A 10 minute Stroll through a Village

I remember a television programme, years ago, highlighting the poverty to be found in rural Eastern Europe; poor folk who didn't have electricity or even mains water.  I suppose it was meant to show the failings of "actually existing socialism" although for me it was just a reminder of my Radnorshire childhood.  We certainly had running water - only recently mind and there were still standpipes for those not yet connected, while the old folk still talked with affection about Shinkin's well.  Electricity came later and I was already listening to Bob Dylan by the time we were connected to the sewage system.

So the devastated villages of Eastern Ukraine have something of a nostalgic feel for me, the unadopted roads, the outside toilets, sheds built with no input from planning authorities and gardens full of vegetables - we didn't have lawns or much space for flowerbeds either.  

The BBC and the mainstream media ignore the on-going war.  It doesn't fit their NATO/US State Dept dominated narrative.  Whoever heard of displacing rebels from populated areas with long-range artillery and fighter-bombers?  The familiar American lie "we bombed them to liberate them."  I suppose I could have picked a far more gruesome video to make a point. So many of the victims are old folk, pensioners, obviously lacking the necessary agility to seek shelter when the bombs fall..

In my opinion America is desperate to provoke a large-scale Russian intervention, they will sabotage any attempt to avert a new Cold War, which is the only hope of salvaging their busted economy.  The Kiev regime is still dominated by the blood nationalists and fascists of Western Ukraine, only too happy to ethnically cleanse Ukraine of its Russian speakers.  Europe, especially Germany, must decide if it wants to pursue an independent foreign policy or follow the usual Washington line. Interesting times, although you wouldn't know it if you followed the mainstream.