Russian monetary support for fringe political parties in various European countries threatens to glue that pendulum tight: it only takes one fringe party getting into power in order to outlaw the next election.

If the we in the US has had the opportunity to learn anything (other than exactly just where Ukraine is on the world map) it is that people-- millions of them--- very often really would rather rule in hell, or at least hang out at the ruler's hunting lodge or lakehouse-- or at least have a chance to so hang out-- than to serve in heaven. That is the extent of the depth of darkness at work in the galling oppression and suffering in Russia the social media troll who runs a string of bots that cheerfully spew Kremlin propaganda, the Kremlin-backed "correspondent" that barks threatingly at a journalist from Ukraine. Have you learned there have been meetings between the ultra-nationalist hyper-racist Kremlin advisor and David Duke? Do you know there is "RT News" operating in the United States, funded by the Kremlin and whose "journalistic" operatives behave rudely at US government press conferences held in your nation's very capital? 

There is a lot yet to be set straight in all of this. Various whitewashing and soft-pedaling and short-selling etc. etc. will occur. 

It is extraordinarily sad that Ukraine's foray into Western democracy resulted in such a pitifully tangled welcome, but it is extraordinarily great that the Ukrainian people, with their volunteer efforts, their fact finding on social media, and their endurance of spirit continued to fight the good fight. It is equally great that Russian dissenters made their voices known, and decried the war their government was pressing in Ukraine. 

But what did the Kremlin learn? Well, they learned they could push the EU fairly far before real sanctions would be pressed. They learned that US politicians really don't react much to being called names or lampooned in Russian political cartoons: they have seen much worse and more in Western press. Maybe they've learned that while it takes a while for Western processes to show real resolve, and when these start to move that there is no knowing where the momentum of these will lead. Mostly, that while an agreement has been made with EU and Ukrainian leadership, and while the US has not yet armed Ukraine, this doesn't mean that US analysis might finally indicate arming Ukraine would be in the best interest of peace in Europe, and while it doesn't mean that any more sanctions will be pressed by EU for the time being, neither does it mean that they will be rolled back.

It is just not fair: by the Kremlin's own statements, it is time to face reality.

Imagine the consternation and concern that must have swept through Russia when in early 2014, shortly after the popular uprising in Kiev. The previous government in Ukraine had been decidedly pro-Russian, but was run out of town by a decidedly unruly mob.

Then, "self defense forces" on the Crimean peninsula swept over that area aided by various Russian soldiers "on vacation" who had apparently pilfered stores of Russian armaments in order to take control of that territory in the name of Russia! What an uproar this must have caused in Moscow! This was undoubtedly an embarrassment at first for the Kremlin, which by their claims did not seek such territorial control, and while the Russian president strove to put the best face on it, it must have been decidedly touch and go. That is, up until the point that a popular referendum seemed to decide that the peninsula would break away from Ukraine and instead throw in its lot with Russia-- what choice did the Russian president have, then, other than to move Russian military and arms onto the peninsula. Crimea, where after all Russia had rented the naval base at Sevastopol needed to be secured, right?  While the validity of this referendum has not yet been determined by impartial observers, it was probably with grave determination that the Kremlin leadership decided what had to be done in order to ensure peace in the region had to be done.

Then, astonishingly, this unruly mob in Kiev that had thrown out the previous president organized legitimate elections and selected a new president that carried all Ukrainian regions! Whatever strange turn of events enabled this to occur, it was decidedly a bright spot for Russian in the otherwise bewildering rush of events.

Finally, as if this strange rush of events wasn't enough, certain armed factions in Eastern Ukraine suddenly materialized and took over various police stations and government buildings! It turns out that these factions in the Eastern portion of Ukraine did not agree so much with the uprising in Kiev, Western portion. They would have preferred that the pro-Russian Ukrainian president would have stayed around, it appeared, and suddenly a great mess was made in East Ukraine, where some of the same 'Russian volunteers' and 'vacationing soldiers' began to show up with yet more pilfered Russian military gear!

