This is a web site devoted to good food, good wine, discretionary travel, living abroad, and generally having fun. These are activities that give us pleasure and offer an opportunity to set aside the concerns of daily life for a few minutes, hours or days.
But this week the “real world” is harder to ignore. Like many of you, we have spent time reading and listening to news reports about the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The seriousness of this event caused us to adjust our focus. We had a new post planned, and half written, on a topic of miniscule importance in the broader scope of history. (Like all of our other posts.) We’ll come back to it next week or the week after.
This week we are reflecting on the proximity of the conflict in Ukraine and the different perspectives about it that we see and hear.
This One is a Lot Closer to Home
We were teenagers during the war in Vietnam, the first war to be televised. Throughout our lives we have had pictures and video of armed conflicts brought into our living rooms and our consciousness. Back then, it was a 30 minute dose delivered nightly in measured tones by Walter Cronkite. Today, it’s available 24 hours a day from hundreds of on-air and online outlets.
But regardless of where the news came from, the stories were always about events happening somewhere else, usually some place far away.
What’s different for us today is that this latest conflict is much closer. It’s not happening “over there”. It’s happening much closer to home – if not in our backyard, at least in our neighborhood. We live on the western edge of Europe. Ukraine is on the eastern edge. To put it in perspective; We could drive to Kyiv in 41 hours. That’s as long as it would take to drive from Washington, DC to Seattle.
Same Story / Different Points of View
The other difference we notice is the variety of perspectives we can access. When we lived in the US, we had one primary source of news – MSNBC. Many of our friends and neighbors had a different primary source – Fox News. Both outlets shaped our perceptions and opinions. Here, we can get many different perspectives – if we choose to tune in.
There are at least six newspapers regularly on sale in our local supermarkets. Their editorial and political leanings are all across the spectrum, but on Friday there was one topic that made each of their covers.
On Friday afternoon, Mike spent an hour channel surfing and sampling the cable news. Here’s a sample of the coverage:
- CM TV is a Portuguese cable channel owned by a company that also owns a tabloid newspaper. It is sometimes accused of being sensationalist. They were showing live footage from Ukraine, with a banner at the bottom of the screen that said Carro esmagado por tanque militar – car crushed by military tank.
- Noticias 24h is a Spanish news station. They had a live feed from the Ukraine / Romanian border that showed people, likely Ukrainians fleeing the violence, walking and pulling suitcases.
- Aljazeera was running a story about the Champions League football final being moved from St. Petersburg, Russia to Paris, France. A later story reported that the Manchester United football club in the UK was cancelling a sponsorship deal with Aeroflot, the Russian airline.
- RTL, a Dutch network, had live coverage under a headline Krieg in der Ukraine / Angst in Europa -War in Ukraine / Fear in Europe.
- Phoenix Midnight Express, a news program from the Chinese network Phoenix TV, was showing war footage interspersed with photos of Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping. At one point they had bullet-point lists of what were probably comments by each leader. But since they were Chinese characters, we could only guess what they had said.
- RT , a Russian state-controlled network broadcasting in English, had a banner headline reading “Ukrainian army shells Donbass school, killing two teachers”. It did not surprise us that the Russian station would have a different point of view from all the others.
The Big Question
Regardless of the source or the language, we’re certain that most news reports eventually get to the same question that’s on our minds: What happens next?
We don’t know the answer, but are pretty certain that whatever happens will have ripple effects across Europe and the rest of the world. The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said on Friday that more than 50,000 Ukrainians fled the country in the first 48 hours of the fighting and over 100,000 have been displaced inside Ukraine. That could lead to the largest refugee crisis in Europe since the Syrian civil war, when over 1 million people were displaced.
The battles may not come to Portugal, but we can likely expect some new arrivals looking for a safe and peaceful place to live.
Which is what most of us, regardless of our nationality or politics, really want.
