No Olympic Games for Russians — Here's Why
Should Russians be allowed to participate in the Olympic Games in Paris, France, next year? The question is out, and the debate is already raging. For me, the answer is simple and unequivocal: no. My reasons are multiple. Here are a few of them.
First of all, we cannot pretend that Olympic Games are apolitical. Participation or non-participation in games can also have a political character. History has shown it on several occasions. In addition, the symbolism behind the Olympic Games and sports, in general, is not compatible with the behaviour of Russia internationally. The Russians are doing anything but show fraternity towards other countries like Ukraine.
Cases are well documented that local Olympic organizations are often close to the government, especially in countries like Russia and China. Governments jump at the opportunity of hosting or participating in games to promote political agendas, to make propaganda tacitly or explicitly. We cannot provide them with this opportunity.
Furthermore, we cannot contribute militarily, financially and humanly to the legitimate defence of Ukraine and, on the other hand, allow Russian athletes to come and strut as if nothing had happened alongside Ukrainian athletes. This is nonsense and an insult to Ukrainian athletes.
Some will say that it is not the role of the International Olympic Committee to act as a police officer. However, it is not about that but about a moral question that goes beyond the committee’s mission. The respective countries will be responsible for demonstrating their coherence with their actions towards Ukraine by abstaining from presenting themselves at the Olympic Games, if appropriate. I count on the Canadian government to show consistency and courage equal to that of the Ukrainians.
Finally, the question of the athletes themselves arises. Some will say that we must not unduly hinder athletes from participating in the games after so many efforts and sacrifices. Do I need to remind you that thousands of Ukrainian civilians are making the ultimate sacrifice of their own lives? Russian athletes can stay home and suffer a little bit. Besides, isn’t this one of the objectives of international sanctions against Russia, to make the government and its people suffer? Otherwise, what good is it?
I say it, I repeat it, it would be immoral to allow Russians to participate in the Olympic Games next year, and even in any other sporting competition, as long as the war is raging and Russia has not paid reparations.
#ukrainewar #olympics #war
Much More Than Tanks Will Be Needed
I’m super happy to see so many countries contributing to the war efforts. Kyiv has been asking for tanks for a long time. Finally, the last roadblock to a significant contribution has been lifted thanks to the German government, who seemingly found the light and made the right decision. Now for serious questions…
Will those tanks, a few hundred of them, of all sizes, models and with various capabilities, really reverse the tide in favour of the Ukrainians? I’m afraid we will have to face reality sooner than later. Much more will be needed to put Russia’s army on its knees and force them to retreat or be defeated. Fighter jets are next. But again, I don’t see that as being enough. Remember when Iraq invaded Kuwait? We had to send people on the ground, not just boats, tanks or fighter jets.
I guess that, collectively, the west is not ready to accept this fatality. The time will come.
Genuine Questions About The War in Ukraine
Here are a few questions that pop up in my mind when reading the news about the war in Ukraine.
-
How do they estimate Russian casualties? They are around 500-800 KIA per day. That’s a lot. Is this number inflated for propaganda purposes?
-
Why is Putin not saying, “Any country sending arms to help Ukraine is, in fact, a declaration of war against Russia”? What would be the implications of such a declaration? Putin looks like a low-profile leader. So why is Putin not more vocal against the west?
-
Why is the west not sending military aid to Modlova to put pressure on the 1200 Russian soldiers in Transnistria? How is this possible for Russia to feed them with the required resources?
-
Why are tanks so much needed as opposed to other types of weapons? Are fighter planes effective? What is the aviation role in Ukraine? Are they making a difference?
-
How many Ukrainian soldiers are killed each day? Why don’t we get these numbers as much as the Russian KIA?
So many unanswered questions.
#ukrainewar #warfare #war
The Write.freely Ecosystem Explained
The time has come for the return of a more open web. I’m embracing this movement by joining platforms or services that are built on open standards and promoting the open web in general as a byproduct.
Write.as is an instantiation version of the WriteFreely writing platform, available as an open-source project. Think of WriteFreely as the open-source version of WordPress. Anyone can get the source and install their own instance.
In May 2022, I took advantage of five-year special pricing to subscribe to the Write.as platform. Without exactly knowing what would be my use case for it, I decided to support the platform, just like I’ve been supporting Micro.blog since 2018. After a while, I discovered the many facets of this writing ecosystem and found it to be a bit confusing. In this article, I explain all the parts of the open and dedicated blogging platform.
