When War is Not an Ocean Away
Timely thoughts
I had originally scheduled a post on getting a mortgage in Portugal for today. But I have delayed it given world events. Perhaps I am weird, but I must admit, it feels different living on the same continent where a war is breaking out.
Denise Should Not be Permitted to Travel
As I write this it is Thursday morning, 24 February. I am in our apartment in VRSA with CNN playing in the background. Denise is landing in Miami, en route to a destination wedding in Mexico. As I read the news this morning, I had a flashback to 9/11. On that morning, I was about to board a flight in West Palm Beach, FL and she was on a golf course in Philadelphia. As I was about to board, the gate agent stopped me and said boarding would be delayed for a while. Since the US Air club was just across the hall, I decided to relax there until called. As I entered the club, I saw the receptionist crying and the second plane hit the tower. I immediately knew I would not be flying that day. I quickly retreated to my car and drove home listening to Howard Stern on the radio.
I sat in bed that day, blankets pulled high around my neck. What in the world is happening? What could I do? Should I donate blood? Denise’s brother-in-law worked in the financial industry in the City … was he okay? Again, what in the world is happening?
Regardless of nationality, you remember that day. Where you were. How you heard the news. How it made you feel. If you are an American, perhaps for the first time in your life, you felt vulnerable … we had been attacked.
At the same time, 9/11 was a terrorist attack … not an “act of war”.
War Happens in the Distance
For many of us, war is something that happens somewhere else. Europe, Korea, Vietnam, the Gulf, Afghanistan. If you have not lost a loved one, you see images on TV … but war happens in the distance … it is an ocean away.
I suspect, if I still lived in the United States, I would feel that way now. But I don’t and this feels different. I realize there is a lot of news coverage in the States. I know President Biden has tried to explain to the American people why they should care…how this will affect them. Those with investments surely will see the impact. But will bombs be dropped on American apartments and shopping centers? Will Russian tanks rumble down the streets?
A Conventional War
What makes all this seem even more unbelievable is that Putin has initiated a conventional war. Yes, there were propaganda campaigns and cyber attacks … but this is far beyond what many expected. One wonders, how “sanctions” can be enough? Sanctions certainly won’t bring back those buried in the rubble, or the soldiers trying to defend their homeland. Where will this end?
As I write, Jens Stoltenberg, NATO Secretary General, is holding a press conference. While condemning the invasion and voicing solidarity with Ukraine, his strongest, most unequivocal comments were only associated with defending NATO territory. But there is no doubt, just as the pandemic defined a “new normal” for all of our lives over the past 24 months … Russia’s invasion represents a “new normal for security” [in Europe].
Final Thoughts: Between writing and proofreading this post I took a walk. I always listen to podcasts when walking alone…this time, History this Week. I learned that it was 98 years ago, this week, that Adolf Hitler stood trial for his first attempt to seize power. He was given an unusually light sentence and would later say that this failure was “perhaps the greatest good fortune of my life?” I ask again, how can sanctions be enough?
If you are a long-time reader you know that my undergraduate degree was in Religion. I recall, quite vividly, reading the writings of Dietrich Bonhoeffer … a German ethicist who wrote that responsible people were called to action in the face of evil. (Dumbing it down: it was okay to shoot Hitler.) He not only wrote, but he also conspired to overthrow Hitler’s regime. Where is Bonhoeffer when you need him?
Next week: Portuguese mortgages and Portugal’s population challenges.
Thank you for writing this post. I sit in my cozy house in the USA with tears streaming down my face. My husband spent time in Kiev and Zaporizhzia in 2002 in an exchange with the National Press Association to help Ukraine set up a free press. I am so sad to think about what may have happened to the wonderful people who visited us here and who welcomed us to their beautiful country❤️
I’m listening and they say there is an eerie deafening silence in Kyiv and a reporter sees a lone person walking down the street as the Russians are tearing their way into the capital. How can it happen so quickly….
So unbelievable and depressing…. 😞 the poor people who are hiding from what is to come….