Ever heard of the Suwalki Gap?
April 11th, 2022 by Roger Darlington
I doubt that you have – but many people in the Baltic States and in the Russian military are well aware that this is a short stretch of land, a mere 50 miles (100 kms), which is the only connection between the Baltic States and the rest of the European Union. On one side is Lithuania and on the other side is Poland, but to the west is the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad and to the east is Russia’s close ally, Belarus.
Such is the sensitivity about this corner of Europe that, when Russian military personnel take the military train from Kaliningrad to Moscow, a Lithuanian air force helicopter hovers overhead to ensure that no one illegally hops off en route.
The three Baltic states and Poland are all members of NATO and the Suwalki Gap is a recognised NATO vulnerability. Concern has been heightened since the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
As today’s article in the “Guardian” newspaper explains:
“The war in Ukraine has led the alliance to further bolster its presence in the region, with multinational battalions to be dispatched to Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary and Slovakia. The military presence in Lithuania has been increased from approximately 1,200 to roughly 1,600 soldiers and equipped with new hardware, such as the German army’s light and mobile Ozelot anti-aircraft system, which can be used to protect airports from aerial assaults.
But the function of these military units remains that of a “tripwire”: a reminder to hardliners in the Kremlin that invading what they may see as renegade breakaway nations of a former Russian empire would automatically trigger a military conflict with other western European states. But in their current state, there is little doubt the enhanced forward presence units would sooner or later be overrun.”
Want to know more about how the Russians could storm the Suwalki Gap and how NATO might defend it? See here.
Posted in World current affairs | Comments (0)
The latest suffering by the people of Sri Lanka
April 7th, 2022 by Roger Darlington
“Over the past few months, Sri Lanka has been facing a dire financial crisis on multiple fronts, triggered partially by the impact of Covid-19, which battered the economy, as well as mounting foreign debts, rising inflation and economic mismanagement by the government, led by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa.
The country barely has any foreign currency reserves left, leading to dangerous shortages of food, gas and medicines as it is unable to import foreign goods, while people are enduring power blackouts of up to eight hours a day. The situation has pushed thousands out onto the streets in protest in recent days, calling for the resignation of the president.”
This is an extract from a news item in today’s “Guardian” newspaper about the appalling situation in Sri Lanka. This is a beautiful country which I visited in 2017 and you can read an account of my trip here.
Posted in World current affairs | Comments (0)
A review of “Operation Finale”, a film on the abduction of Nazi leader Adolf Eichmann
April 6th, 2022 by Roger Darlington
I was 13 when, in 1961, the Nazi leader Adolf Eichmann – a major architect of the Holocaust – was tried in Israel and I remember reading about the proceedings in the newspaper. This 2018 film is largely about the operation, conducted by agents of Mossad and Shin Bet, to abduct Eichmann from his home in Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina, where he had been hiding for a decade.
Most of the film centres on the period of nine days when Eichmann was held in a local safe house and urged to sign a document – demanded by the El Al airline – that he was voluntarily ready to fly to Israel. The special angle of the movie is the developing relationship between Eichmann and the agent Peter Malkin who finally pursuaded the Nazi to sign the document.
Directed by Chris Weitz who is better known for lighter movies, the film was shot on locations in Buenos Aires and is distinguished by the portrayals of the two principals: Ben Kingsley, who played a Jew in “Schindler’s List”, as Adolf Eichmann and Oscar Isaac, best known for his role in the “Star Wars” franchise, as Peter Malkin.
In this narrative, Eichmann is not presented as the embodiment of evil but more as a deeply flawed human being which perhaps accords with the account of Eichmann’s trial by the Jewish political thinker Hannah Arendt who coined the phrase “the banality of evil”.
Link: Wikipedia page on Adolf Eichmann click here
Posted in Cultural issues, History | Comments (0)
New Zealand is losing its glaciers
April 5th, 2022 by Roger Darlington
A recent article in the “Guardian” news paper noted:
“New Zealand’s glaciers are becoming “smaller and more skeletal” due to the effects of climate change and scientists predict many could disappear within a decade. An annual end-of-summer survey that records the snowline of more than 50 South Island glaciers has revealed continued loss of snow and ice.”
This is sad news. On a brilliant trip to New Zealand in 2013, I took a helicopter trip to the Franz Josef Glacier which is 10 km long and then over to the Fox Glacier which 13 km long. I’ve described the experience here.
Posted in Environment | Comments (0)
What is the sacred secret of what women want?
