Annuncation, 2022

 

Image Credit: The Annunciation, Alexander Murashko, shamelessly pinched from here. 

On this solemnity, when the Holy Father, in union with bishops around the world, will consecrate Russia and Ukraine to the Immaculate Heart and beg for peace, a Ukrainian Annunciation. 

Read the text of the announcement and you'll see he is consecrating all humanity, and Russia & Ukraine in particular. Don't know about you, but I could certainly use the boost. 

In my diocese e'rrbody is getting in on the act. I received at least 14 announcements of this from various entities yesterday alone. So I'm sure you can find a place to join in in your neck of the woods. But if not, here's the prayer, which everyone will say at approximately 6:30 pm Rome time, 1:30 pm EST. 

As a pious daughter of the Church, I welcome this act of faith and worship and sincerely believe it will bring much-needed grace into the world. The Father knows how to give good gifts to his children. 

As an on-line Catholic, I trust this peace-making act will bring about the cessation of hostilities over John Paul II's consecration of Russia in the '90s. Now we can begin arguing about this one!  Oh, and P.S., it's a rare "Meat Friday," where the joy of the solemnity overtakes the mandatory Lenten abstinence. 

Update: Here is the Holy Father's homily for today. It's a good one!

Putin Takes A Page from Kim Jong Un

Have you seen The Twelve Labors of Putin -- his birthday gift to himself? 

Shamelessly pinched from the story.

This has got to be the best obsequy from a sycophant since Stalin: 

As seen here, backing peace in Ukraine, Mr Putin is painted as a strong leader by the group. "We the people have trusted the leaders of Russia: the tsars, the emperors, or general secretaries of the Communist party," Mr Antonov told the BBC. "Vladimir Putin continues that tradition. He is a hero of the people."

My Spy in Ukraine

I don't actually have a spy in Ukraine, but I do have a Ukrainian friend, and told her I'd love to know her take on events in the Crimea.

As "her take" and that of her contacts in Ukraine, she sent me these two links. This, written by a family friend: The Ukrainian Struggle: Freedom with Dignity Over Corruption & Power.

In perhaps what may turn out to be one of those epic twists of historical irony, Western talking heads will be shocked when Ukraine emerges unified with no real ethnic divisions between Russians and Ukrainians: they will have missed the boat in the same way Western analysts missed the collapse of the USSR. George Bush the elder perhaps best exemplified this myopia in his infamous Chicken Kiev speech before the Ukrainian SSR Parliament in 1991 when he labeled the aspirations of Ukrainians—themselves long-term victims of Russian nationalism—“blood-thirsty nationalism.”
Dignity is not something political scientists can easily quantify or characterize, so in most cases they are blind to the deeper sentiments driving events in Ukraine. Stephen Cohen displays his ignorance of local realities when he misrepresents Ukraine as “two countries”—playing into Putin’s aspiration to grab parts of it if cajoling Ukraine into the Eurasian Economic Union fails.

And this: A Divided Ukraine? from a Russian-speaking Ukrainian.

Many people in Crimea and eastern Ukraine don't want the protection of Russian President Vladimir Putin. But there are some who are afraid of forced Ukraineization because they have been fed propaganda by Russian TV channels for years. The purpose is to convince Ukrainians that we are divided, not one country, and that the safest course of action for Russian-speaking areas is to break away and join Russia.

These ideas have been cultivated since I was a child. I remember when I lived in Donetsk in the '90s, how scared we were that a candidate from western Ukraine would win an election and force us to speak Ukrainian. But when I moved out of the area of aggressive Russian information, I quickly realized I can speak Russian in Kiev or Lviv and no one will ever be upset with me!

Over our 22 years of Ukrainian independence, fears of language or ethnic persecution have never come true. But they were kept alive by Russian propaganda. We understand that Putin is trying to escalate tension and provoke civil war in Ukraine right now. He can't afford for a free Ukraine to succeed: His own people might get an idea that it's possible to overthrow a tyrant and build a prosperous country.

My friend tells me she burns every time she hears someone in the West say Crimea used to be part of Russia so it's no big deal. She wonders how many Westerners recall that Alaska was once part of Russia and are aware that Russian children are taught that America acquired Alaska illegally?

Make of it what you will. Meanwhile, WaPo reports that Crimea has set a referendum on joining Russia, a move President Obama has said would be "unconstitutional."

Ah, so he does know the Constitution!

Maybe Don't Worry So Much About Russia

Last week Paul Rahe brought me considerable calm regarding Russia & Crimea, pointing out that whatever Mad Vlad's aspirations are, he simply doesn't have the resources to pull off his plans, and is in fact depleting his own economy. America isn't Russia's enemy, Rahe argues -- we're not even rivals, since our only interest in Russia at this point is as a trading partner.  Russia does have an enemy, though:

Russia is suffering a demographic implosion. It will be difficult for it to hold what it has. It is, moreover, well nigh impossible to get Russians to move to Siberia. It is not a pleasant place in which to live. The majority of those who live there today are not Russian. Many of them are Chinese who have journeyed north in search of well-paid work; and China, which is just across the border from Siberia, is an economic juggernaut increasingly desperate for resources of the very sort that are found in abundance in Siberia.
Vladimir Putin should think hard about the precedent he is setting in the Crimea. The day may come when China does to Russia in Siberia what he is trying to do right now to the Ukraine in the Crimea. Putin's government piously states that its only concern is to protect the majority Russian population in the Crimea from the Tatars and the Ukrainians there. China, in time, will say the like about the Chinese in Siberia. And when that day comes, he will have alienated everyone of any significance who might otherwise have rallied to Russia's defense.

That rings true to me, as does this:

Our aim for the past seven decades has been to reorder the world in such a fashion as to make war counter-productive. The name of the game is commerce. The weapon we deploy is simple and powerful. Those who agree to leave their neighbors alone and to allow freedom of commerce can profit from a a world-wide economic system that will enrich everyone. Those who buck that system and opt for imperial ventures will be contained, weakened, and defeated.
This is a lesson that France and Germany have taken to heart. But Vladimir Putin is simply too dumb to notice.

Conclusion: this is not good for Ukraine and Crimea right now, but in the long run Putin's only hurting Russia. 

Deep breath, everyone calm down.

That was last week. This morning Rahe has a follow-up that's genuinely alarming. Maybe too much so, maybe it's just alarmist. But read not only the piece but the intelligent comments. The question is what China will learn from Russia's Crimea gambit --and Obama's manifest weakness. Rahe speculates that Taiwan might be in danger. His interlocutors think that's too much, but Japan's South Sea interests might be in real danger.  RTWT.