Madden Mischief

Rita and I live in a condo on the beach.  We walk daily on the beach.  And a few nights ago, I was glued to TCM watching the 1959 film “On the Beach.”

“On the Beach” was produced and directed by Stanley Kramer starring Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner and Fred Astaire, but he wasn’t dancing or prancing.  Instead, Astaire was driving a racecar at breakneck speed not at all worrying about fatal consequences, in fact almost looking forward to them. 

The film takes place following World War III where Australia is the only temporary escape from the deadly radiation spreading throughout the world from all the nuclear bombs that had been dropped during the third and final World War III condemning those few still alive a brief time left on earth.  Those emotional final days were a sort of purgatory for some or just a chance to stick around a while longer maybe to fall in love, win a race, or catch one last fish from the overcrowded riverbanks. 

Somehow the film got me to thinking about that long-running harsh reality we’re seeing every night in TV newscasts “The Russia-Ukraine War” starring presidents Vladimir Putin, and Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 was reported on state-controlled TV in Russia back then as a “special military operation” in line with the government’s narrative as a mission to liberate, but most call it an unprovoked war waged by President Putin to fulfil his desire to reestablish a dominant Russian sphere of influence, block Ukraine from joining NATO and reclaiming territory he views as historically and culturally belonging to Russia.  

Putin sees no point in meeting with Zelenskyy

But I see thousands of points who are the children, the innocents who are being killed and seriously wounded almost daily in this conflict.

So far nearly a thousand children have been “liberated” from living on this planet and thousands more injured since the full-scale unprovoked Russian “invasion” of Ukraine on February 24, 2022.  Is there anyone who is less deserving of being murdered in cold blood than these poor innocent children?

Why are so many Ukrainian children being slaughtered by Russian drones and missiles?  What did they do to deserve such punishment?  Where is a U.S. Navy submarine commanded by stately Gregory Peck where they can hide out in till it’s over?

Fatal February

“War” btw is a word Russian media is banned from using along with “invasion” or “aggression” to describe the unprovoked attack.  And calling the war “unprovoked” would probably be a capital crime.  The bloody war in Ukraine began earlier in February 2014 with the Russian annexation of Crimea and subsequent outbreak of fighting in the eastern Donbas region.

On February 21, 2023, Putin suspended Russia’s participation in the New START nuclear arms reduction treaty with the United States. On March 25 Putin announced the stationing of tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus over which Russia would maintain control. Putin said on Russian TV: “There is nothing unusual here either. Firstly, the United States has been doing this for decades. They have long deployed their tactical nuclear weapons on the territory of their allied countries.”

In March 2022, 97% of Ukrainians said they had an unfavorable view of Putin, and 98% of Ukrainians—including 82% of ethnic Russians living in Ukraine—said they did not believe any part of Ukraine was rightfully part of Russia.

Also in 2022, two polls surveyed Russians’ sentiments about the “special military operation” in Ukraine and reportedly 71% of Russians polled said they supported the “special military operation” in Ukraine.  A poll published on March 30 in Russia saw Putin’s approval rating jump from 71% in February to 83%. However, experts warn the figures may not accurately reflect the public mood, as the public tends to rally around leaders during war and some may be hiding their true opinions, especially with the Russian 2022 war censorship laws prohibiting dissemination of “fake information” about the military. 

Many respondents do not want to answer pollsters’ questions for fear of negative consequences. When researchers commissioned a survey on Russians’ attitudes to the war, 29,400 out of 31,000 refused to answer. The Levada Center’s director stated that early feelings of “shock and confusion” were being replaced with the belief that Russia was being besieged and that Russians must rally around their leader

So, what does this add up to?

Is this war another movie in the making, maybe a real life one resulting in a few of us heading off for Australia to stay alive a little longer?  Funny, I once was there speaking at the Sydney Opera House where I introduced a client’s film about another casualty from hostilities, the ancient Maya civilization that once thrived in the Yucatan Peninsula and surrounding parts of modern-day Mexico, Guatemala Belize and Honduras from which I have some genuine art sculptures that you’ll see below.