A month ago, the Russian destruction machine started up in Ukraine. Putin hopes to go down in history as Tsar Vladimir the Great, but I think he will be remembered as Volodya the Terrible. Outside Russia, that is, because the words "invasion" or "war" are banned in Putin's new Greater Russian Empire, where a repression has begun that has not been seen since the years under Stalin or Brezhnev. Last month I wrote 'poor Ukraine', but it could just as well have been 'poor Russia': the people feel the pain of the repression and the sanctions, not the dictator in the Kremlin.
 |
| Aleppo |
There is another parallel with the 1930s. The West did frantic business with Putin in his role as an oil salesman and turned a blind eye to Grozny, Aleppo and Georgia. Pleasing this despicable man for his cheap oil and natural gas reminds me of the period when Europe turned a blind eye to the horrors of Nazism and did its best to appease Adolf Hitler. Neville Chamberlain, who stood elated in the doorway of his plane in 1938, waving a signed treaty authorizing the German invasion of the Sudetenland. Peace in our time: we know where that led to.
 |
| Peace in our time |
The refugee flow from Ukraine is comparable to the Syrian diaspora created by Putin's friend Assad. A Syrian refugee I spoke to years ago told me that at the time, in Aleppo the Russians were in charge. Aleppo, which was razed to the ground by Russian air raids. If you will not listen and surrender to my aggression, we will destroy you. Women, children, hospitals, schools, residential areas. Mariupol is Aleppo version 2.0. Remember Putin's remark about a fly in your mouth which you spit out. That is how he sees the women and children of Ukraine.
 |
| Mariupol |
Refugees, the EU and the Netherlands
A remarkable difference between refugees from the Middle East and Ukrainian refugees is that men, women and children from Syria and Afghanistan are not welcome within the EU. Preferably they are held in detention camps in Greece or stopped by Polish border guards at the Belarus border, where they had to camp out for months in the winter cold. Ukrainians may enter unmolested, even without documents. Why not the Syrians? Our constitution says that all people in similar circumstances are equal - apparently only if they come from Europe. In the Netherlands, Syrians and Afghans have to go through a lengthy and humiliating asylum process, as a result of which many will be disadvantaged for the rest of their lives.
 |
| Camp Moria, Greece |
It seems that equality of refugees in the Netherlands is mainly found in the degrading conditions in reception camps such as Ter Apel, where the Council is now threatening to close the place, because it is overcrowded, and at the same time they - believe it or not - won’t allow extra barracks on the site. There is now talk of dusting off an emergency law forcing municipalities to take in people and requisitioning any vacant real estate (good for you, real estate speculators!) so that refugees are offered decent housing. But it always takes an agonizing amount of time in this country.Government always hides behind due diligence on politically difficult issues - the same diligence that is unimportant when it suits the political leadership.
A new book coming soon
Due to the terrible state the world is in, I almost forgot mentioning that my new book Drie Meter Zand (Two Fathoms Deep) will be published soon. I lately invested a great deal of work in this together with the publisher. I will write more about that soon, but not in this same post. It might spoil your and my appetite.
