Tribes of Europe readying for war
29 March 2022
ROBERT FORSTER
NORTHUMBRIA, UK - In 1973, Kaiyer Auwin, a fight leader of Milep village in Jiwaka, let me into his inner thoughts.
Kaiyer, who had once carried a spear against early explorer and prospector Jim Taylor, told me he could scarcely believe the benefits that followed the Kiap Administration’s subjugation of everyday inter-clan fighting.
He described how one outcome was that his Omgarl people had not fought with their neighbours for more than 20 years.
They felt free to walk where they wished, and when they did do they were not harmed.
Kaiyer stressed again and again that, when he thought back to pre-Australian contact days, and considered the freedom his people now enjoyed, he hardly believed such huge changes were possible.
The Kiap determination to subdue traditional tribal warfare in the Highlands was largely effective and, for the people, it was a prodigious change.
The peace was not perfect, but the warring was severely constrained.
For a region also mostly untouched by the traumas of the 1942-45 Pacific War, this was a wonderful platform from which to derive the benefits of peace.
While a patrol officer in Papua New Guinea, I needed to remind myself from time to time that Europe, and my family, had only recently been embroiled in two spectacularly destructive wars.
In World War I, my grandfather had been killed at Passchendaele in 1917) and in World War II my father was wounded at Dunkirk in 1940 and his cousin was killed in Norway in the same year.
Within my extended family many other men also died.
There have been many international conflicts since the end of World War II, but when Russian tanks rolled into Ukraine last month to signal that the tangled tribes of Europe were again taking up arms, it was difficult to watch.
For the first time, in the early 1960s, almost every household in the UK owned a television set.
One of the staple fares was documentary film footage showing the traumatic military struggles of 1939 - 1945.
It was unique because fathers sat with their wives and children to watch the visual record of actions they had taken part in.
One result was that my generation had no illusions about the brutality of war.
We saw thousands of mutilated corpses, we saw the destruction of Stalingrad, Coventry, Warsaw and Berlin.
We saw mile upon mile of weary refugees pushing hand carts. We saw the gas chambers of the concentration camps. We saw the German army retreat from Moscow with dreadful losses. We saw how lucky the British army had been to escape from Dunkirk in 1940.
Some of the most powerful pictures showed the ease with which German tank divisions had swept across the open plains of Czechoslovakia and Ukraine in 1941.
I had thought ours might be a blessed generation who went through a lifetime without experiencing another brutal war in Europe.
But that hope was shattered when Russian tanks and rockets once again flattened the cities and towns of Ukraine.
The political, military and economic shock waves have already been felt Moscow to Moresby.
After truth, the most immediate casualty is globalisation.
Astonishing in this modern world, extended, intricate supply lines are seen to be so vulnerable.
Food and fuel are priorities front of mind again. Maximising self-sufficiency and troops are new national goals again.
Friendly neighbouring countries are suddenly more important again.
And as the Russian invasion of Ukraine seems to have arrived at an impasse, neither side able to immediately outfight the other, another concern arises – of nuclear or biological or chemical weapons.
Russia seems willing to countenance the use of any of them.
National borders suddenly seem disconcertingly fragile. Moldova. The Baltic countries. Poland. Finland. Now frontline states.
Where does Poland (population 38 million) begin. Where does Poland end? Will Poland be allowed to exist? Is it about to be re-absorbed by Russia instead?
Russia’s economy is quite small - no bigger than Spain – and it has a disproportionately large army and quite poor people now getting much poorer. Can that continue?
Putin is willing it to do so. The Russian bear, humiliated by the late 20th century breakdown of it empire is back on the prowl.
And just as alarming to me, I hear German leaders, restrained since their defeat in 1945, talking publicly about taking part in kriég, war.
Kaiyer Auwin, fight leader of Milep, would recognise the implications of historical blood sacrifice, of the need to atone for humiliation, of the constant pressure of power lust, of the necessity to keep on winning.
The European tribes, there were 87 of them - Gauls, Teutons, Saxons, Celts, Slavs, Magyars, Romani, Russ and the rest – may be facing up to each other again.
Nobody is confident about where this leads or how it ends.
Kaiyer understood that strength of arms and cleverness in war bestowed many benefits, personal, economic and sovereign.
But he came to understand that the benefits of peace were even greater.