First, let’s see what ChatGPT says about Write.as (unedited responses from ChatGPT):
Aaron Taylor is the founder & CEO of Cosmic.org and a team of remote employees who work on the Write.as and Remark.asplatforms. He is passionate about creating secure, anonymous spaces where people can express themselves without judgement or censorship. He has worked to create tools and features that make anonymous publishing easier and more secure for users. He is also the creator of the Remark.as platform, which gives users more control over how and when they share their thoughts.
Write.as is a project of a small team led by the founder & CEO, Aaron Taylor, at Cosmic.org. They are a remote team based all over the world, from Portland to Berlin to Mexico City.
Write.as is a platform designed to help people express themselves freely and anonymously. It provides a space for everyone to post their thoughts without worry of judgement or censorship. All posts are public and open to comments, however, the identities of the posters can remain anonymous. The project offers a suite of applications and services to make anonymous publishing easier, more secure, and more secure for users. It also provides a way for people to follow topics, publications, or users, engaging in thoughtful dialogue and idea exchange.
Remark.as is a project that is a part of the Write.as platform. It is designed to help users to have conversations with each other in an anonymous, secure, and censorship-free environment. Remark.as has features like tagging topics and publications, creating polls, and engaging in private forums. It also gives users more control over how and when they share their thoughts. Remark.asalso provides users with the ability to create polls, surveys, and other interactive features to encourage public participation.
All in all, Write.as and Remark.as are projects by Aaron Taylor and the team at Cosmic.org that provide users with an anonymous, censorship-free space in which to express themselves freely and engage with others. They are both designed to make anonymous publishing easier, more secure, and to give users more control over how and when they share their thoughts.
Write.as is a simple, privacy-focused writing platform. It allows users to create and publish anonymous blog posts, journal entries, and other types of writing without the need for an account or personal information. The platform also includes a built-in editor and the ability to customize the appearance of your writing with different fonts and themes. Additionally, Write.as supports markdown formatting and has a feature called “focuses” which allows users to group related posts together. The platform is designed for those who value privacy and simplicity.
More seriously, here’s a brief description of each component, starting with an overview.
An Overview of the WriteFreely Ecosystem
The following diagram shows all the parts making up the Write.as service, which is part of the WriteFreely ecosystem.
-
The Write.as service is where all the writing experience happens. Since this article isn’t a review, suffice it to say the editor offers a minimalistic and distraction-free environment. Write.as supports adding tags to any blog posts. Cross-posting content in Write.as is available for other platforms like Tumblr, Ghost and Twitter. I connected my account to Ghost but rarely cross-post over there. It’s nice to have, though.
-
The writer can attach photos at the end of each post by dragging them on the bottom bar. Photos attachments go to the “snap.as” minimalistic photo sharing add-on, tied to Write.as. All photos attachments are shown in one place, on snap.as. Photo galleries are available, albeit with a 10$ one-time purchase. Some features are marked as coming soon, but I suspect they are long in coming. I’m unsure if I would invest in this as I prefer dedicated services like Glass.
-
Submit.as is another add-on to Write.as. As the name suggests, it is a way for an author to accept submissions from other writers. No registration is required from the submitter, helping a frictionless experience. This service is not cheap and comes with a 12$ per month minimal fee. It’s not cheap and I don’t know why. Again, integration with other platforms is marked as coming.
-
Remark.as is yet another add-on closely tied to Write.as and offers commenting to any of the writer’s blog posts. Commenting is enabled on a per-post basis by adding a special <—discuss—> line anywhere within the post.
-
Read.write.as is like a content feed coming from other writers. Content published on Write.as gets published on this feed. It comes from the hosted version of Write.as. According to this website, content is cross-posted to an RSS feed, Mastodon and Twitter, but I fear this has been abandoned as the content is somewhat old.
-
The Mail add-on is where you’ll receive comments from other writers. Those comments are grouped in one place and are public.
-
Café is a place for discussion, but frankly, I don’t know how posts get promoted there. Those discussions are conversations happening on the Read.write.as section.
-
Other add-ons like a post signature are available for a one-time purchase of 10$ and eBooks export is also available for another one-time purchase of 10$.
Still with me? I know it’s not simple. Write.as certainly feels like a bunch of add-ons taped together.
Some remarks about the whole thing
- The Write.as experience is minimalistic and in need of some polishing. I didn’t see improvements since I’m subscribing to the platform. This annoys me.
- Overall, the Write.as ecosystem feels minimalistic and unfinished. I don’t expect many improvements to come to the platform. Yet, Matt, the founder of Write.as, is active on discuss.write.as discussion forum, so it’s a good sign.
