[FRIAM] human side of the Ukraine crisis

[Marcus Daniels]

I was looking through some of the recent purchases from Come Back Alive.  (https://www.comebackalive.in.ua)  

Purchases include 1500 Mavic 3 Drones and many batches of bulletproof vests in groups of 3000.   There are individuals putting down tens as well as thousands of USD at a time.   Crowd sourced defense is a thing..

-----Original Message-----
From: Friam <friam-bounces at redfish.com> On Behalf Of Steve Smith
Sent: Wednesday, March 16, 2022 10:17 AM
To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <friam at redfish.com>
Subject: [FRIAM] human side of the Ukraine crisis

Mary's nephew's "charge", Vlada made it to Warsaw most of a week ago from a small farm east of Kiev.   She has established a network of support and (new) friends among the refugees there. The goFundMe cash they gathered was very helpful to this effort and being crowdsourced, the load was shared among hundreds of friends/family.  I think the average donation was under $30.

Mary's nephew's wife just gave birth (this morning) to their second child which is what prevented the nephew (early 30s) from traveling to Poland to help Vlada directly over the last few weeks.   In the meantime, the upside-down refugee admissions to the US (refugees from Europe capped at 10,000 while 30,000 Ukrainians *already* in the US have claimed (and been granted by exec order?) refugee status.   According to an immigration lawyer they have retained, Vlada can likely still enter the US under a student visa.   The family is ready to effectively adopt her (as a young adult) but her heart is *in* Ukraine and will likely return.   I understand she has no immediate family in Ukraine to rely on (or worry about), but she does have a more extended family there.

As someone who has become a "bleeding heart liberal" over decades of (not so) hard knocks, I fully support this type of immigration or more likely temporary refuge (years?) for anyone around the world.  When anyone is willing to "host" someone from another part of the world, including taking financial responsibility for them, it seems unconscionable not to allow that.   In this case, Europe, especially Poland and the other eastern EU countries bounding Ukraine is carrying the load and being able to release some of that pressure, even one individual at a time would seem like a boon to them as well.

Of course, there is all the (not unfounded) rhetoric about how cold our shoulders are to those from other countries where the people don't remind us of ourselves as much.  I understand some of both sides.  It seems a shame that we treat refugees from violence and poverty in Central America as a nasty, dangerous "horde" while we welcome these pink-faced, blonde haired people wearing designer label clothing.  And yet, I also understand why those who have been infected with fear and mistrust of "the other" would have this bias as well.

As I think we have discussed hear in great detail, Xenophobia is an organic response in individual/group survival.   But that neurochemical response of "it's diffr'nt, killit!" might should be something we can in fact overrule consciously and culturally.  The (relative) welcoming that EU has given to middle-Eastern and north African refugees is a positive example.   I am surrounded by many individual positive examples in my life, but the Fox/Trump News message about Caravans of Rapists and Murderers still bleeds through and exhibits itself in folks mostly 2 degrees of separation from me.   None of those have I heard squealing in horror at supporting Ukranian refugees, however.