Author Archives: ronnieapteker

Wish this was an April Fool’s joke

Posted on by

We have been at Fancourt in George for almost a year now. And this insane war is still going on. Towards the end of this month we leave SA and head to Wroclaw in Poland. We are renting a flat there until the end of this year and in May I will be heading to Kyiv.

Sometime in May Ukraine will begin their big counteroffensive. This is what we all believe is going to happen. We can guess on what is going to unfold. My view is that Ukraine is going to push the Russians back and give them a proper hiding. But this will result in further action on behalf of that insane Putin. Either he will catch a wake up and finally grasp that he is in shit, or, he will realize that he has lost and decide to try take us all with him into the abyss. Of course, no one knows what is going to happen, but my gut feel is that May is going to be a decisive month not just in this war, but in the world. There is also another theoretical outcome, where Ukraine’s counteroffensive is not successful and that they lose the war. I don’t believe this is possible. In that scenario it means that evil has triumphed over good and then the world is going to hell. So yes, I can’t believe in such an outcome.

I am really excited to return to Kyiv next month. At least the electricity there works well. Here in SA the load shedding is depressing. But that is a discussion for another day. Maybe. One thing is for sure, the Bunster is going to miss Fancourt.

Putin should be under no illusion – Xi is not Russia’s knight in shining armour

Posted on by

Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine precipitated a growing realisation in the west that it may be time to loosen its economic dependence on repressive regimes. The time for low-cost electronics and fast fashion may be coming to an end, as western consumers want higher quality, responsibly sourced goods and western companies are able to find other cheaper manufacturing locations. Xi’s feigned rapprochement with Russia is an attempt to reverse these changes and to negotiate more favourable terms for himself.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/mar/22/vladimir-putin-xi-jinping-russia-china

A Kyiv love song

Posted on by

I watched this video last night and I loved it. Some of us have been speaking about a love letter to Kyiv, well, this was a love song to Kyiv, literally. It could have been 10 to 15 mins shorter, in my view, but I enjoyed every minute of it. Totally original and inspired.

It is about a bunch of street musicians and a composer and how the composer takes these different character’s musical sounds and puts them together for the ending, which is a song : the sound of Kyiv.

It is shot in winter in the war time but they don’t really talk about the war much. The main character, the hero of the story, the composer, is very likeable and cool. Kyiv is cool.

Really and truly different. Made quite an impression.

The problem with lionizing Navalny and snubbing Zelensky at Oscars

Posted on by

Putin’s eventual fall from power will not absolve the Russian people of these sins. But it may present a pivotal moment where the Russian people will be faced with the question of what kind of society they want to live in. Will they continue a centuries-long tradition of unbridled violence against their neighbors? And what role will Navalny and other Russian opposition members play in a post-Putin Russia, if at all?

https://kyivindependent.com/opinion/kate-tsurkan-the-problem-with-lionizing-Navalny-and-snubbing-Zelensky-at-Oscars