Throughout it all, the Russian president balanced on this hurtling avalanche of events much like a snowboarder in the Sochi olympics doing his level best to maintain international calm. Imagine his anguish as it was found that a Russian model of anti-aircraft weapon was used by the Eastern Ukrainian faction to shoot down a commercial jet-liner! Yet he maintained his balance.

What should happen next but that the Western world, EU, US, NATO and the rest, should find cause to slap sanctions on Russia! Just like these schemers to hit the great Russian nation while it's down, pouring on all manner of foul accusations that the acquisition of Crimea and the violence in Eastern Ukraine was part of some elaborate Russian plan all along!

The new Ukrainian president also became bold and took his opportunities to make a stand on the world stage at Russia's expense, mobilizing the Ukrainian military to combat the armed factions in the east in an "anti-terrorist operation". This must have been upsetting to the Russian president, but of course it was the case that this new president was elected by all of the regions in Ukraine, and so he was the legitimate leader thereof. 

Despite all of this, it was only due to the great efforts of the Russian president that a series of peace talks could be conducted at Minsk, the capital of a mutual neighbor of both Ukraine and Russia, and certain accords could be reached. Because of these talks, it looked like some calm might well have arrived in Eastern Ukraine.

But we see at this point it is not to be. The odd assemblage of vacationing military men, adventure seekers and local separatists that had determined to set up breakaway republics could not hold their fire any longer, and rushed back into territory that the Ukrainian anti-terrorist forces had expelled them from. What's worse, it seemed that there was no end to the military gear that was pilfered from Russian stores and used to further violent ends.

We must applaud the earnest peacemaking efforts of the President Putin, the Russian diplomatic corps and the Kremlin leadership: clearly we can see from the above that what have been called callous denials on their part are instead only statements ensuring a neutral posture so that these tireless efforts to secure peace in the restive regions in Ukraine might be given time to bear fruit.

However, now a year has passed, cities that had enjoyed some of the fruits of Minsk and had been free of violence now report that they've been bombarded by rockets of a most destructive type from the position of the ragtag ranks of separatist/vacationer/thrill seekers. 

We must face reality: despite the very best efforts of Russian diplomacy to secure the peace in Minsk, their hard work has been undone by these ne'er-do-wells who seem to have gotten their pilfering hands on some of the latest and most destructive Russian armaments available.

How these rebels might have picked which locks on whatever depot fences to get to these most destructive prizes, or which set of insidious arms dealers they dealt with, must be left to a later investigation: what we can determine at this point is that despite the tireless efforts of the Russian government, these ruffians are determined to besmirch the apparatus of international diplomacy, and indeed the sully the reputation of the stalwart Russian president himself by using these newfound implements of destruction to press this most destructive and vile war in Eastern Ukraine.

It has come time for the rest of the world to set aside petty differences and take this effort seriously, by shoring up the efforts of the Ukrainian president and his armed forces by supplying them with arms that can make inroads against those in the east have thieved from their rightful places in Russian stores. While it is undoubtedly embarrassing to the Russian government, and the great Russian people, that so many trucks, armored personnel carriers, rocket launchers, tanks, self-propelled artillery, anti-aircraft missiles, and ammunition for all of these have been wantonly hijacked from their military, we see that the Russian government has done it's utmost at the negotiating tables of Minsk. 

Despite this, the time for negotiation is over. We must trust this fledgling Ukrainian government and it's young army with the sorts of machinery and materiel that can make short work of these despicable rebel-persons, their ranks constituted by whatever mixture of criminal, mercenary and thrill seeker they may be. Once the Ukrainians are armed with the proper sorts of weapons that can confront those stolen by these perfidious rebels, they will undoubtedly need careful guidance in their operation. 

It will be touch and go, but surely given the extraordinary balancing done by the Russian government thus far, we can bear some anxiety ourselves. Once the violence in Eastern Ukraine has been settled, we can assist in ensuring that the people of Crimea can hold a free and fair referendum with regards to their alignment with either Russia or Ukraine. 

Because as the afore-going paragraphs make all too clear, it's not fair or right that Russia should continue to shoulder the burden alone.