There are so many evocative images coming out of Ukraine since the onset of the war. My eyes lingered over this one for the longest time, moving from the elderly lady emerging from her cellar to the war damage and the implied preexisting poverty surrounding her. (the photo supersizes with a click)
For me this photo was a stark reminder of Hawkeye's comment to Father Mulcahy that war is worse than Hell because there are no innocent bystanders in Hell, but war is full of them: "little kids, cripples, old ladies..."
We hear about Ukraine being the bread basket of the world, and that the war there will cause food shortages globally, yet near every picture of the country depicts that 'implied poverty'.
ReplyDeleteOne wonders whether all the stories of Ukraine's pivotal status are totally true.
I looked it up for you. Here are some numbers -
Deletehttps://www.wilsoncenter.org/blog-post/forty-percent-world-food-programs-wheat-supplies-come-ukraine
You could probably find better data at the UN FAO website.
I've been reading a history of the Ukraine (The Gates of Europe by Serhii Plokhy) and it seems like poverty in Ukraine might be related to it's history, and especially the ways the Soviet Union pulled resources out of Ukraine.
ReplyDeleteYour book will hopefully have discussed the Holodomor. Here's another relevant book -
Deletehttps://tywkiwdbi.blogspot.com/2022/03/the-holodomor-death-by-starvation.html