Even in the midst of ‘cold war’ when Berlin, Prague and Budapest faced Soviet soldiers in real, here in Sweden or in my home country Finland, the powers that didn’t try to so scornfully ignore the brain abilities of their peoples and brazenly assert that some Russian submarines are set to float to the surface just in the middle of Stortorget. For everybody in possession of rudimentary ability of critical thinking it was plain clear that the USSR hardly able to ensure vitality of the Warsaw Treaty and combine ideology of expansion with limited economic possibilities, was going to explode soon. Nowadays Russia that has braved it to take back the Crimea (that happens to be by 90% pro-Russian in terms of language and mindset) but absolutely reluctant to get back Donbas, can now afford even less.
Those, unwilling to obediently swallow the carefully spoon-fed for the most infantile consumer ‘estimates’ and ‘conclusions’ of official mass media, don’t actually doubt a bit that residents of South-Eastern regions of Ukraine just had to turn to Moscow for help. They practically had no other choice after the coup made by anti-Russian forces in Ukraine, who declared war on Russian language and were trying to bring ‘maidan’ into Russian speaking territories of the country. The main reason of the collective self-identification crisis in the so called ‘Russian world’ was due to loss of the Russian-speaking parts of Ukraine and, even to more extent, of the Crimea (after the transformation of the artificial borders of the USSR epoch into state borders in the early ‘90s). Kremlin just couldn’t ignore the ‘reformatting’ by Americans of the vitally important neighboring country. Leaving Crimea alone and Donbas without diplomatic support would mean ultimate destruction of the mutual trust of different parts of the Russian people amid the establishment of the anti-Russian dictatorship in Ukraine. The disintegration of the Russian state itself would be inevitable then. For Russia, presently surviving through the systemic ideology crisis, the fate of those lands is more important and the problem is generally more sensitive than the issue of Alsace-Lorraine for the 19th century France or Ulster for Ireland of the 20th century.
Unfortunately, critical attitude towards the information is rather rare nowadays, which can be explained by rapid upgrade of brainwashing technologies, on one hand, and the involvement of nonprofessionals in produce of information, on the other.
What are we having in the result? Official mass media outlets are absolutely irresponsible siding with one of the sides in the Ukrainian conflict. Actually they become participants of the conflict this way. Russian submarines, aircraft and whatever comes to the fore in newspapers and TV programs. Interested agencies headed by the office of Mr. Hultqvist demand that ‘additional sums’ should be allocated to search those military objects and oppose the far-fetched threats. The sums are so huge that in the past they could have well surpassed military budgets of Sweden and Finland, both of them.
Though, judging by regular bringing of Swedish defense chiefs into the courtroom on malfeasance charges of all sorts, wasting of taxpayers’ money on expensive military gadgets useless in real life and also on generous bonuses and salaries paid to developers has already become a long lasting tradition in the Kingdom. Similar cases stay not widely known in other western states, which only points to less transparency of their bureaucratic machines. But this is not only the case with defense agency alone! Isn’t it an eye-opening fact that the US Board of Governors was set to send as much as $15.6 mln on fighting ‘Russian propaganda’ and only $6.1 mln on subduing ISIS. You may be sure that in nearest perspective Sweden will follow the lead and establish its own ‘ministry of truth’ to expose Russia.
Let’s take another example, not relating unfounded budgetary waste. The former head of Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs Carl Bildt was accused of the paid lobbying of Georgian ex-president Saakashvili’s interests and, according to some rumors, supported some commercial ties via his wife with the corporation Roshen belonging to Ukrainian president Poroshenko. That tradition, so to say, is being continued under the new leadership by State Secretary Soder, minister’s coordinator Olofsson and a dozen of other top officials. As for the current Minister of Foreign Affairs Margot Wallstrom herself, she hasn’t been caught red-handed so far in getting financial profit from dealing with Kiev. But it’s quite obvious that she is employing the Ukrainian theme for self-advertising. But for that precious ‘Russian aggression’, the activities of Wallstrom as a foreign minister would be absolutely inconspicuous. If you count the number of her declarations on the situation in the distant backyard of Europe (undoubtedly of utmost importance for functioning of the Kingdom!), you’ll come to the conclusion that the Swedish minister has actually nothing to add to her achievements list apart from joining the European war on Moscow.
Other politicians all around the world, from Canada to Australia, are behaving similar way. Such issues as introduction of anti-Russian sanctions, celebration of the 70th anniversary of victory of anti-Hitler coalition in World War II or getting NATO membership suddenly gained great importance for worthless demagogues. Those persons lacking talent have found a convenient and quick way to prominence, to a bright political career in European or world space. I bet you, in pending presidential race in the USA the ‘Russian threat’ will come to the fore in the candidates’ rhetoric when they’ll start debating, their lungs out, who’s more hateful of Moscow. It’s actually a very convenient way to escape discussions on the totally failed domestic and external policy of the recent period for which both Democrats and Republicans bear responsibility.
Sadly enough, the elite’s blemishes are spreading to a substantial part of the western society. The imposing enemy available at some safe distance is a good enough object to kick and throw pebbles at. And when you flock together with others, it only strengthens the feeling of safety and impunity and boosts your own significance. Let’s make it plain. We have already forgotten how it feels when you are at war. We are like some teenagers with the war experience based exclusively on Hollywood settings, who enjoy rattling the sabre and spend enormous sums to buy more of this military stuff instead of directing financial flows to develop ecology, medical care or Arctic research at last.
