Grubsheet has spent much of Saturday watching the commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings in Normandy in 1944 that turned the tide of World War Two and eventually led to the defeat of Nazi Germany the following year.
There has been a great deal of emotional and inspiring material. But one moment stands out above all else – a brief encounter between the Ukrainian leader, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and one of the small number of surviving veterans of D-Day who was present for this weekend’s commemoration.
It was a powerful reminder that the same anti-democratic forces that threatened the world 80 years ago are threatening the world again. And both have to be fought with the same determination.
Click on the link below for a magical moment between two warriors separated by eight decades but fighting for the same cause – freedom and democracy against tyranny.
An unscripted moment that was unforgettable.
And now think about the power of humility in this “look at me””age. The Ukrainian President sure is a class act.
Meli Matanatoto says
What?? Zelensky is being propped by Banderistas.
Banderistas are disciples of that Ukrainian German Nazi collaborator and racist called Bandera in World War 2.
They use symbols of the World War 2 German Nazi death squads, the SS in their flags from the black sun and swastika.
They promote the removal of Russians their fellow Slavs from Eastern Ukraine despite this same Russians having more historical and territorial claim to Ukraine than the so called native Ukrainians who nominally inhabit a small part of Western part of that country.
What is more crazy is that Zelensky is a Jew and yet here he is, buddying up with ideologues who in past years would have sent him to the gas chambers.
Racist Ukrainian Nazi’s supporting a Jew, what a crazy world we live in.
Exemplified in a few months ago in the Canadian parliament where they had standing ovation of an Ukrainian who fought against the Russians in World War 2.
What a joke and that confirms how stupid parliamentarians are irrespective of which country they are in.
If an Ukrainian fought against the Russians in World War 2 then they would be Ukrainian Nazis who nearly decimated the Jewish population by sending them to their deaths in Concentration camps.
Yet the Canadian parliament under the leadership of their doofus Prime Minister Trudeau gave a standing ovation to a Ukrainian Nazi survivor from World War 2.
What stupidty.
Graham Davis says
Meli, you and Ian Simpson ought to start a Fijian branch of the Vladimir Putin fan club. Membership of two.
What absolute tosh. ваше здоровье!
Swamp Harrier says
Mind boggling idiocy. Guess you only went to school to eat your lunch, MM.
Meli Matanatoto says
Hahhahaha there is nothing wrong to state historical truth.
Yet here we are, the West giving billions of dollars to a regime with Banderas links.
The Russians especially President Putin since the 2007 Munich Security Conference have stated that he will not tolerate NATO expansion to Russias borders.
The Americans nearly caused a nuclear armageddon during the Cuban Missile Crisis in the 1960s, isn’t that the same historical rationale the Russians have warned the West and the Americans about, since 2007.
Stop from expanding to Russia or they will take measures to stop such movements.
Putin questioned NATO existence’s since the fall of the Soviet Union.
Since the sole purpose of NATO military alliance is to fight the defunct Soviets.
Since Nuland and the USA State Department engineered the color MAIDAN revolution, to install a government that is really hostile towards the Russian speaking people of Ukraine, Eastern Ukraine has revolted which stretches from the Donbass to Luhansk.
This is despite the former Russia friendly Ukrainian President winning the elections. Most of this election votes came from Eastern Ukraine.
To keep the city of Odessa the Ukrainian Nazis massacred thousands of Russian speaking Ukraine citizens when it was about to fall to the Russian so called rebels.
The current Ukrainian government have intentionally removed the atrocities of Bandera from its history books in its schools such as the deportation of thousands of Ukrainian Jews to Dachau and Auschewitz during World War 2. This is done on the behest of the Racist Nazi ideologues who are propping up of the dictator Zelensky regime.
Zelensky is a illegitimate President as his term expired as per the Ukrainian Constitution. He should have called for an election yet he has declared martial law and is ruling by decrees.
Where is the so called the democracy??
