I’m sure many of you have been watching and listening to the news these past weeks in regards to the chain of events that are unfolding in Ukraine. Many great historians have said the past repeats itself and I never in my wildest dreams ever would have considered a European country being basically invaded by a neighboring State. I was under the belief we were past the days of prospering nations compromising another nation’s sovereignty. I watch these events closely because once upon a time I did much reading of world history as well as commentaries written by people living during the time.
Since the Reagan era, we have moved to globalization of economies. Nearly no country is immune to world economic melt-downs should superpowers begin severing their ties with each other. Like they say, “It’s usually the little guy that gets hurt the most.” This invasion of Crimea under the auspices of freeing the endangered Russian community that lives there, reminds me of Hitler’s justification for invading the Sudetenland for a cloaked reason of “freeing” the German population. As we all know, he went on to invade many other countries and nearly set the entire world on fire. The United States economy during those war years was being stretched to the limit. The general population had to make daily sacrifices for the war effort. One thing that is different with Europe now versus then is that the European Union is now in existence. Yes, Germany is the financial powerhouse but each member State has pledged themselves to uphold standards that will now be tested.
I can’t imagine what the general population of Russia must now be thinking. Many people have been arrested, internet sites have been closed and likely the general population must be considering, “What next?” As one of the historians said after the breakup of the Soviet Union, “It may take more than one generation for the people of Russia to truly find real democracy. It’s in these times that I’m very thankful for living in the United States in spite of the troubles we have here at home. We sometimes take democracy for granted until we see what the nodding head of a dictator can do that affects millions. If this situation doesn’t get corrected, and corrected soon, we will be seeing more tit for tat actions that will indeed affect the global economies. I wouldn’t be surprised if those few super wealthy Russians are now finding ways to transfer assets outside their borders. I always thought it funny why so many wealthy Russians send their children to schools in other countries as well as purchase lavish homes outside their native land. It sort of makes you wonder if they had long ago expected troubling times ahead.
