I don't doubt that you sincerely and passionately believe that Alun and that your motives for doing so are admirable. That doesn't however make it in any way objective or accurate. War is a political construct. Loss of innocent lives, on all sides, is all too often the deeply tragic human consequence of that.
Everyone should read this - Biden as the 21st century's urbane bull moose, has replaced talking softly with mumbling incoherently and replaced the big stick with the latest state of the art military technology - if this doesn't cause people to stop & think about why they are being coerced so strongly to support an allegedly neo-nazi regime in Kiev, then nothing will.
I really enjoy reading your alternative takes on the financial system, but take odds with your statements in this post that "The immediate cause was the country’s attempts at sovereign autonomy, as it shaped its foreign policy of non-alignment on the Ukraine war" and "Amidst the Ukraine crisis, the US and the Western countries have disregarded international norms", on two grounds.
1. Russia is the invading country here. Non-alignment (not taking sides) is alignment with the aggressor. Meeting with Putin and (not yet denied) supplying arms to Russia is not non-alignment.
2. In the context of Russia's invasion of a sovereign country, and extensive bombing and execution of civilian targets, there is no moral dilemma with excluding Russia and it's allies from participating in the global financial system, as their participation will allow them to continue to fund an invasion that is patently unjust. We should be encouraging all governments, companies and regulators to do everything in their power to cut of the flow of cash and weapons to Russia.
And yes of course we can point the finger at historic inconsistencies on the part of the US and the West in applying these principles, but that does not make it wrong to do so now.
There is only a wrong side or a right side in this atrocity. There is no middle ground. Ramaphosa and other "neutral" leaders should be 100% clear on this.
I don't doubt that you sincerely and passionately believe that Alun and that your motives for doing so are admirable. That doesn't however make it in any way objective or accurate. War is a political construct. Loss of innocent lives, on all sides, is all too often the deeply tragic human consequence of that.
Everyone should read this - Biden as the 21st century's urbane bull moose, has replaced talking softly with mumbling incoherently and replaced the big stick with the latest state of the art military technology - if this doesn't cause people to stop & think about why they are being coerced so strongly to support an allegedly neo-nazi regime in Kiev, then nothing will.
not sure why 1 more rand to the dollar is a disaster - please enlighten me - it seems like a 'tempest in a tea pot' from my prospective in canada
Most illuminating. May those with ears hearten to what you say!
Hi Ann.
I really enjoy reading your alternative takes on the financial system, but take odds with your statements in this post that "The immediate cause was the country’s attempts at sovereign autonomy, as it shaped its foreign policy of non-alignment on the Ukraine war" and "Amidst the Ukraine crisis, the US and the Western countries have disregarded international norms", on two grounds.
1. Russia is the invading country here. Non-alignment (not taking sides) is alignment with the aggressor. Meeting with Putin and (not yet denied) supplying arms to Russia is not non-alignment.
2. In the context of Russia's invasion of a sovereign country, and extensive bombing and execution of civilian targets, there is no moral dilemma with excluding Russia and it's allies from participating in the global financial system, as their participation will allow them to continue to fund an invasion that is patently unjust. We should be encouraging all governments, companies and regulators to do everything in their power to cut of the flow of cash and weapons to Russia.
And yes of course we can point the finger at historic inconsistencies on the part of the US and the West in applying these principles, but that does not make it wrong to do so now.
There is only a wrong side or a right side in this atrocity. There is no middle ground. Ramaphosa and other "neutral" leaders should be 100% clear on this.