Cogitation in the Time of War #29 - West and East

It's been 7 days since last cogitation and probably it will be another 7 days before I publish the next one. Tis the season of spring holidays (May vacations as they call it here in the Low Countries) and after 2 years of restricted travelling (although we did cross the "big pond" at the end of last summer) we needed this as a family. I also needed to go on a road trip as the other day I realised that driving more than 100 km in a single trip had become a rare occurrence, let alone the more than 1000 km road-trips we did so often before having the kids...

But well, moving one from this personal take, it's time to cogitate a bit about Putin's (Failed) Invasion of Ukraine and how the situation has been developing. Just some thoughts and not a complete coverage of the last days (or even weeks).

Finally the formula to make her satisfied (and get laid regularly)

So during my daily browsing on the social media (Facebook, in this particular case) I came across an article from IFLScience (previously I Fuckign Love Science) entitled The One Day A Month When Women Most Love Sex, And Other Fun Facts About Sex (I Fucking Hate sentences with all words starting in caps!).

This is not new, the Facebook page from this entity is constantly resharing older stuff, and in this case this was initially published in June 2017 (almost 5 years ago, in this day and age, an eternity), but I don't remember reading it before. In case you don't want to fully read it, this is based on data collected from the Glow fertility app so it is based on real feedback provided by women themselves and like any other study or survey is flawed but should give a nice idea that is at least approximate to reality (at least for the countries where the app is used and data was collected).

La France comme prévu

 

Results are only partial as the moment I write this but the projections after the polls close in France have been very precise and no major surprises happen. As far as I know, people already accept the projections including Le Pen that has conceded, albeit considers a win the highest voting received by her party (the far-right that is now the less extreme).

This shouldn't have been a surprise, even though earlier polls suggested a closer election. But after the 1st round, where Macron got more votes than 5 years ago, to me it was much more likely. The next projections showed an increasing margin and the vote was clear. France stays in the same path and to me that is the best for us all; Le Pen would destabilise the EU and of course the current geopolitical situation in regards to the West stance on Russia and that to me could be catastrophic in some ways.

Cogitation in the Time of War #28 - About the refugees situation

When I shared in the Cogitation #26 my desire to help more on the humanitarian side, with the most visible aspect being the refugees who arrive here, fleeing from the war, my friend Marisa sent me a warning message where she stated that we need to use caution and common sense. She personally knows of (at least) one case where the family hosting refugee(s) ran into problems and she finds the help countries are providing now to be disproportionate when compared with other refugees from previous years who still face different obstacles and no one seems to care about them anymore. I cannot comment on the specific situation she knows about, as I have no knowledge of the facts (I only know that it happened, not what happened) but to me it's not surprising that situations like this happened and will continue to happen here and there, situations where refugees will abuse the goodwill of those who are helping them; we are talking about people so they are not all angels, some might be demons. And it's also very obvious that with the current crisis there is a much greater willingness on the part of other Europeans to help Ukrainians, when compared to others, but not only this is due to the proximity factor (physical, ethnic, cultural and religious at least) but also this refugee situation is different from the other refugee crisis that Europe has faced before.

Cogitation in the Time of War #27 - The medium-to-long term positive outcome

As I have written several times, twice here on the blog (Cogitation #21 and Cogitation #24) but I think that I have been sharing the same ideas on Facebook and/or Twitter, I've been thinking since the early stages that the final outcome of Putin's Invasion of Ukraine would be very positive in the medium-to-long term  (i.e. it won't be in the first months after the conflict ends) with overall future improvements for all parties involved, including Russia.

But every now and then, and in particular as a result of certain developments that occur, I'm worry that my positive prediction wont happen and that the World will step back a few decades to a new cold war, or even worse. Although when I think about the worst, I go back to a comment my brother made a few weeks ago, who told me that he thought the omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 was kind of a natural protection that was given to us to gain more immunity to a new super-pandemic that will appear in a few years: him thinking of a new epidemic like the COVID-19 means that most of us will still be here and didn't go to hell in a nuclear holocaust...

