Trouble Brewing in East Asia

"The more preparations we make, the less likely there will be rash attempts of aggression."

"The more united we are, the stronger and safer Taiwan would become."

Taiwan President Tsai Ing-won

"We [United States] will continue to assist Taiwan in maintaining a sufficient self defence capability in line with our long-standing commitments and consistent with our one China policy."

White House National Security Council

Aircraft of the Eastern Theater Command during a prior drill near Taiwan in August. Pic: Xinhua /AP

The entire region of East Asia shows indication of an uneasy peace slowly unravelling. North Korea sent drones  across its heavily fortified border with South Korea, with the South responding by scrambling fighter jets, flying surveillance and firing warning shots in deterrence. For the first time in five years a fresh escalation of tensions has erupted of an intensity that strikes concern, according to South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff. 

Attack helicopters were dispatched along with fighter jets to shoot down the drones. Several days earlier two short-range ballistic missiles were fired at the South. This is North Korea's method of protesting its displeasure at joint air drills carried out betwen South Korea and the United States; a rehearsal for an invasion, interpreted by North Korea. "Our military will thoroughly and resolutely respond to this kind of North Korea provation", director of operations Major General Lee Seung-o of the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff stated emphatically.

"[U.S. officials are] consulting closely with the [Republic of Korea] about the nature of this incursion. We recoggnize the need of the ROK to protect its territorial integrity", noted an unnamed White House National Security official. Taiwan, South Korea nervous of the intentions of China and North Korea. Joining them is Japan, edgily watching what is happening in its neighbourhood and fearing that it too is in North Korea's and China's crosshairs.

Tokyo is considering the possibility of a nuclear attack to match the growing fears of a potentially full-on conflict with either North Korea or China. Japan, the only nation on Earth that has ever suffered a nuclear attack, saw its cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki both devastated in the wake of the Second World War when nuclear devices were unleashed on an unsuspecting, still war-defiant nation. Suddenly a soaring business has taken off of nuclear shelter sales in Japan.

In Taiwan, in a 24-hour-period, 71 Chinese military aircraft. among them fighter jets and drones, entered Taiwan's air defence zone, to date the largest reported incursion. The Taiwan Straits saw 43 aircraft cross the median line, the unofficial buffer separating the two sides. Throughout the steady increase of aggressive intimidation that Beijing tqrgets Taipei with, this is yet the most emphatic. According to Beijing these were 'strike drills'.

Beijing was merely responding to 'provocations' from Taiwan and the United States. The latter intervening in territory not its own, the former spurning Beijing's wish for reunifiction, to take independent sovereign Taiwan back under its wing. The drills saw the Chinese air force dispatch warplanes from several locales across the country for simulated attacks on Taiwanese and U.S. warships. 

The situation has compelled Taiwan to change the service tenure of its compulsory military service from the current four months to a year, to deal with rising tensions linked to Beijing's military pressure. Taiwan's southern air defence identification zone saw Chinese electronic-warfare and antisubmarine aircraft incursions along with drones. Repeated missions by the Chinese air force of the last two years has given Taipei reason for vigilance. In response to the latest incursion, Taiwan sent combat aircraft to warn off the Chinese planes, with missile systems monitoring their flight.

Ukraine, Opposing Russian Occupation

December 25. (Presidential Office of Ukraine)

"{The situation there [in the Eastern Donbas] is difficult, painful. The occupants are spending all the resources available to them — and these are significant resources — to squeeze out at least some progress."

"As of this evening, about 9 million people are cut off in different regions of Ukraine. But the number and duration of outages is gradually decreasing. I am grateful to each and every person who ensured this result."

"Today, I held a special meeting with government officials on the situation in the energy sector and infrastructure. We are preparing for the next year — and not only for the winter months. There are threats that must be eliminated. There are steps to be taken. And the state will definitely make them."

"Air defense is preparing, the state is preparing, and everyone must be prepared. Please pay attention to the sirens."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy 

Ukrainian soldiers with the 43rd Heavy Artillery Brigade fire a rocket from a self propelled cannon on the front line in Bakhmut on Monday, 26 December. (Clodagh Kilcoyne/Reuters)

 With his return back to Ukraine, President Zelenskyy spoke of his forces "working toward victory", contradicting Russian President Putin's warning no end to the war would occur until Russia's military aims were achieved. On his trip to Washington, President Zelenskyy was awarded a new $1.8 billion military aid package to which he pledged "we'll overcome everything". Strategic agreements with Washington, he announced later to Ukrainian ambassadors, would strengthen Kyiv's defence forces for the year to come.

Mr. Zelenskyy also thanked the Netherlands which pledged up to $2.65 billion for 2023 to  help in financing military equipment and the rebuilding of critical infrastructure. Relentless Russian artillery, rocket and mortar fire is continuing in Ukraine's east; airstrikes on the eastern and southern fronts are also ongoing. Dmitry Peskov, spokesman for the Kremlin stated the war would end once the "special military operation" reached "the goals that the Russian Federation has set. A significant headway has been made on demilitarization of Ukraine".

Of course in that same sense, Ukraine has succeeded in its self-defence in making headway in 'demilitarizing' Russia. There are all the Russian tanks and other military hardware Ukraine destroyed, along with the battlefield hardware that Russian troops abandoned in their haste to retreat before the forward action of the Ukrainian counteroffensive. And finally all the missiles shot down by Ukraine that Russia has sent whizzing over Ukrainian towns and cities.

