Oh dear. I see where this is going))) Friends are not those who always agree with you, friends are those who agree to love you unconditionally, whether you are right or wrong. And "love" is a very narrow word, love can mean many things: respect, attraction, willingness to understand, support... But friends are rare. Situational partners are those you look for to get ahead in a world of big money and big politics. It's neither good nor bad, it's just the way it is. Of course values matter a lot, but without allies, support and the necessary means to move forward, values are just beautiful, still ideas, important and such, that set the direction of the movement, but the movement itself needs resources, so it is important to follow your values, but it is also important to align them with the values of your allies.
I still need to study this question, the question of Hamas, Israel, Gaza, Palestine, Ayatollah, Hezbollah, US interests in the region... to be able to share my opinion more confidently.
What I am leaning towards is the idea that God (whatever one puts into this huge, deep, vast concept) is not only about unconditional love and forgiveness but also about justice. Without justice, love and forgiveness are weak. Without love and forgiveness, justice is harsh and can even turn into dictatorship.
To show unconditional love and forgiveness, justice must first be done to those who started this new spiral of Arab-Israeli conflict. That was Hamas, the proxy army of the Ayatollahs. So Israel is doing justice, it gave 48 hours for Gazans to evacuate, Hamas blocked its own compatriots from evacuating, not a single Arab state invited Gazan refugees. Why?
Hamas is made up of Gazans, Gazans who commit terror against civilians. Not all Gazans are Hamas, but the conditions that Hamas has created in Gaza are such that it is a region where almost the only way to earn money and survive is to support or join Hamas. Israel supplied Gaza with water and electricity, organised a music festival on its border to show its peaceful attitude, gave work permits to Gazans to enable them to integrate into Israeli society, to earn money, to use and develop their skills, apart from those related to terrorist acts. And that, as I understand it, was an Israeli plan to integrate Gazans PEACEFULLY into Israeli society. But that is not what Hamas and its masters, the Ayatollahs, need. Hamas and the Ayatollahs need Gazans in their miserable conditions to blame Israel and justify their terror against Israel to destabilise the situation in the Middle East. Israel and Saudi Arabia were negotiating a very important peace agreement before this Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October 2023. This agreement would have allowed SA to increase oil production which would have lowered world oil prices and this is not in the interest of either ayatollah or ruzzia as ruzzia's only way of income to wage war against Ukraine is income it gets from selling its oil to India and China. Iran sells its drones (for sure) and ballistic missiles (probably) to ruzzia, so these two are situational allies and interested in supporting each other.
So the Gazans are hostages of Hamas and the ayatollahs, Israel has tried to integrate them peacefully into its society, the Arab states of the region especially Iran ruled by the ayatollahs are not interested in that. hence the conflict and for me it is obvious from what I have just described who is the peacemaker and who is the aggressor.
Speaking about West's attitude towards Ukraine, well
This is not Ukraine's fault and problem alone, it is the responsibility and problem of the entire Western world:
- they maintain economic relations with dictatorships and do not demand reforms from them (hashtag#russia, hashtag#China)
- oil dollars helped russia to grow into a revanchist dictatorial aggressive creature
- the West does not properly help the only country (Ukraine), which, without pathos, really, is holding the blow inflicted on the entire Western world
- the West f**ked up the Budapest Memorandum.
Ordinary Westerners are making noise about peace treaties and negotiations with russia, just like ordinary Kharkiv, Sumy, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Kyiv residents... until February 24, 2022.
Draw parallels and understand what needs to happen for the Westerners to "get it".
You think that ruzzia is stupid, weak and uses outdated weapons and that the Ukrainians will defeat it already tomorrow? Well, I have no doubt that we will, but definitely not tomorrow, and definitely you need to help more intensively, because it is your war too, because if it moves closer to the borders of the EU / UK, the economic, political, cosial effects will not be so bright, to put it mildly.
Thanks for touching on the matter of justice, Maks. Your contribution is very impressive; you're a man of thought and reflection, passion and measure. You have my immense respect.
Justice is a subject I am writing on exactly at this moment in time. The article will be out next week.
>> posted a poignant photo of a man who’d lost his bride.<<
Oh my, I got it... it is wrong, it is not a man, who lost his bride. Pictures show two absolutelly different not directly related events.
