The "Not In My Backyard" syndrome

 It was just yesterday that Putin addressed his people of Russia. He asked for mobilization of its reserve of up to 300,000 troops to support his 'righteous act' of helping the 'liberated territories' for a referendum to join the great Russia Federation. 

Immediately after his speech, airlines heading out of Russia became fully booked with ticket price sky rocketed. At the same time, protest against the "special military action" erupted over 41 cities.

Video 1. Street protest in cities of Russia against the invasion of Ukraine 

Video 2. Russians rushing out of their country

It is clear that these people know the invasion is wrong and that it is hurting their country. Even so, they stayed silent over the matter, they do not care that those brothers of theirs getting killed at the front line. 

It is only when Putin starts reaching for them that they decide to do something, be it fight or flight.

It is obvious that Russians feel no ownership of their country, they have no say as to where the country is heading to. they are left with their daily lives to look to and they are the only important person to them. 

As a result, they don't care about others, only their own wellbeing matters.

But I must say, it is a little too late to take action. Maybe it is time that they think hard and fight for what is right. It is their country, it is their responsibility, not just the government. They are accountable on what becomes of it.

Putin bring his country to hell

While watching some documentary about World War II, I came across clips on the final phase of the second world war. Both Germany and Japan have depleted most of their resources, including most of their troops. 

Their final resolution was to recruit citizens of teenage years. 

I saw on the video about Hitler inspecting the new recruits who were barely trained and too weak to even hold a gun. They were then sent to the front line to fight against the coalition and to be killed.

On the other end of the world, the Japanese officers saluting the latest group of recruits with Sake, then placed them into aeroplanes with no combat capability and strapped with explosives. They were sent to die in Kamikase operation, one plane one battleship.

I can see from the action of both countries over their desperation for a hope to reverse the progress of the war. They ran out of choice and yet unwilling to surrender, as a result dragging the future of the whole nation into oblivion with them.

fast forward to 2014, Russia invaded south of Ukraine and took control of its southern peninsular, no one was there to stop Putin. Came 2021 when Russia's economy seemed to be on a down turn, Putin tried to pull another fast one on Ukraine.

He would have succeeded if he stopped moving forward after capturing the eastern end of Ukraine. This time he got greedy, he thought that he could repeat 2014 but capturing the whole country. Why not? Afterall, Russia has never considered Ukraine as a sovereign country, it belonged to Russia.

He under-estimated the strong will of Ukraine to fight back, neither has he anticipated that US would take this opportunity to have it trapped in this "special military action" and in the process depleting its military resources.

Russia has now lost fifty over thousand military personnel, thousands military equipment and using up its missiles. This morning, Putin made a special broadcast to his people.

In his speech, he still tried to justify his action, demonized the west and Ukraine. He claimed to be helping the few "liberated territories" with referendum to be integrated into Russia and that he would call for enlistment of reserve troops to support the cause.

This man is without shame, lying through his teeth. those territories are part of Ukraine. Russia has no say in the direction of these area. It is Ukraine's call whether a referendum should be held at all.

The speech is in fact only mean to lie to the people of Russia in order for him to drag them to the front line. It is clear that he is running out of option and this is his last resort. 

The point here is: Am I to feel any sympathy for the men of Russia? 

Certainly not. they stood on the fence letting their fearless leader doing his bid to destroy Ukraine, letting up to 50,000 of their troops die on battlefield, yet not a single voice was raised to stop Putin. It is only right that they continue to support their leader to go all the way.

To be frank, Russia is already losing the war, or " special military action" with its regular army, who is supposed to be well armed and trained. Putin is not in his right mind when he thinks that with the addition of his reserve troops (with much less training and skill set) can turn the war around.

It is really Russian who need to think hard if they continue to support such a lunatic to go all the way or have him removed. Being silence only make them equally accountable for the crime that Putin is committing.

The craziness of China's Covid-19 lockdowns

 It was end 2019 that Covid-19 first detected in Wuhan China. Until the beginning of 2020, it was known as Wuhan virus, but because a lack of security in China, this virus was renamed by WHO. 

By March 2020, the world went into locked down because of this virus. People were made to stay home and daily life come to a stop.