According to the Ukrainian military, Russian forces fired multiple rocket launchers "more than 70 times" across Ukrainian geography in one night alone [Russia busy 'demilitarizing' itself, depleting its missile stockpiles], while battles raged fiercely around the city of Bakhmut in eastern Donetsk province. Bakhmut and Lyman in neighbourimg Luhansk region together with the Kharkiv region have borne the brunt of Russian strikes, explained the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. 

In a 24-hour period. up to 61 Russian rocket, artillery and mortar fire attacks were launched in the Kherson region with regional Kherson Governor Yaroslav Yanushevych posting that Russian forces attacked from dug-in positions on the Dnieper river to hit educational institutions, apartment blocks and private homes. Russian strikes on Kherson have been constant since the Ukrainian military succeeded in freeing the city from Russian occupation.

Russia continues to target civilian areas, with Ukrainian forces repelling Russian ground attacks on or close to 19 settlements in Ukraine's north and east. A district hospital in the city of Volchansk, Kharkiv region, was struck by Russian shelling. Several factory buildings housing Russian troops in the occupied city of Tokmak in southern Zaporizhzhia region on Thursday were hit with several blasts, sparking a fire. 

 

In the city of Melitopol a car used by Russian occupation forces exploded, a day after a car bomb killed the Russian appointed head of the village of Lyubymivka in Kherson region. 

For months, Ukrainian guerrillas have operated behind Russian lines in the occupied south and east of Ukraine. Their target: Kremlin-installed officials, institutions and key infrastructure, like roads and bridges. And in Mariupol, its famed theatre, the site of a deadly airstrike where up to 600 people were killed sheltering in the theatre transformed into a bomb shelter, its remaining walls are being destroyed. Moscow faces accusations of destroying evidence of its war crimes.

Today, Monday 26 December, a Ukrainian drone struck within Russia. It was shot down by Russian air defences when it approached a military airfield in Saratov Oblast, deep inside Russian territory, in the western port city of Engels, some 500 miles southeast of Moscow, located on the Volga River. Nothing is more geared to making Moscow furious with indignation; than that Ukraine would dare to strike Russian territory. This was the second such drone strike on the city, which houses the Engels-2 military airfield, a strategic bomber airbase.

"[The attack was the] consequence of what Russia is doing." 

"If the Russians thought that the war would not affect anyone in the deep rear [of Russia] or anywhere else, they were deeply mistaken."

"Therefore, as we see, such things are happening more and more often, and let's hope that this will only benefit Ukraine."

Ukrainian Air Force spokesperson Yurii Ihnat

The Engels air base has been repeatedly used by Russia to carry out missile strikes on various targets in Ukraine   Reuters

Ukraine Annoyingly Frustrating Russian Goals

E. Eduardo Castillo, Associated Press

"Bakhmut Fortress. Our people. Unconquered by the enemy. Who with their bravery prove that we will endure and will not give up what's ours."

"Since May, the occupiers have been trying to break our Bakhmut, but time goes by and Bakhmut is already breaking not only the Russian army, but also the Russian mercenaries who came to replace the wasted army of the occupiers."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zenenskyy

"Our country has often faced challenges and defended its sovereignty."

"Now Russia is again facing such a challenge. Soldiers, officers and volunteers are showing outstanding examples of courage and self denial on the front line."

"People living there, Russian citizens, [in the four Ukrainian regions Putin summarily declared Russian territory] count on being protected by you [Russian servicemen]."

Russian President Vladimir Putin

"Not one single operational commander then in place on February 24 is in charge now."

"Russia has lost significant numbers of generals and commanding officers."

"[Some 100,000 Russian troops were] dead, injured or have deserted [since the invasion began]."

U.K. Defence Secretary Ben Wallace

Firefighters work to put out a fire at a residential building hit by a Russian missile strike in Bakhmut on December 7.

 

According to the Kremlin there is one way its conflict in Ukraine can be brought to a halt. And it is entirely up to Ukraine. The invaded nation must meet the conditions Moscow has set for the fighting to end. Kyiv must recognize Crimea is no longer a Ukrainian peninsula, but part of Russia. All other annexations must be accepted by Kyiv as Russian gains. Ukraine must disarm and not plan to join NATO..

 

The government of Ukraine, however rejects such conditions; the war will end when the occupied territories are retaken, or Russian forces are ordered to leave. And so, each leader, the aggressor and the defensive aggressed, praises their troops' heroic efforts to pursue the goals of their respective leaders. Russia which envisions complete control of Ukraine, a goal Putin is fiercely determined to reach, speaks of the Ukrainian unwillingness to accept Russia's conditions as the reason the conflict was launched.

 

Thwarted Russian troops by the Ukrainian counteroffensive placing Russia on retreat in a conflict it launched with the assurance it would have no opposition longer than a few weeks, represent an inconvenient reality that Vladimir Putin prefers to skirt around. It is not Russia that is responsible for the deadly nature of the conflict, but Ukraine, intransigent and vicious in its response to Russia's totally reasonable effort to relieve it of a third of its vast territory. 

 

An aerial view of Bakhmut on December 9. The city has been all but emptied of its 70,000 residents, and its buildings and houses are -- or are steadily being reduced to -- rubble.