First one where man holds an apple is a picture of Ukrainian defender who was freed from ruzzian captivity after several months, were he was tortured and malnourished, and after being freed he got an apple, and he cried because during a captivity he dreamed about eating an apple: https://www.rferl.org/a/photos-ukraine-war-prisoner-release-russia-invasion/32286624.html
Дякую за роз'яснення, Макс. Тепер ми краще розуміємо горе цієї людини. Ми знаємо, що в українському парламенті панує безтурботність. Що деякі депутати наживаються без турботи. У нас є такі депутати і в Великобританії, і в Бельгії, і в Америці, і, звісно, вони є і в Росії.
У минулому ми заробляли і платили податки для фінансування парламенту в надії, що вони приймуть за нас мудрі рішення. Ми заробляли гроші, щоб оплачувати медичні послуги. Ми заробили гроші, щоб заплатити за зброю, щоб захищатися, якщо на нас нападуть. Ми заробляли гроші, щоб забезпечити себе водою з-під крана, по кабелю провели газ і електрику, щоб життя було стерпним.
Тепер багато речей перевернуто: ми не заробляємо, щоб платити за мудрість; замість цього уряди вводять податки, щоб заробити гроші, часто для себе та своїх друзів; ми розпродали наші медичні послуги, щоб заробити гроші для акціонерів; ми беремо участь у війнах, щоб заробити гроші для постачальників зброї; ми продаємо водопровідну воду та електроенергію, щоб заробити гроші акціонерам. Життя акціонерів стерпне. Твоє і моє ні.
Що багато людей не усвідомлюють щодо зброї, яка надходить до України, так це те, що, незважаючи на те, що вона працювала над проблемами, над якими ми всі працюємо, протягом 30 років Україна намагалася зосередитися на своїх проблемах всередині країни. Коли ви це робите, ви не витрачаєте величезні суми на зброю. Тепер, коли на нього напали, цілком природно, що його друзі повинні допомогти зброєю, тому що інтереси України – це їхні інтереси. Навіть багата Німеччина не виконувала своїх зобов'язань перед НАТО.
Ваш внесок дуже цінується. Хай Бог благословить Вас, Вашу родину та Україну.
Thanks for the clarification, Maks. We now have a better understanding of that man's sorrow. We know that there is nonchalance in the Ukrainian Parliament. That some MPs are profiting without caring. We have such MPs in the UK, and in Belgium, and in America, and, of course, they are also there in Russia.
In the past, we earned and paid taxes to fund a parliament, in the hopes that they would make wise decisions for us. We made money in order to pay for a health service. We made money to pay for weapons to defend ourselves in case we were attacked. We made money in order to provide ourselves with tap water and piped gas and electricity down cables, so that our lives were tolerable.
Now, many things are reversed: we don't earn to pay for wisdom; instead, governments impose taxes in order to make money, often for themselves and their friends; we have sold off our health services so as to make money for stockholders; we engage in wars in order to make money for arms contractors; we sell tap water and electricity to make money for stockholders. Stockholders' lives are tolerable. Yours and mine are not.
What many people don't realise about the arms going to Ukraine is that, for all it laboured under problems under which we all labour, for 30 years Ukraine worked to try to focus on its problems inside the country. When you do that, you don't spend huge amounts on weapons. Now that it has been attacked, it's only natural that its friends should help with weapons, because Ukraine's interests are their interests. Even rich Germany wasn't fulfilling its own commitments to NATO.
And I fled the war ruzzia wages in Ukraine with my family as a father of girl with severe disabilities, which means I left lawfully, without breaking the law, as now Ukrainian men are forbidden to leave the country. Still I tried to join AFU at the beginning of ruzzian full-scale invasion, but at that time men without military expirience were refused to join territorial self-defence corps at least in Kharkiv, so I decided to flee with my family.
Oh dear. I see where this is going))) Friends are not those who always agree with you, friends are those who agree to love you unconditionally, whether you are right or wrong. And "love" is a very narrow word, love can mean many things: respect, attraction, willingness to understand, support... But friends are rare. Situational partners are those you look for to get ahead in a world of big money and big politics. It's neither good nor bad, it's just the way it is. Of course values matter a lot, but without allies, support and the necessary means to move forward, values are just beautiful, still ideas, important and such, that set the direction of the movement, but the movement itself needs resources, so it is important to follow your values, but it is also important to align them with the values of your allies.
I still need to study this question, the question of Hamas, Israel, Gaza, Palestine, Ayatollah, Hezbollah, US interests in the region... to be able to share my opinion more confidently.
