Tags
Crimea, Kiev, Putin, social commentary, Ukraine, world affairsm
It’s back in the news again, and now we are all hot and bothered by it. CNN, my go-to news channel, is running it non-stop. I guess there are no hurricanes or tornadoes for Anderson to cover. I have to wonder if the winter Olympics were not just over and if Kiev wasn’t burning, whether anybody would have cared if Russia walked into the Crimea, again. I wonder if we would have just chalked it up to another Black Sea mess.
The Black Sea region is prone to conflict. The Black Sea creates a bottleneck. It physically separates Europe from Asia and restricts movement -read as trade. Consider that Sevastopol is Russia’s only ice-free port to the world. We’re talking oil here, not caviar and vodka. Russia’s oil runs through Ukraine and Russia’s winter shipping runs through the Crimea. Russia protects her assets, and as Kiev has heated up, Russia has seen the need to protect her interests. The Crimea and the bottom right corner of Ukraine is 90% Russian while the top left section of Ukraine, including Kiev, is not. Ukraine and the whole region is ripe with organic friction — ethnic and geographical.
But this is not a history blog, and this post is not about horrent affairs. NO more than a couple of short paragraphs and a poem.
What is the meaning of this, we ask
As friction heats up the night
What is it called when, East meets West
Bubbling tensions Ignite
The bitter peasant refuses to fold
When Igor reigns in the North-South gap
His boots pound the crossroad
Connections overlap
Meeting place for the insane
A juncture of Idea
A tinder-box called Ukraine
Drive a fork into Crimea
Café Moi 