- There’s a Mac app for the Write.freely ecosystem, which should support Write.as but it has been in beta for more than a year. iOS and iPadOS are also available. All apps are available here. I didn’t test these, preferring the web experience.
- All these services are part of a suite called the Musing Studio. It’s more of a branding thing. The site hasn’t been updated for a while.
With this article, I hope I shed some light on this open-source project dedicated to writers and bloggers. Overall I like Write.as, even with some rough edges or unfinished integration. If I failed to explain something correctly, let me know in the comments!
Update #1: Some references to subscription fees for add-ons have been corrected to one-time purchases, as required. It was an error based on the documentation miss-interpretation.
Here's What I Would Do After Winning $1.35 Billion Jackpot
After I told my wife that the second-biggest jackpot had been won, she asked me what I would do with all that money. So here’s what I would do.
First, after the usual and probably mandatory press conference, I would get home and patiently wait for the deposit. Once received, I would call my bank to set aside a few million for my personal needs (and for my immediate family, of course).
Then the fun would begin.
Second, I would reach the highest Canadian Government representative, telling him I wanted to meet with Zelensky from Ukraine. The sooner, the better, and I would make sure he gets the message that he should accept my request and wouldn’t regret any minutes of this meeting.
Once in Ukraine, I would ask to meet with the government’s and army’s top lieutenants. My question for them: I have more than $1 billion at your disposal; what do you need the most? I would make sure they get what they are asking for.
After my meeting, I would ask for a joint press conference with Zelensky, telling the world about our agreement and explaining what will happen with all my money spent on helping this country and its people. Next, I would read a message aloud to the wealthiest people in the world and ask them to move their butt and make something out of their money to help Ukraine. Third, and lastly, I would read another special message, this time directed at Putin: “now is the time to put me on the ‘banned from Russia list’” and I would conclude with, “you can go fuck yourself.”
This is what I would do after winning a $1.35 Billion Jackpot. Thank you.
#ukraine #war #project #fuckputin
⚙️ FYI — From Write.as to Micro.blog
To my readers, I wanted to let you know that all my posts on Write.as are also cross-posted on my Micro.blog feed from where you can respond or comment, on top of what Write.as offers via remark.as. Be sure to follow me there (Micro.blog supports RSS feeds too).
#meta
🇺🇦 Putin is Complaining Again
Poor Putin, now he complains that Ukraine is sending drone on their military bases to destroy military assets and make it hard for planes to take off in direction of Ukraine to commit crimes on civilians. Poor little boy. Fuck him. He’ll wait forever for any kind of negotiation if you ask me.
#ukraine #war
(Discuss…)
🇺🇦 I Wish Them Happy Holidays But...
We’re close to Christmas and getting closer to new years eve. I hope Ukrainians can get a small break during the holidays. News about increased military activities by Russia in Belarus, north of Ukraine, close to the frontier, isn’t encouraging. It’s like when Russia was preparing to break Ukrainian borders last February. Who knows what they’re up to? We shouldn’t trust them. Are these military exercises like they said? My fingers are crossed.
If Russia tries to take Kyiv a second time, I hope the Ukrainian army is ready. They are probably exhausted by months of defensive combats on the south and eastern sides. How will the international community react if Belarus is again used to attack Ukraine?
#ukraine #war
Who Should Be Complaining Again?
🇺🇦Russian’s top brass are complaining that Zelensky and Biden didn’t have a single word about Russian’s demands and their “quest for peace”. Ukrainian continuously ask for more weapons to defend themselves against the invaders. They complain that’s it’s not enough.
Who started the war? Who’s hitting civilian structures, 95% of the time? Who’s raping who? Who is stealing who? You tell me then I’ll make up my mind about who’s right to be complaining.
#ukraine
(Discuss…)
Russian's Strategy — Possible Response
🇺🇦It is becoming clear that Russians are angry about the near collapse of their army in south and east Ukraine. The strategy now seems to bomb all over Ukraine, mostly civilian infrastructures, to terrorize the civil population, double down with Belarus, and get ready for another take from the north for a second time. They probably hope to disrupt the Ukrainian counteroffensive in the south by diverting precious Ukrainian army resources back to the north. Devilish.
Here’s what would be my plan:
First and foremost: officially declare Russia a terrorist state. Then:
-
Apply all possible remaining sanctions against Russia;
-
Apply all possible sanctions against Belarus;
-
Fully Isolate Kaliningrad economically and commercially;
-
Kick out Russia from the Security Council at the UN;
-
Bring more military resources to Nato countries in Europe;
-
Send all requested anti-air, tanks and long-range missile launchers to Ukraine ASAP.