April 4th, 2022 by Roger Darlington
I recently caught up with the 2007 film “P.S. I Love You” [my review here] and I enjoyed this exchange of dialogue:
Daniel Connelly: I don’t meant to throw this at you from left field, but what do women want? I mean, I can’t figure it out. They want us to ask; they, they don’t want us to ask; they want us to make a move, not make a move. They want us to be on bottom; they want us to be on top. Use hair products, don’t use hair products. What do you people want?
Holly Kennedy: I’ll tell you. But you have to promise not to say I told you.
Daniel Connelly: I, I swear.
Holly Kennedy: Because it’s a sacred secret.
Daniel Connelly: A sacred secret.
Holly Kennedy: You ready?
Daniel Connelly: Yeah.
Holly Kennedy: You sure?
Daniel Connelly: I think so.
Holly Kennedy: [whispering] We have absolutely no idea what we want.
Daniel Connelly: I knew it!
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)
Have you ever visited – or wanted to visit – the Peruvian site of Machu Picchu?
April 4th, 2022 by Roger Darlington
Well, as this recent article explains, a new academic paper argues that, since its rediscovery in 1911, the site has been known by the wrong name.
A Peruvian historian and a leading US archaeologist argue that the UNESCO world heritage site was known by its Inca inhabitants as Huayna Picchu – the name of a peak overlooking the ruins – or simply Picchu.
In 2001, I had the pleasure of visiting Machu Picchu and spending a night there. You can read about my time at the historic site here.
Posted in Cultural issues, History | Comments (0)
A review of a history of Ukraine: “Borderland” by Anna Reid
April 1st, 2022 by Roger Darlington
On 24 February 2022, Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale Russian invasion of the independent state of Ukraine and immediately I was keen to learn more about the history of the country being violated. I was pleased to find this work which is immensely informative and very accessible. “Borderland” was first published in 1997 and republished in 2015 and therefore it is in two parts.
The first part was written after Reid served as the Kiev correspondent for the “Economist” and the “Daily Telegraph” from 1993 to 1995. Helpfully it starts with a map of the country and a four-page chronology of its history. What follows is a 1,000-year history of Ukraine but the material is not presented in strict chronological order as it is structured around Reid’s travels through the country, so that the subtitle of the book is “A Journey Through The History Of Ukraine”.
The second part was crafted after Reid returned to the country in the immediate aftermath of the Orange Revolution, Russian occupation of Crimea, and uprising in the Donbass. It provides a chronological account of what happened in the two decades after the first edition and provides an extra 60 pages for the second edition taking us up to February 2015.
Reid begins by explaining that the word Ukrainia is literally translated as ‘on the edge’ or ‘borderland’ (hence the title). For many centuries, most of what we now call Ukraine was ruled by Lithuania or Poland or a combination of the two. For many centuries afterwards, Ukraine was ruled by Tsarist Russia or the USSR. The time of the switch can be precisely dated and attributed.
It was January 1654 when Bordan Khmelnytsky, the leader of the Hetmanate Cossacks who led a successful uprising against the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, signed an agreement which provided that, in return for allegiance to the Russian Tsar, the Cossack Hetmanate would receive the military protection of Russia.
For the next three and a quarter centuries, Kiev (now Kyiv) would be ruled from Moscow. It is a tragic, often violent, history. In the 20th century alone, about 1.5M were killed in the First World War and the Civil War between 1914-1921, up to 12M ‘kulaks’ were deported in 1929-1933, up to 5M peasants died of starvation in 1932-1933, there were massive purges in 1930 and again in 1937-1939, there was the German occupation and slaughter of the Jews in 1941-1944, the Crimean Tatars were deported in 1944.
Although calls for Ukrainian independence have ebbed and flowed, they have usually come from a small intellectual minority. Until fairly recently, the nearest that the country came to independence was the period between the end of the First World War in 1918 and the victory of the Red Army in 1921. In Kiev, there was a Central Council or Rada in competition with the Soviet of Soldiers and Workers, but it had very little power and survived less than a year.
As Reid put it writing in 1997: “Ukrainians won independence on 24 August 1991 by default. Many had dreamed of independence, but none had expected it, none had prepared for it“ and she refers to “Ukraine’s fuzzy sense of national identity”.
However, in the second edition of the history, she asserts: “The biggest change since I lived in Ukraine is that it now feels like a real country. Though plenty of people would have got cross if you had said so, it used to have something of a make-believe, provisional air. With nearly a quarter of a century and two patriotic revolutions under its belt, that has all gone. Ukraine is no longer a borderland. It is its own place and here to stay.”
