Nightmare

Today I’m taking a break from my regular travel blog because I want to talk about a friend, and his son, and Ukraine.

The world, yes, is full of horrors at the moment. From Gaza to South Sudan to Haiti to...well...God knows where...it seems we are in an age of terror and genocide. But, today, I want to draw your attention to one particular place, Ukraine, as it fights to survive.

I what to do that because a friend of mine...and his child...are there. Gonzalo Curbelo-Cantera, and his young son, Caleb, are in Kyiv. They’ve been there for years, and Gonzalo says it is his home, even though he is originally from Uruguay. Today, he is an educator at The British International School in Ukraine Kyiv, an important institution, and he is rather well known in international educational circles.

He and Caleb are devoted to their adopted country, but that means they must share its vicissitudes. This includes the terroristic air attacks on civilian targets by which Putin, in a classic error of warfare, has been attempting to break the people’s resolve.

About the videos: Here is the first of two videos from my friend Gonzalo showing the air raids on Kiev. These are truly terrifying. I reproduce them here with his permission.

And the second

The reality is these attacks may be useless in a military sense. They will almost certainly not end the war, or guarantee a victory. But they will cause great loss of life and enormous misery. As such, they are not so much war-making as war crimes, whose motivation is pure sadism.

And the world needs to respond to that. We need to name Putin for what he is, a murderous tyrant and a pathological mass killer, and we need to support Ukraine and its people--not just for their well-being but for our own. What is happening there could so easily spread.

So, let us think of my friend and his Caleb in their bunker, waiting for the all-clear to sound. Let us help them, let us help Ukraine defend itself...

Before we find ourselves in that bunker as well. And, this time, without friends to aid us.

About the photos: In addition, here are some still images which he received and re-posted during the same period: