Responding to the ongoing crisis in Ukraine feels more than difficult. I was not sure where to even begin, though ignoring it felt wrong. Even before President Putin put Russia's nuclear deterrence on high alert, it felt like we were--and are--teetering on the edge of an apocalypse, the kind of catastrophic ending of everything we knew that makes a powerful novel and a terrible life. It was thinking about the possibility of cascading trouble that reminded me of the beginning of Octavia Butler's book Parable of the Talents. She refers to the Apocalypse, a fifteen-year period of upheaval, as "the Pox." I'd like to quote from the beginning of her book.
Butler wrote, "I have also read that the Pox was caused by accidentally coinciding climatic, economic, and sociological crises. It would be more honest to say that the Pox was caused by our own refusal to deal with obvious problems in those areas. We caused the problems: then we sat and watched as they grew into crises." The crucial point here is that the colliding of catastrophes was not accidental.
The heat dome and atmospheric river that hit the west coast were not accidents. The climate emergency that we are not acting upon quickly enough will continue to cause dramatic weather events. They are not accidents. The spread of the pandemic is not an accident. It has been exacerbated by the inequities in the world. Wealthy countries hogged the vaccines.
We have had two years of pandemic, and most of us feel like we could not cope with anything more. For the people of Ukraine and Eastern Europe, it must feel like Russia's attack pushes them over the top. They did not need anything more, and now Ukraine faces bombings and food shortages while neighbouring countries worry and watch their borders.
Hearing about the troop build up, I did not believe Russia would invade. I didn't think the ensuing battles would be worth it. But I was wrong. I was not aware of how deep the tensions were, how strong the Russian tie to parts of the Ukraine was and is. There were talks between Russia and other powers during the build up, but the fundamental questions posed by the history in that area were not dealt with.
A couple weeks ago, my son said he was afraid the war was going to happen. He'd been reading a book about the state of the world just before World War I. "It's too similar, Mom," he said. "Frighteningly similar." He wasn't specific, but as I did some research, one similarity is the retreat from globalization to nationalism and isolationism. Right wing populism led then and is leading now to national chauvinism. There was a backlash against immigration, something we are seeing again. These attitudes make something like Russia's invasion a bit more predictable.
Another factor then and now is the increase in economic inequality. People have been saying that the pandemic restrictions have hurt precarious workers disproportionately. People in the food and lodging industries have really suffered. But they were already in precarious jobs. They were already earning minimum wage and struggling to get by. We saw how much anger there is in our country in the Freedom Convey and associated protests.
In her book, Butler went on to say that the time of the Pox was an "installment-plan World War III." Ostensibly, the wars were fought against vicious foreign enemies, but "all too often, they were actually fought because inadequate leaders did not know what else to do." They fought wars to whip up patriotism in their country. In our current situation, North American television showed the protests against the war in Russia. That's what we wanted to see. There were fewer reports about those who see this invasion as a solution to the "Ukrainian problem."
The destruction of infrastructure and the loss of life in Ukraine is horrible. Russia has completely over-stepped, invading a sovereign nation. I pray that a quick solution will come without further escalation. But I worry if we just blame Russia and President Putin. There is a complex history in the area. History needs to be dealt with or the wounds fester. And we need to address the complex issues in our economy and with our climate rather than just watching them cascade into crisis.
Cathy Hird lives on the traditional territory of the Saugeen Ojibway Nation
