Capitalist
In recent weeks there has been an ongoing conflict in Ukraine. The Russians invaded and the gallant Ukrainian people grabbed guns, knives, baseball bats and probably rolling pins in order to repel the invasion. They put the Froggies circa 1940 to shame.
The Ukrainian President, when contacted and told there was a helicopter standing by to take him to safety responded, “Keep the chopper and send weapons instead.” He has acquired a cult following within conservative circles in America.
There was even the bizarre situation of my good friend Leo, whose parents hailed from Ukraine and who, to my astonishment, took a flight to Sydney, then Singapore, then Rome, then Suceava in Romania, and simply walked across the border into Ukraine. Apparently, there were literally no border officials or guards at the checkpoint in a place called Siret: literally none at all.
He keeps emailing me with updates, videos and photographs of what he is doing to assist the war effort. I must confess to feeling a bit silly after expressing surprise to Leo that Ukraine has the internet (“Jesus [capitalist] don’t you know anything?!?”) and his activities all seem awfully dangerous; better him than me!
Anyhoo, what is very concerning about the Ukraine conflict is the New Zealand government’s response to it. The sanctions which have been imposed upon the Russian nation and government may or may not be justified (personally I oppose ALL tariffs under ALL circumstances) but what is not justified is the singling out of a small group of individuals and imposing sanctions on them.
In New Zealand, we (at least until the black day the socialist government took office) are meant to live under the rule of law and are meant to be treated equally. If you start saying, “Oh we don’t like these folk over here very much so we will create special punishments for them” with a vague “Oh they deserve it so it doesn’t matter”, then it sets a precedent and can easily be repeated again and again with others who are an easy target. After all, who are they going to complain to?
Sanctions against so-called “Russian Billionaires” or “Russian Oligarchs” where the New Zealand government will arbitrarily freeze their assets and bank accounts, confiscate real estate and anything else they can think of, are something we ought to be taking a stand against.
Assuming there are such people or assets in New Zealand (I understand there are not), none of them would have personally invaded Ukraine and most would be unlikely to even reside in Russia. So punishing them, personally, is morally wrong and unjustified.
In a nation where professional criminals (advertising the fact in broad daylight with patches on their clothing) are able to wander around committing appalling crimes with impunity, whilst cowardly police, courts and government pretend section 98A of the Crimes Act doesn’t exist, I think it is a bit rich to focus upon 36 foreign individuals and engage in handwringing and crocodile tears.
Imagine if a future conservative government were to single out the nephews of every Labour party electorate chairman and punish them for the myriad ‘crimes’ committed in the last four and a half years?
“What crimes are these?” you and several hundred thousand Labour voters may well ask. Well, what if that conservative government just made them up? What if a future conservative Prime Minister were to simply reply “being born”.
Are you starting to realise why singling out individuals is wrong?
