(Please note that all these texts have been simplified and are brief in nature in order to offer general public some understanding of the conflict related issues in the world. These texts solely represent my opinion based on my education/profession).
“Woman has hijab pulled, is punched and spat on in attack in Ontario…” (Global News, June 21., 2016 ed.); “Air Canada forced 12 year old Muslim girl to take off her hijab after already passing security..” (National Post, Aug. 14t., 2019 ed.); “More than 1100 anti-Asian attacks reported in Canada one year into the COVID-19 pandemic..” (CP24); “A young boy attacked by his peers at school for being Russian..” and “2 truck drivers attacked in a parking lot in Bologna for being Russian..” (Brescia News).
Russia House restaurant owned by an American, Aaron McGovern, sustained costly damage just at the end of February because it serves vodka, caviar and similar Eastern European drinks/meals. Kristallnacht, or the Night of Broken Glass as known in English, took place between November 9th and 10th, 1938, where synagogues in Germany were torched, homes and schools vandalized and many Jews were killed or sent to concentration camps. It is disrespectable to speak of this night in comparison to what is happening in the world today, however it is the same type of demonization which happened in the 1930s against Jews that is happening today against the Russian diaspora. British Columbia woke up just recently to a demolished Russian Community Centre which actually has more than 80% of Ukrainian members (Vancouver Sun, March 6th, 2022 ed).
Media demonization of the enemy, the oldest propaganda technique in the book aimed at inspiring hatred toward a particular group, seems to be working very well these days. In recent weeks the world has witnessed such demonization of a single group of people that historians will write about it for years to come. Germans have been apologizing for 70 years now and they still cannot get rid of shame that was cast upon an entire nation years ago (no shame in the West for Metis and other groups of Native peoples or boarding schools and mass graves which continue to be discovered).
Increase in gas prices across the West seem to be the blame of Putin and Russia where Biden stated “They are going to go up. Nothing we can do. Russia is responsible.” (New York Times, Reuters, etc. March 9th, 2022 ed.) I strongly advise you to look up history of rising prices and inflation and you will see that it did not begin just two weeks ago when the conflict between Russia and Ukraine started, but that it was steadily increasing over years and we just did not pay attention to it because it was not served as “breaking news” as it is today. Should the American people blame Putin also for the rise in poverty from 10.5% in 2019 to 11.5% in 2020? Should we, Canadians, blame Putin for shortage of toilet paper? It is rather humorous to even think so or believe this propaganda.
Rather than pointing fingers, what we really love to do in the West as we are never held accountable to any atrocities we commit, we should work on resolving internal issues first. The economy is in distress, we are dealing with such high inflation, supply of goods has been troubled long before Ukraine-Russia conflict, or did we already forget Covid 19/forced vaccination/Freedom Convoys/business closures, etc?
Normally, there are three reasons why wars start, as Dr. David Oualaalou likes to point out, and those are geopolitics, economy and national problems and currently we are seeing all three play a significant role in Ukraine-Russia conflict, except there is no media coverage of the latter. This should make you question what is happening and why are national issues not being discussed and getting the attention they should be receiving!
Before shifting the blame to the “enemy,” thinking rationally, ask yourself a question what our own government is doing and why are we fed one-sided story only? By definition of democracy, there should be access to information and idea-sharing, regardless that the opinions may differ, therefore ask yourself a question why has West banned all Russian news sources? It cannot be just because they are state owned and they sell propaganda, because remember that is how media operates in this part of the world also. Shouldn’t both sides have an equal playing field in information exchange? If we are to demonize them, why are they not allowed to demonize us? Have we become too sensitive to anything that does not include a smile, followed by please and thank you?
Our government should support dialogue rather than selling weapons for profit and fueling war, because we pay for the atrocities and humanitarian disasters which happen. Every time tax is taken off your paycheque, portion of it goes toward humanitarian organizations and a large part of funding those organizations receive – never reaches the end user. Simply put, it is just one huge and complex money making machine and the more people question government decisions, the weaker this complex machine gets. Approach all breaking news with some of the critical, rational questions posed previously throughout the text and you will realize that our democratic government is not so democratic after all.