What is going on...?!

Hello, Sammy!

I also hope that Artemiy is safe these days. I can see that the last time he was logged in dates back to 30th of September, 2013, so let us hope that his absence from here is not directly related to the awful events that take place in Ukraine for some time now. Artemiy is from Kharkov and it is more or less safe there compared to the capital. I live in Kiev, the capital of Ukraine, so I can speak for the events and the safety matters myself. Your question "What is going on...?!" is the one we all keep asking. It is the chaos and the war like situation taking place with the fascists (members of right wing parties) trying to take control of the government. But that would be a very short and dry description. I must confess that living in Kiev these days is not safe since a lot of people that do not support the bunch of people from the Western Ukraine get under attack, both verbal and physical. The question is: what do the radicals want and who benefits from it all? The answer to the first part of the question is simple because the supporters of fascism only want to destroy and show the lowest and the cruelest faces of humanity. Now the second part is much more difficult since there are lots of various actors that want to separate Ukraine in few parts and use it's resources for their benefit. Everything is quite deep and there are certain opinions and apprehensions, aims and plans, but the events that take place in Ukraine these days are awful and we see the criminals and fascists raise their heads all over the country. It has to be stopped, but the problem is that the government does not react yet. Such things must be immediately taken under control. Otherwise it only gets worse...

-- Denis

Iceman:

I'm so happy to learn that Artemiy does not live in Kiev. I wonder whether perhaps he used to live there, because I seem to remember him saying that he did. But that is no matter -- as long as you are still alive and able to communicate, then he's probably okay too.

Artemiy and I have had some public disagreements over the years, but I have always maintained deep respect for him, his art, and his skill. Art is the sort of person who you fear will become more famous than you -- yet when he does, you know that you'll be cheering him on no matter what.

Anyway, keep us all posted. Things are definitely getting worse in Ukraine. I watch a ton of news on television, and I read tons of news on the Internet. I have also studied both Western and Eastern history, and I am all-too aware of how fascist forces spring up in the unlikeliest of places.

Stay safe.

- Sammy James

P.S. I'm still freaking incredulous as to how the world can be 1000 kilometers away from Kiev in Sochi -- celebrating hyper-steroidal 20-somethings in Spandex tights -- and yet are blissfully unwilling to do much to help the people of your great country. What is WRONG with us?!

Art.. I hope you and your family is safe, brother.. Keeping you all in our prayers..

May God have mercy and keep you safe.
I am from Romania, and we romanians are still learning from our mistakes.
After the taken Revolution, a people revolution that was transformed in a "coup d'Etat" , all the "ex"-party members show themself as a "new political clean mass" and made us believe they didn't have nothing to do with the Ceausescu system.
After years, the people discovers that every member of that first party was an ex-activist, and many more.
And now, after they sold EVERYTHING, from industry , to state companies, from natural resources, to anything for cheap money but with big commissions, they want to sell the land, to poison the land for other big bucks" in their pockets.

Take care, don't trust anyone, and remember, never let the politicians remove the laws that could make them pay for stealing.
Here, they steal billions of euro and after many years of investing the stolen money in their houses, affairs, only a few, 3-4 were arrested and made.. 3-4 , or maximum 6 years of prison, but WITHOUT CONFISCATING THEIR MONEY.
So, whatever they want, DON'T REMOVE THE CONFISCATING LAW.
And as last opinion, beware of the politicians that want to make state-in-state.
We have now in Romania, a new pack of laws that made the politicians "saints", nobody, from police to any kind of justice organization, can touch them.
Romania has voted in a Referendum , to make them only 300. Nobody cares.. They are now 588 parlamentars. Almost double.
And all they do, is sleeping, taking care of their affairs, steal, and making fun of us, the people.

I pray for peace, for kindness, for joy, and I respect that piano singer that have brought music, and joy, to all the ukraine people that were in the streets.
It's a hard time for Ukraine now... whatever you do, stay together... get power from your ancesters, and your children. For children , you should build a future, without fear, without enslaving them to foreign companies.

Here, there is a "quote" that made me remember, all those years after the romanian Revolution:

"What is a man, that have a job at the X multinational company, man that have loans at a Y bank that have 50% of their holding owned by the X multinational company, man that buy food and other stuff from a Z supermarket owned by the X multinational company ???
The man is the modern slave."

