Saturday 22 February 2014

Give peace a chance



 During the process of Postcrossing I have met a very intelligent and pleasant young lady of 8 years of age named Katya.  Katya comes from the Ukraine.   



Yesterday she sent me an e-mail about postcards.  But at the end of the e-mail was this message.




 
“We live in a small village near a small town and we do everything well! But today there were problems with withdrawals from ATMs, banks close, long queues at petrol stations for benzine! In Kiev, very bad! Kill people, fire! Kiev was very beautiful! What a pity! The government does not want to give up power! People are dying!    


We appeal to all: If you have a connection with the press, television, government, please help to stop the bloodshed and restore peace! Thank you!”

I don't know enough about the situation to take sides and maybe neither 'side' is completely right or wrong.  If you want a clearer explanation of the situation the BBC news site is probably as good as any.  There is also a YouTube video of a fourteen year old in Kiev which you may want to watch. 


If you can do anything at all, however little - like writing to your local elected representative - please help to keep Katya and her 8 year old friends safe and once more enable her to visit the beautiful city of Kiev before the city is destroyed and without her being in a firing line.

This is how Kiev should look -





9 comments:

  1. Are you sure she's eight?
    It is an awful situation no matter how old she is.

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    Replies
    1. Yes, Adrian. She (and her sister) are amazing. They have won all sorts of national essay prizes etc. (via school so it's not possible for someone else to have written them). When writing my postcards I sometimes forget how young she is but her Mum, a dentist, helps to translate if I use too obtuse a word.

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  2. Such a heartbreaking situation. And what a slap in the face for Putin to have all this happening on Sochi's doorstep. I'm afraid he's going to come down on the Ukraine, and come down hard. As Senator John McCain (Republican of Arizona) pointed out, Putin's unstated goal has always been to restore the old system of satellite states, and the Ukraine was the crown jewel of the USSR. So things do not look good ...

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  3. My prayers are with Katya and her friends and family, and i will write to my Representative and hope it helps.

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  4. Last I heard (less than an hour ago on main evening news on German telly) was that there will be presidental elections, Januschenko has left Kiev and was stopped from boarding a plane to Russia, and Julia Timoschenko is free.

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  5. It looks tonight (your Sunday morning) as though an uneasy peace has broken out. I hope that it paves the way for a lasting solution.

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  6. I too have been following the situation in Ukraine for a few years. Even though I'm not sure what she did was right I'm glad that they've freed Tymoshenko - the conditions she was being held in were horrible.

    Just because you're an Edwards I feel I ought to tell you that the country is called Ukraine and not 'the Ukraine' (there was a BBC article about it a while ago and it's also discussed on Wikipedia).

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  7. It's so sad when children have to live through such terrible conditions.
    I am a member of a worldwide petition organisation....I know they have started an online petition for this cause...I will do my part to help.

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