Putin, the loser
🇺🇦 Putin is showing signs of being a loser (as if it wasn’t clear yet), because he is losing, slowly but surely. Sure we’d like things to happen quicker to save lives and infrastructures. But with yesterday’s “speech”, Putin is signing for more collaboration across western countries, hoping for reinforcements of support for Ukraine.
Feeling So Happy...
🇺🇦 What is happening right now in Ukraine is nothing but encouraging! I was waiting for this to happen the day we started to help Ukraine. Now it seems it is making a difference. News is coming on an hourly basis from the northeast and the south. Let’s kick Russia out once and for all ASAP! Glory to Ukraine!
War zone, danger zone
🇺🇦 I’m going to Italy in the next few days, and I realize this will put me at the closest point to a war zone I have ever been to. It’s still far from the front lines, but as the Russians are working towards a nuclear disaster, distances are never long enough in these situations. My fingers are crossed that nothing of that sort happens while I’m in Italy. 🤞
Light at the End of the Tunnel?
🇺🇦 It’s been a long time since I posted something here. This morning, an article from the Kyiv Independent brought me into a cheerful mood regarding the conflict in Ukraine. There is something wrong with Russia’s army capabilities right now which looks like an opportunity window for the west. Are we going to take advantage of it? What kind of winter do we want for the Ukrainians? I hope the war fatigue doesn’t take over and obliterate this window of opportunity. Summer will come to an end; we’ll be back from vacations and return to the news watching, hopefully. Eventually, we, the west, will have to up (again) our support game if we want to give a bright future to the Ukrainian people and the rest of the western world. 🙏
How Much is Too Much?
🇺🇦 When reading about the war raging in Ukraine, there is so much to read, see and… digest. As it has become the focus of my attention from a news consumption perspective since the start of the invasion, I tend to talk about it with my surroundings. I think they are starting to feel the war fatigue. They look at me with rolling eyes 🙄, wondering why I focus so much on what’s happening in Ukraine. Now, here’s the question: who’s at fault here? 🧐
I feel sad about our reactions to this mess. It’s a major issue that will occupy the political, economic and world hungriness for quite some time. Most of these will have some sort of impact on us, individually. We should care and stop turning this war into just another war we don’t have control over. We do.
#ukraine #war #social
Sievierodonetsk down. Sad day. Again.
🇺🇦 I feel sad for Ukraine which has been fighting hell for so long and having to retreat from Sievierodonetsk. It’s probably the best decision from a military perspective. Yet, I feel sad for them. For all of us because we can’t stop the criminals from territory gains. Is there an end to this nightmare? 😞
#ukraine #war #stoprussia
A More Healthy Attitude
Dear (few readers), in case you were wondering, I’m still staying informed about the war in Ukraine. Over the weeks, I’ve taken a more distanced view of the conflict. I try not to make it too personal. I’m still horrified by what Russian criminals are capable of. I still wish we, the west, get even more involved to help Ukraine fight against the invader. I guess things take time; we must be patient. Eventually, Ukraine will prevail. Summer will see hot combats, and I wish the army of Ukraine will start to kick Russia out of occupied regions.
#war #ukraine
100 days
Time flies. It’s been already 100 days since the beginning of the criminal declaration of war on the west by Putin and his team of criminals. One hundred days of suffering by Ukraine and the rest of the world. One hundred days of war crimes, destruction and stealing of lives and lands. One hundred days of redefining the global security, or lack of security, landscape.
How long will it take to end this shit? How long before we can put Putin to trial for war crimes? How long before we reconstruct Ukraine and retake their lands? How long before we learn to not let this happens again, for real this time?
Special mentions for those who participate in letting this happen again: French president Macron for telling us, seriously, that we shouldn’t humiliate Russia, the Turkish president for trading Ukraine loves to advance his political agenda, Hungary’s president for being too close to Russia and finally Switzerland’s president who refuses to help Ukraine with weapons.
Appeasing Russia, Are You Kidding Me?
After more than 90 days of this nonsense, this criminal invasion by the Russian, are we starting to hear voices that ask for some appeasement toward Russia? It seems so if you read the story about Henry Kessinger suggesting Ukraine should concede some piece of its territory. What. The. Fuck? Can’t we look back at history, in 1938 to be precise, for god’s sake?
#ukraine #war