It took 2 years for the virus to evolve into a less deadly form, even with the development of vaccine it is till this day not yet eradicated. Nevertheless, the present generation of the virus is safe enough for us to co-exist. Countries after countries slowly re-open, people allowed to continue with their lives and different parts of the world gradually re-connecting with each other, with exception of China.

China was the first to declare that they have cleared themselves of the virus and people were freed from their home by end 2020. Yet, strange as it may be seen, the virus continues its resurgence at different parts of the country leading to territorial lockdowns and people were made to go through compulsory Covid-19 testing. 

Contrary to the actions of other countries, China increases its knot on its citizens insisting on clearing the virus from China. Even with a single case of contraction detected, harsh action of district lockdown and daily covid-19 testing for residents of that district. It is even more interesting that the covid-19 cases occur at the economic zones such as Shanghai, Shen Zhen, Guang Zhou, Beijing and most recently back to Wuhan.

This is illogical, because the present generation of virus is no longer deadly and dangerous to the people. The country's economy was hit so hard by the virus, it is going to collapse with the present policy. 

As far as I can see, there are 2 fractions within the leadership, Li Ke Qiang who want to focus on improving the economy. He went to south to Shen Zhen spreading message to the people and local governments to push for business improvement and asked various provinces to submit their economic report.

The other fraction is led by Xi Jin Ping, he went to the North of China urging people to continue their fight for communist ideology. He insisted that the people must face and overcome their enemy, Covid-19.

We then saw that every province that Li Ke Qiang asked to push for business improvement would be followed  by discovery of Covid-19 cases and lockdown followed. This slowly led to people becoming restless and angry with process. Many were made to scramble to supermarkets, fights erupted during the process of grabbing for food and supplies.

Already many people are disobeying the lockdown orders. Whenever there is a lockdown, people came out to oppose the orders, breaking the barricade.

The worst happened when a level 6.8 earthquake happened in Sichuan, instead of allowing the people to escape to safety, the lockdown personnel insisted that lockdown continued to be enforced.  

Why is Xi Jin Ping insistent on eradicating the virus? Does he not know that continuing with the zero tolerance policy of the virus is going to kill the country eventually?

I believe Xi understand the devastation his policy brings, but why he still going forward with it?

Firstly, lockdown is a lucrative business, for every single district lockdown, the people in the district are required to go through Covid-19 testing on daily basis for at least 14 days. With cities taking turn in lockdown and test conducted in countless millions (or billions?), suppliers and labs stand to gain from such event. Are these companies link to Xi and his people? 

To be honest, I am not sure that this is Xi's intention, his interest is in power and not richness. He has a strong drive to push for pure communism, he wants to be in control, because he is insecure. 

As far as my understanding goes, the Chinese Communist Party is divided into multiple fractions, with continuous in fighting. It is possible that Xi has his own inner circle, and Li Ke Qiang is not in his circle. As such it is possible that Xi consider Li Ke Qiang as a threat and it is important that Li fail. This will explain why Covid-19 cases erupt and lockdown occurs where Li pushes to improve the economy situation.

However, it is also possible that there is another purpose for Zero tolerance policy, and hat Li is pushing for is in his way, Li needs to be removed.

There is a future event that is affecting Xi, the so call 20 People's Assembly happening in October this year.  It is an unwritten rule that Xi needs to relinquish his leadership and a new candidate to be selected.

Xi is fighting to continue with a third term in office and it is believed that many people are against him on this, especially when he screws up the country' progress after 8 years of leadership.

So what if people can no longer stand the lockdowns or economic devastation and decided to oppose the authority? Will that lead to people's rebellion against the party, as defined by the government? Will it be possible then that martial law be introduced and in the process his opponents can be removed by force?

It is a common trait of dictators to introduce martial law because his authority will be secured. Just look at Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, he managed to stay in power for more than 10 years after Zimbabwe economy collapsed. People live in harsh environment while he continued to enjoy his wealth.

Same thing with Sadam Hussen of Iraq, using his control of military to disable the parliament during the 70s, he was only removed by an external force in 2000s.

If he managed to continue his reign, I believe that the lockdown will end. If not, he will introduce stricter rules to force an up-rising, giving him reason to control China by force. When this happens, it is important that the military remain loyal to him.