Today is going to be quite a busy day what with one thing or another and perhaps for this reason, I could have slept a bit better than I actually did as I was contemplating the day ahead. First thing in the morning, our domestic help is due to call around which is always a great opportunity for us to swap news. Normally, she comes to us much earlier in the week but her domestic circumstances are such that she had to delay her visit to us until today. Now that the day has dawned, the whole of the world’s media are focused upon the Trump-Putin meeting in Alaska to discuss the Ukraine conflict. The question on the lips of the world’s journalists is whether Trump will be outmanoeuvred or will he surprise us all? The omens are not good, not least because at one point in the last few days Trump announced that he was going to visit Russia (not realising that Alaska is actually part of the USA) and, of course, none of his entourage corrected him. Putin is an ex-KGB agent as well as a judo player and is well aware that one has to play upon the weaknesses of one’s opponent. In the case of Donald Trump, the question must be where to start. Putin may well start with a good dose of flattery and then offer the most minimal of concessions to show that he is willing to negotiate whilst clinging to his demand that Ukraine surrenders the whole of the Donbas region. Ukrainian President Zelenskyy said on Tuesday evening that Mr Putin wants the rest of Donetsk – and in effect the entire eastern Donbas region – as part of a ceasefire plan. But the Ukrainian leader said Kyiv would reject the proposal and explained that such a move would deprive them of defensive lines and open the way for Moscow to conduct further offensives. Russia currently occupies around 19% of Ukraine, including Crimea and the parts of the Donbas region it seized prior to the full-scale invasion in February 2022. Apart from the evident desire not to lose territory, Ukraine feels that to cede the Donbas not only rewards aggression but provides a springboard for future invasions. A ceasefire sounds as though it is an easy thing to achieve but in practice, I suspect that the detail is devilishly complex. Presumably a ceasefire means that all troop movements have to cease as well but Russia feels that he has been making good progress on the ground and will be in no mood to compromise. Trump himself has expressed the view that there is a 25% chance that no progress will be made and normally meetings such as this are preceded by some detailed military planning but it is doubtful that this has taken place on this occasion. My best guess is that Putin will offer some vague reassurances that might make for a good soundbite but in the last analysis, words are cheap and might not result in any practical reactions on the ground, In the meanwhile, the Russians will have their attack lines prepared, declaring that is was the Ukrainian president that was standing in the way of a peace deal as Ukraine will not abandon land that I presently not occupied by Russia in the Donbas region. Of course to Russia, this is all part of the whole ‘Mother Russia’ region and the Russians believe that the whole of the Ukraine is rightfully theirs. Although it is another conflict, this puts me in mind of an interview that I saw recently of an extremely right wing ex-American settler on the West Bank who, when challenged about the fact the fact that Palestinian farmers were being chased off their own land by settlers given arms by the Israeli military explained that they were only reclaiming the ancient biblical lands of Judea and Samaria given to the Jewish people by God and illegally occupied by the Palestinian people. In the face of attitudes such as this in both the Ukraine and on the West Bank, it is a case of ‘might being right’ and I suppose is just an extension of what the American settlers did when they captured lands belong to the native Americans in the expansion of the American state.
In the morning, I had promised to take my Droitwich frend to a clinic in Solihull where she was going to have a procedure performed upon her shoulder. I relied upon the SatNav to get me to the little village outside Droitwich where my friend lives but it was one of these addresses sometimes found in little villages where there is a house name but no number as such. However, I had been given a tip what to look out for and my friend had told me the colour of the cars for which to look out and so fortunately, I got to my destination without getting lost but I think a certain amount of fortune was on my side. My friend and I chatted a lot in the car on the way to the hospital but although she was due there at 12.30 she texted me later to say that she would not be seen until 4.00pm in the afternoon. Fortunately, I had taken along a book for my friend to borrow and to read called ‘Watching the English’ and it looks at the English people through an anthropologists’ eyes in much the same way that the British used the native peoples of their extensive empire in Africa and in Asia. I have read and re-read this book several times and always enjoyed it. Indeed, I have often bought a copy only to give it away to a non-English friend for them to enjoy as well. Friends of ours who know England well but have been brought up in a different culture appreciate the book in all of its complexities. One exasperated American has been known to remark that the English male is so strange that they have to turn their pub into a children’s playground, complete with darts, skittles, shove half-penny, dominoes and a host of other games. I have finally got around to booking my hotel and train journey for my trip to Yorkshire for my sister’s birthday in a couple of week’s time. I am contemplating what to buy for my sister but may settle on a plant which she can enjoy looking at as long it survives in her room. Fortunately, I have just avoided the bank holiday as booking a room might have been problematic otherwise.