During the height of the first world war, the Germans tried to secure a military alliance with Mexico. However, we were in the middle of a civil war and thus the proposal received little attention. Regardeless, the USA decided it would be a good idea to invade Mexico. I guess we were lucky they didn’t decide to steal (more) land.
From Galicia to Novgorod, the Rus were scattered through Europe. 801 years ago the Mongols crossed the Kalka river not far from the modern city of Donetsk and with this, 200 years of Mongol subjugation would start. The principalities of the Rus had a shared culture but not a common identity, making Mongol subjugation easy. They simply had to divide and conquer.
At the UN security council yesterday almost all counties gave trash speeches. This is to be expected, since the UNSC is a rather useless tool. However what stood out to me was a very touching speech made by a small east African country.
To paraphrase a bit what the ambassador of Kenya said:
“Africa is the product of decolonization, we did not chose our borders; we inherited them. With this burden our people got divided by artificial lines, and instead of using this as a potential vector for conflict, we have chosen to use this as inspiration to achieve greater cooperation and integration; this is the African way.”
One does not watch an UNSC meeting expecting a gem like this. A sobering lesson of humility and statesmanship. I encourage you to listen starting at 41:02.
Arguably the master work of Ilya Repin was the Reply for the Zaporozhian Cossacks. A painting that feels relevant to what is happening today in Europe. Long gone are the days or the Cossacks in the Dnieper, but their story is none the less immortalized.
Lastly a song for you:
“Praise the Lord, pass the ammunition. God wants you to go to war.”