tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8304928500646903522.post8791093758847523211..comments2024-03-28T00:11:33.489-04:00Comments on bensozia: Refugees and the Difficulty with Having a CountryJohnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01037215533094998996noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8304928500646903522.post-37539443776883515352022-03-29T13:35:02.687-04:002022-03-29T13:35:02.687-04:00There are two things which I'd want to comment...There are two things which I'd want to comment in this talk. First, situation in Poland; second, whether Putin really wants create refugee problem. Sorry for chaotic writing and errors, I am falling asleep as I write - the F16 (I think) were flying over my head since 5:30am<br /><br />Government is not far right and is not anti-immigrant. In context of Polish politics, it's quite regular boring Polish right. We have Confederates which are much more to the right from the Law and Justice (and while they include some far right, there are political parties even MORE to the right). As for immigrants, Law and Justice are in fact very pro-immigrant (when seeing the policies and effects) - worth to stress however _immigrants_, not refugees. It just caters to certain kinds of immigrants. In fact, this Farah Stockman should notice that it would be very strange to have anti-immigrant government and somehow at the same time having million-plus Ukrainian immigrants living in Poland before the crisis started.<br /><br />Moreover Ukrainians are really not that different. The language is similar, they look almost identical, they share with us good part of the history.<br /><br />One thing to consider is that right now most support was grassroot - from the individual efforts by people to at most efforts by some counties. Government support is meagre, but I think not because of bad will, but because they are really not that competent. They passed bunch of laws which seem to be beyond critique. For example, all Ukrainians are getting free public transport, no matter how long they lived in Poland. Whether this is reasonable or not is one thing, however it seems that even trying to start a discussion what would be best way to help Ukrainians given our resources is met with storms of outrage (recent example: during a panel on refugees one rightwing journalist said something in the sense of "come on, on this panel we should discuss this without emotion, because this is not program 'open your heart'" to which he was countered with "but it's neither a program 'who is the biggest 'motherf*r'"). <br /><br />My neighbours accepted an Ukrainian family btw. A grandparents with two grandchildren (their parents are divorced). My wife already digged all the shoes and fitting clothes we had, because the children left everything back in home.<br /><br />As a side note, if Fara Stockman talked to the people from the Warsaw' mayor entourage, she has very skewed perpective. Trzaskowski loves to blame everything on everyone else.<br /><br />As for the refugee issue, there is a question whether Putin really believes what he says. If - and this is not really big if, BTW - he really thinks about Russians in Ukraine being "culturally genocided" then he might want to get people, and using heavy artillery etc is just a way to force Ukraine to surrender. I am not sure the refugee crisis is his intended goal. I think it's possible he still thinks he can get most of Ukraine. I've read gossips about preparing a referendum for establishing another people's republic in Kherson.szopenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02234132446740838968noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8304928500646903522.post-22880731167552581802022-03-29T09:31:46.321-04:002022-03-29T09:31:46.321-04:00This entire line of thinking seems at odds with th...This entire line of thinking seems at odds with the fact that Russia doesn't like how Ukraine is seeking closer ties with the West. For whatever theoretical friction this might produce within Western countries, it has just as much potential (if not far more) to simply draw Ukrainians and other Europeans closer together through shared experience.<br /><br />If your goal is to isolate two groups of people, how does it make any sense to create a situation which forcibly brings the two of them as close together as possible? This is going to build far more bridges than it strains to the breaking point.G. Verlorennoreply@blogger.com