Arvo Pärt begs forgiveness from the people of Ukraine
NewsA message from the venerable Estonian composer:
Arvo Pärt to the People of Ukraine
“Dear friends in Ukraine, dear colleagues, dear all fighting for your home at the price of your life,
We bow before your bravery, bravery in the face of nearly unbearable suffering.
We are with you as much as we are able to. All that is left to us is a lump in our throats and tears and prayers. Words have begun to lose their meaning.
Forgive us!
Forgive us for failing to protect you from a disaster unimaginable in our time.
Long live Ukraine! Слава Україні!
Posted by Paavo Järvi
What would that protection have been in a largely pacifist Europe unprepared for war?
Was post-WW2 Europe really so pacifist? And is “pacifism” and a lengthy period of being “unprepared for war” after so many decades of war (arguably from 1866 to 1945) in Europe really as negative as you make it sound? Putting Europe finally to bed, to peace was one of the chief goals of US intervention in WW2. Ditto in Japan.
Following the end of WW2, we had Franco in Spain continue to wage war on the Spanish people with the help of the Catholic church. Portugal was ruled by an autocrat until 1968, then fought its colonial wars in Mozambique, Angola, etc in the 60s and 70s. We have France at war in the Suez, Cochin China/VN, Mali, Algeria…. The Dutch were active militarily in Indonesia in the late 40s and just very recently apologized for this. Britain was mired in military conflicts in the Suez in 1956, stood with the French and Americans against the Russians in armed tank-to-tank confrontation in Berlin in August 1961 at the time of the building of the Wall, not to mention following the US everywhere they went: Vietnam, Iraq, ….
Switzerland and Austria, Sweden and Norway were studiously quiet, neutral. Belgium? The Balkan wars around the demise of Yugoslavia in the 1990s showed European incapable of handling crisis on its turf. Ultimately, Bill Clinton had the USAF fly sorties into what had been Yugoslavia. The Americans, honorary citizens of Europe, were busy with wars every which way since 1945 and made damn sure Europe stayed at peace so that they wouldn’t overextend, and could focus on Korea, VN, Afghanistan, Iraq not to mention Grenada and Panama.
Was ANYONE in Europe, since WW2’s end, willing to confront the Soviets/Russians over any of their actions in Europe? Not really. Can you blame them? Was NATO? No. The US? No. The disadvantage of a democracy, perhaps, is that the people have (theoretically) a say as to their nation’s military involvement. Unlike tyrannical Russia, where the people have zero say in the decision to invade the Ukraine in their name.
And, of course, eastern and central European countries that were part of the Warsaw pact were occasionally busy marching into each others’ countries under orders from Moscow… Hungary 1956, Prague 1968…
Germany, specifically, “learned the lessons” well, perhaps too well, from WW2 (tolerance and peace …) and is just now coming round to see it was all a bit of well-intended and convenient wishful thinking. The country was probably the biggest “peace at any cost” proponent in post-WW2 Europe.
So Europe seems to have been quite “prepared for war” in the years following WW2 – albeit in certain situations and NOT OTHERS. We see this today, regrettably, with the Ukraine, where the West somewhat cynically parses words about the country unfortunately lacking membership in this or that group which would qualify it for NATO military support (theoretically!!!).
Post-WW2 Europe is a complex topic, as you know. So I felt the need to expand – hopefully it was not too much of a rant :).
Regards.
Protection for Ukraine and Georgia would have been not promising them NATO protection, and Soviet-Russia no more NATO expansion. What could possibly go wrong with that combo?
Now, NATO welcomes the membership applications of Sweden and Finland. Talk about Russian roulette.
A mensch.
Short, to the point, heartfelt. So different from JK’s convoluted exercise in pseudo-intellectualism.
Pärt does not have to ask for forgiveness in the name of all of us. Also, he has done nothing murderous or insane himself. There is no guilt for all the people who are shocked but powerless to do something about the atrocities that are happening.
No, he “does not have to ask for” what he is asking, but that is exactly why his statement is particularly poignant and humane.
A beautifully written message from a beautiful man who composes beautiful music.
Thank you, Maestro Pärt.
“”Beautiful music??”””
Where?
A few notes here and there is no music.
Forgive who? Estonians? For what?
lovely words from a tender heart
Thank you, Arvo Part. And Norman, this is literally the PERFECT selection of Part’s music to accompany Mr. Part’s note. You couldn’t have chosen better. I’ve long loved this work (!) and this particular performance from Gil Shaham and Neeme Jarvi.
It says everything that needs to be said here.
Very nice comments, easy to understand.
I’m afraid a Russian invasion of Estonia (and the Baltic Republics) is also probably in the works.
He may want to spend more time working on his marksmanship rather than virtue signalling, because I believe Estonia also has a land border with the Neo-USSR.
The only guilt I feel is for the lack of common sense in the West. I remember the left cheering Putin when he humiliated GW Bush in Georgia in 2008. They were thrilled about it since the people pushing Georgia toward NATO, the neocons, were the people who started the Iraq mess.
Since then it has been obvious that the necons wanted a showdown with Russia, and they have managed to arrange that by manipulating weak presidents like Barrack Hussein and Biden. They intend to fight Putin to the last Ukrainian.