As far back as I could remember, I never liked politics. It was always something the older people talked about that acted as a cue for me to leave the room. And I was pretty confident it would never change. But then Russian invaded Ukraine.
Invasion
I hated history in school. I studied it as a subject for 5 years in my schooling. Yet, I was as illiterate on history, as I was when I started. And I believe it’s because I was never really taught history, I was taught what points to remember to get good grades. I was never taught to appreciate history and the culture surrounding it, it was just a subject where you can score good grades. But the importance of history is undefinable, it is the basis of everything we do. The laws we follow, politics, our culture, the economy and so much more. History teaches us why things are, the way they are.
I was so engrossed, I couldn’t stop thinking about it. The Invasion of Ukraine, by Russia, was something no one saw coming. I didn’t think much of it at first, to be completely honest. I was ignorant to say the least. But as things escalated, and it quickly did, to the level of people questioning a world war. I had to know more. “Why was Russia invading? What does Putin want? Wait, what is NATO?” and so the rabbit hole went on. And yes, I didn’t even know what NATO actually was. I’ve heard it in conversations but didn’t bother understanding it. In the subsequent weeks I was keeping up with the invasion, but I also started getting invested in other political affairs like, the relationship of Hong Kong with China, UK leaving the EU (BREXIT), the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan and of course about Putin and his greatest threat Alexis Navalny. And all this was just the tip of the iceberg. These were the issues that made a big splash, but there are thousands of comparatively smaller issues around the world affecting thousands of people.
To understand each issue, you needed to know the history behind it, because most issue don’t sprout out of the blue, these are issues deep-rooted in the history of the people affected. The same goes for the Ukraine Invasion. Putin believes Ukraine is a part of Russia, which it actually was, more than three decades ago pre Soviet Union collapse, but they gained Independence in 1991. This is crucial, as Putin didn’t just decide to go to war suddenly one day. This was a result of decades of false belief and a madman. And of course Putin’s hatred towards NATO. Issues such as these are happening all around the world, and I’m here ignorantly sitting in my comfortable bubble. It made me feel pathetic, helpless, ignorant and sad. That’s when I realized the least I can do is educate myself.
One thing I noticed in myself when I started following these issues was that I was growing more pessimistic day by day. Seeing the horror’s of man’s greed for money and power makes one see the worst in the world. I was loosing faith in humanity. That is why, even though the importance of knowing the political climate has dawned on me, I still don’t want to be the type of person that is glued to the news channels, waiting for the next scrap of information. I believe it does more harm than good. For the time being, I’m less interested in knowing the current headline and more interested in knowing the story behind it.
