Opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics Moscow was not amused and columns of tanks and heavy artillery were soon rolling across the border in defense of the largely Russian population. Georgia has now declared war against Russia and is begging the USA and the European Union to intervene in some way. The Georgian president declared that his country was “looking with hope” to the US. The armed confrontation with Russia, he claimed, “is not about Georgia anymore. It’s about America, its values... America stands up for those freedom-loving nations and supports them. That’s what America is all about.” But it’s unlikely that anyone will come to their aid. Apart from the usual calls for a cease-fire, the Georgians can expect little else from their NATO friends.
Opening salvos of the Russian-Georgian warIn America’s new cold war against Russia, Georgia and its army are but pawns in the Great Game. Since the break-up of the Soviet Union in the 1990’s, US administrations have fostered regional tensions in the Caucasus and beyond in an effort to gain control of the area’s strategic petroleum resources. Promoting Georgia’s admission as a full member of the NATO alliance was a part of this plan. Just as encouraging and then recognizing the unilateral declaration of Kosovo’s independence from Serbia sent a very clear message to the world and especially to Russia. “We’re still the rulers of the world”, the Neocons seem to be saying to Putin, “and we can surround you with client states like Georgia or create ‘independent protectorates’ in Kosovo and Afghanistan and there isn’t a damn thing that you can do about it.”
The risk, of course, is that the Russians would eventually strike back. Everyone has their limits and while it’s easy to start a war, once the killing begins, you never know where it will end.
9 comments:
Ciao, John! It´s really very ironic. I wrote on my blog: olimpic war games: Russia X Georgia.
I know, I read it today:-)
abs,
John
Ciao, thank you, John, for the attention. You must take a look at the museum of bad arts:
http://www.museumofbadart.org/collection/interpretate.php
It´s very, very funny. I cried a lot.
Abraços do Lúcio Jr.
Ciao, John, I´ll send you a friend of mine poem´s, inspired by a book wrote by your grandma´s book about the old man and the sea:
U véi i u mar
O véi
Saiu com o seu barco
Para trabalhar.
Uma corrente
Antes que amanhecesse
Para alto mar o levou.
Lá ele pescou
Um baita peixe-sereia...
Quem conhece a história completa
Não se contenta com meia!
O véi teve muita dificuldade
Para colocar o peixe no barco.
Era muito peixe
Para a sua pequena embarcação!
Resolveu amarrá-lo fora
E afugentar qualquer tubarão
A cada meia hora!
Além de retornar, se possível,
Antes que a noite caia...
Oh, quanta ilusão!
A noite logo caiu,
A labuta do véi dobrou!
Ele resistiu
E remou, remou, remou...
Enfim, o véi conseguiu
Retornar, pensava ele,
Com o seu peixe-sereia
Amarrado à embarcação...
Mas quando seu barco
Foi puxado
De volta à areia,
Quão tamanha
Não foi
Do véi
A admiração!!!
Pois de sua façanha,
Como prova,
(Do churrasco, só o espeto!)
Restava apenas
Amarrado à embarcação
Os ossos descarnados
E carcomidos
De um
Esqueleto!
Do livro de poemas "U Véi i U mar", de Fernando Gonzaga.
And about the article. I decided to wrote a short article called "John Hemingway´s Strange Tribe" and I´m finishing it. I´ll send it to you (if I have you e-mail) and them send it to Minas Gerais Literary Supplemment.
I think Kolbenschlag´s theory is a feminist one. She wrote that Hemingway was not a lonely person, he can´t deal with his proper loneless and then it was a element is his suicide. Something like that.
My article is a review of the book in portuguese, based on information done by your blog; also I wrote a little lines about Gerald´s opera, the ones that are on the blog.
Abraços do Lúcio Jr.
Thanks Lùcio:-) both for the poem and the article to come!
John, it´s a very popular text that people change by mail. There´s some question and a lot a answers. Take a look at the last one.
PERGUNTA: Por que o frango cruzou a estrada?
>>> >Algumas respostas:
>>> >
>>> >PROFESSORA PRIMÁRIA: Porque queria chegar do
outro lado da estrada.
>>> >
>>> >CRIANÇA: Porque sim.
>>> >
>>> >POLIANA: Porque estava feliz.
>>> >
>>> >PLATÃO: Porque buscava alcançar o Bem.
>>> >
>>> >ARISTÓTELES: É da natureza dos frangos cruzar a
estrada.
>>> >
>>> >NELSON RODRIGUES: Porque viu sua cunhada, uma
galinha sedutora, do outro
>>> >lado.
>>> >
>>> >MARX: O atual estágio das forças produtivas
exigia uma nova classe de
>>> >frangos, capazes de cruzar a estrada.
>>> >
>>> >MOISÉS: Uma voz vinda do céu bradou ao frango:
"Cruza a estrada!" E o
>>> frango
>>> >cruzou a estrada e todos se regozijaram.
>>> >
>>> >ALMIR KLINK: Para ir onde nenhum frango jamais
esteve.
>>> >
>>> >MARTIN LUTHER KING: Eu tive um sonho. Vi um mundo
no qual todos os
>>> frangos
>>> >serão livres para cruzar a estrada sem que sejam
questionados seus
>>> motivos.
>>> >
>>> >MAQUIAVEL: A quem importa o por quê? Estabelecido
o fim de cruzar a
>>> estrada,
>>> >é irrelevante discutir os meios que utilizou para
isso.
>>> >
>>> >FREUD: A preocupação com o fato de o frango ter
cruzado a estrada é um
>>> >sintoma de sua insegurança sexual.
>>> >
>>> >DARWIN: Ao longo de grandes períodos de tempo, os
frangos têm sido
>>> >selecionados naturalmente, de modo que, agora,
têm uma predisposição
>>> >genética a cruzar estradas.
>>> >
>>> >EINSTEIN: Se o frango cruzou a estrada ou a
estrada se moveu sob o
>>> frango,
>>> >depende do ponto de vista. Tudo é relativo.
>>> >
>>> >HEMINGWAY: "To die. Alone. In the rain."
Abraços do Lúcio Jr.
Ops, John, it was your grandfather´s book that inspired Fernando´s poem.
ERNESTO NO ERA TU ABUELA!
He will be very happy to see this poem here.
aBRAÇOS DO LÚCIO JR!
Ciao Lùcio,
you're right "grandpa", not "grandma";-)
Abraços,
John
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