The status of the war in Ukraine has given us all food for thought. We watch the daily news and undoubtedly we all want to help but, all we can do is pray for divine intervention. 

Yesterday, I asked a fisherman for the price of one small fish, “$40” he said. “You know the war in Ukraine has pushed up the cost of fish too”. 

And they were all reef fish! Fish which require only cheap energy from breadfruit to dive three feet of water at low tide to catch.

President XI Jinping has also flown to Russia to try and get President Vladimir Putin to agree to his Peace Plan, a very good initiative from this World leader.

Already there are more than enough nuclear arsenals today to destroy the whole world three times over in a few seconds. 

Every leader of the world with nuclear armaments at his disposal knows that the next war will be the last, a judgment day for all of us. Still, the rule of the jungle persists with leaders playing bully.

The Ukrainian people had the choice of just meekly surrendering their freedom to President Putin’s despotic rule, tolerating his lies, and suppressing of their sovereignty and dignity. They decided, however, to fight. And the destruction of their homes, and loss of lives continues. 

This is a great lesson to all Pacific peoples to uphold the value of their freedom, sovereignty, and dignity.

The great World Wars I and II occurred due to a system of alliances created by Chancellor Bismarck of Germany in 1860 to help Germany in the event of an anticipated war of revenge by France against Germany post-Napoleon’s reign. 

A small incident in Serbia drew the world eventually to World War I and II due to an alliance system that only Chancellor Bismarck understood. 

We are seeing this happening again in today’s World. A few years ago, a Great Russian Nuclear Submarine Commander died incognito. 

A magazine article wrote, “this is the man that saved the World in 1960”. The article referred to a faceoff between President Khrushchev of the U.S.S.R. and President Kennedy of the United States over Cuba. It nearly drew the world to a third World War. 

A Russian commander of a U.S.S.R. submarine lying at the bottom of the Atlantic close to the US coastline and two officials on the submarine were granted the authority to release the nuclear bombs on board against the U.S. which would have started World War III. 

The only condition was all three must agree. Two agreed but the commander, a Christian refused. This Commander was subsequently court-martialed and stripped of all honors to the day he died.

In any country, where the rule of the jungle is the law, there are still people with good common sense prevailing. 

Mistakes, however, do happen. And when it happens, there’s no time even to bid farewell to one another.

Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi

Leader of HRPP