A map of Ukraine. Illustration by Agence France-Presse
Reflections by Irwin Redlener, early morning hours on May 25, 2022.
I woke up at 4:50 AM with a headache, got up to take some Tylenol, and was trying to fall back to sleep in my room here at this strange little hotel in downtown Lviv.
Ten minutes later, just at five AM, loud sirens and public service announcements (PA) first in Ukrainian, then an English came across “were advising people to seek shelter”. Then an internal announcement came from the hotel's PA system, again in both languages: "Attention hotel guests. Please go immediately to the first floor". I was disoriented, not panicked, threw on some clothes and grabbed my phones, notebook, and laptop, and headed to the lobby where there was no one actually there. Sirens were still blaring, nobody was in the reception area. A few minutes later a pleasant young receptionist appears and tells me to head to the basement. The shelter was actually the hotel's fitness center. I arrive to see a very friendly couple, one with professional video equipment and a woman colleague. Turns out that they are English fluent-speaking journalists - Charlotte, is a foreign affairs reporter for the Norwegian Broadcasting Company (like NPR or BBC).
We spoke for an hour about what she was experiencing in Ukraine and Poland. She has also extensive experience with refugee crises elsewhere. They ended up recording an interview with me about what child refugees experience when there is severe psychological trauma and educational disruption - they become population "time bombs" unable to fulfill their own aspirations, fall into depression, and become societal liabilities - which is precisely why Karen and I have decided to focus on this large scale, seemingly intractable chronic crises with the www.UkraineCAP.org.
The refugee crises are huge, large-scale problems with lots of "solvers" in the mix from small, local volunteer efforts to huge multinational organizations and governments that are for the most part unable to match the scale of need and who invariably are far less coordinated than they should be. This is a reality that I first experienced when I assembled a medical response team for a major earthquake in Guatemala in 1976, then with the USA for Africa in sub-Saharan Africa in the mid-1980s. Ultimately similar to every disaster I have ever worked on over the subsequent decades. Media and public interest in these flare up crises fade rapidly. Recovery from big disasters - invariably long and complicated - is a coverage desert. Even the generosity and welcoming of Poles when it comes to hosting Ukrainian refugees will soon fade, impatience will grow...then what?
Charlotte and I also spoke about the stark difference in how the refugees from Ukraine were being perceived and treated vs. refugees from Syria, Afghanistan, and other non-white, non-Christian conflict zones). She also talked about how crises and politics are evolving more and more quickly. "Politics on speed" is how some former Danish political leader refers to the state of the world now. Also, I asked, how are we supposed to balance and prioritize crises? Climate change, war, 100 million refugees, and IDPs around the world, environmental disasters, disappearance of species, etc., etc.
Charlotte also talked about her long-term reporting on and working with extremists who have a tendency to be loners, and prone to violence. She said the phrase "In-Cells" has been adopted in some circles, referring to involuntary celibacy. Lonely men without families, social connections, feeling rejected by women, etc. - all exacerbated and reinforced by dark social media and extremist political leaders (think Trump and many others).
Where are the moral leaders? Think Rafal Trzaskowski, mayor of Warsaw. Who else? Many leaders in Scandinavia, Biden perhaps. Too few...
Back in my room now after all the clear signals on the PA. Fascinating to see that we were the only three people from the hotel who bothered to wake up and head for shelter when the sirens went off. Everybody else, apparently, here in western Ukraine is "just used to it". Apparently so..."