 

The city of Bakhmut, "the hottest spot on the entire frontline", about 600 kilometres east of Kyiv, remains in Ukrainian hands despite Moscow's intention of capturing what remains of Donetsk still in Ukraine's possession, at a time when the entire Donbas has been declared a part of Russia, while Ukraine begs to differ. Denying Russia the momentum it feels it deserves, the annexed provinces of Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia remain fiercely contested.

With the capture of Bakhmut, Ukraine's supply lines would be severed, opening a route for Russian forces to press forward on cities that remain key Ukrainian strongholds in Donetsk province. Wagner Group mercenaries have been leading the charge in Bakhmut where prior to the invasion Donetsk separatists had controlled parts of Donetsk and Luhansk since 2014.

Mr. Putin gave out awards to the Moscow-appointed heads of the four regions of Ukraine Russia has illegally annexed, at a Kremlin ceremony in honour of Russia's military and security agencies. Russia remains in control of roughly 18 percent of internationally recognized areas of Ukraine inclusive of the 2014 parts seized of the Donbas and Crimea.

A Ukrainian artilleryman carries a 122-mm shell for a 2S1 Gvozdika self-propelled howitzer at a position along the front line near Bakhmut on December 10

S.O.S. Save Our Souls! Is There No One There???

"I last spoke with the boat's captain on December 18 and he told me that at least 17 people on board had died due to a lack of food and water."

"They have only been able to drink water when it rains."

"Please tell me, I just want to know if my family is alive or dead. We all want to see our families, that is all we request from the world. Just help us."

Sham Shur Alom, Rohingya refugee in Malaysia

"Several reports indicate dozens of people have already died during this ordeal, while survivors are hungry and thirsty without access to food and water and suffering from sickness."

United Nations' refugee agency 

"Father, please send a boat or I will jump into the ocean. I can't tolerate the pain and struggle anymore. There is no food or water to drink. People are drinking salt water. People are close to dying and mental breakdown. They're going to bite each other."

"Baba. I don't know why I am here. My teeth are dry from the lack of drinking water. Please do whatever is humanly possible for you."

Mosharrof Ullha, to his father Ata Ullha, Rohingya, Cox's Bazar Refugee Camp, Bangladesh

"We urge the Government of India to urgently coordinate and cooperate with other regional governments on the search and rescue operations of Rohingya refugees who are currently stranded in Indian waters with no medical support, food and water"    Amnesty India

The world of the unwanted homeless is ever on the move, hoping to find surcease from their stateless status, their unwanted presence, their suffering and their timeless dilemma. They aspire to live, to have a future, they are not economic migrants but refugees. As it happens, refugees who are Muslim, whom the Myanmar military expunged violently from the country where they were living. Originally from Bangladesh, the Rohingya lived for generations in Myanmar. But Buddhism and Islam oppose one another.

 

Living for years since their expulsion from Myanmar on the border in Bangladesh in an immense squalid refugee camp teeming with refugees whom no one wants responsibility for, there are those who dream of escape, of finding a new life and opportunity elsewhere in the world where they will be accepted, where human aspirations to belong and to succeed in life can be found. And in following that dream they sacrifice themselves to chance and fortune, and sometimes lose.

A boat stranded for close to three weeks in the Indian Ocean is desperate for rescue. So far a dozen of the Rohingya refugees populating the wooden craft open to the air, directionless, have died. With no humanitarian intervention from nearby nations fears are that more people will die in the next few days. And the unthinkable, that the  hopeful refugees on board will all perish from neglect by those who could mount a rescue. Indonesia, the nation with the largest Muslim population globally has seen fit not to respond.

Predictably, India, with the world's third largest minority population of Muslims has no wish to acquire more people of the faith its own majority Hindu population is hostile to. Late November saw the open wooden boat set off from Bangladesh for Malaysia, yet another majority Muslim population, with over 150 asylum seekers aboard. On December 4 its engine failed, leaving the vessel to drift at sea, its food and water supplies steadily diminishing.

Most of the people on the ship had set out to meet family in Malaysia, anxious to flee the sprawling Cox's Bazar refugee camp in Bangladesh with its hundreds of thousands of hopeless people languishing there for the past five years. The boat captain refused to allow those who have managed to make contact with the boat by satellite phone, to speak with their relatives. Open to the elements, conditions on the boat are unspeakably urgent.

The Indian navy and coast guard say no information about the adrift ship has reached them; wide-spread media coverage of the crisis aside. "We have no information about the issue",  a spokesperson for the Indian navy responded, to a query. To the present, it is believed that approximately two thousand Rohingya refugees have opted to risk a sea voyage in 2022 as conditions in the refugee camps both in Myanmar and Bangladesh continue to deteriorate.

Although Sri Lanka's navy rescued a boat of 104 Rohingya a week ago, other nations have no wish to encourage the mass flow of people by intervening to offer support. Bangladesh, the Muslim country from which the Rohingya originated has not seen fit to integrate them back into its society as a Muslim-to-Muslim responsibility. Nor have Indonesia or Malaysia recognized their religious responsibility to embrace fellow Muslims.

Rohingya refugees sit on a wooden boat as Indonesian officials conduct evacuation at the Krueng Geukueh port in Lhokseumawe, Aceh, Indonesia, on December 31, 2021.