With potential hazard to all humanity, why go-slow on sanctions?
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-07-02/dozens-of-russian-weapons-tycoons-have-faced-no-western-sanction/101203146
And, incidentally, while "use by" date might not be marked on each piece of artillery ordinance, there has been comment about ability to control precision of delivery ("Soviet-era X-22 missiles") although that has drawn no admission of shame from the Putin regime.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-62006743
Posted by: Lindsay F Bond | 02 July 2022 at 05:30 PM
Three more months have passed. What is the score?
Autocratic governance by Vladimir Putin has brought end of life to so many of Russian troops, that at some point the faith and allegiance may crumble. But when?
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-61966317
When famine results in end of life to folk not in Russia, will Putin's regime be impacted?
What resolution of the governance of humanity world-wide, will have effect for prolonging life, a prospect such as the Putin autocracy has yet to engage?
Posted by: Lindsay F Bond | 01 July 2022 at 01:34 PM
From BBC report - The objectives are absolutely clear, they are noble, said Putin in remarks at Vostochny spaceport in a ceremony pegged to Russia's Cosmonautics Day.
https://www.bbc.com/news/live/world-europe-61075759
The Putin word 'noble' is by that usage nobbled.
Posted by: Lindsay F Bond | 12 April 2022 at 07:57 PM
From BBC - There have been reports Russian forces may have used chemical agents in attack on people of Mariupol (tweet by UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss)
https://www.bbc.com/news/live/world-europe-61075759
There is risk in sounding alarms, perhaps more in making too little sound.
Tactics in toxicity were experimented during WW1. Hesitancy of pronouncement now, if only a verification delay, would be to ensure any protestations by protagonist invaders is itself deprived of its metaphorical oxygen.
Posted by: Lindsay F Bond | 12 April 2022 at 04:09 PM
The achievements of the Dutch founder of the mighty Royal Dutch Shell Group, Sir Henri Deterding, are described in a biography, 'The Most Powerful Man In The World'.
Deterding was rewarded with a knighthood after helping the British in World War I:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Henri-Deterding-History-Royal-Dutch-ebook/dp/B01BNTSDKK/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8
Sir Henri eventually became an ardent Nazi, met with Adolf Hitler and financially backed the Third Reich.
Documents signed by Hitler confirm his financial support for the Nazis; the funds generated on Shell petrol forecourts around the world.
At the time, Shell publicly boasted about the importance of its financial contribution to the German economy.
Shell was a significant player in this through a subsidiary company controlled by Dutch directors of Royal Dutch Shell.
The subsidiary became involved in Nazi military planning.
Before the outbreak of World War II, the directors collaborated in the Nazi annexation and occupation of Austria and Czechoslovakia.
Several directors engaged in anti-Semitic policies against Shell employees and were guilty of collaboration and appeasement.
Deterding died just before the outbreak of World War II. He was honoured with a Nazi ceremonial funeral near Berlin attended by Royal Dutch Shell Group directors who mingled with Nazi military officers.
Hundreds of mourners took part in the funeral procession. A glowing tribute on behalf of the German nation was inscribed on a wreath sent by Hitler.
As a major financial contributor to Nazi Germany before World War II, Royal Dutch Shell under Dutch leadership arguably had indirect responsibility for the death toll of the subsequent war, in which over 50 million people perished.
Posted by: Bernard Corden | 03 April 2022 at 12:01 PM
This article was also posted on the exkiap website and Arthur Williams made the following comment, which I think is worth repeating here.
"Good post Rob.
Like you I had uncles serving from Burma to the Murmansk on land sea and air. Beating the odds none were killed though the Burma campaign one didn't live too long after its affects.
As a tiny infant I survived 3 near misses of bombs all destroying homes and lives within 300 yards of our home as the German planes tried to disrupt the bottleneck of the railways from the Rhondda pits carrying some of the world's best coals which apparently was a preferred type of coal for the Royal Navy.
In the cold war the Royal Ordinance Factory making missile (parts or were they complete?) was less than a kilometre up the road and was apparently now we later learnt as being on the 'B' List for destruction by a nuclear device.
Perhaps that meant 15 minutes of warning! So the 1962 Cuba was nearest dangerous crisis of my life....so far.
