My previous post, just before I went on a short break, warned that the Olympics might become a side-show in a widening chain of events.  This has turned out to be true.  My quotation from the Buddhist monk, Nichiren Daishonin, could now really have the word land exchanged for the more relevant world.

If the nation is destroyed and people’s homes are wiped out, then where can one flee for safety? If you care anything about your personal security, you should first of all pray for order and tranquillity throughout the four quarters of the land, should you not? – Nichiren Daishonin / On Establishing the Correct Teaching for the Peace of the Land – WND1, page 24

Nichiren was writing from his viewpoint in 13th Century Japan.  But the sentiment is exactly the same now.  If we really do care about our own (and others) personal security, it’s imperative that order and tranquillity exist across the whole world because of;

• the immediacy of the connections between ourselves and others on the world
• the widespread destructive effects of modern weaponry
• the fact that in a smaller world as advanced in the first two points above, there really isn’t anywhere for anyone to flee.

The record-breaking Olympian swimmer, Michael Phelps, warranted a minute on the news as the last few days have been almost wholly concerned with events in Georgia – most of it about describing where it is and how we arrived at the current situation, for the vast majority of people who were completely clueless.

For most westerners, the countries of eastern Europe are a bit like Freedonia in the Marx Brother’s film, “Duck Soup”.  Hopefully the irony is not lost on some of them as the basic tenor of the film is a parody on power plays and how warfare cascades….

They got guns,
We got guns,
All God’s chillun got guns!
I’m gonna walk all over the battlefield,
‘Cause all God’s chillun got guns!

All the former USSR western states now have a variety of different alliances, pro-Russia or pro-West.  The energy pipelines scuttle across them like veins on an old lady’s legs.

The mainstream media are really only concentrating on the Georgian ones, like here, say, although this page (large image below) http://www.theodora.com/pipelines/russia_former_soviet_union_pipelines.html does a good job of showing most of them.

A few mentions are made of places like Belarus and the Ukraine but are people aware of the relevance of these places?

The news that the ultra-hypocritical George Bush wants to do humanitarian aid drops directly into Georgia is to be welcomed for the small amount of help that will be delivered by a single C17 Globemaster to the 100,000 displaced persons, but severely questioned about the true motives behind it.

The fact that Bush was the one sidling up to the nutty Georgian prime minister with arms while France and Germany locked together in a stand of unity and common sense should be remembered when consulting the history books for the possible effects of cascading treaties among Eastern European countries situated between two immense power blocs.

France and Germany are intensely aware of the potential.

The last time this sequence of events happened was The First World War which directly led to The Second World War.

This is a reminder.

Tyne Cott Cemetery, Belgium. 2002

It’s the biggest Commonwealth Cemetery in the world.  If the two superpowers clash this time, there won’t be any more cemeteries like this as there’ll be no-one to dig them.

Finally, what is Duck Soup?”

“Duck soup” is an American English slang phrase meaning something easy to do.

“Take two turkeys, one goose, four cabbages, but no duck, and mix them together. After one taste, you’ll duck soup for the rest of your life.” – Groucho Marx

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