The situation in Ukraine, though not as bad as the West would have us believe (you only need look at the intact tower blocks when people are interviewed there) it is still not a safe place to be.
The number of dislodged people the Government are allowing in far exceeds what the state is capable of looking after competently. Already they are asking sporting organisations to open up stadia for these now nomadic peoples as hotels are apparently full of both refugees and the, albeit, dwindling number of tourists.
The reason the number of tourists is in decline has nothing to do with refugees, but Ireland is now just too expensive to visit! We have not the housing and health service to accommodate, safely, an indefinite number of displaced people and that is becoming obvious to all but those who choose not to see. Are the concerns of the 26 County administration out of genuine sympathy for these now homeless Ukrainians or more about showing Washington just how anti-Russian this state is? I’ll leave the answer to that question open. Whatever the reason the state is pulling out all the stops to help one way or another.
A question on many people’s lips is: why could these sporting organisations not have been asked to accommodate our indigenous homeless peoples whose numbers are growing by the day, in concert with the increasing number of refugees? Why are the peoples of Palestine and Yemen, the latter in a far worse state than is Ukraine, not given the same consideration? If the state could accommodate millions of refugees then by all means let in millions of them but the fact is the state cannot.
The European Union is also making big anti-Russian noises without ever questioning the ever-dubious Ukrainian President Zelensky. Each time this man is interviewed - remember he’s supposed to be in a war-torn country - he looks in better shape than most Western leaders, including our own Taoiseach. For a man who is supposedly of Jewish extraction he now praises the openly Nazi Azov Regiment of the Ukrainian Army as “brave defenders”. That is akin to the Jews of Warsaw congratulating the Das Reich Regiment of the Waffen SS in defeating all in front of them! If the EU are as concerned as they make out about Ukrainian refugees why have they not issued a directive to all member states that each state must take a number, relative to that states size and facilities, of refugees? To my knowledge, and correct me if I’m wrong, no such directive has been issued. Are they afraid countries, apart from ourselves, might tell them where to shove their directive?
Each time I see on TV President Putin of Russia being interviewed or a documentary about him I see a bad bastard. A man who, as an understudy of Boris Yeltsin, brought down Mikhail Gorbachev, former and last leader of the Soviet Union and who was trying to introduce reforms. He was trying, without weakening the position of the USSR, to have better détente with the West and NATO. He was beginning to succeed when Yeltsin, the vodka soaked drunk, aided by the likes of Putin brought him down. The West must have loved him, and look at the regime Gorbachev has been replaced with! On the other hand, every time I see Zelensky interviewed on the same TV I see a fraud, a con man whose only interest is to persuade NATO, with Ukraine as a member, to invade and take over Russia. Not once have I heard him voice concern for the refugees, ask about their whereabouts and living conditions of the countries which have taken them. No, not a murmur, or if he has I have not heard him. Without a doubt the 26 County state has offered more than a hand of friendship to these people, and I repeat, rightly so.
Recently our President, Michael D. Higgins wife, Sabina, has spoken on the situation in the Ukraine. She, like all right-thinking people, condemned the actions of Putin and his invasion of his neighbour, Ukraine. I would call it a semi-invasion as most of the country is intact. The West, in usual hyper language tried to compare Putin with Hitler and the Nazi invasion of Poland. There is no comparison, Poland was obliterated, the Ukraine is not. Nevertheless, his actions are wrong as Sabina made perfectly plain.
The European Union is also making big anti-Russian noises without ever questioning the ever-dubious Ukrainian President Zelensky. Each time this man is interviewed - remember he’s supposed to be in a war-torn country - he looks in better shape than most Western leaders, including our own Taoiseach. For a man who is supposedly of Jewish extraction he now praises the openly Nazi Azov Regiment of the Ukrainian Army as “brave defenders”. That is akin to the Jews of Warsaw congratulating the Das Reich Regiment of the Waffen SS in defeating all in front of them! If the EU are as concerned as they make out about Ukrainian refugees why have they not issued a directive to all member states that each state must take a number, relative to that states size and facilities, of refugees? To my knowledge, and correct me if I’m wrong, no such directive has been issued. Are they afraid countries, apart from ourselves, might tell them where to shove their directive?
