Was originally thought out for December 8th, 2024 but due to problems for a few days at sound fixing, ended being delayed for Advent, 2024 (sorry, due to "wintery voice" and trying to balance higher volume and less scratching sound, couldn't get it better than this, after several recuts mixing the parts that came out better in each one). I apologise for the bombastic musical cues, but it's the fault of online video platform-websites for being so strict on sound copyright, so I called-in on marching band music and my dogs. Inspired by recent holidays, a little session thinking on relations among different countries.
Foi originalmente pensado para 8 de Dezembro de 2024 mas devido a problemas por alguns dias a arranjar de som, acabou por ser atrasado para o Advento de 2024 (peço desculpa pela "voz hibernal" e tentar balancear volume mais elevado e menos som riscado, não consegui pô-lo melhor que isto, depois de vários recortes misturando as partes que saíram melhor de cada um). Peço desculpa pelos bordões musicais, mas é culpa de plataformas-sítios de vídeo em-linha por serem tão restrito com direitos autorais/comerciais de som, portanto apelei a música de banda filarmónica e aos meus cães. Inspirado em feriados recente, uma pequena sessão de pensamento sobre relações entre diferentes países.
This video is under Fair Use. Copyright Disclaimer (Section 107 of the Copyright Act in 1976). All rights belong to its rightful owners. Partial (more in the community post https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuNCeSxcO8rQOEoSd1Ef2FA/community?lb=Ugkxy52q2eMFVGbloR5u9pNGYENsKVC51AVN) clips used (check & comment you came from me): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUZpHuaf42I&pp=ygUYYSBsZW5kYSBkbyBtYXIgdGVuZWJyb3Nv https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHRsVMnTRns&t=78s&pp=ygUZb2JqZWN0aXZlIGJ1cm1hIGFtZXJpY2Fucw%3D%3D https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEw_jg11viY&pp=ygUkYXVzdHJhbGlhbiB3ZXN0ZXJuIG1vdmllcyBzaW5jZSAxOTgw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7L2s5jLAr90&pp=ygVMYmFuZ2xhZGVzaF8gaG93IHRoZSDigJhnZW4geiByZXZvbHV0aW9u4oCZIGZvcmNlZCB0aGUgcHJpbWUgbWluaXN0ZXIgdG8gZmxlZQ%3D%3D https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vxw8IeqY3IM&pp=ygU0Ymxvb2QgYW5kIGdsb3J5IChtb2RkZXIgZW4gYmxvZWQpIC0gb2ZmaWNpYWwgdHJhaWxlcg%3D%3D https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNXtkG4x4ww&pp=ygUQYm9ybiBhIGtpbmcgMjAxOQ%3D%3D https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyZCyLZ5Ib8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FddFfcf8wk&pp=ygVOZm9ydCBhcGFjaGUgKDE5NDgpIG9mZmljaWFsIHRyYWlsZXIgLSBqb2huIHdheW5lLCBoZW5yeSBmb25kYSB3ZXN0ZXJuIG1vdmllIGhk https://m.ok.ru/video/4093006121666
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00:00This was a big week. Last Sunday was 14th of July. This Sunday is the day in which six years after 14th of July, the Restorer of Portuguese Independence, King John IV, put his crown in the image of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception in 1646, for supposedly having interceded in recovering Portuguese independence from Spain.
00:27So, declaring the Lady of the Conception Queen of Portugal. From then onwards, no king or queen used the crown on their heads, except on their coronation, since it was declared that only the Virgin herself could use it in Portugal.
00:43In the same day, the Portuguese were celebrating their holiday. A former Prime Minister and now President of the European Council, in his speech, compared his own country's fight for independence with the situation in the Ukraine at Kiev.
01:01All this made me think about the situation of being a lesser country. The lesser sense that there are countries that, normally for being small in territory, or even if they aren't so small in territory, are made smaller being fought.
01:19Either an even larger neighbor, or a stronger major power, or even a larger, but stronger neighbor.
01:27The Democratic Republic of the Congo, being often invaded or destabilized by its smaller, but socioeconomically stronger neighbor, Rwanda.
01:36I have always been on the Ukraine's side in this situation, not because I think that it is flawless, or because I don't think that there aren't people trying to exploit the conflict economically,
01:49but because, as someone from a smaller country, that had to fight to keep its freedom from a neighbor that considers itself a more natural state,
02:01and which often considers that the lesser independent neighbor is just the extent of their culture and their people, or peoples,
02:10I just can't avoid seeing myself in the Ukraine.