So watch out...
Watch out for everything that is foreign, asambled in a "shiny" "goodlooking" box.
Watch out for everything that could make you, Ukraine, a modern slave, that could make depend on foreign companies.
I have 25% ukrainian blood. My father's mother is from Ukraine. But borned here, in Romania, make me feel I am romanian, and I am proud of that.
still, I watch the news with my heart beating fast...
Take care, stay positive, stay together, stay unite, and above all, war is the last and most dangerous way of changing things, and the children are the first victims.

What is going on in Kiev right now has become the most important thing in my life.

- Sammy

I really hope it's not the start of the WW3. Every country is watching...
Everyone is praying for peace, but for liberty too.
The fact that democracy is on the edge of distruction, that the economy is in free falling, that the people can't make a living , can't survive in this kind of "modern enslavery", that every UE, NATO, Whatever unions are instable, take all of us to the point of thinking, WHERE IS THE WORLD GOING ?
We dump food to the garbage from bigs supermarkets, but there are still people that are starving...
We dump oil to the sea, but we spend money for cleaning the sea..
We kill nature, but we still need nature, we are living in matchboxes called Blocks, on 23meter/square, for wich we paying loans for 30-40 years, but there are lands, even cities unpopulated...
The world is changing...
The people are changing..
But are we ready?
Somebody said: "extraterestrial lifeforms are going to kill us? No, they have paticience, until we kill our self."

Thank you for all of your support and understanding! It means a lot to me and it gives lots of strength to know that there are people thinking the same way as you do miles and miles away from where you are. Thank you!

At first, I would like to talk about Artemiy. It may really be so that he used to live in Kiev, but from what I was able to read through the various sources, his place of residence is not exactly in Kharkov, but in the rural part of the region which may be a bit safer now from some point because a lot of what is going on now is done for the shock effect, for the picture, for the television and the increase of horror among people. I could see that after the long absence from any activity here, Artemiy finally logged in on 13th of February, so at least there was a sign of life from him. I hope that he lets us know how he is doing soon. I pray for him and his family and hope that he is safe because the situation here in the country is really out of any control...
And you are absolutely right - Artemiy is an amazing person and a great personality. Reading his posts is a pleasure and a true celebration of seeing how kind, caring, helpful, humorous and educated the person is.

A lot might happen during the next few days and I am always asking myself a question: what is the aim and the reason for it all? Of course, there must be something that hides behind all of these events. For now there is just chaos and destruction everywhere with the extremist groups trying to control the capital and the other parts of the country. There is a lot of talk about separating the country for East and West, but in my opinion, it will be the end of the country and it will destroy everything. People have to understand that there should be no "us" and "them" because this is what the powers at play are trying to achieve. It is done via the hands and resources of the right wing extremist groups that do not really try to achieve anything, but follow the orders they are given to bring as much destruction and chaos as it is possible. It was all planned long time ago and it did not come as a shock for a lot of people in Ukraine. This tragedy we all follow did not start yesterday and I am afraid of thinking of what might follow now.

The worst part is a lot of people do not want to wake up and hope that everything will pass somehow. I am telling everyone that people of Ukraine have to keep together and we have to unite and get rid of fascism, these terrible things that we are seeing these days and things that we won't see on TV screens. Today there is going to be one of the most important and events-filled days in Ukraine. We shall see what happens today in Kharkov and what happens here in Kiev. The part of the city where the government buildings are is under control of these extremist groups, according to the sources. There is a lot of tension in the air and a lot of violent attacks taking place all over the city. Most people are trying to take control in their own hands and basically defend their apartments, their streets. It is important to keep together and keep united.

Sammy, thank you once again for your support and for your kind words. Yes, it is important to analyze and to learn from history. It all has been before and we all have seen the face of fascism and extremism before. We all have seen what was done to certain countries and it is in our power to prevent it and remember that it is here today, but it may very well be "there" tomorrow. Sammy, your words "What is going on in Kiev right now has become the most important thing in my life" have touched me deeply. Thank you, my brother!

Cminor, thank you from the bottom of my heart for all of your messages! I have been reading your posts with an aching heart and every word rings so much true! You are understanding what is going on and taking place here in Ukraine like no other! Your words exactly the reflect the situation here and act as a real warning of what is about to happen here. We have too many examples of what to prevent and beware of. Yes, children suffer the most from this war and from this violence, aggression. I am praying all the time too for peace and safety, for people to understand that we should not be separated and should not be made enemies because we are not enemies and we should never be.

It's frightening to think where this world is going too and what to expect. The propaganda machine works full power and we can already see the fruits of these work. This country needs a leader, someone to bring control back and not the groups of certain people controlled by trans-national companies and financial corporations to make money on this war. They do not need anything, but the funds, the profits and their only aim is just keeping this chaos and earn more. It is not only related to Ukraine, but to all the countries over the world. I am sure that we all are the same everywhere no matter what we may here on TV.