Fachrul Reza / Xinhua via Getty Images

"Many more will die soon if they are not rescued, due to dehydration."

"We have approached the Indian coast guard and the Thai and Indonesian governments."

"None of them responded."

Mohammed Rezuwan Khan, Rohingya refugee, Cox's Bazar

An Urban Mausoleum

"It ]Mariupol] is horror. Wherever you look,whichever way you look. Everything is black, is destroyed."

"Our lives have been taken from us. Our child was taken from us."

"It's so ridiculous and stupid. How do you restore a dead city where people were killed at every turn?"

Lydya Erashova, Mariupol, Ukraine

"There is no discussion, people aren't prepared."

"People still live in the basements. Where they can go is unclear."

Mariupol activist

 

"They spend an inordinate amount of time focusing on things like erasing demonstrations of Ukrainian identity and very little time tending to the needs of the Mariupol people."

"It's really a very brutal, inhuman colonial experiment unfolding before our eyes."

Michael Carpenter, U.S. ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe

A man pulls a cart toward a destroyed suburb of Mariupol on October 29.

 

Back in November Russian President Vladimir Putin praised the heroism of those he spoke of as Mariupol's 'defenders' -- aka the Russian military that had laid siege to the city since February 24 -- as he awarded the ruined city the title of "City of Military Glory". The actual defenders of the Ukrainian city, now in Russian hands were needless to say, Ukrainians themselves determined not to allow Russia to take ownership of Mariupol.

But back in 2014 when Vladimir Putin annexed the Crimean Peninsula as part of Russia, he planned to advance to Donetsk's Mariupol on the Azov Sea as a land bridge between Russia and Ukraine. The Ukrainian military resisted Moscow's early siege of the city but months later the siege concluded with orders from Kyiv for the city defenders -- laid up, along with city dwellers at the Azovstal steel mill basement corridors -- to retreat and the ruined city fell to the invaders.

Moscow has ordered that Mariupol be scrubbed of all identification of its historic role as an industrial city of Ukraine's Donbas region. Plans for the destroyed iron works is to turn the site into an industrial park. The famed Mariupol theatre which had become the major bomb shelter of the city of close to a half-million residents which was destroyd when airstrikes hit it and hundreds died, is to be restored. OnlyRussian construction workers are permitted within its precincts.

 

Construction workers in a war-damaged apartment building.

 

According to Petro Andryushchenko, aide to Mariupole's exiled mayor, the reason that Ukrainian labour is excluded, not permitted the enter the ruins, is to ensure that only Russians are exposed to the sight of rotting corpses hauled away with the construction debris. For Moscow has undertaken a massive reconstruction of the city, to expunge its historic Ukrainian heritage status and completely Russify it.

 

Mariupol is now a garrison city with Russian soldiers, builders, administrators replacing the tens of thousands of Ukrainians who died there, or fled the Russian occupation. Ukrainian street names are converted to Soviet names. The Avenue of Peace to be renamed Lenin Avenue. The signage announcing the name of the city has been Russified, repainted with red, white and blue of the Russian flag. All vestiges of Ukrainian heritage obliterated.

 

The schools that remain open now teach a Russian curriculum, telephone and television networks are Russian, Ukrainian currency fading, and the city time zone now reflects Moscow's. Russia plans to demolish 50,000 homes in the city. The stench of death lingers over the city, fading out with winter's onset. One resident, Lydya Erashova saw her five-year-old son Artem and her seven-year-old niece Angelina die when a Russian shell hit their home.

 

A photo taken on October 19 shows Russian military trucks in front of a heavily damaged building in the center of Mariupol.

 

Her family buried the children in makeshift graves in a backyard and fled the city of death, returning in July to rebury the children. They discovered their bodies had been dug up and brought to a warehouse. Neither Lydya Erashova nor her sister-in-law were able to force themselves into the warehouse to retrieve the bodies of their children. The children's fathers chose tiny coffins to be placed side-by-side in a single grave.

 

During the months'-long siege the city was relentlessly targeted with airstrikes and artillery, food and water cut off along with communications. For 86 days of hardship and agony the city held itself together. In the eventual May surrender Mariupol made its way into history as a symbol of Ukrainian resistance. Over 500 buildings have now been identified as awaiting demolition, each holding 180 apartments. In many of them corpses still decompose.

 

A child's playground in the courtyard of a ruined apartment block on October 29. Mariupol was once home to around 431,000 people. Less than a quarter of that number are estimated to remain in the city today

The fate of one of those ruined buildings took place in mid-March when Russian tanks rolled in. One tank raised its gun at a building on Mytropolytska Streeet and fired shattering walls and windows, obliterating apartments, and killing residents, though most by then were huddled in the building basement. Russian soldiers set to work dismantling Mariupol's memorial to the Holodomor, the Soviet famine that killed millions of Ukrainians.

 

Two murals commemorating victims of the 2014 attack on Ukraine were painted over. Russia has formulated a plan for a new, Russian city, with a new population. The Russian military forces will be replaced by Russian citizens. Ukrainians who are content to live under Russian rule will be permitted to live there as well. The thousands of Mariupol's residents who were were sent to Russia may return, while those who fled to other areas of Ukraine may not. 