Late Breaking News
Several hours after I first published this post, I saw this article on the Portugal Resident newspaper site: Portugal’s estate agents unite to create national database for free housing for refugee Ukrainians It said, in part:
News this evening is that property sales professionals in Portugal are uniting efforts to create a national database pinpointing properties that are available either free or for very low rental to Ukrainian families fleeing the war.
Jornal de Notícias reports that “in a matter of hours, the group had guaranteed more than 300 beds and offers don’t stop coming in from borough councils, hotels, businesses, private institutions and investors”.
This was great news, in part because our experience has been that real estate agents here don’t collaborate very well with each other. But in this case, it demonstrates something else we have learned about the Portuguese people: They are very welcoming, particularly to people in need.
No silly question to end with this week. We hope you and your families are safe and well. And we join you in hoping this current crisis will be swiftly resolved.
If you pray, pray for peace.
Mary and Mike
The Cook and The Writer
This brought tears to my eyes. The triumph of the human spirit takes many forms. Lovely that the real estate agents are coming together to help those in need. What a beautiful thing.
Stay safe.
Nan
Thanks so much for a different perspective. We only have a few channels in which to get information. You definitely are much closer to all that’s going on, so stay safe and hopefully this will end sooner than later.
As someone in the US who recently applied for a visa to live in Portugal, I am struck with fear and confusion regarding the future. I want to move to Portugal in order to remove myself from what I see as a dire political future. Of course, we are all inter-connected and the world is small, so war anywhere affects everyone but deliberately relocating to a continent experiencing war does seem counter-intuitive to me and I am already dug in quite deep with the relocation process. Having said this, I am deeply grateful for your post as I was recently excoriated on a facebook page for asking about the perceived threat of this war by folks in Portugal. I hope you will keep us up to date on this with your more enlightened perspective from where you sit. Namaste
Hi Michele. Thanks for your comment. I understand your concerns. It’s too early to tell how this will all play out, so in your position you are wise to keep asking questions and staying informed. Mary and I had similar concerns last year as we went through the visa process during the pandemic. There were many days when one of asked “Just what the hell are we doing?” But I think there is a big difference between being immobilized by fear (I can’t go because something bad might happen) and moving forward with caution when you perceive there is danger. Making this move was one of the scariest things we’ve ever done. Also the most exhilarating.
Two English language news sites that I follow are The Portugal Resident and The Portugal News. And both Firefox and Chrome browsers will translate some of the other sites that publish in Portuguese, like Jornal de Noticias.
I hope your visa application is successful. Keep us posted.
Mike
As always, thank you so much for your article. I was wondering what perspectives were being presented in Europe. I believe we (the people of the world) are united in our dismay and sorrow for the people of Ukraine and the disgust at another despot killing people for his own ego. Meanwhile, here in the US, Trump is praising Putin for his “savvy.” Absolutely horrifying that an American citizen would praise a murderer. I can’t wait to be in Portugal on April 3. Thank you again.
Hi Gayna,
Thanks for your comment. I am not a news analyst or political commentator, and we try very hard to avoid the kind of controversial and divisive topics that can be found many other places on the internet. (It’s the same rule we apply at Thanksgiving dinner – no talk of politics or religion! Let’s enjoy each others’ company and a good meal.) But as an interested observer, it appears to me that there is a widespread and common reaction to the situation in Ukraine – the “dismay and sorrow and disgust” you describe. It’s also worth noting that there is a broad range of political views in Portugal. There were 20 parties competing in the last national election, several that represent far right-wing conservative points of view. (See Nancy Whiteman’s excellent piece on her Expat in Portugal site for a more in-depth perspective.)
And we look forward to welcoming you to Portugal in April!
Mike
Last week I commented, “you brightened my week”. This week, you enlightened it!
Thank you, Joy, for both comments!
Mike
Well said. Thanks for the insightful post.
Thanks for commenting. We appreciate the feedback!
Mike