T1000 says
What an idiot! You certainly belong in a concentration camp, neo-Nazi
Tinai says
Made me teary. The dirty 3 letter word war is still here after all this time. Putting Fiji aside (very difficult, but just for one second) – I have an Australian/Palestinian daughter in law whose family were born in Israel. Our grandchildren are a mix of all cultures. Right now it seems we will never see her/our relatives again in this lifetime. So sad and unnecessary. The power struggle between “humans”
Ian Simpson says
Isa GD. Some facts. WW2 was won by the SOVIETS 2 years before the Normandy landings. Stalingrad broke the Germans and it was retreat and defeat from that time onwards. As for Zelensky, a Nazion tool of the fascit West who along with Western leaders should be subject to Nuremberg 2.0 and all have a lamp post each with noose. Putin the Appeaser needs to head all the way to Beaches of Normandy and free the people of Europe. EuKISUS – axis of evil. Hungry n Serbia only 2 sane coutries that are the exception.
Graham Davis says
Ian, you are really are a total nut job. “Putin needs to free the people of Europe”? Bizarre. Fortunately the battle for civilisation won’t be fought in Vanua Levu. So your crazed support for the dictators is irrelevant
Tinai says
Seriously? Putin the appeaser? Russian infiltration into Fiji…..
Ian Simpson says
Tinai , Putin has the patience of Job.
I have been watching since he became President of the Russian Federation.
In my opinion one the greatest leaders to have lived.
The Russian people love him full speed and for good reason.
He saved Russia from certain destruction, and rebuilt it back, putting Russia back amongst one of the greatest countries in the world. It is a country that can be trusted, abides by International Law and has bent over backwards to appease the West but has and is being utterly betrayed.
This week it is hosting 80+ countries and 25,000 delegates in St Peterseburg for the International Economic Forum.
Does Fiji have a delegation attending ? 3/4 of the world’s pop representatives are there for good reason.
Main item on the Agenda , an alternative reserve currency for the world.
Meanwhile we in Fiji happy to put our heads in a noose with ADB, IMF, WB, and be besties with the 5 brown eyes.
Graham Davis says
Ian Simpson, I have decided that you are completely unhinged. Mad as a cut snake. But as I said earlier, with an audience of one in a mirror in Vanua Levu and completely irrelevant.
T1000 says
Another crazy neo-Nazi who belongs in a nut house
Josua says
French President, Macron and former German Chancellor, Merkel admitted they lied in signing the Minsk accord.
That tells us what we in Fiji with a sense of history know about since the days of gunboat diplomacy and when our girmit ancestors were lied to to get them to sign up, and it’s also a theme the world is often reminded of by the gifted Indian Foreign Minister, Jay Shankar: the west especially western media suffer from a truth deficit.
Graham Davis says
Yeah well if you think the West has a truth deficit, what about the dictatorships? At least you can vote western governments out of office. That privilege is not available to the Chinese or the blighted citizens of the bastardised “democracy” of the former Soviet Union.
Osea Batiweti says
In saying “WW2 was won by the SOVIETS 2 years before” did not determine our freedom. The Normandy Invasion total battle casualty was 230, 200 Allied Soldiers. I don’t know where some people’s moral compasses lay but at least have some respect for the people that sacrificed their lives so that we could freely express our thoughts in speech and on paper!
Wise Owl says
GD you should read John Perkins, “Confessions of an Economic Hit man.” It tells of the little tricks that governments of west get up to to secure contracts and other benefits for their corporations.
Presidents and freedom fighters who do not go along find themselves contributing involuntarily to a fall in the average life expectancy of global south leaders.
In this world of states no body is perfect. Only some are less imperfect than others.
ANZAC says
They shall not grow old…we will always remember them. Those who died in the great wars….and we continue to honour them.
Simpson…isn’t that a home appliance manufacturer?
Graham Davis says
Yes, waste disposal units.
Golf Tango says
Zelensky is an actor and crook. With all the Billion dollars US aid Ukraine is losing the war.
Dijaridoo says
Zilchlynsky and Saakashvili. Both clowns n western stooges egged on by the great satan and military manufacturers.
Zilchlynsky the comedian destroyed his once thriving country with expert ‘advice’ from Saakashvili (think Georgia) and NATO hawks. Yet another example that a country will destroy itself from within. Ask the young men feeling conscription in their hundreds of thousands.
