#45 The loss of hope
Pray for Ukraine
Hey all, as you would now be well aware, despite our wishes and hopes there is a war upon us. For our kids, perhaps the first active war of their lifetime; at least of this scale. It’s sad, nay a shame, to think that in 2022 the world has progressed so little.
To our readers that have been with us for a while - you would know that this Newsletter is written in a way that brings a smile - its jovial writing style is core to its being. But this week, given the events, we are just not feeling it. It doesn’t seem fair to carry on as if nothing is amiss.
The only newsworthy item to know this week is that finally, after much after thought, the UK, Canada, France, Germany, EU and the USA have taken up bold sanctions against Russia and decided to cut off Russian banks from the SWIFT payment system. We hope in earnest this move cuts-off Russia’s ability to wage war and brings peace sooner than later.
Wait, what is..
Sanctions: Economic sanctions are “commercial and financial penalties” applied on a country, company or person. Commercial and financial penalties include measure like freezing bank accounts, disallowing trade with the sanctioned nation/company/individual and restrictions on movement, among many other means. Read here how economic sanctions work.
SWIFT Payment System: The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications or SWIFT is a body that enables money transfer and payments between international banks (and countries). Blocking Russian banks from it effectively means Russia has been cut off from the global economy.
NOTE: There is always a negative impact of sanctions, as the impact of it is felt by citizens of the country facing them. Sadly many times the citizens have nothing to do with the (reckless) decisions of their country’s leaders.
Pray for Ukraine and for Russian citizens and do what you can. Below tweet contains details for making donations via cryptocurrency to the Ukrainian government. Please verify these independently before making any contributions.
Take care. See you next week. May peace prevail. 🙏