Casualty of War

Mish Mash a la Russe

It's been a frightful week. Tragic. 

It's ironic that Putin's daughter is actually living in Holland . In Australia there have been reports of the Russian Association has been receiving abusive calls and veiled threats. That's the trouble with war, nobody really wins and the recent rise of Russian influence and politics is vaguely reminiscent of the resurgence of nationalistic pride in Germany after the WW1. Pride follows a fall. 

There have been some abortive attempts within Russia itself to impeach, for want of a better word, Gorbachev for his role in the collapse of the old Soviet Union. Listening to Russian citizens , both young and old, many are satisfied with Putin's performance. They claim to like a strong leader, one who can be admired and respected in the world. It is hard to imagine Russia directly implicated in the act, more likely it's an unspeakable action taken  by other factions on the ground. 

Needless to say, the separatists have not impressed the world by their behaviour.  

The one who pressed the button or launched the rocket which downed MH 17 will, no doubt, not be found. The confusion is too great and the political implications  too vast to be able to entertain any sense of real justice. 

In war everyone is a casualty, one way or the other not can conflict be isolated, in today's world, to any particular region.
PS: just learned  that Putin's daughter, Maria,  has fled The Netherlands for security reasons.

Better the devil.....

Today, Peter Greste's brother Michael announced a decision to appeal the sentence passed down by the Egyptian court against the Al Jazeera journalist.

Peter Greste, together with his colleagues , stands accused by the Egyptian government,  of consorting with the Muslim Brotherhood and by association sedition

The lengthy trail of the Al Jazeera  reporters was marked by delays and journeys back and forth from the jail to the court hearing where , caged and isolated,  they listened to the echoes of "justice " from the dim recesses of the judge's bench. In Australia, time has little meaning for hospitals, police stations and government agencies but the Arab sense of hours and minutes in comparison , puts these agencies working in double quick time . Inshallah, God willing, is as vague as a politician being confronted with the truth or something promised during an election campaign.. 

Appeals by the Australian Prime Minister went unheeded , while the judge further accused the journalists  of being "guided by the devil" in their work as reporters. Tony Abbott has more luck appeals to Putin than with the then newly elected President of Egypt.

We are all familiar with the devil, one way or another. Lawyers know that he hides in the detail while competitive sorts leave him to take the hindmost. The Inquisitors of the Spanish Inquisition were also on first name terms with old Nick. For a while there he seemed to have dropped  out of sight but now he's back in the news. 

Acknowledgement to Warner Bros

In all fairness perhaps here , in view of the judge's remarks, the devil should be arrested. After all it seems he is the guilty party stirring up trouble. Too easy?