What I am leaning towards is the idea that God (whatever one puts into this huge, deep, vast concept) is not only about unconditional love and forgiveness but also about justice. Without justice, love and forgiveness are weak. Without love and forgiveness, justice is harsh and can even turn into dictatorship.
To show unconditional love and forgiveness, justice must first be done to those who started this new spiral of Arab-Israeli conflict. That was Hamas, the proxy army of the Ayatollahs. So Israel is doing justice, it gave 48 hours for Gazans to evacuate, Hamas blocked its own compatriots from evacuating, not a single Arab state invited Gazan refugees. Why?
Hamas is made up of Gazans, Gazans who commit terror against civilians. Not all Gazans are Hamas, but the conditions that Hamas has created in Gaza are such that it is a region where almost the only way to earn money and survive is to support or join Hamas. Israel supplied Gaza with water and electricity, organised a music festival on its border to show its peaceful attitude, gave work permits to Gazans to enable them to integrate into Israeli society, to earn money, to use and develop their skills, apart from those related to terrorist acts. And that, as I understand it, was an Israeli plan to integrate Gazans PEACEFULLY into Israeli society. But that is not what Hamas and its masters, the Ayatollahs, need. Hamas and the Ayatollahs need Gazans in their miserable conditions to blame Israel and justify their terror against Israel to destabilise the situation in the Middle East. Israel and Saudi Arabia were negotiating a very important peace agreement before this Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October 2023. This agreement would have allowed SA to increase oil production which would have lowered world oil prices and this is not in the interest of either ayatollah or ruzzia as ruzzia's only way of income to wage war against Ukraine is income it gets from selling its oil to India and China. Iran sells its drones (for sure) and ballistic missiles (probably) to ruzzia, so these two are situational allies and interested in supporting each other.
So the Gazans are hostages of Hamas and the ayatollahs, Israel has tried to integrate them peacefully into its society, the Arab states of the region especially Iran ruled by the ayatollahs are not interested in that. hence the conflict and for me it is obvious from what I have just described who is the peacemaker and who is the aggressor.
Speaking about West's attitude towards Ukraine, well
This is not Ukraine's fault and problem alone, it is the responsibility and problem of the entire Western world:
- they maintain economic relations with dictatorships and do not demand reforms from them (hashtag#russia, hashtag#China)
- oil dollars helped russia to grow into a revanchist dictatorial aggressive creature
- the West does not properly help the only country (Ukraine), which, without pathos, really, is holding the blow inflicted on the entire Western world
- the West f**ked up the Budapest Memorandum.
Ordinary Westerners are making noise about peace treaties and negotiations with russia, just like ordinary Kharkiv, Sumy, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Kyiv residents... until February 24, 2022.
Draw parallels and understand what needs to happen for the Westerners to "get it".
You think that ruzzia is stupid, weak and uses outdated weapons and that the Ukrainians will defeat it already tomorrow? Well, I have no doubt that we will, but definitely not tomorrow, and definitely you need to help more intensively, because it is your war too, because if it moves closer to the borders of the EU / UK, the economic, political, cosial effects will not be so bright, to put it mildly.
Thanks for touching on the matter of justice, Maks. Your contribution is very impressive; you're a man of thought and reflection, passion and measure. You have my immense respect.
Justice is a subject I am writing on exactly at this moment in time. The article will be out next week.
>> posted a poignant photo of a man who’d lost his bride.<<
Oh my, I got it... it is wrong, it is not a man, who lost his bride. Pictures show two absolutelly different not directly related events.
First one where man holds an apple is a picture of Ukrainian defender who was freed from ruzzian captivity after several months, were he was tortured and malnourished, and after being freed he got an apple, and he cried because during a captivity he dreamed about eating an apple: https://www.rferl.org/a/photos-ukraine-war-prisoner-release-russia-invasion/32286624.html
Second picture shows a wedding of some Ukrainian ex-prosecutor, and that cake on the picture was evaluated to cost around 100k UAH (~2,3k GBP). While Ukrainians collect donations to support our Armed Forces, state officials show an example of conciderably immoral behaviour, let it be wedding's bright day, still it could be way more modest concidering the war in the coutry, and money spent for a 100k UAH cake could have been donated to support Ukrainian army: https://telegraf.com.ua/ukr/lvov/2023-10-11/5812652-pivtisyachi-gostey-ta-2-metroviy-tort-u-lvovi-eksprokuror-ta-spivrobitnitsya-dbr-zigrali-elitne-vesillya-foto-video
Дякую за роз'яснення, Макс. Тепер ми краще розуміємо горе цієї людини. Ми знаємо, що в українському парламенті панує безтурботність. Що деякі депутати наживаються без турботи. У нас є такі депутати і в Великобританії, і в Бельгії, і в Америці, і, звісно, вони є і в Росії.
