Silent and sidelined

President Zelensky is not alone. But he feels utterly alone, from the look of it.

Silence is complicit.

Russian are now swayed into believing Russia needs to invade for its own survival.

One side got silent treatment, the other feels sidelined by NATO and ROW.

Take the physical and emotional toll of war out of the equation, history will only show this time, our time – albeit just a byline – that we are all complicit, watchers of news and bystanders as life flows on through our vein.

We are robbers of others’ quest to life.

A binary choice.

Either we condemn this senseless return to former Soviet (by force) or we are all in for North Korea, China and other Strong-man States.

Leave your freedom of choice at the altar of the Dictator, who would choose the colour of our uniform and state his preference for our collective leisure and living.

In the West, at least, we are inoculated with not indoctrinated by propaganda given an array of choices and spins. First with print, then broadcast news, then cable news and radio talk-shows. Of late, it’s pop-up ads and robotic calls.

State-run media will only show “what we think is good for you: broccoli and spinach variety”. Show not:

Children of war

War displaced

War refugees

Migrants and homeless.

A new band of vagabond, the size of Chicago, is instantly created. Out of destruction and displacement.

By a cold and calculated strategic move, under the guise of former glory.

The Soviet Dream.

Overshadowed by one man’s ambition and attempt to bend history.

He must have come up with this Romanov-istic and Romantic course of action during one of his outings and tannings.

“I could be great and bring others with me” (“Today, you will be with me in Paradise”).

So he headed back to the drawing board, always looking at the world map. With a marker.

Very much like Trump and his weather map. Here, here and here.

Foot soldiers, Ready on your mark.

March. March. March. (or in this case, roll, tank, roll).

And so it goes. The world no longer looks at the map of Covid spread. It’s tank and pink spread in Ukraine instead.

I saw a picture of Jeep cemetery in Okinawa. One day, there will be Soviet tank cemetery, along side with Ukrainian mass grave. Again, another footnote to history. But this time it involves you and me. It says no where we were active participants. Either for or against.

Or we were just walking dead, symbiotically extracting nutrients from this Earth to survive while consuming news at home and abroad. We’re suckers whose eyeballs were monetised and whose attention gets auctioned up to Google highest bidders who sell us stuff, more stuff and more stuff.

News? what news? Zelensky is still alone, or feels alone. Like a Nighthawk drawing, a lone man at the diner’s counter, nursing his cup of coffee.

I feel for him. Pray for his strength and resilience. How long can a man last in this circumstance? How long can anyone last? A cold and calculated contest of will, if not ideology. And the world stood by, sidelined by mis-information or over-informed with trivial details at the expense of the big picture: history doesn’t care one way or another. It’s just a hiccup in the span of time. And we have already given up before it begins.

Our fight. Our choice. Yet, by default, we check the box: I am not in. I am a complicit. An unbeliever in justice. A bystander in history. A consumer of digital news, radio talk shows, customised email fundraisers, spam-likely calls and robo calls. Pop-up ads and side-bar ads. I am a sleepwalker on the way towards the end of my own rope.