The heavily damaged Azovstal steel mill photographed on October 29.
The historic Azovstal metalworks was the final holdout for members of Azov, a controversial Ukrainian regiment that previously used neo-Nazi imagery on its uniforms.

Russia's War Of Defence And Security

"We are not in an easy situation. The enemy is increasing its army."

"Our people are braver and need more powerful weapons. We will pass it on [Ukrainian flag ] and pass it on from the boys [Ukrainian servicemen at the front] to the Congress, to the president of the United States."

"We are grateful for their support, but it is not enough."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Washington visit

"We have no restrictions on funding. The country and the government are giving the army everything it is asking for."

"We're not going to militarize our country or our economy. We simply don't need it."

"[Russia's nuclear arsenal remains the main guarantee for our security and territorial integrity".

Russian President Vladimir Putin

The launch of Russia’s new ‘Sarmat’ or ‘Satan II’ intercontinental ballistic missile from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Arkhangelsk on 20 April 2022

 

While Russia is destroying its neighbour's territorial integrity, its president remains focused on his own 'territorial integrity'. Which includes of course annexed territories Putin has torn from its rightful owner. Both countries have exhausted their supplies of munitions. Hundreds of missiles are shot off by both sides daily; from the Russian military to strike at Ukraine's civilian infrastructure; from the Ukrainian counteroffensive to rout the Russians and to strike down their missiles before they hit their targets.

 

Western intelligence estimates that 100,000 servicemen on both sides have died in this contest of wills and war machinery. On average 500 members of each side's military are killed daily. Numbers hard to credit considering the wholesale bloodbath they represent. Which does not include the tens of thousands of civilians injured and killed by continual Russian attacks and deliberate murder.

 

Ukraine's dire need for additional munitions to allow it to continue its hugely successful counteroffensive which has succeeded in good measure in pushing back Russian troops, securing some of the territory that Russia had declared incorporated into the Russian Federation. The rate at which munitions are being used is unsustainable. The manufacture of replacement weapons in the West is unable to keep pace with the dwindling arsenals.

 

Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, and Chief of the General Staff Gen. Valery Gerasimov in Moscow, Russia, on Dec. 21, 2022. (Mikhail Kuravlev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Vladimir Putin has declared yet again his intention to continue pursuing his goal; destroying Ukraine and enriching Russia in the process. He is now claiming that he has the most profound love for Ukraine, brotherly love that moans in pain at Ukraine's losses. But it is not his fault that Russia's 'special military operation' has destroyed Ukraine's power grids leaving its people to freeze in the dark without water and sufficient medical supplies. 

The nefariously malicious actions of the United States whose purpose it is to destroy Russia is to blame, along with its manipulations through NATO, intruding on Russia's near abroad despite Moscow's warning that it was intolerable, that its incursions toward the former Soviet satellites' wish to join NATO impairs Russia's security. Leaving the Kremlin no option but to impose its own response on Ukraine as a lesson to the Baltic nations that their future is with Russia, not NATO.

Russia's defence minister Sergei Shoigu, has requested that his army's strength be increased from a million to one-and-a-half million troops. When it was announced months ago that new recruits were needed, a rushed stampede of Russian men sought to salvage their futures by fleeing abroad. New recruits were brought to the front insufficiently trained and ill equipped. Where will another half-million fighting men be drawn from?

Mercenaries and reluctant holdbacks, raising the age of acceptable qualifications to fight the noble fight until the goal has been achieved. The earlier mobilization saw drafted men reporting reluctantly at the front lines lacking adequate kit, but this is not to happen again; corruption and inefficiency and poor management are to become the sins of the past. In praising the performance of the Russian army, no mention was made of Russian losses in Ukraine on the battlefield.

 

Next on the agenda for the Russian Army, receipt of state-of-the-art Sarmat (Satan II) intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of carrying ten nuclear warheads and decoys.  

The launch of Russia’s new ‘Sarmat’ or ‘Satan II’ intercontinental ballistic missile from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Arkhangelsk on 20 April 2022   EPA

All the Little Hoodlum Understudies

"The student voice was all that mattered, and basically they silenced the teachers' voices. We were always questioned, we were always undermined, we were always told [the bad behaviour] must be our bias, or our classroom management, or it must be because we're not listening to the students."

"We were telling the kids, 'Go into the class, this is a secure school. And [they said] 'No, we don't have to."

"They had so much control, the kids then wouldn't listen to the vice-principal and principal, that's how bad it was."

"Some of our neediest kids who we were working with and we were keeping them in the class. But then they started being oppositional with us and started hanging out in the hall, too."

"Our students thrive on rules and routines, structure and clear guidelines. And they had none of that."

"The board's stated mission is 'creating a culture of innovation, sharing and social responsibility/. Our school did not uphold any of those pillars. It's outrageous that there was so much chaos, that the school was totally unsafe and that the kids were not learning."

Michael Sterrberg, Grade 5 and 6 teacher, Pinecrest Public School, Ottawa

Teacher Michael Sternberg stands outside Pinecrest Public School with a homemade sign in September 2022.  Photo by ERROL MCGIHON /POSTMEDIA

"[There] appears to be a poisoned working and learning environment at Pinecrest. [We are examining] interactions and conduct throughout Pinecrest amongst and between staff, students and families."

