Thanks Amazon.

It was such a a pleasant surprise when I got an email from my publisher Amazon, saying my autobiography "Looking Back....." had been selected to be converted into an audiobook!

This is link:  https://www.audible.com/pd/LOOKING-BACK-Audiobook/B0CY2MZL4H. 

I listened to it and it sure has been well done using AI. 

This autobiography was written in 2015 but the Florida launch was  in October  2017. (Joan, my views: Florida launch of "Looking back...." (joan-myviews.blogspot.com).

 It has been doing quite well on Amazon as a paperback for years.

 I guess that's why they selected it for the upgrade to an audiobook. 

Thanks Amazon. It's a great listen😊.

Other Links; Joan, my views: Joan Williams, former local host, looks back to go forward (joan-myviews.blogspot.com)

Joan, my views: An excellent book review (joan-myviews.blogspot.com)

Youtube; Joan Williams - YouTube

Kick the dog!

 

I have noted some pathetic attempts in various media to validate Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. This unprovoked war has led to the murders of thousands of civilians in Ukraine including women and children plus serious instability worldwide.

Apart from creeping international inflation caused by the disruption and increases in oil prices, the war has also had serious repercussions in poor, drought ridden countries, where starvation is now rampant. They had previously been able to buy basic foods such as wheat and corn from fertile Ukraine, but the disruptions caused by the war, have driven up the prices of these products where they are available.

If it wasn’t so serious, it would be hilarious to see and listen to the excuses by the apologists whose reasoning seems steeped in nothing but the ‘kick the dog’ philosophy!

For those who are not familiar, the kick the dog reaction is most often used by cowards. For when one cannot confront the real source of their displeasure or hurt, they find the weakest thing to abuse and take out their anger.

Often this is a harmless dog lying around at home!

This philosophy shines clearly throughout the writings and reasoning of most who have come out in support of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

The latest attempt at justification was written by one Maxim Artemyev, a so-called journalist at the state-run media empire in Russia called RT. His piece published on 9th September, is entitled “The West took advantage of Russian weakness in the 1990s and is unable to understand the trauma it unleashed.”

It begins “A series of articles published in the Washington Post in August about the events leading up to Russia’s military offensive in Ukraine, and its first stage of operation, raise a significant question. “How realistically and objectively do people in the West perceive the situation?”

In putting forward his justification for the illegal invasion of Ukraine, Artemyev spouts a series of injuries/indignities he claims Russia suffered since 1985-1991, when Mikhail Gorbachev pulled the USSR out of the arms race and ended the Cold War.

In the long diatribe which wreaks with self-pity (as a Russian), he itemizes the various indignities, financial and reputational losses Russia has suffered since 1985. While doing so, he pointed an accusing finger at many in the west and NATO but reading it through carefully, I could find nowhere that the Ukrainians were the villains.

Clearly by his own admission, Ukraine is just the dog!

And he knows that too, since he places the blame squarely where it should fall, writing; “The collapse of historical Russia was the result of Gorbachev’s remarkably weak leadership and Yeltsin’s personal ambition, as the latter tried to consolidate power even if only over a smaller state.”

So, Mr. Artemyev, if the Russian empire disintegrated as a result of poor leadership in Russia, how does that justify the murder of thousands next door?

Maybe this article was intended to be a salve for those Russian readers who wondered why their brothers and sisters in Ukraine were being murdered by Russian soldiers and not for an international audience.

What is clear though is that Russia had expected the dog to run away whimpering, but instead, it is biting back!

So, the carnage and war crimes continue.

Ukraine is different!

"When elephants fight it is the grass that gets trampled." African proverb

There has never been a truer word, and lest we are inclined to forget, the recent events in Ukraine have brought this wise proverb center page.

Although many of us never heard of Ukraine until February 2022, that country cannot be categorized as an 'elephant,' in world affairs. But, this war is really being fought by the USA, the European Union (EU) and Russia.... real big league!

Anyway, as the African proverb said, its the grass or the less wealthy countries that are suffering the most.

For while the price of energy is skyrocketing because of the war, wealthy countries are better able to deal with such spikes. And since energy costs affect most things, crippling inflation will be on the rise almost everywhere.

Ukraine has also been a very fertile agricultural country, producing significant amounts of sunflower oil, barley, corn and other basic foods.