Easter is now for me a conflicting period

It was 3 years ago, in 2019, that I realised that I shouldn't classify myself as a catholic, not even a christian. It was in April that I was going through a period of freedom, and that makes sense since April for us Portuguese is the month of freedom (the Carnation Revolution that ended 48 years of authoritarian dictatorship) and so I decided to get free of my religion. No longer believing in a God (which I had doubts ever since my teenage years), not even an higher power, also already convinced since some years before that the resurrection of Christ was a political decision, it made no sense to continue celebrating religious festivities. Of course, I had more than 30 years of being a catholic and all the cultural tradition of Easter so this is why I'm still conflicted when the Holy Week arrives.

Meet the team

Did you know that The Works of BaKano, and the other blogs and social channels (check the Linktree), can only happen because we are a team of 4 different persona, each handling a different aspect of the real and social life, although all of them share something (or a lot) in common?

Yeap, that is (definitely) true, so let's introduce them:

So, I made a question on Twitter...

As I wrote somewhere the other day, I had sort of given up on Twitter some years ago as it had been described as a toxic environment. I didn't follow many people also so I didn't see any good in going there, but I re-discovered it after Putin's Invasion and quickly realised that Twitter is indeed the place to get the quickest updates on events such as this, if you know where to look. You also don't have that toxicity of posts, shares and comments that are all over the place; again if you know what to follow. But I digress...

It's been a while since I follow Justin King, in theory a journalist that used to be a military contractor (and if I'm not mistaken married a military woman), but that now just describes himself as Guy on YouTube. I've shared many of his videos, in articles here but also in my Facebook page. You might know him as Beau of the Fifth Column and he's of course on Twitter as well.
It was in Twitter that I noticed several references from north-americans to Waffle House, being used almost as analogy or metaphor to some situations or reactions. I noticed that Waffle House was a chain of restaurants (as in a place to get food) but couldn't understand why all the side remarks and comical mentions to it, so I asked a question on Beau's twitter and the floodgates opened...

Cogitation in the Time of War #26 - I want(ed) to do more

I've never considered myself one of those people who are ready to jump on top of things and act, but after my volunteering experience, and after noticing my natural reaction to requests for help (sometimes from people I barely know), I think I'm not so passive and indifferent after all. And I never thought I was courageous, even thinking I'm a coward in several frightening situations (although fear is what keeps us safe, when fear doesn't paralyze us, at least).

But since the war in Ukraine started, I've had a feeling of powerlessness, because one thing I believe I always had inside me is that strong sentiment that there comes a time when you have to do something,  to stand up to someone, that you have to get up and be willing to receive the hits but also deliver them. And that's how I've felt since February, 24th. It was almost like a revelation; what awoke in me was a feeling that we were witnessing a crucial moment in our history, something very similar to the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany, a moment that could bring the return of dark times all over Europe. And I have 2 small children, the last thing I want is for them to have to go through a period and live in a world that is worse than the one I've lived in so far, because if there's one thing I really believe, it's that we always have to aspire for better and more.

Cogitation in the Time of War #25 - Enough with this surrender talk

After finally completing my long take on the (a little more than) 1 month of Putin's Invasion of Ukraine I was ready to start talking less about geo-political and more about the humanitarian side. This was after a conversation (via messaging) with a Polish published writer and journalist that actually has family roots in Ukraine, because it is more relevant to talk about something that really relate to us instead of making all these high level analyses and thoughts, when I don't have the proper experience for that. As the ones that know me for some time are aware, I spend a lot of time studying subjects and always have a strong opinion that I want to share. And although they are not many, there is also those who count on me to keep them up to date in this complicated issues, so I feel the responsibility to continue sharing about what is happening. But in an attempt to avoid misunderstanding, as these texts of mine are my opinion and only my own, most of the times written throughout the day and completed when I'm lying in my couch or bed, I wanted to try and bring less convoluted subjects and stick to what is more important, the basic thing, the one that all of us can relate to: the human suffering.

And all of the sudden the weekend came and all hell broke loose! Russians retreated from the Northwest and Northeast of Kyiv and most of us were hit by a punch to the stomach, when we realised that the human suffering was way worse than we thought!