I don’t think so. NATO has rules about this sort of thing. The two important ones are 1) They are a defensive alliance, they only react if you attack one of the members directly, and 2) You can’t become a member if you are already involved in a conflict.
Ukraine is not a member state. It cannot become a member state any time soon either. Russia would have to step across another line, for the situation to be analogous to Germany/Poland.
There are some similarities. Remember when Germany said “we’re annexing Austria… besides, they already like us!”, and the rest of the world was like “as long as this is the last one, okay?”, and then Germany was like “we also want the Sudetenland, besides the people who live there are mostly us already”, and the rest of the world was “well, okay, this is the last one, right?”.
And then Poland was like: Guys, I think we’re next! We don’t want to be next! And Britain said, don’t worry, he picks on you, he picks on us!
In some ways, the world is probably okay with the status quo, as long as Ukraine is the last one.
Correct. He said he doesn’t want NATO on his doorstep. Now he does. Silly old man…
In the interim, Finland joined and Sweden is on the brink of doing so too.
On the other end of the map… Kazakhstan is rumoured as a possible next target (second best territory in all of Eastern Europe, ja!?), and Mongolia is apparently fairly friendly because the depend on Russian oil.
They can always take over North Korea. That might actually be an improvement.
But I don’t see any countries that side that the west really care about.
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Kazakhstan has been one of Moscow’s closest and most reliable allies in the post-Soviet space and is part of all the regional organisations Russia has initiated in the region.
Mongolia–Russia relations have been traditionally strong since the Communist era, when the Soviet Union supported the Mongolian People’s Republic. Mongolia and Russia remain allies in the post-communist era.
BRICS+ data and info:
4 x more populated than the G7
2 x larger is surface area and 36% of the world’s surface area
Total GDP on a PPP basis:
BRICKS 37% - G7 29.9%
In volume, this is $65 000 Billion with the focus on transacting in local currencies
BRICS+ has:
44.3% of the world’s oil reserves
49% of the global wheat harvest (G7 19.1)
55% of the global rice harvest (G7 2.6)
79% of aluminium production (G7 1.3)
77% of palladium (G7 6.9)
38.3% of global production (G7 30.5)
What’s dis, I need input, more input Was actually looking online at some data at the same time. There are way to many metrics, but enter the rabbit hole we must…
The expanded Brics still largely trails the G7 in terms of per capita GDP, and only the UAE ranks in the upper-middle range when compared to the group of advanced economies, based on IMF data. The Brics countries accounted for 32 per cent of global GDP against the G7’s 30 per cent. The rest of the world contributed the remaining 39 per cent.
The G7 is made up of traditional economic powerhouses – the US, Canada, the UK, Germany, France, Italy and Japan.
Including the new Brics countries, with 3.24 billion people, account for 40 per cent of the world’s population – while the G7’s 0.8 billion makes up 10 per cent.
i.e. BRICS is bricked - hence to become a new member state your economy must preferably bricked or something like that - or it will soon be as thick as a BRIC, eish we can play lekker with words…
hehehe @plonkster , and now for the big bruhaha… the guy [seale] was with me at res in school - regarding tull etc, heavy metal was my scene, used to think demis roussos [aka dennis rossouw] is for moffies… had the tshirts but lost them all … maybe a few neurons still clinging to stuff of melani safka or joan baez… eish, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?”
This is OT, I know, but this story is funny. In high school, went to church one Sunday morning, and the minister was using a recent popular Joan Osborne song to make a point. And he really got into it…
So afterwards, while walking out, Belinda and another girl (last name omitted for the obvious reasons) are in front of me, and I hear this other girl ask Belinda: Did you give the CD to the minister? Yes, says Belinda. Other girl asks: Why on earth did you do that!?
sounds like the minister was under the spell of rodney - that stuff makes no sense - i mean who is going to for instance play led zeppelin backwards [one of seale’s spookopjaag points] … and at what speed? - but res was naturally koshuis, and in them days the prefects didn’t bother the teachers with trivialities, they were dishing out the pak slaes where and when necessary - and boy that worked!
What’s even more weird about it… 20 years later we got the tech to easily do that (play songs backwards), and all those scary things we were warned about simply turned out to be untrue.
Again, my perspective on this is not what the usual person would conclude. Many people conclude: Oh, they lied to us! I am never believing a word again!
No, they didn’t lie to you. They didn’t have the equipment to even know. They were incompetent. They didn’t know what they were talking about.
For me, I think it was a terrible shame it went that way. The words of the songs, when played FORWARDS, was often bad enough (to a young impressionable boy). Should have focused on that.
Anyway, grew up in a house where we only listened to classical music. I rebelled, and made my parents sad. I later realised the music was never the issue. Music is music. Art is art. Lyrical content is the issue. So that’s where I’m going with my kids.
incompetent under the guise of theology - that’s the result of not sticking to the Script - the McGuivermectin of the 60’s?
ditto here - although my father brought in some jazz… the origin of which was in most cases js bach in any case… but then the 60’s music got us at res, far from parents and lekker safe between fellow deranged juveniles hell bent on woodstock
now here i will allow myself to transgress an unspoken forum rule ‘don’t comment on your own stuff’ - my brother hung with a slightly more intellectual but also deranged crowd where clint eastwood was given the afrikaans name ‘klont oosthuizen’
Man, the stealing, or rather borrowing, is somewhat pervasive too. So I am listening to this popular song by Ava max, Kings and queens, and I’m thinking, why does this sound like John Bon Jovi? Well, cause it does, but the story doesn’t end there. Desmond Childs wrote the song for Bonny Tyler. And he is indeed credited as co-songwriter on all three.
Was actually looking online at some data at the same time. There are way to many metrics, but enter the rabbit hole we must…
- hence to become a new member state your economy must preferably bricked or something like that - or it will soon be as thick as a BRIC, eish we can play lekker with words…
