ndrosen

I have read of Ukraine’s army fighting back as best it can with rifles and surface-to-air missiles, while middle-aged men and women make Molotov cocktails, and prepare to fight a l’outrance. President Zelensky has refused an American offer to evacuate him, saying that he needs ammunition, not a ride.

I do not foreknow the outcome of this war, but I stand in awe of the courage which Ukrainians have demonstrated in defense of their country and their freedom. I hope that I would dare to act similarly.

I remember a toast I drank years ago, with Georgian wine: “To democracy in Georgia, and to democracy in Russia, may Vladimir Putin live to see it.” Putin has not suffered the fate I wished upon him, and probably will not; it would be at least some satisfaction to see his years ended by a rope around his neck or the bullet of an assassin.

Reason has an interview with Tursuny Ziyawudun, a Uyghur woman who survived Chinese imprisonment, torture, and sexual assault.

There is also a link to the Uyghur Human Rights Project, which has various articles.

I have certainly not suffered much, but a post of mine on Quora, where I expressed skepticism about the official Chinese Communist Party story, and sympathy for the Uyghurs, has led to a few disparaging comments from Chinese Quorans. I don’t know whether these are spontaneous, or a minor result of official Chinese policy.

There was an ironic article in the weekend Financial Times about China’s Communist Party-ruled state cracking down on young Chinese Marxists. Some college students and other young people in China have noticed that their country has extremes of wealth and poverty, and started taking Marx’s critique seriously, for which a number have been arrested, imprisoned, and, it appears, harshly treated by the Communist authorities.

My readers know that I’m not a Marxist, but I have to admire the courage of the young Marxists who are at least sincere and well-intentioned, while I do not much admire the older men clinging to power in the name of Mao Zedong and Xi Jinping Thought, while ruling harshly over their country’s common people.