У минулому ми заробляли і платили податки для фінансування парламенту в надії, що вони приймуть за нас мудрі рішення. Ми заробляли гроші, щоб оплачувати медичні послуги. Ми заробили гроші, щоб заплатити за зброю, щоб захищатися, якщо на нас нападуть. Ми заробляли гроші, щоб забезпечити себе водою з-під крана, по кабелю провели газ і електрику, щоб життя було стерпним.
Тепер багато речей перевернуто: ми не заробляємо, щоб платити за мудрість; замість цього уряди вводять податки, щоб заробити гроші, часто для себе та своїх друзів; ми розпродали наші медичні послуги, щоб заробити гроші для акціонерів; ми беремо участь у війнах, щоб заробити гроші для постачальників зброї; ми продаємо водопровідну воду та електроенергію, щоб заробити гроші акціонерам. Життя акціонерів стерпне. Твоє і моє ні.
Що багато людей не усвідомлюють щодо зброї, яка надходить до України, так це те, що, незважаючи на те, що вона працювала над проблемами, над якими ми всі працюємо, протягом 30 років Україна намагалася зосередитися на своїх проблемах всередині країни. Коли ви це робите, ви не витрачаєте величезні суми на зброю. Тепер, коли на нього напали, цілком природно, що його друзі повинні допомогти зброєю, тому що інтереси України – це їхні інтереси. Навіть багата Німеччина не виконувала своїх зобов'язань перед НАТО.
Україна і Газа поставили переді мною важкий моральний вибір. Коли є важкий моральний вибір, є також місце для жалю. Що я маю на увазі, пояснюється тут: https://endlesschain.substack.com/p/dwelling-on-gamer-morality-in-the.
А наступна стаття розповідає про Влада Белявського, українського філософа, який зміг дотримуватися своїх принципів пацифізму, водночас роблячи внесок у боротьбу своєї нації за свободу: https://endlesschain.substack.com/p/a-courageous-trooper-soldiering -за
Ваш внесок дуже цінується. Хай Бог благословить Вас, Вашу родину та Україну.
Thanks for the clarification, Maks. We now have a better understanding of that man's sorrow. We know that there is nonchalance in the Ukrainian Parliament. That some MPs are profiting without caring. We have such MPs in the UK, and in Belgium, and in America, and, of course, they are also there in Russia.
In the past, we earned and paid taxes to fund a parliament, in the hopes that they would make wise decisions for us. We made money in order to pay for a health service. We made money to pay for weapons to defend ourselves in case we were attacked. We made money in order to provide ourselves with tap water and piped gas and electricity down cables, so that our lives were tolerable.
Now, many things are reversed: we don't earn to pay for wisdom; instead, governments impose taxes in order to make money, often for themselves and their friends; we have sold off our health services so as to make money for stockholders; we engage in wars in order to make money for arms contractors; we sell tap water and electricity to make money for stockholders. Stockholders' lives are tolerable. Yours and mine are not.
What many people don't realise about the arms going to Ukraine is that, for all it laboured under problems under which we all labour, for 30 years Ukraine worked to try to focus on its problems inside the country. When you do that, you don't spend huge amounts on weapons. Now that it has been attacked, it's only natural that its friends should help with weapons, because Ukraine's interests are their interests. Even rich Germany wasn't fulfilling its own commitments to NATO.
Ukraine and Gaza have posed hard moral choices for me. When there are hard moral choices, there is also scope for regret. What I mean with that is explained here: https://endlesschain.substack.com/p/dwelling-on-gamer-morality-in-the.
And the following article tells about Vlad Beliavsky, a Ukrainian philosopher who is able to adhere to his principles of pacifism while contributing to his nation's struggle for liberty: https://endlesschain.substack.com/p/a-courageous-trooper-soldiering-for
Your contributions are greatly valued. God bless you, your family and Ukraine.
And I fled the war ruzzia wages in Ukraine with my family as a father of girl with severe disabilities, which means I left lawfully, without breaking the law, as now Ukrainian men are forbidden to leave the country. Still I tried to join AFU at the beginning of ruzzian full-scale invasion, but at that time men without military expirience were refused to join territorial self-defence corps at least in Kharkiv, so I decided to flee with my family.