I shall keep you all posted and updated as much as I can. I must say that it is very unsafe here, especially in Kiev. It is not safe to go outside on your own no matter what views on the situation you may have. It is not possible to say "I am safe because I am against the government" or "I am safe because I am one of the right wing activists" because there is chaos and anyone can be attacked as it always happens in criminal world, as it always happens in times of anarchy and out of control situations. Let us only hope that people will unite and that there is still sanity left...

Thank you once again for your support and your prayers! God bless all of you!

With deep respect,

Denis / Iceman

Well, according to Al Jazeera and BBC News, there has been a breakthrough in Kiev. If things are as they seem, then your country appears to be back on its way to real Democracy. (And thank goodness that America and her allies didn't, you know, send in the Tomahawk missiles... ugh...)

According to what I saw and heard this morning, Yulia Tymoshenko has been freed, and Viktor Yanukovych has fled the presidential compound. He claimed that supposedly he was ousted in some "coup," but other (more reliable) reporting suggests that parliament voted for his dismissal.

Oh, Viktor -- you know, when PARLIAMENT has VOTED you OUT OF OFFICE, that is NOT called A "COUP" -- that is called "voted you out of office."

Let's all hope that this is the beginning of the end for the old regime, and the start of a new future for Ukraine.

Good luck to you all!

- Sammy James
U.S.A.

Whatever people or political leaders do, first of all, I hope they stop the violence. It's a must.
I wish you all peace, and the power to solve all the problems in a good, healthy, peacefull, working, constructive way.
All the best to all of you.

Apparently, Yanukovich was last seen in KHARKIV (i.e., Kharkov) (!!!) and then fled the country -- could be in a (get this) MONASTERY in Bosnia. (Go back in history a few years, and you'll find that Milosevich tried something similar... without great success...)

In other news, someone on the SineVibes site has put up a "sale for Ukraine's future" sale.

http://www.sinevibes.com

I don't want to bug him, but let's put it this way: The last time that I checked (which was admittedly years ago) there's only one person who administers that site's business...

- Sammy James

Still..
There is a little sign of life.
That's good news.
About the Yanukovich, in 1989 Ceausescu tried to run from Romania too.
Now I am older, and see different.
On 25 december, Ceausescu was executed. By the same politicals leader that ruined Romania from '89 untill now (and they still are).
There is a big lesson in this.
Yanucovich could say more then he could say if he's dead. So whatever Ukraine people do, Yanucovich has many secrets untold, that could be usefull in the future, about the future's "new" political leaders that could rise. So keep him alive.
After years, some pictures of Iliescu (romanian ex-president) and Ceausescu appear on mass-media.
Iliescu was one of the Ceausescu apprentice, a "good friend" , the picture was made when Iliescu participated on a game with Ceausescu.
Iliescu was one of the "Revolution" Leader, that rised as a "new" political leader, and he was "clean" and "good".
Many leaders, were actually ex-comunists leaders, but we didn't knew.
So, let him live. In the future, he may talk about "new" leaders things that now, Ukraine people don't know, or can't see because of the pain, the hard times, because of the euforia of "UE".
I hope I am not disturbing with my writting. I just hope Ukraine people don't make the same mistakes as other countries. The wave of changing can be deceiving...

C Minor:

No death penalty in Ukraine. It was abolished about 15 years ago.

:)

- Sammy

P.S. I read about the Romanian Revolution. I agree with you, and I hope that others in your part of the world heed your admonitions.

P.P.S. Just got done watching Rachel Maddow on MSNBC. She had a guest on (whose name I've forgotten) but who said that Russia "going to war in Ukraine" would be a "spectacularly bad" idea. He mentioned how Ukraine has a formidable military itself -- and if Russia thinks that they can just waltz in there... well... there is another person in the area who might not take too kindly to that.

Think: The most powerful leader in Europe -- Angela Merkel. (And yes -- she is the most powerful leader in Europe -- not just the most powerful female leader in Europe.

We are "too small" to see above the "media shows".
Something is going on, and we are just too small to understand the "real thing" , the game played by the world's big powers.
The economical, political, social plans, are above our knowledge...
As Michael Jackson said: They don't really care about us.
We are the mass.

I had written tons of stuff here -- but upon re-reading it, I realize that I'm digressing all over the place.

Let me sum things up this way:

If Russia invades Ukraine, bad things will happen. Putin would be committing some serious blunders, and would risk more than he would gain from such a move.

That is all.