“… of the United Nations determined to save succeeding generations from the scrouge of war…” starts the preamble of the Charter of the UN.
I am no expert to wirte an extensive post about what’s happening in the world right now, and I have a very different post half-prepared (or half-finished) about Russia to be shared sometime, but as everybody, I have thoughts. Instead of pretending to be knowledgeable about this stuff, let me share those.
Fanatic as I am about the ideals of the post world war system of international organizations, I have a dove-shaped copy of the above quoted preamble framed decorating my desk. Never in my wildest dreams could I imagine that one of the permanent members of the UN Security Council, in a month when they are presiding the Council would straight-right run over another sovereign state like we were in the age of conquests several centuries back.
After World War II, world leaders realized that power alliances of limited numbers of states did no good for the world, so they created the United Nations open for every state of the world to be able to join with the one purpose of fighting against their common enemy: war. (The history of the founding of the UN is of course much broader than this, but it’s not the topic of this post.) This construction did save the world from another world war up until this day, and although many things we thought certain became uncertain this past week, call me naive, but I still believe that it can save us from the graver outcomes. Yet I know, one could rightfully ask, what difference does it make for the people of Ukraine now? Not much, I’m afraid. There were several mistakes made in the past years, miscalculating, dare I say underestimating the extent to which an megalomaniac autocrat would go to enforce his will upon the world. I am one of those who believe this war has been going on for the past eight years, just not continuously on the battleground. During this time there were never any signs of backing off from Putin, yet other than a few mild slaps on the wrist, he was welcome to sit at all major diplomatic tables. There’s no use of what ifs in this situation, but it’s safe to say world leaders had enough chances in the past eight years to send signals about what’s acceptable and what’s crossing the line. They barely took any.
I was thinking about this quote from Barack Obama’s book, “A promised land” recently: “I sometimes ponder the age-old question of how much difference the particular characteristics of individual leaders make in the sweep of history – whether those of us who rise to power are mere conduits for the deep, relentless currents of the times or whether we’re at least partly the authors of what’s to come. I wonder whether our insecurities and our hopes, our childhood traumas or memories of unexpected kindness carry as much force as any technological shift or socioeconomic trend.” Here President Obama was pondering how different situations would have played out differently had his political opponent won the election, and he does have a point. Characteristics, personalities of world leaders do play a role, although I think the extent to which they do is dependent on the character itself. Between Obama and McCain, surely they would have made different choices, but regardless of politics they would both have relied on people around them with expert knowledge about certain problems. But how about people like Trump, or Putin for that matter? The bigger the ego, the less space there is for common sense. It’s hard to imagine what makes a leader so careless about consequences as Putin seems to be now, but at this stage I picture him enjoying the sense of power of being able to change the course history overnight. We know that history will judge him. And hopefully very soon a war tribunal too.
And lastly, something I also think about often these days. There are some in my circle complaining about the world not paying bigger attention about this conflict. You know the people who always turn their heads from news reports about wars in far-away places? Saying why should we care about conflicts in places like Syria, Yemen or Sudan? (Just to name a few.) Well, this is why. So that the world would care when it comes to us (our neighbours) being in trouble. I also think at this point it is an unrealistic expectation of NATO countries to send soldiers to fight in a war with no clear end-game or purpose (do wars ever have a purpose?). The world does care, but with caution not to worsen the situation instead of fixing it. Individual states do care, international organizations care, NGOs care, and most of all, people care.
Speaking of which, I know there are lots of such collections on the internet out there, but it doesn’t hurt repeating. If you are looking for trusted organisations to help:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CaUwXf7uNKO/ A list of Ukrainian organisations in this post.
https://www.thecut.com/2022/02/russia-invades-ukraine-how-to-help-the-people-of-ukraine.html A collection of links from The Cut.
https://www.unicef.org/emergencies/conflict-ukraine-pose-immediate-threat-children UNICEF is helping children in Ukraine.
https://www.unhcr.org/news/press/2022/2/621770524/statement-situation-ukraine-attributed-un-high-commissioner-refugees-filippo.html UNCHR is going to need donations to help the refugees of this war.
Please consider helping to the extent of your possibilites.