"[Staff were invited to speak confidentially to investigators and directed to] refrain from yelling or raising voices at students and each other [and to] continue to stop, interrupt and appropriately address the use of slurs and hate-related incidents."

"[There will be] communication with the school community [when the investigation is completed]."

"As that investigation is active, it is not appropriate to comment on specific details."

Ottawa-Carleton District School Board, Office of the Human Rights and Equity Advisor

"[Investigation-solicited comments were] red flags that something is seriously wrong and it's not being dealt with."

"[Some of the older students] would just wander the school all day. We're talking about defiant: 'I'm not going to class, I'm going to sit here on my phone, I'm going to do whatever I want, and I don't have to listen to any adult in this building'."

"[We stopped imposing much discipline for fear of] being accused by administrators of targeting [a child and being sent home to be investigated]. It's self-preservation."

Pinecrest teacher, unauthorized to speak

Disruptions in elementary school classes of a type and duration never before experienced in Canada. A country which historically built its population on a tradition of immigration. Where immigrants stemmed mostly from Europe and those coming into the country made an effort to understand the prevailing culture, the nation's laws and its values, to commit themselves to following them to successfully integrate into the prevailing social system.

On average, Canada's intake of immigrants and refugees are well over 350,000 a year. People coming into the country whose heritage, languages, ethnicities, religions and cultural values do not always mesh with that of native Canadians or Canadians from immigrant backgrounds who have adjusted to Canadian society. And they make no effort to integrate. Along with the fact that many bring cultural baggage inimical to Canadian values of equality and human rights with them. Inclusive of tribal and religious animosities.

This elementary school is a living laboratory of what can gp wrong in a growing atmosphere of cosmopolitan liberal progressivism that has been labelled 'woke'. This 'relaxed' attitude of non-judgemental conditioning views the still, but barely majority 'white' population as guilty of privileged and colonialist attitudes, while people of colour, Blacks and Indigenous and LGBTQ-2 communities now have rights denied to the white-privileged who must expiate the sins of their ancestors committed against the culturally and societally 'underprivileged'.

Teacher Michael Sternberg sent an email to all staff at the school he was teaching in; Pinecrest Public School; the subject line read: "Students reporting they don't feel safe!" In the email he explained that a number of students informed him they felt unsafe at the school. "I am not making this up! Please help! Someone!", he wrote.  Other teaching staff, taking care to withhold their names, validated the statements made by Mr. Sternberg.

Some older students at the school had taken to roaming the halls at class time, bullying other students, intimidating staff and ignoring requests to follow basic rules such as not using cellphones. At the same time, teachers found themselves thwarted in efforts to deal with the situation under an administration that insisted on giving students a voice. What was born out of that sentiment, carried too far, was disruptive, disrespectful and dangerous behaviour.

Physical violence broke out among students. There was a "swarming" attack. Several students brought knives to school with them, and some made racial and antisemitic slurs against both other students and teaching staff. A number of teachers at the school were taken out of their classrooms and ordered to remain at home while they were being 'investigated'. A succession of replacement teachers were brought in to take their place. Which led to several staff teachers suddenly leaving, others replacing them.

Students were increasingly unruly, speaking loudly in class, arguing with teachers, throwing around food and paper, and playing with balls in their classrooms. When journalists heard of the problems, they sought answers from the school board which refused to comment on any of the issues claiming it must protect the privacy of staff and students, along with the confidentiality of an internal investigation into the school's problems. 

The neighbourhood surrounding Pinecrest School is home to many new immigrants. Students are bused in from two community housing developments. 40 languages are spoken at the homes of these students, many of whom are 'racialized'. "They are beautiful kids and they want to learn", said Mr. Sternberg. Among a handful of students, teachers try to deal with behaviour problems while the majority are anxious to be taught. Yet th edisruptive students were essentially permitted to control the school teaching environment.

Students in grades 5 to 8 are where the problematical behaviour is erupting. The school principal asked teaching staff to submit comments to a digital message board: "Jamboard". Resulting posts made mention of students congregating in hallways using cellphones, bullying, intimidation, attacks and weapons were also issues raised by commenting teachers:

• "I am worried about my safety and the safety of students I teach when a student brings in a weapon and there is no consequence [this is a repeat offender]";
• "Students are verbally abusive to staff and students daily. These students do whatever they want with no repercussion to their actions. How is this a safe learning and working environment?";
• "Students are being physically assaulted and sexually harassed in the bathroom. Students report that they don't feel safe going to the bathroom at school.";
• Student safety is at risk, because students are gathering in the bathrooms, recording fights and posting videos of other children online without permission from those children's parents.";
• "Students in my class are getting into physical fights and aren't having consequences. How is anyone supposed to feel safe?"

According to one teacher, what was occurring was patently unfair to the majority of the students who wanted to be in school and felt that the teaching staff were concerned about their welfare. The children, like their teachers, were left feeling frustrated, watching this kind of commotion to their school days happen continually, leaving them feeling unhappy and insecure. 

 

Several teachers said they had never experienced situations like this at any other school. "You could send them to the office, nothing was done. Last year, the kids were running the school. When kids don't have a structure and guidelines to follow that's how they're going to behave. I'm not blaming the kids."