In her final paragraph, Anna Reid writes presciently: “We in the West should be very clear with ourselves. If we let Russia wreck Ukraine – if we are feeling too poor, anxious, or distracted to fight Ukraine’s corner – we will not only be undermining our own security, but betraying 46 million fellow Europeans.”
Posted in History | Comments (0)
A review of the new Norwegian film “The Worst Person In The World”
March 31st, 2022 by Roger Darlington
Joachim Trier is the co-writer and director of this Norwegian-language, Oslo-set, award-winning romantic drama which managed to secure – but not win – Academy Award nominations for Best International Film and Best Original Screenplay.
Structured in 12 chapters with prologue and epilogue, it tells the story of Julie, who becomes 30 in the course of the narrative, played wonderfully by the delightful Renate Reinsve making her feature debut. In a rarity for a drama, all the characters – except Julie’s father – are sympathetic and likeable, especially her two major lovers (Anders Danielsen Lie and Herbert Nordrum). The acting and dialogue are very naturalistic, although there are two fantasy sequences, in this genuinely appealing work.
I loved the film, I loved the character Julie, and I loved the performance by Reinsve. Yet Julie is a deeply enigmatic and frustrating person, if far from the worst in the world.
In reality, I’m sure that I would be exasperated by her: she changes her lovers, she changes her career aspirations, she changes her hairstyle, she cannot decide whether she wants children … As she herself puts it : “I feel like I never see anything through”. But many people are like that which makes the film so reflective of real life.
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)
Is Ukraine an artificial state, as President Putin suggests, or a true state, as President Zelensky argues? What constitutes a nation state anyway?
March 26th, 2022 by Roger Darlington
At present, I am reading a fascinating history of Ukraine: “Borderland” by Anna Reid. What is clear is that the reality of Ukraine as a nation state is a very recent one.
For many centuries, most of what we now call Ukraine was ruled by Lithuania or Poland or a combination of the two. For many centuries afterwards, Ukraine was ruled by Tsarist Russia or the USSR.
Although calls for Ukrainian independence have ebbed and flowed, they have always come from a small minority. As Anna Reid puts it: “Ukrainians won independence on 24 August 1991 by default. Many had dreamed of independence, but none had expected it, none had prepared for it“. Writing in 1997, she refers to “Ukraine’s fuzzy sense of national identity”.
Over the past three decades, Ukraine has done a decent job of nation-building, even if that required a revolution and involved an insurgency.
Yet, before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, there were still major cleavages in Ukrainian society: between Ukrainian speakers and Russian speakers, between the west and the east, between the cities and the towns & villages. Ironically what Putin has managed to achieve in the last month is a deeper and more uniform sense of national identity among Ukrainians than has ever been the case in its history.
In my view, Ukraine is now a nation state and deserves that status. Any doubts that anyone might have about this should be dispelled by the bravery and unity of the Ukrainians people in the last month.
But, all over the world, this issue of what defines nationhood is a major political problem. Around the globe, most countries have communities within them that believe that they have a right to statehood. Scotland in the UK, Catalonia in Spain, Kurds in Iraq, Western Sahara in Morocco, Quebec in Canada, Kashmir in India, Tibet & Taiwan in China. The list goes on and on.
Many years ago, I started to discuss this issue of nationhood and wrote a short essay which I think still stands up. You can read it here.
Posted in World current affairs | Comments (2)
Let us hail Madeline Albright, the first female US Secretary of State
March 24th, 2022 by Roger Darlington
I was saddened to hear of the death of Madeleine Albright at the aged of 84 following her diagnosis of cancer. She was an outstanding public figure in American politics and the first woman to hold the post of Secretary of State (in European terms, Foreign Minister) in the Clinton administration.
You can read an obituary in the “Guardian” new paper here.
I have two personal recollections of Albright.
First, since I was married to a half-Czech for 35 years, I was very aware of Albright’s Czech heritage. Born Marie Jana Korbelová in Prague in 1937 but known as Madeleine since infancy, Albright fled with her family for London in 1939 after the Nazis took over Czechoslovakia.
Second, I was fan of the U S television series “Madam Secretary” in which Tea Leoni played a non-party Secretary of State. Albright played herself in a couple of appearances es in the series, showing that she had the common touch.
Posted in American current affairs | Comments (0)