Tragic News Predawn
[Bar Baraban in Kiev on 2/18/16]
Luckier than many, I look forward to each day, so getting up is my favorite activity. Often leaving my dwelling before the sun rises, I soak in all activities with elation and gratitude. In Vietnam, this means hearing birds, roosters, street sweepers and other early risers. In the dark, they exercise or walk briskly.
During my six months in Tirana, I was daily astounded by the Skanderberg Mountain Range, as seen from my 8th floor window. In Cape Town, it was the Table Mountain as I walked out my door. In Phnom Penh, the sight of the Central Market’s dome never failed to cheer me. Seeing it each morning from my Zing Hotel room meant it was time to hit the still dark alleys. In Pakse, the earliest light would reveal Amor Fati Cafe across the street. Sometimes, an old, hobbling woman who rarely strayed from her block would look up to see me. On the ground floor, Sơn and Thảo, meaning Mountain and Grass, would be busy setting up their hotel’s restaurant while getting their kids ready for school.
This morning, my usual elation was punctured and poisoned by the horrible news Gonzalo Lira had been murdered. Abandoned by his government and mocked by gleeful cowards, Lira had been tortured to death by a regime fronted by a corrupt clown and sustained mostly with American money.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on 2/24/22 was merely a belated reaction to the American orchestrated Maidan Revolution of February 2014. Like Jews, Uncle Sam routinely inverts reality, so the destruction and humiliation of Ukraine, now in its final chapter, would be rebranded “The Revolution of Dignity.” Visiting Ukraine just two years later, I witnessed a society already on its knees, with its young men farcically sacrificed in a self-destructive war against Russia. The main American architect behind this was the Jewish Victoria Nuland. Since her grandfather had been forced to flee his native Odessa, Victoria was exacting payback, plus outrageous compound interest, but there were other factors.