 

And then the teachers stopped trying to impose punishment for misbehaviour, fearing they would be accused and 'investigated' and sent home to stew. The school board issued a statement that Pinecrest has "made changes both big and small". Staff now stand in hallways to "greet students warmly", and teachers engage in connection-building activities, celebrating the diversity of students' backgrounds listening to name histories and pronunciations.

Community 'partners' are now being brought in to the school to speak with students; representatives from the Somali Centre and a Black male mentor group, for example. "We want kids to see excellence in the community they can relate to", said the school principal. After a student brought a knife to school Pinecrest was locked down while police investigated. Some teachers reacting to a directive to act out a "Third Path" by not asserting power and authority in the classroom, responded it was unclear to them how the principles translated to life in the classroom.

Misbehaviour, they pointed out, escalated as students understood there would be no consequences for acting out. Some of the students picked up the educational terminology in The Third Path: "They would actually use the term, 'Are you policing us'?", pointed out Mr. Sternberg. One teacher, referring to the sudden disappearance from class of a teacher sent home remarked: "How do we squash the shock and concern for our colleague, put on a brave smile and do our best with our students coming to us in a few minutes? How do we respond when the students ask where their teacher has gone?"

As for teacher Sternberg, the superintendent responsible for the school, after reading his original emailed message, concluded he had contributed to a poisoned work environment. Sternberg was told to leave and not inform anyone why it was that he was leaving. He was on "home assignment", he was told, but was given no work to do except complete his report cards. 23 years in the classroom as a teacher, his experience at this school led  him to retire from teaching.

 

"We're dealing with human beings who come to school with many experiences, and trauma, that impact how they're going to be showing themselves at school."

"Kids are kids. And I think the way we speak to them, and we respond to them, is very important to de-escalate students and how they're responding back to us. What we  do, too, if kids don't feel heard, or seen with their actions, and if they feel triggered, they'll show them with their actions and their words."

"They're telling us something then they're walking out of the room [to roam the school hallways]. Are they engaged? Are they looking for something? Is the work too hard? Is the work too easy? Did they have breakfast this morning? Was there a huge fight in their home this morning or last night? Did their sibling run away?"

"Or were there gunshots in the night before? I hear kids talk about, 'Did you hear the gunshots?' when they're getting on the bus, right? They live in communities where kids carry a lot with them when they come to school. And they show us that with their actions."

"We are in service of children. We are not in this work to police children or to approach situations from a place of distrust and assumptions."

"If students feel that we do not trust them, they will show us that through escalated dysregulated behaviours."

Naya Markanastasakis, principal, Pinecrest School, Ottawa, Canada's Capital City

Thailand Tragedy at Sea

"This operation, they added staff from the Marine Corps and Air and Coastal Defense Command, about 30 people. This is why I think there were not enough life=jackets."

"We have not found any dead yet. The 31 sailors remain missing persons. We have not found anyone dead from where the incident occurred and from the search area."

Navy Commander Adm. Choengchai Chomehoengpset

"[A big wave] took me, threw me under the ship. The ship went vertical and pulled me down."

"I struggled to get up and held on to someone who had a life-jacket."

Ship sinking survivor

"The waves are still high and we cannot search for them from the horizontal line."

"We have to fly the helicopters and search for them from a bird's-eye view instead."

"Our top priority now is to rescue all the sailors. We will plan to have the ship salvaged later."

Adm. Pokkrong Monthatphalin, navy spokesman

Courtesy Royal Thai Navy

 

A Thai warship sank on Sunday and by Monday night 75 sailors from the HTMS Sukhothai corvette were rescued, while 31 were missing in the high waves that caused the accident in the Gulf of Thailand. The turbulence had decreased since the sinking on Sunday night, but waves remained high enough to endanger small boats. 

The warship had been deployed on patrol some 32 kilometres from the Bangsaphan district pier in Pachuap Khiri Khan province where it had been on a regular patrol for the purpose of lending assistance to any fishing vessels in distress. And that's when it turned out that the warship itself needed help and none, given the weather, was immediately forthcoming.

 

 

The country's Meteorological Department had issued a weather advisory for the area a few hours before the accident occurred. The advisory was meant to warn that waves in the Gulf of Thailand were expected to be 2 to 4 metres in height, accompanied by thunderstorms. All ships "proceed with caution" warned the advisory; small craft warned not to venture to sea until Tuesday.

The Sukkhothai had been built in a Tacoma, Washington shipyard and in 1987 was commissioned. It had a maximum displacement of 959 tons, with a length of 788 metres, roughly midsized for a corvette as an armed vessel typically in use to patrol close off-shore waters. 

On Sunday evening strong winds blew seawater onto the HTMS Sukhothai, knocking out its electrical system and making control of the ship difficult. Three frigates and two helicopters were dispatched by the navy, equipped with mobile pumping machines to try to assist the disabled ship, removing the seawater, but due to the strong winds the strategy could not be carried through.

With the loss of power, more seawater flowed into the vessel -- the cause of it listing and finally sinking. Sailors who were rescued spoke to the media, interviewed by Thai TV stations, from a makeshift rescue centre on shore. One of the sailors explained that he had to float in the sea for three hours before being rescued. The ship, he said, had been buffeted by waves three metres high, complicating rescue efforts.

 

Normally, the ship carried 87 crew and officers. Another survivor said that as the vessel was listing, the waves swept people away. Eleven of the rescued sailors were taken to hospital for treatment. The search was being conducted in a 15-square kilometre area surrounding the sinking site. Thailand's far southern area has been experiencing storms and flooding recently, while northern and central Thailand are in the throes of their coldest temperatures of the year.

