There have been some silver linings to this nightmare war. The most important one for me is the re-connection with family. I have had an unusual journey in my adult life with my brother Alon, for example, and this leaving Kyiv abruptly and coming to SA has done a lot of good in terms of my relationship with my brother. The love and support from him and his family has been so beautiful and we are very blessed. I may not have understood my brother for a long time, and there is lots I still don’t get, and may never understand, but I have been reminded of his many good qualities and will be forever grateful that in this time of trouble that old cliche rings true. Family is the most important thing.

I have had many kind friends also reach out to us and there have been many offers of support. But nothing compares to the love of family. I am not sure why it has to take trauma to open one’s eyes, and heart, but this is often the case in life. When this war is over this will be a positive, lasting aspect of this mad year.

The war has caused all kinds of problems and challenges for everyone in Ukraine. Work projects cancelled or postponed, unplanned costs, money going to help others in need, and so on. Luckily my family and I are still ok, but we have had a few folk reach out to us and offer us financial help. I am very grateful to these kind friends. The thing my brother and his family gave us, which is way beyond money, is laughter, warmth, support, their loving home, care, time, patience, and much more. When we arrived in JHB we were in such a state of shock that to go to Alon’s home and everyone there just look after us was a gift from God. It is hard to describe what we are going through, and I hope no one ever has to deal with something like this, but the trauma is non-stop and this war is still going on and not letting up. All we want to to is return to Kyiv soon and help rebuild. There is going to be a lot of pain and a lot to do.

Alon, if you ever read this, thank you for everything. And thank you for this gift. I have made many mistakes in life, and I am trying harder and harder to be a better person. I love you with all my heart.

Since the war started, over 2 months ago, it has been a struggle to sleep at night. And this is coming from an insomniac who is hyperactive. So take it with a pinch of salt. But I am sure you understand what I am trying to say. The nights are not easy. Too much time online reading news, and just staring at stories and images on the Net, trying to comprehend how this can be happening. Aren’t we meant to living in civilized times where things like invading other countries doesn’t happen any more? Who sends in tanks to terrorize innocent people and destroy their homes? Who does this, in this day and age? Russians do this. And their leader is an evil, small, coward of a man.

I love writing, and have been involved in many story telling projects in the indie film world over the past two decades. And some book adventures, newspaper columns, blogs, public speaking, and more. I started writing a lot at the start of the war, and I keep making notes all the times of everything that we are experiencing. I don’t consider myself a good writer but I am confident and I love new ideas. I enjoy writing.

I have many friends in Ukraine and we all text/chat often. Sometimes I am inspired, frequently amazed, and constantly sad. The more I write the less time I have and I am starting to think I need to spend less hours in front of my laptop, and put more emphasis into living life. Not that life is so much fun right now, but there is a ton to be thankful for and a lot to embrace. The Bunster and Marta need more of my time. And I need to take way better care of my physical health.

I have a long list of ideas to explore and write about. But none of this is urgent. I thought it was, for some reason, but it is not that important to me now. I will write up some of the ideas as the weeks go by, but I better start getting my shit together.

There is a lot of media attention of late around Elon Musk buying Twitter. And of course, crypto stuff is in the headlines a lot as always, with the ups and downs. I see the value of Twitter was not as high as I would have thought, considering all the hype. And then, out of curiosity I looked on Google a bit more and the value of all the Bitcoins out there was also not as high as I had imagined. Considering the move Elon just made, a few eccentric billionaires could pool together and buy all the Bitcoins. Makes no sense to do that though, but it is possible, in theory.

The thing about buying up all the shares in a company is that there is an underlying value in a profitable business. But Bitcoin is not a business. It is a virtual currency. So buying it all up makes no sense. But I just had this mad thought that it could be possible. Does make for an interesting debate. The reason I compare Bitcoin to shares in a company is that people talk about Bitcoin like it is equity in the stock market. It is traded like a public company share. And yet, there is no company. There is no governance. There is no rule of law. There is just this faith, and of course hype, and a massive bunch of electricity consuming computers.

Money is a religion to so many people and the goal of the greedy is to hoard as much of it as possible. So in US Dollar terms the aim is to get all the dollars, or as much as they can. Shouldn’t this be the same then with a virtual currency. People who have a lot of Bitcoins seem to enjoy having others know this, like they are in some very proud club. So then surely, with the same logic, the aim is to have as many Bitcoins as possible. But not all the Bitcoins, right? Because if you managed to buy up all the Bitcoins then would they have any value at all. I mean, if you were the only person that had them then doesn’t it mean that they become useless. This is confusing me. But there is something to this.

I am just having some fun here, thinking out loud. Yes, I know that no one would buy up all the Bitcoins, even though again it is theoretically possible. But if there are no Bitcoins being utilized, because only one person has them all, then don’t they becoming meaningless? So this is a very strange scenario. Get as many as you can, but not all of them.

Here is something else to think about: Let’s say you buy a home, say, 20 years ago, for a million dollars. And today the house is valued at 2 million dollars. So you get a mortgage on the house for a million dollars and you spend it on cars, travel, etc. You don’t pay tax on the million the bank gives you, at almost no interest, because, well you are privileged or rich or whatever the word is.

So the rich lending money, at almost no interest, rarely sell assets or equities, and keep on living large, and pay the minimum of tax. This is all legal and the way the system works. But the poor have no assets, no collateral and so pay a risk premium every time. And they often borrow from micro lenders and pay HUGE interest, simply to get groceries each month.

Something has to give.