A Tweet from the magazine Business Ukraine::
Russia is deliberately setting fire to Ukraine’s grain fields. This follows similar target airstrikes on Ukrainian grain storage facilities. Putin is openly weaponing global hunger in his war of annihilation against Ukraine.
A Grave Threat
Jay Nordlinger in NRO wonders, has the media collectively forgotten the Russia/Ukraine war? Not to mention the worldwide problems we are facing: spiraling food, energy, and gasoline prices?
An Unfunny Threat
Mr. Nordlinger reports that Russia is committing comic book evil against Ukraine and its people. Only, as Mr. Nordlinger offers, the situation is not funny. He continues, why isn’t Ukraine more of a worldwide cause? Actually, Jay admits, he does know.
… the answers are painful to elaborate, and, in any case, I and others have done it many times before.
The Russian onslaught is an ongoing emergency for Ukraine, yes, but it is also a grave threat to the broader world, whether the broader world knows it or not. And Putin apologists in free countries are so contemptible, they can barely be spoken of, at least by me.
How Serious Is the War?
Vladimir Putin can’t stand a democratic example on his border, continues Nordlinger.
It might give Russians ideas. Also, he seeks to restore as much of the Russian empire, or Soviet empire, as he can. He is frank about this. Putin is yet another dictator who is redrawing international borders by force.
Victor Davis Hanson writes in American Greatness of the “idle talk and threats about nuclear warfare.” More talk, he says, than in the 73 years since the Soviet Union got the bomb. In a rational world, VDH continues, there would be two Western agendas amid the Ukraine War:
- How to aid the Ukrainians to resist Russian aggression without destroying the entire country.
- How to do so without either provoking or allowing Russia to use a nuclear weapon, or encouraging other powers like China to consider such alternatives.
Had Enough of Government Overreach?
Then take, as Dutch farmers are, to the streets.
Samuel Dutschmann in Spectator explains:
Green Tyranny at Work
The government of the Netherlands, in order to fight climate change, recently proposed a 50 percent cut in ammonia and nitrous oxide emissions by 2030 — which will disproportionately impact the agricultural industry. Small farms are thus faced with two choices: shutter entirely or face poverty after culling their livestock.
The Dutch government is not sympathetic to these concerns. In their words, “The honest message…is that not all farmers can continue their business.”
The Dutch are standing with the farmers in droves. Civilians are joining the blockades. Crowds at concerts are cheering the protest. The previously minor farmers’ interest political party, BoerBurgerBeweging (BBB), has never been more popular. Polish, German, and Italianfarmers have demonstrated in solidarity, threatening to drive to their own nations’ capitals to put pressure on the European Union.
No Farmers/No Food
The farmers have thus forced Europe to recognize an oft-forgotten reality: no farmers, no food. If they don’t stand with the farmers now, already high food prices will increase exponentially.
Yet the government has stood its ground despite mass support for the farmers. Schoonhoven, a protest leader, told a press conference that their demonstrations “always happened within the limits of the law. But the result is that we are laughed at by politicians. That is why we continue to campaign, but in a way that the Netherlands has never seen before.”
The only concession the government has made is the appointment of a mediator, Johan Remkes. However, farmers see this pick as indicative of the root problem: Remkes was involved in the guidance document used to justify clamping down on farmers
It may surprise you (it did me) to learn that the Netherlands produces four times more nitrogen pollution than the European average, due to its intensive animal agriculture. From Andrew Stuttaford in NRO, “The Netherlands is the largest exporter of meat in Europe and the second largest exporter of food overall after the United States, a remarkable feat for a nation half the size of Indiana . . . . Experts attribute the nation’s success to its farmer’s embrace of technological innovation.”
The Dutch Spirit of Independence
Mr. Dutschmann reports on how strong the Dutch are standing with the farmers in droves.
Civilians are joining the blockades. Crowds at concerts are cheering the protest. The previously minor farmers’ interest political party, BoerBurgerBeweging (BBB), has never been more popular. Polish, German, and Italian farmers have demonstrated in solidarity, threatening to drive to their own nations’ capitals to put pressure on the European Union.
Politicians Laugh at the Farmers
Even though the demonstrations happen within the limits of the law, the result is that we are laughed at by politicians,” reports one demonstration leader. That is why, according to the leader, “we continue to campaign, but in a way that the Netherlands has never seen before.”
The farmers still show no sign of backing down. In fact, their protests are gaining ferocity. Recently, they issued plans to occupy many of their nation’s metropolitan areas. They’ve already arrived at many locations, including outside the Senate building at The Hague.
The Irony of “the People’s Party”
Yet Mark Rutte, the Dutch prime minister and leader of the ironically named People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy, isn’t learning his lesson. The same nation that revolted against the Spanish yoke and ushered in the Dutch Golden Age is now rediscovering that revolutionary spirit.
As for Rutte, he’s only asking for ruin.
Does Rutte not remember what the Dutch farmers do? The farmers remember well the catastrophic green energy consequences in Sri Lanka.
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