Chekhov, the Russian famous playwright, once articulated the most popular axiom of story structure: one must never place the loaded rifle on the stage if it isn’t going to go off. Real life in this respect isn’t much different from that stage and the money spent on weapons sooner or later hit back on someone, not necessarily the initially planned target. Meanwhile, modern political scenarios are to ensure real deaths of the actors involved. In Ukraine there are some innocents, the spectators, who die along with the participants of war hostilities, including Europeans lusting for exciting experience with knobs on. If Europeans are really set to go on with this arms race to satisfy their own cupidity and vanity, then Donbas may turn out to be just one of many war stages to apply the stockpiled war tools.
http://doubtingsteven.blogspot.com/2015/05/my-favorite-foe-what-are-our-gains-in.html#more
Unfortunately, critical attitude towards the information is rather rare nowadays, which can be explained by rapid upgrade of brainwashing technologies, on one hand, and the involvement of nonprofessionals in produce of information, on the other.
What are we having in the result? Official mass media outlets are absolutely irresponsible siding with one of the sides in the Ukrainian conflict. Actually they become participants of the conflict this way. Russian submarines, aircraft and whatever comes to the fore in newspapers and TV programs. Interested agencies headed by the office of Mr. Hultqvist demand that ‘additional sums’ should be allocated to search those military objects and oppose the far-fetched threats. The sums are so huge that in the past they could have well surpassed military budgets of Sweden and Finland, both of them.
Though, judging by regular bringing of Swedish defense chiefs into the courtroom on malfeasance charges of all sorts, wasting of taxpayers’ money on expensive military gadgets useless in real life and also on generous bonuses and salaries paid to developers has already become a long lasting tradition in the Kingdom. Similar cases stay not widely known in other western states, which only points to less transparency of their bureaucratic machines. But this is not only the case with defense agency alone! Isn’t it an eye-opening fact that the US Board of Governors was set to send as much as $15.6 mln on fighting ‘Russian propaganda’ and only $6.1 mln on subduing ISIS. You may be sure that in nearest perspective Sweden will follow the lead and establish its own ‘ministry of truth’ to expose Russia.
Let’s take another example, not relating unfounded budgetary waste. The former head of Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs Carl Bildt was accused of the paid lobbying of Georgian ex-president Saakashvili’s interests and, according to some rumors, supported some commercial ties via his wife with the corporation Roshen belonging to Ukrainian president Poroshenko. That tradition, so to say, is being continued under the new leadership by State Secretary Soder, minister’s coordinator Olofsson and a dozen of other top officials. As for the current Minister of Foreign Affairs Margot Wallstrom herself, she hasn’t been caught red-handed so far in getting financial profit from dealing with Kiev. But it’s quite obvious that she is employing the Ukrainian theme for self-advertising. But for that precious ‘Russian aggression’, the activities of Wallstrom as a foreign minister would be absolutely inconspicuous. If you count the number of her declarations on the situation in the distant backyard of Europe (undoubtedly of utmost importance for functioning of the Kingdom!), you’ll come to the conclusion that the Swedish minister has actually nothing to add to her achievements list apart from joining the European war on Moscow.
Other politicians all around the world, from Canada to Australia, are behaving similar way. Such issues as introduction of anti-Russian sanctions, celebration of the 70th anniversary of victory of anti-Hitler coalition in World War II or getting NATO membership suddenly gained great importance for worthless demagogues. Those persons lacking talent have found a convenient and quick way to prominence, to a bright political career in European or world space. I bet you, in pending presidential race in the USA the ‘Russian threat’ will come to the fore in the candidates’ rhetoric when they’ll start debating, their lungs out, who’s more hateful of Moscow. It’s actually a very convenient way to escape discussions on the totally failed domestic and external policy of the recent period for which both Democrats and Republicans bear responsibility.
Sadly enough, the elite’s blemishes are spreading to a substantial part of the western society. The imposing enemy available at some safe distance is a good enough object to kick and throw pebbles at. And when you flock together with others, it only strengthens the feeling of safety and impunity and boosts your own significance. Let’s make it plain. We have already forgotten how it feels when you are at war. We are like some teenagers with the war experience based exclusively on Hollywood settings, who enjoy rattling the sabre and spend enormous sums to buy more of this military stuff instead of directing financial flows to develop ecology, medical care or Arctic research at last.
Chekhov, the Russian famous playwright, once articulated the most popular axiom of story structure: one must never place the loaded rifle on the stage if it isn’t going to go off. Real life in this respect isn’t much different from that stage and the money spent on weapons sooner or later hit back on someone, not necessarily the initially planned target. Meanwhile, modern political scenarios are to ensure real deaths of the actors involved. In Ukraine there are some innocents, the spectators, who die along with the participants of war hostilities, including Europeans lusting for exciting experience with knobs on. If Europeans are really set to go on with this arms race to satisfy their own cupidity and vanity, then Donbas may turn out to be just one of many war stages to apply the stockpiled war tools.
http://doubtingsteven.blogspot.com/2015/05/my-favorite-foe-what-are-our-gains-in.html#more
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