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Preface
In my university not-so-stuffy Latin class, one day, as students entered, I was chuckling to the serious lady next to me. Such fun words in our Latin textbook, such as lycanthrope (werewolf) and one of today’s words, defenestrate.
She said earnestly, “I saw that word last night, and I didn’t understand.” Of course she already knew the Latin prefix “de” means “of” or “out of,” while the suffix “ate” means “pertaining to.”
I told her, “You will remember from French class that fenetre means window…
It means to throw someone out the window!”
The jokes
I accidentally bought a Russian Advent Calendar.
Every time I open a window an oligarch falls out. (News link)
… …
A Russian woman turns to her husband and asks “Who are we fighting in Ukraine?”
The man turns to her and replies, “We are fighting Ukrainian fascists, the United States and NATO.”
“How are we doing?” she asks.
“Well we’ve lost 100 thousand troops, most of our advanced tanks and other equipment has been destroyed or captured. Over 20 generals have been killed, our economy is being crushed due to sanctions and there is talk of nuclear war and full mobilization.”
“Oh my god. What have NATO and the US lost?”
The man replies, “They haven’t arrived yet.”
… …
“Russia is a gas station with nukes.”
— Sen. John McCain
… …
Putin: “I’ll cut off oil and gas, and will make Europe freeze to death, bwahahaha!”
Global Warming: “Got any other useless ideas, dude?”
… …
A man was in a Russian town square shouting, “The president is an idiot!”
A group of policemen surrounded him to arrest him for treason.
He protested, “But I’m saying President Zelensky is an idiot.”
A policeman said, “Oh come on, we all know who the idiot is.”
… …
From the forward by Arkady Ostrovsky to A Message From Ukraine:
“…Putin, desperate and humiliated, lashed out at Ukrainian civilian infrastructure and threatened a nuclear strike.
Zelensy responded with a post on social media: ‘Read my lips: Without gas or without you? Without you. Without light or without you? Without you. Without water or without you? Without you. Without food or without you? Without you.’”
… …
The glum
Petrusk 842
Every Ukrainian independence day celebration, older folks would tell me “until Russia invades,”. At the time, I dismissed this inevitability as paranoia, but perhaps they just understood the culture. I would hear “Russia will never allow Ukraine to remain independent, it’s just a matter of time.”
… …
Here is a comment to one of Vlad Vexler’s Youtube Q and A’s:
I am originally from Russia (lived there for two years) our family has moved to middle of Europe, but my parents kept on watching Russian tv, out of habit and nostalgia…. As a child I was bullied for my country of origin, while my parents told me its nothing to be ashamed of. Russia has Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Shostakovich, Ilya Repin, Leo Tolstoy and many many more incredible art.
After Russia annexed Crimea, I was still completely passive and indoctrinated, so I told my European partner that Russia is not doing anything terrible and that everyone is trying to attack Russia anyway. (I was 18 at the time, and a complete ignorant child.)
My partner has asked me a question that has changed my life forever. “Why is everyone trying to attack Russia then, what are they after? People living in terrible conditions? New territory without any infrastructure?”
Something clicked and I started reprogramming my plagued mind. The history as told by the west has showed me that Russia has never been in a democratic system. The more I learned the more it was devastating to see the layers of propaganda and quite frankly alcoholic behaviours and normalization that keeps people passive and ignorant.
It has been almost ten years since my pink tainted glasses have been taken away, and I hope as much people as possible can get their pink tinted glasses ripped off asap.
Thank you for your videos, they are scary but provide bitter healing.
… …
… …
Sean Crawford
January
2023
Blog note: Each homepage has six essay titles, which makes it easy to skip far down the months to detect themes.
(But to have all six essays on just one theme would be just too boring)
This last six-page has been about freedom to think, and of travel too.
A few months before the invasion, President Volodymyr Zelensky said during an address in Kyiv, “…freedom is not about having unshackled hands. Freedom is about having unshackled minds.”
Page 33, A Message From Ukraine (available in better bookstores everywhere )