 

Some survivors of the warship's sinking were found after hours at sea  Thai Navy, Twitter

 

Russian Drone Manufacturing Chain ... Toronto, Hong Kong Connection

"Due to the high demand for Orlans, we do not have the resources to do something else now. The demand for it is much bigger than we can produce."

"Sanctions were imposed on us by one of the most powerful countries in the world."

"We should be proud of this." 

Alexey Terentyev, major shareholder, top scientist, Special Technology Centre

"[We are] very concerned [to hear of the shipments and would investigate. We do not have customers in Russia nor any products or services intended for Russia'."

"We will take all appropriate action to address any identified diversion of products from lawful end use."

Gumstix circuit board manufacturer, California

FT montage: Dreamstime

 

Evasion and subterfuge are big when it comes to working around sanctions when there's money to be made. Commerce drives the world. National economies depend on it. Multinational corporations will do anything to fatten their bottom line. International corporate interests take little notice of whether the client they're selling to or investing in has irked other nations sufficiently to warrant blanket sanctions. Sanctions are bad for business, and best skirted if possible. And, it seems, regardless of the urgency of situations that merit sanctions to apply pressure on a rogue nation, there are always ways to skirt sanctions.

Business as usual is the key. And to that end, covert actions are polished up and life goes on. Just such a sanctions-evading supply chain threading through a Hong Kong marketplace operated by an expatriate Russian living in Toronto has been established in the best practise of underhanded business enterprises. Another connection runs through a contact in suburban Florida. The end game is the production of a Russian drone critical to Moscow's war effort in Ukraine.

 

Hundreds of those drones hover ominously over the battlefields in Ukraine. They're called "Sea Eagle" Orlan 10 UAVs, low-tech, inexpensive, killer drones involved in any of the 20,000 artillery shells fired daily by Russia on Ukrainian positions. Throughout 2022, up to 100 soldiers every day have been killed. according to Ukrainian commanders. A Russian media outlet, iStories, along with Reuters collaborated on an investigation.

 

A defence think tank in London -- Royal United Services Institute -- has also involved itself, and together a logistical trail spanning the globe, ending at the Orlan production line has been uncovered. The Special Technology Centre located in St.Petersburg, Russia. Russian customs filings and bank records revealed to the investigation a unique supply route for American technology, traced to a Russian manufacturer.

 

At one time the Special Technology Centre produced a variety of surveillance items for the Russian government; its focus currently is on drones for the military. It first came under notice during the Obama administration when it was revealed it worked with Russian military intelligence in an effort to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

2017 sanctions barred U.S. citizens or residents or U.S. firms from supplying technology that could end up with the Special Technology Centre. Those sanctions were further tightened in March following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. All sales of high-technology items were blocked for sale to Russia, including microchips and communications and navigation equipment. Despite which production of the Orlan drone continues. The company is in the process of experiencing a "high demand" for its drones.

A Hong Kong-based exporter, Asia Pacific Links Ltd., is among the most important suppliers to the drone production program. According to Russian customs and financial records the Hong Kong exporter provided millions of dollars in parts indirectly. Many parts are in fact microchips produced by American manufacturers. An importer located in St.Petersburg with close ties to the Special Technology Centre is the recipient of Asia Pacific's Russian exports.

 

A semiconductor lithography machine produced by Mapper, of which TSMC was a customer. Along with rivals, the Taiwanese chipmaker has halted business with Russia  Mapper Lithography/Reuters

 

Expatriate Russian Anton Trofimov is Asia Pacific's owner. He graduated from a Chinese university and has business interests in China, along with a company in Toronto. Public records reveal that Trofinov resides in a modes East York neighborhood of Toronto, Canada. $1.8 million worth of chips made by Analog Devices were among parts sent by Asia Pacific to iLogic in 2022 made by Texas Instruments. Model aircraft engines made by a Japanese company, Saito Seisakusho, used in the Orlan 10 were included in the supplies. The Japanese company was unaware of the shipments. 

And according to Texas Instruments no direct shipments or approval of shipments into Russia had taken place, the company was in complete compliance with all U/S. sanctions and export controls that would benefit Russia in its 'special military operation'. The Special Technology Centre's most important client is Russia's Ministry of Defence, which paid it close to 6 billion rubles between February and August of 2022. 

51-year-old Igor Kazhdan, a U.S.Russian citizen, owns 1K Tech, which sold some $2.2 million of electronics to Russia between 2018 and 2021, over 98 percent of which were sold to iLogic. 1K Tech sold iLogic about a thousand U.S.-made circuit boards at a time that federal law banned whether directly or through another company any such technology to the Special Technology Centre. Valued at about $274,000, the boards were produced by California manufacturer Gumstix.

All together a sordid tale of circumvention and evasion with a profit motive more urgent than being in compliance with a sanctions protocol imposed on Russia for its violent conflict in Ukraine, destroying the country's civil infrastructure, killing tens of thousands of Ukrainian citizens as the Kremlin orders the unrestrained bombing of hospitals, schools, theatres, shopping centres, multiple apartment blocks and strategic energy lines, depriving the civilian population of the embattled country of winter heating and potable water.