The Ukraine – unique, unprecedented, shocking. Right?

Imagine this. A country is so convulsed by corruption, the people take to the streets and force the government from office. Far from this ejection of a democratically – elected government being condemned,  the international world applauds these actions. Meanwhile another part of that country, which feels a close sense of identity with a neighbouring big state, declares that it wants a referendum to allow it to become part of that neighbouring state. The neighbouring state, never one to pass up on an opportunity, sends its soldiers into the referendum-holding part, just to make sure nobody tries to block the will of this referendum-holding part.

Now I haven’t mentioned any names, right? But of course I was talking about the Ukraine and the Crimea. I used to teach youngsters in Canada who identified themselves as Ukrainians even though born in Canada, and boy, did they detest the Russians. When Canada defeated the USSR in a big ice-hockey game (this was in the 1970s), they went almost insane with delight. But I stray from the point.

Which is? Well, the fact that what’s happening in the Ukraine raises some interesting questions and even more interesting parallels. Like, if a government has been democratically elected, isn’t it a criminal act to eject that government by an uprising involving force or the threat of force? Yet the Western world seems to have no problem with that – in fact sees right as being on the side of those who overthrew the government. Another question: has the Crimea the right to remove itself from a legally-constituted state like the Ukraine? And do the Russians have the right to station troops on the territory of a neighbour, on the grounds that part of that neighbour’s population identifies with them? I think the Western world is giving a definite thumbs-down to that last couple of questions.

And the parallels? Well you know, they’re sort of obvious. Fianna Fail and the Greens were deeply unpopular in the south of Ireland because of their corruption and the hardship they brought on people; except that, rather than taking to the streets, the people in the south ejected them through the ballot box. Had they taken to the streets and removed the government with violence or the threat of violence, would international opinion have supported them? Funny enough, I don’t think so. Maybe it had something to do with no oil pipelines running through the south.

Then there’s the matter of the big neighbour that stations troops on the next-door territory, to strengthen the contention of the people in that part that they are more Russian than Ukrainian.  Not an  exact parallel, but not a million miles away from the Ulster Covenant, when people in this part of Ireland threatened violence if they weren’t allowed to see themselves as British and the territory in this part of Ireland as part of the UK. Except of course that the Ulster Covenanters were in the right and these pesky Russian-speaking Ukrainians are totally in the wrong, and Russia is even more in the wrong for stationing troops in that part of the Ukraine. Aren’t we the lucky little boys and girls that no British troops have ever been stationed here to reinforce the right of those in the north to see themselves as British and a part of the United Kingdom rather than Irish and part of Ireland?

As I say, the parallels aren’t exact but there’s sufficient similarity, I’m surprised some of our expert British or Irish journalists haven’t been writing thoughtful pieces looking at the two situations side by side. But maybe that’s because what the Russians and the Russian-speaking Ukrainians are doing is a Bad Thing, whereas what’s happened here is, we’re all agreed, a Good Thing. Aren’t we?

[ FOOTNOTE: On a totally different topic, it may have escaped your attention that I am risking limb if not life by running in the Omagh Half-Marathon in a fortnight’s time. I’m raising money for Trócaire, who work with people whose lives illustrate the global injustice that reigns in our world. If you can’t bring yourself to dip your fist in your pocket for them, dip it for me. If you like me, you’ll want to support me. If you detest me, encourage me to carry on with an activity that must be limb/life-threating for a man of my years. Either way, do it NOW.  The link’s below.

https://www.trocaire.org/…/jude…/omagh-half-marathon