наша родина

Shortly after the iron curtain fell my wife and I decided to drive east to Stalingrad.  We did not get there but we made it to Ukraine.  Ukraine is huge - it is bigger than fourteen EU member states put together*.  From west to east it is longer than from Berlin to Rome.  Apart from the Carpathian mountains, in the extreme west, it is entirely rolling plains similar to Norfolk.  The farms were also vast, we have nothing like them in England. Let's hope that a peaceful solution can be found between the various parties.  War - as the Ukrainians know only too well (more Ukrainians were killed in the European theatre of the Second World War than anyone else - over 10,000,000 people) is no way to solve a perceived problem.  Dialogue and understanding is our only durable course of action. It reminds me of the Pig War of 1859 between the two most powerful countries of that time  - Britain and America.  The British and American armies faced each other from 15 June until negotiations began in October.  The British Admiral said that "two great nations in a war over a squabble about a pig" was foolish. Local commanding officers on both sides had been given essentially the same orders: defend yourselves, but absolutely do not fire the first shot. For several days, the British and American soldiers exchanged insults, each side attempting to goad the other into firing the first shot, but discipline held on both sides, and thus no shots were fired.  The final settlement was in favour of America and local Canadian resentment of Britain failing to protect Canada's interests led to self-government in 1867. *Belgium, Cipros, Cechy, Danmark, Eesti, Hrvatska, Ireland, Latvija, Lietuva, Luxemburg, Malta, Nederland, Slovenija and Slovensko.