Each time I see on TV President Putin of Russia being interviewed or a documentary about him I see a bad bastard. A man who, as an understudy of Boris Yeltsin, brought down Mikhail Gorbachev, former and last leader of the Soviet Union and who was trying to introduce reforms. He was trying, without weakening the position of the USSR, to have better détente with the West and NATO. He was beginning to succeed when Yeltsin, the vodka soaked drunk, aided by the likes of Putin brought him down. The West must have loved him, and look at the regime Gorbachev has been replaced with! On the other hand, every time I see Zelensky interviewed on the same TV I see a fraud, a con man whose only interest is to persuade NATO, with Ukraine as a member, to invade and take over Russia. Not once have I heard him voice concern for the refugees, ask about their whereabouts and living conditions of the countries which have taken them. No, not a murmur, or if he has I have not heard him. Without a doubt the 26 County state has offered more than a hand of friendship to these people, and I repeat, rightly so.
Recently our President, Michael D. Higgins wife, Sabina, has spoken on the situation in the Ukraine. She, like all right-thinking people, condemned the actions of Putin and his invasion of his neighbour, Ukraine. I would call it a semi-invasion as most of the country is intact. The West, in usual hyper language tried to compare Putin with Hitler and the Nazi invasion of Poland. There is no comparison, Poland was obliterated, the Ukraine is not. Nevertheless, his actions are wrong as Sabina made perfectly plain.
The Irish President's wife made what to me sounded a very sensible level headed and thought-out statement suggesting a “peaceful outcome and negotiated settlement” while at the same time continuing to condemn the actions of the Kremlin. To me that was a sensible and diplomatic way of putting it from the head of state's wife. Despite her level headedness and diplomatic tact, unlike some barmy TDs who almost want to go to war with Russia, providing of course the USA go first she is in the firing line and wrongly. Yet she has come in for criticism from both our own TDS and, the fucking cheek of it, some Ukrainian MPs. These same MPs of the Ukrainian Parliament, often simply called the Rada, who, along with their fraudulent President, have not once asked or mentioned the disposed peoples of that country. Yet they still find time to criticise our head of state's wife for commenting, quite rationally and sensibly, about how a solution to the tragic situation could be found. Perhaps if Sabina Higgins had come out and called on NATO to go to war with that horrible Putin then these cheeky, insulting cunts, may have been happy, applauding even!
The 26 County State has been a very good friend to Ukraine and certainly its dispossessed peoples. Much more so than their own cockeyed government appear to care, so it is very inappropriate for some of their MPs to start slagging off our elected Presidents wife just because she would not say what they want! This is an insult and they should apologise, as should some of our own shameless TDs who prefer to back a doggy government in Kyiv than their own President's wife. If this was in the so-called UK and MPs started criticising the unelected monarchy there would be cries of treason from the opposition. Not so here when our Head of State's family are criticised wrongly for simply trying to offer a peaceful end to the situation in that tragic land, the Ukraine some of our TDs agree with the tormentors in a foreign parliament.
As an internationalist I am not a great believer in heads of states but, alas, we do not live in a socialist world where such positions would be a thing of the past. In the meantime I can see right from wrong and the criticism of Sabina Higgins was wrong, uninvited and not welcome.
The 26 County State has been a very good friend to Ukraine and certainly its dispossessed peoples. Much more so than their own cockeyed government appear to care, so it is very inappropriate for some of their MPs to start slagging off our elected Presidents wife just because she would not say what they want! This is an insult and they should apologise, as should some of our own shameless TDs who prefer to back a doggy government in Kyiv than their own President's wife. If this was in the so-called UK and MPs started criticising the unelected monarchy there would be cries of treason from the opposition. Not so here when our Head of State's family are criticised wrongly for simply trying to offer a peaceful end to the situation in that tragic land, the Ukraine some of our TDs agree with the tormentors in a foreign parliament.
As an internationalist I am not a great believer in heads of states but, alas, we do not live in a socialist world where such positions would be a thing of the past. In the meantime I can see right from wrong and the criticism of Sabina Higgins was wrong, uninvited and not welcome.
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Caoimhin O’Muraile is Independent Socialist Republican and Marxist |