We will remember them says
Some of your correspondents appear to have FSB worms in their brains. Look, if they are real people genuinely putting their view and not just misinformation bots, good on you for letting them have their say.
But they are wrong.
Yes, the record shows that Eisenhower was cautious, not wanting to waste lives in the invasion of France and Germany. His masters were accountable to their constituencies who would not sanction massive casualties for quick victory. Thus it was that the scale of human carnage bombing German cities eventually repulsed public opinion in the West.
Stalin on the other hand had no concern for Soviet losses, in a matter of days sacrificing more than 20,000 Russian troops to friendly fire in the race to encircle Berlin. But that’s what dictators do. Their people are just a means to an end, in this instance a strong position in post-war Europe.
Representative of the old order of empires and autocrats acting with impunity, if he continues on his current course, Putin will at some point face a coalition of the democracies like the 13 countries who landed in Normandy on D-Day.
Likewise, if he goes too far in his support of Putin and victimisation of Taiwan, Xi Jinping will galvanise opposition in many democratic countries who have shaken off empires. He has to play a careful game, for a point will come when the price of cheap Chinese product will become too great.
He would do well to read these signs, set aside his legacy wish on Taiwan, promote political reform and continue to focus a that which has worked well for China – raising the prosperity of the people.
Fat chance?
Maybe not. Perhaps Xi will see that while there may be a strategic benefit in supporting Putin – not the least for critical minerals in Ukraine to help China come out on top in the switch to renewables – these costs, and of bullying Taiwan, are too high.
A sleeping giant of a grand coalition of democracies will have awoken, China’s economy will be in tatters and – as protests on COVID-19 restrictions in China eventually showed – internal upheaval will surely follow.
As we remember the sacrifice of the golden generation in WW2, let’s hope the folly of war becomes obvious to the powers that be in Russia, China and elsewhere.
Fingers crossed the wisdom on letting people have their say will prevail, and that we all reap the benefits of responsible and sustainable prosperity.
This includes the brain-washed supporters of the clear and present danger in wannabe autocrat Donald Trump. We must listen to his people, assuage their fears and address their concerns. In other words, win them over.
So what can you and I do in the meantime? I suggest we target those who seek to benefit from dividing people to extreme positions – unbridled social media included.
While we hear them, by force of merit in argument, we must weaken the intolerant ones on the extremes of the political spectrum.
At the same time we should do what we can to strengthen those in the middle ground who tolerate the other.
Like the dwindling numbers who saw action on 6 June 1944 and those who paid the ultimate sacrifice on that fateful day so that we could live and prosper in peace, these should be our modern day heroes.
Ordinary Joe says
Bravo!! Hear, hear!
Ian Simpson says
” blighted citizens” of Russia. – Russians enjoying the best freedoms and economy in its history.
“privilege not afforded to the Chinese”. Every good citizen of China can for $2.00 join the Communist Party and take part in the governance of their community, (village, settlement) all the way up to President, not a 30 second appearance and tick in a booth every 3-4 years. Nothing more democratic and dramatic then 24/7 immersion in your own governance and administration that results in the greatest show in human history. To be able to plan 10, 50, 100 years ahead.
As I have suggested previously GD, best leave International Affairs to the real brave journalists working in the West at their great peril. Julian Assange, you may have heard of him, a fellow countrymen, tortured and readied for death, nice n slow , as an example for others to toe the line, be smart and become consultants and propagandist for the system that is two cheeks of the same bum, as George Galloway would say. Your precious democracy is a donkeys arse.
To your readers, to those of you who have time, search, goggle, find and read and watch the following journalists and commentators ;
Judge Napolitano, Larry Johnson, Ray MacGovern, Scott Ritter, Col Wilkerson, Arron Mate, Douglas MacGregor, Pepe Escobar, Finnian Cunnigham, John Pilger, Caitlan Johnston,Jeffery Sachs, David Hearst, Dmitri Orlov, The Saker. The list is not complete, truth tellers all.
I may be vilified and mocked, water of a ducks back, but I know that 90% of the readership here is not stupid and can discern propaganda garbage a mile off.
Graham Davis says
Genuinely, totally off the wall. Quack.