There is no hiding the facts of how I feel towards Putin and Russia these days (not the people except the nationalists taking down planes full of innocent people on their way to vacation to “prove” a “point”). The megalomaniac Putin ruined any chance of receiving the benefit of the doubt that perhaps he could help Russia grow economically and take care of his people while steering away from his KGB days. That benefit is long over.
We’ve already seen how much harm he can do when we had the Pussy Riot incident that didn’t end well a few years ago (fortunately the girls are out of jail now at least, again). There’s no denying his unwillingness to cooperate or just simply listen to others making George W. Bush look like a great negotiator. I personally “love” this quote from the Russian Orthodoxy about the original Pussy Riot arrest (which by the way was always working within the Soviet Union making Communism (not true Communism by the way) and Atheism mutually inclusive – which just blows my flippin mind):
On Friday, the Russian Orthodox Church issued a statement that referred to Nazi aggression and the militant atheism of the Soviet era, and said, “What happened is blasphemy and sacrilege, the conscious and deliberate insult to the sanctuary and a manifestation of hostility to millions of people.”
According to several recent interviews with two of the arrested Pussy Riot members, Nadya Tolokonnikova and Masha Alekhina over this past year, currently in Russian schools Nationalism (which sure is common everywhere but in this case especially dangerous) is being taught strongly with cruel leaders like Josef Stalin being considered a hero of the people. Yeah you remember him, the man who had one of the first Red leaders and originators of Soviet idealism, Leon Trotsky, hunted down and murdered. There shouldn’t be more reason to mention the countless other people he had murdered. This is a hero? I ask you both sincerely and rhetorically.
My heart goes out to Ukraine and all it’s people, even the foolish misguided Russian Nationalists. My mind fills with fear and anxiety of witnessing a possible and even worse return to a cold Soviet Union run by the Orthodox Church again and gangsters who call themselves a government organization that is “looking” out for its people.
When I speak to anyone from Ukraine so far, they all say similar thing, Russia is Russia and will stay Russia and Ukraine is Ukraines and will stay away from Russia. Except for a few confused Nationalists the majority from my experience shares the sentiment most of us share, we want them to join the E.U. or at least simply be its own country free of Putin and his cronies.
I had a recent opportunity here in Mexico to speak with a unique act on tour from Ukraine DakhaBrakha. In Centro Chihuahua they performed from their newest album Light along with several of their other great songs from past albums.
A complete album list can be found here.
Though they couldn’t speak Spanish, fortunately for me they could spare a bit of English for a serious chat about Ukraine and how scary and hard it is over there right now. I made sure they understood my heart went out to their people and I was on their side.
Musically they are quite unique. I learned that there was a hell of a lot more percussion involved with Ukraine music than I had imagined. Their music mixes euphoric vocals, keys and accordions with brilliant percussion playing. They bounce back and forth from either moving the listener with dreamlike vocals and sounds that remind me of Sigur Ros to harder hitting tunes sung and performed with intense passion. DakhaBrakha is a group much worth checking out. If they make it to your neck of the woods then go see them. If they don’t then check them out below where I will post a few of their videos and also go their website to view other videos and check out their complete collection of music.
A full performance here that was well filmed.