Is it just me, or does Vladimir Putin appear to be acting like an asshole these days?
Umm, he's not acting.
No, it doesn't seem like he's acting, does it? His stance on homosexuality is regressive and unrealistic. What will he do next?
I think he might make freckles illegal.
As outrageous as that sounds, that's where he's headed. It's odd to see a man who is seemingly intelligent behaving like one who is not. When that man is the leader of a country, especially Russia, that makes him very dangerous. I think he's like a big child who thinks it's cool to feel powerful, like an eleven year old who just annexed his first Swiss Army knife. In many ways he's acting very immaturely. Not what we'd expect of a world leader.
Today's image was taken at the intersection of Bloor and Church Streets. It's a place where I've seen a number of pro-Ukraine rallies/protests. In general I'm not a fan of anyone being compared unfairly to Hitler but in this case I get their point. First of all, Putin makes it easy in Russia to discriminate against homosexuals. People can no more be not gay than be not Jewish. Secondly he invaded a region (Crimea) without the support of the United Nations and with the overwhelming condemnation of most civilized countries. Poland, anyone? Perhaps Crimea, with it's majority of Russian speaking residents, would have legally voted to join Russia in a more diplomatically palatable way, but we'll never know. When you add in the actions of Ukraine's former pro-Moscow President, Viktor Yanukovych, the whole thing smacks of corruption.
I'm glad these women were protesting Russian aggression. It makes me think about the Crimean situation where I might not have otherwise. Instead of three people thinking about what's happening in Crimea, there are at least four now. By the end of yesterday's protest there will be thousands. If protests like this happen in multiple cities, then there will be tens of thousands, or more. When their protests are filmed by the media, the number jumps to millions.
I should mention that I believe the protest was solely based upon the Ukraine situation and had nothing to do with Putin's stance on homosexuality, but I've lumped them together to make the Hitler comparison approachable. Clearly Putin is no Hitler, but he seems to have fallen on that side of the fence. I just tell myself that he was born this way and he can't change, so I accept him as he is.
There's no guarantee that the protesters' actions will change what's happening on the ground in Crimea, but when you believe strongly that a wrong has been committed, it's good to find your voice. One of the three women offered me a Ukrainian ribbon, blue and yellow, to wear on my lapel. Though I support them, I declined the offer because I knew I'd just lose the damn thing. Instead, I write this blog as a show of support.
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