Thepfulhouvi Solo, IFS (68)
Former Principal Secretary in the rank of Additional Chief Secretary
At the initial stages of so-called Russian “military operation” on Ukraine, a retired Army Chief of India, interviewed on a TV Channel for his comment on the War said the result of the War is a forgone conclusion, that the state of Ukraine is nowhere near any match to Super Power Russia. Therefore, he advised Ukraine to submit to ‘the Russian domination’ and save Ukraine from utter devastation.
This has a Fairy similarity with the story of ‘The Three Little Pigs’ let out for the first time by their mother to see the wide world.
The youngest was a little restless and soon decided to build a house of his own. He collected straw and built a house and went to sleep.
A Fox was roaming about in search of food and coming to smelling a piglet said:
“Little Pig, open the door and let me in, otherwise I will huff and I will puff your house down and get you”.
But the little pig said:
“No, No, No: not with the whiskers of my chinny chin”
And while the Fox was ranting from the outside, the little pig quickly got out of the house from the back side and ran into the ‘house of sticks’ of his middle brother.
There, the Fox also ran after him and said:
“Little Pigs, little Pigs, let me in, or I will huff and puff your house and get you”.
But the pigs replied:
“No, No, No: not with the whiskers of our chinny chin.”
And while the Fox was bombastically ranting, the two little pigs got out by the other side of the house and ran as fast as they could into the ‘house of bricks’ of their eldest brother and immediately locked the door.
The Fox ran after the two but being on empty stomach, he was tired and reached the house panting; and said:
“Little Pigs, little Pigs, let me in, otherwise; I will huff and I will puff your house down and get you.”
But the pigs said:
“No, No, No: not by the whisker of our chinny chin”.
The Fox snarled, bared its teeth and scratched the door with its Paws but the wood door would not give in.
Then he took a ladder and climbed up the roof of the house intending to go down the hole and get the pigs inside.
While the Fox was scratching the chimney top on the roof of the house, the pigs placed a big Pot of water in the fireplace, made a blazing fire and boiled the water. And while the Fox slid down the Chimney hole, they removed the lid of the pot of boiling water and there in the Fox fell into.
Then, the three little pigs quickly closed the pot with the lid and had a hearty dinner thereafter!
Some may not have heard this little engaging story from the Children’s Book, and some other tired-bloods like this Writer would even like to hear it again for an interesting light moment; therefore it is here in a condensed form for that!
Indeed Russia and Ukraine are mismatched out of all proportions: Russia the biggest country in the World, about one-fourth the size of the world, deadly armed with nuclear weapons and proudly puffing and huffing at the world; on the other hand, Ukraine, an independent, sovereign State, gave up all its nuclear arms in exchange of a hopeful future of free peaceful democratic existence.
War however, is not always decided by the size of the Army, or the size of the country: Gideon, the leader of the Jews settling in Canan, on the instruction from God, downsized his Army from 32,000 to 10,000 against 135,000 Amalekite confederates. Yet God asked Gideon to cut his army still further; and so Gideon selected 300 soldiers and sent the rest home.
Then Gideon personally led his men at dead of the night and attacked the enemy camp, completely routing the Amalekites and its Allies.
Alexander the Great of Greece, with only 10,000 chosen Greek soldiers with special long spears completely overran whole kingdoms in the North of Africa, Europe, the whole of Middle East up to India in Asia and established the Greek Empire.
Everybody in Asia expected the Persian King Darius with more than 200,000 [two hundred thousands] veteran Soldiers, would easily defeat the Greek invader. The Battle at Marathon was grave; many died, more were injured and maimed; only a few Greek soldiers were left to carry home the unexpected message of victory to their Emperor.
Exhausted Survivors of the battle straggled for home to meet their loved ones, but many would not reach their homes; many collapsed on the way and could only tell to those coming after them saying:
“When you go home, tell them of us and say:
‘For theirs tomorrow, we gave ours today’”.
Only one Spartan Greek ran the whole distance of 26 miles 385 yards and told the King the victory over the Persians after which Phidephite fell down and died.
The world today produces many distance runners in record time, but nobody can replace the instance of the first soldier who ran the distance and immortalized the Marathon race!
Putin -in violation of United Nation’s Charter and without provocation, with 150,000 soldiers, 20,000 Tanks- invaded the State of Ukraine, a sovereign independent peaceful neighbour, and in expectation of seizing it in a few days like he did with Crimea, and the whole world simply stood just like a dumb person!
But Ukraine’s President Volodymir Zelenskyy refused to surrender and fired his Nation’s resolve to fight the invaders even with Shovels. Of the 195 UN Member States, 145 voted for the Resolution condemning Russia for the invasion of Ukraine, 3 States [Russia, China and Cuba?] voted against, and 45 including India abstained from the UN Resolution; yet the world condemned Russia for the invasion of Ukraine.
Putin continued to flatten Ukrainian buildings, factories, Store, houses, civilian housing flats, Hospitals, Schools and Institutions. Yet he bit off more than he could swallow and tactically withdrew from Kyiv and other Northern areas to concentrate on the East and the South.
The free Nations of Europe, of Asia and the Far East have all woken up against to the domineering huffs & puffs of Putin of Russia.
The fighting in Ukraine doesn’t seem to end too soon: Two Bulls in one and the same field can’t easily become Friends; and Putin unknowingly unified long term forces of Democracy in the Continents of Europe, in the Americas and in Africa; very significantly in Asia, Taipei, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Australia, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Philippines and unnumbered African Nations, as never before in the history of mankind.
Today Asia has three continent-sized supper power Nations of the world: Russia, China and India. They are some of the oldest civilizations of the world: and they also share one thing starkly in common:
‘None of them had Democracy for millenniums before, except for 200 years of British Rule of India in the last two centuries.
I. Election Process alone doesn’t make a Nation democratic.
II. The trend of governance in Russia, in China and of India today doesn’t augur democracy for sure in the future.
III. This is the greatest challenge for the World in the future.
