Rhino's Ramblings - Don't Go There

By Robert Thomas - Opinion/Commentary

Odessa, Ukraine

If you believe the latest on the national news back in Canada then Odessa, like the rest of Ukraine, should be a city on edge.

People should be out digging ditches, learning how to use an assault rifle or if not that at least be cleaning out the bomb shelters as war with Russia is on the not so far horizon.

The truth of the matter is that is for the most part false.

War is not on the minds of most Oddessites but rather people here are like people everywhere and just trying to live their lives.

A ride on the tram (streetcar) - MJ Independent photo

People are still going to work, people are still going to the shops (there is no hoarding), people are like most people everywhere just trying to get by the best they can.

So how do I know this? Well for the better part of the week I have been here.

This is not some special mission on my part but rather a trip I planned months ago well before the egos of politicians, pundits and activist journalists on both sides beat the drums calling for war.

People crossing the street in a commercial area while shopping - MJ Independent photo

For the ordinary person here in Ukraine it's life as usual. And that is a fact.

As someone told me at the famous Prizov Market “war is not coming here, except in the minds of far off politicians and their supporters who have never really been here.”

It’s like Canada now recalling it’s training forces west of the Dneiper and the few who were in Odessa left the day after I arrived - just a blip that nobody here locally knew anything about.

It is the same with Canadian authorities telling Canadians to immediately leave Ukraine the very day I arrived all I told friends here was “meh I am not going back I just got here.”

And to be honest with you I received cheers here locally from people who know me for that one.

The store shelves are stocked and massive hoarding is not happening - MJ Independent photo

The store shelves here in Odessa are full and there is no hoarding going on.

People might pick up the odd extra item on sale if they can afford it. But it is not about stocking up for an impending war.

It's about saving a few hryvinas on an item they use often - the same thing so many of us do in Canada.

People here complain to me about the same things many people complain about back in Canada like why does it always seem only one City worker is working while the rest just supervise?

Odessa city workers busy laying paving blocks in a commercial area of the city - MJ Independent photo

People are people no matter where you go it seems.

I have watched the news here on television and so you know the threat of Russian attacking is usually the third or fourth story. It's not the lead story and that is is on the national news on multiple channels.

Right now the Omnicrom variant of COVID - 19 is running rampant in Odessa and throughout Ukraine but few people wear masks. And if they do wear masks they have at least 101 ways of wearing it so it does not fully cover one's nose and mouth.

I have friends who are either sick with COVID or under 14 day quarantine due to their children being close contacts.

Despite the widespread number of people sick there seems to be no immediate rush for people to get vaccinated. Ukraine is a paradise if you are an anti-vaxxer.

The response from the government in Kyiv is there might be a lockdown soon which means you can go outside but you cannot leave the city if you are not vaccinated.

A few people here tell me the lockdown has nothing to do with stopping the virus but rather its about stopping another Maidan - another popular uprising and tossing out the government that failed to live up to its bold promises and the hope of real change it once held for Ukraine.

In some ways it is like cats sitting on a Black Sea bench on a cloudy day patiently waiting for a sunny day.

So what about Canada and all of the noise they have made about a pending invasion?

Well Operation Unifier, the mission to train Ukraine's troops, has been renewed and expanded at a cost of several hundreds of millions of dollars.

We have chipped in $120 million already to support Ukraine's bonds from defaulting and with the imminent threat of war we aren’t supplying weapons or troops but rather further long term financial supports.

Because without the funds Ukraine's economy would collapse as the oligarchs continue to rob the place blind.

We even threw $200,000 to activist journalists who openly ponder getting even with academics and others back in Canada who fail to toe the party line.

Will war actually come here? Personally I don’t actually know.

But in many way everything could be summed up in what I was told by some here “Do not believe everything you read on the walls.”

Robert Thomas is the Acting Editor of MJ Independent

As an FYI MJ Independent is still being produced.