Just think of our and other poor countries dependence on corn meal as a basic staple! Either it will soon be priced out of our reach or there will be a chronic shortage soon. When corn and other basics are no longer produced by in large quantities by Ukraine, starvation and famine will surely escalate in poor dependent countries.

Let me state up front though that I support the USA and EU getting involved in the Ukraine situation, as the concept of a larger well-armed country invading a neighbor cannot be tolerated in civilized society.

It should never have happened in Iraq in 2003 when the powerful USA, supported by Poland, Great Britain invaded that little country on a false pretext.

It should never have happened in Panama either when the powerful USA invaded to take out their leader Manuel Noreiga who had stopped colluding with the CIA.  Some records say some 15,000 Panamanian were killed in that exercise.

So yes, modern history is replete with stories of big bullies invading less powerful countries on spurious grounds. 

What we are seeing today though is the level of racism existing in many influential media houses in the western world. 

For never before have innocent war victims been so deservedly humanized as have the Ukrainians,  from where the suffering of ordinary people been brought into our homes so graphically and regularly.

Each time I see a report out of Ukraine, I have to ask myself what makes the pain and suffering of the Ukrainian people at the hands of the blood thirsty Putin worse than the pain and suffering of Afghan, Iraqi children in the past at the hands of the USA? 

But they are still just a small sample of the innocent women and children who have been forced to flee their homes daily, often with just the clothes on their backs, in the face of bloodthirsty dictators worldwide..

According to the United Nations High Commission on Refugees, (UNCHR), there are today over twenty million refugees worldwide. Watching western television however, one would never get that impression, as no other race of innocent victims is being humanized anywhere. 

Only the Ukrainians need world sympathy and assistance one could easily conclude!

And are there really more Russian war criminals around than in other countries where innocent civilians are being wiped out ad infinitum?

Quite frankly, the only difference I am seeing every night is that its white Europeans who are suffering in Ukraine whereas in other conflicts it is 'people from shithole countries or as some may say "children of a lesser god."

As to the matter of international justice and punishing war crimes, Russia is one of the 144 countries that are members of the International Court of Justice, (an organ of the United Nations that deals with those matters) but neither the USA nor China are. 

Essay; 1 The Venezuelan experience

Every time I see the news coming out of Venezuela, it sends a chill down my spine. For events there today bring back the terrible memories of our own trials and struggles in the island of Jamaica during the cold war period, when the government of the day tried to impose socialism on the country. With that socialist thrust, came the threat of the loss of our sacred freedoms including freedom of the press, religion and association.

Our dangerous period begun with the imposition of a state of emergency under which, like in Venezuela today, opposition politicians and activists were arbitrarily detained without charge and attempts were made to prevent the independent press from functioning without governmental interference.

On another level, the experiment with socialism led to massive foods shortages, loss of tourism revenue, hyper-inflation, government-sponsored violence and general oppression. Eventually these rapidly deteriorating conditions led to an undeclared civil war in Jamaica which lasted some four years, causing the deaths of thousands of people.

In the wake of the decline in the economy and pervasive violence, came the self-exile of many of our most valuable people including professionals, both small and large entrepreneurs and many members of the middle class. Up to today, some 30 years later, the Jamaican economy still struggles because of the departure of such valuable persons.

During that period (from 1976-1980), the Michael Manley government was overtly propped up by the Russian KGB and Cuban DGI. The American CIA was also alleged to have been involved in assisting the opposition. If they did, I have nothing but praise and gratitude for them, especially today when I see how rapidly conditions are deteriorating in Venezuela .

At the time the disruptions were taking place in Jamaica, I had only recently become the mother of two young children but when I saw the threat to our freedoms which begun with the locking up of elected opposition politicians and activists, the threats to press freedom and other freedoms plus  how my family had to suffer because of the shortage of basic foods, I put my own safety on hold to get involved.

While the violent battles were being fought in the streets with weapons allegedly supplied by the covert agencies, I hit the ground taking part in the regular peaceful demonstrations while using both radio and the print media to not only spread the opposition’s position to the wider public but also to keep up the pressure on the government.

I have visited Cuba four times since 1980, (the last time being in 2014 when I went there to meet family that I had subsequently learnt lived there) when we held an election that ousted the socialist government from power, and every time I visited or see the news coming out of Venezuela today, I say a silent prayer of thanks that we were able to avoid their fate.

I continue to pray that the Venezuelan people will keep up the pressure and be as successful as we were in ousting the socialists and restoring democracy. And I hope that those who are in the position to assist them, will do so.