02:13And seeing our Spanish neighbors who are often to us in our past history, in how Russia is being today.
02:21Now, it's interesting that, at the first glance, people say that the conflict in the Ukraine shows a schism between the West and the rest,
02:31or people criticizing that it's a white people cause that all white people care about.
02:36But when you start looking under the surface, and away from just the action of governments,
02:43Nigeria, for example, had long-fought and unaligned foreign policy, with a tendency to try to get along with every side.
02:52But recently, its influence in West Africa suffered a blow by the Russian support to the anti-Nigerian foreign policy,
03:01followed by the post-coup government of Niger, which founded a new rival West African organization,
03:09the Alliance of Sahel States.
03:11Likewise, despite pro-Russia internet trolls' main concern with Sudan and its people only care about the Ukraine,
03:19The truth is, Sudan is passing its current civil war because of Russia supporting rebels within its politics and army,
03:29against the post-coup democratic transition government.
03:33And that government from Sudan has actually been sending arms to the Ukraine,
03:38because they see it as a way to defend themselves indirectly from Russian destabilization.
03:43So I agree way more to this than just everyone from Sudan countries being with Russia,
03:49and only former colonial empires of the current American empire being from the Ukraine.
03:54If anything, most countries in the South kept some sort of neutral stance,
03:59trying to say they just want peace, and have been negotiating with both sides, to some extent.
04:05Just notice all the small island nations of Oceania,
04:15together with their more major westernized neighbors like Australia and New Zealand,
04:21loaded as a whole bloc supporting the resolution condemning the first actual military Russian invasion in 2022.
04:30Nearly every Pacific island state voting in favor.
04:33In the debate preceding the vote, Fijian ambassador Andhra Prasad,
04:37not representing his country but the whole of the Pacific island's forum,
04:41openly called for, and I quote,
04:43the withdrawal of Russian armed forces and an end to aggression,
04:48which violates the UN charter.
04:50And that the world needs its diplomats and all its leaders to address climate change,
04:55and can only do so once peace is restored in Ukraine.
04:59The Maldives ambassador to the UN, Theumiza Hussein,
05:04also took a stance against the Russian action,
05:07saying that, as a small state,
05:09the Maldives has always taken a principled stand
05:12on violation of the territorial integrity of a sovereign nation,
05:17also calling on the principles of the UN charter to defend this.
05:22Despite all this talk of left and right,
05:24whites and non-whites,
05:26of what is a western and a non-western country,
05:29the truth is,
05:30at the end of the day,
05:31the United States,
05:32Russia,
05:33China,
05:34India,
05:35and regional powers,
05:36there's like Turkey,
05:38Saudi Arabia,
05:39Iran,
05:40South Africa,
05:41Brazil,
05:42Australia,
05:43have way more in common with each other,
05:45like being often on opposite sides,
05:48because they understand the same reasoning,
05:51a major territorial unit in an area being the major player there,
05:55or even in the world,
05:57that their power is to be used,
05:59that it's great to be great,
06:01the needs of their lesser neighbors have to be fitted into their own interests,
06:07and that they are more natural and reasonable states,
06:11that, if possible,
06:12could even assimilate,
06:13or at least have a very controlling relationship over a given neighbor,
06:18or even that can solve their problems for them.
06:21Some people might argue that this is geographical determinism,
06:25but today I'll recall what a philosophy teacher of mine said in high school,
06:30that people often confuse fate and chance as the same thing,
06:35when actually,
06:35if there is such a thing as chance,
06:38then there can be fate,
06:39and vice versa,
06:40because if everything is pre-written,
06:43then there is no luck,
06:45and if there is luck,
06:46then how much is actually written?
06:48So, this is the thing,
06:49unlike some who think that any comment that geographical conditions,
06:54can affect the human society in it,
06:57and say that is fatalism,
06:59in fact,
07:00we're just talking to the fact that there is chance,
07:03that things happen,
07:04and they have side effects,
07:06and by-products.
07:06So, it's obvious that geography doesn't influence how a general majority view of a society comes to be.
07:14It has often been commented that the human societal equivalent of the biological evolutionary island dwarfism,
07:22and gigantism is a very specific psychology of people who live in islands,
07:28especially small ones.
