They Fight and We Create
Poetry
Nidhu Bhusan Das
The screaming news
headline: Dance of Death and Destruction. Beautiful alliteration. Poetic
indeed! We can create poetry out of death and destruction because we are humans,
civilized animals with wonderful war technology to fight with, even to
annihilate our race unwittingly, when we are mad for having domination. Old
Kaspar, the grandpa cannot tell his grandchildren why they fought at Blenheim.
He only can say: “But what they fought
each other for, / I could not well make out; /But everybody said,"
quoth he, / "That 'twas a famous victory”. (The Battle of Blenheim by ROBERT SOUTHEY).
It is absurd that man
destroys man, civilization exterminates civilization. Now the absurd drama is
being enacted in Ukraine, the sovereign state that emerged on 16 July 1990 out
of the dismantled USSR. In point of territory Ukraine is the second largest (in
point of population seventh) state in Europe just behind Russia which has
invaded the country.
Russia has invaded Ukraine for
reasons best known to President Vladimir Putin. Mr
Putin is obsessed with the fall of the Soviet Union and its aftermath. He
cannot bear with the post-Cold War reality as it is perceived that Russia is
not taken to be a great power. This obsession could be a reason for his
adventure into neighbouring Ukraine.
Two Pro-Russian rebel regions of the
country, Donetsk and
Luhansk, have been recognized by Moscow as independent. Soon after, the United States announced financial
sanctions against the rebel territories. The European Union (EU) is set to
follow suit. These two regions declared
independence in 2014. After seven years Russia is the only country to recognise
their independence so far.
We have to wait and see how far the Russian invasion will bear
fruit and whether the fruit will be bitter for Moscow as it was in Afghanistan and
then for the USA. The misadventure of the USA in Vietnam in the last century is
also a grim reality to look back. Or, will the Russian action and further
muscle flexing lead to another global war which will leave no one winner but
humanity defeated?
Meanwhile Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky is getting to be a legendary figure offering
inspirational leadership. He has
rejected American offers of an exit to safety.Ukranian embassy in Britain claimed
Zelensky told the US: "The fight is here. I need ammunition. Not a
ride." Zelensky said that his countrymen had manifested the courage to
defend their homeland and save Europe and its values from a Russian onslaught. He
warned the rest of the world that although he and his country were in the
firing line, he was waging a fight on behalf of worldwide democracy and
freedom.
Will the Russian incursion into
Ukraine have a global dimension? We may only wait and watch. Let us hope
against hope with poet Pablo Neruda that war mongers would put on clean clothes
and value brotherhood:
“Those who prepare green wars,/wars with
gas, wars with fire,/victories with no survivors,/would put on
clean clothes/and walk about with their brothers/in the shade, doing
nothing.”