07:29It might lead to a certain feeling that you are trapped in a certain place,
07:34while simultaneously the often cruel element that traps you,
07:38is also what can free you to travel the world outside it,
07:42by contrast with continental people who can always go elsewhere,
07:46going onwards and othernwards throughout the continent their country is in.
07:51But continental countries too can have differences in view in how a landlocked country,
07:56and a country with a shoreline view things,
07:59again, being or not against a surrounding element,
08:02which can be seen as both a gateway into the world,
08:06and a cruel, destructive thing.
08:09In the same way,
08:10clearly,
08:10being from a larger country,
08:12instead of a micro,
08:14small,
08:15medium,
08:15or even medium-large state,
08:18or at least having some neighbors of different strength,
08:21that can put us in our place,
08:23has effects on the society we'll view things.
08:26There's something to be said of a country having white spaces can lead to a whole different psychology
08:34in the society of the country and the people dwelling within it.
08:39Even though it might be unpopular to recognize it,
08:42a lot of, say, Sri Lankans are starting to look at Ukraine and thinking,
08:48the Ukraine is them and Russia is India.
08:51Bangladesh is looking at the Ukraine and thinking,
08:54it is them and that Russia is India or Pakistan.
08:58People in South Sudan seeing the other Sudan in Russia.
09:02Or people in the Sudan looking at Russia's involvement in their own problems
09:07and seeing themselves in the Ukraine.
09:09People in Yemen seeing themselves in the Ukraine and Saudi Arabia in Russia.
09:14Taiwan in relation to China.
09:16Nigeria to Nigeria.
09:18The Guyanas seeing themselves in the Ukraine and Venezuela in Russia.
09:24Et cetera.
09:25We have both larger and smaller countries who have supported the Ukraine.
09:30And both larger and smaller countries have supported Russia.
09:34And larger and smaller countries who are neutral.
09:37But we do see that when we get away from how the countries actually vote,
09:42and we look at the people inhabiting the states,
09:45we see it often despite profits that can be had in the U.S. with the war
09:50and despite the idea that the U.S. are really behind it.
09:54Most U.S. Americans are way too worried with the possibility of U.S. Americans dying in the war
10:00and with the costs of the war, that they are spending their own money at some other.
10:06And that goes for a lot of larger or at least more powerful countries.
10:11Like France often basically is telling the Ukraine to make the gains it already had
10:16and rise to negotiations with Russia so as to permit Russia to have a more or less dignified defeat.
10:24Or something dignified they wouldn't be called a defeat.
10:27At the end of the day, the larger countries have more in common,
10:30regardless of what official line.
10:32Of course we have countries that are still used to seeing themselves as large, imperial,
10:42while simultaneously dealing with the fact that they really aren't anymore,
10:46and being somewhat aware.
10:48In Europe we see all sorts of countries of all sorts of sizes,
10:51but also large that were colonial, large that weren't colonial.
10:56Smaller countries that were colonial but were treated as inferior by other colonial countries,
11:02who had their immigrants going to wealthier European countries.
11:06And we even have European countries who were treated as colonies by other European countries,
11:12including historically the Ukraine.
11:15Due to this, a lot of southern countries who had a pro-Russian history
11:20and a history of seeing Russia as their good guys and their friends,
11:24now are getting very schizophrenically confused and nervous about how will they,
11:30about the fact that they like Russia and they see Russia as the heir
11:34of a Soviet Union that might have been their friend.
11:38But simultaneously, they will look at how the Ukraine is being treated by Russia
11:42and be very nervous thinking of their own bigger or stronger neighbors.
11:48And some have even already started to have the Russians as their opponents,
11:52or at least opponents of their people while supporting their government.
11:57as we see, for example, with the recent military and defense dealings of the Saint-Domain-Prince
12:03government, basically privatizing the local armed forces under the Russian Wagner Group.
12:10And I hope this isn't taken as hatred against larger countries.
12:14The point is that you will always think a certain way and you'll have to do your thing
12:20and you'll have to do ours, and you'll have to agree to disagree
12:23and maybe put our situations above other more temporary and ideological alliances
12:29and tell each other you wouldn't get it.
12:32Antoni Sousa Macias, Portuguese diplomat, writer, and journalist, wrote in
12:37Lusitania liberata ad un giusto castellanorum dominio,
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