I too thought that this latest affair could develop into a real WW3 and I actually opened a sub-file on my PC and titled it just those 3 digits. Hope it was just an old man being too reactive to events seen on the BBC almost to the complete absence of any other news.
Someone in its hierarchy has now said, “Enough! So for the past 3 days Ukraine is not the lead item. Happily there seems a glimmer of hope among the ongoing destruction.
You mentioned the arrival of TV in Britain and the public seeing documentaries of so much of the horrors of WW2 while sitting in their lounges. My most vivid viewing of war was the 1967 Biafra War that cost a million lives.
I shall never forget the small emaciated kids shown to us. Still recall the marching song praising the rebel's 'general'.... “We are all Biafrans fighting for Ojuku. With Ojuku leading we shall be victorious!”
Wars make me think of my dear old Mum who hated Germans because they had interfered with the first six years of her life and then did the same to her own children. Dad too would never buy a German made car just as WW2 Digger Jim White of Taskul wouldn't buy a Yamaha outboard.
I repeat what I have written somewhere before of all the hours of spit and polish I undertook in 1958 at the Guard's depot, Caterham preparing for a march past for our Major General. It was his Guest of Honour that inwardly rankled as he was a very senior officer in the German military.
While living in our barracks even 13 years after WW2 were some of its veterans for whom a Major General's parade was compulsory. There comments later that day are not suitable for polite conversation.
It did bring home to me the futility of War which has lingered with me ever since. Marx wrote 'Religion is the opium of the masses!' I think he might add a new maxim: 'War is the opium of the capitalists!'
Did you note Biden with his fellow hawkish Secretary for State being so happy to be able to offer its NATO puppets as much gas as Europe wants but at a higher cost as an alternative source to that cheaper Russian gas.
To hell with the carbon footprint of transporting by pipeline then ocean vessels. With an unmentioned fact that more will be available when USA reopens the closed fracking projects.
In April 2020 http://www.energy-pedia.com wrote: 'We estimate that the total number of started 'fra'c operations will end up below 300 wells from the 807 fracking projects in February that were sited in the three most important fracking regions.' Imagine the talk around a fracker family's dinner tables on reading that: “If only some major event could obstruct the commie Russian Nord-2 pipeline?”
After the EU/NATO meet in Brussels the frackers can hardly control themselves Oh by the way ..'Do-my-Biden' offer is 15Bn m3 by the end of the 2022 for EU while they use 541Bn m3 annually.
Ok guys that's just my conspiracy waffle...or is it? Have a read of how the Nazi war machine prospered with the help of capitalism that had no political or moral imperative to take sides in WW2. These are just a few.
www,historyofyesterday.com
According to The Washington Post, (Dobbs, 1998) war documents showed that General Motors and Ford both “went along with the conversion of their German plants to military production at a time when U.S. government documents show they were still resisting calls by the Roosevelt administration to step up military production in their plants at home.”
Ford-Werke, was indeed a functional component of the German war machine. As did other German companies, Ford-Werke used slave labor from a concentration camp to produce military materiel.
IBM
Even after it was apparent that its system was being used for the Holocaust, IBM continued to supply Germany with machines. With the entry of the United States into the war in 1941, Dehomag was seized and controlled by German shareholders However, an exhaustively researched book published in 2001 (Black, 2001) revealed that at the same time the American headquarters was working on behalf of the United States, IBM subsidiaries in Europe still delivered punch cards to Nazi Germany. Some used for Hitler's Census to locate and record details of the Jews in Germany which would be basis for the management of the Final Solution for their extermination. IBM executives directed operations through neutral Switzerland allegedly home to all sorts of characters from both sides of the war and included the infamous Gnomes..
Standard OIL
Prior to the United States entering the war, Standard Oil actively assisted the Nazis with technology that allowed them to produce synthetic gasoline from coal. This was crucial because, while Nazi Germany had rich coal resources, they had little access to crude petroleum. In addition, Standard Oil, along with other companies, provided the tetraethyl lead gasoline necessary for planes of the German air force, the Luftwaffe. As such, Standard Oil literally fuelled the Nazi war machine.
Standard Oil of New Jersey and Standard Oil of California engaged in wartime deception when their oil tankers were re-registered under the flag of Panama, enabling the ships to evade search or seizure by the British navy. According to a March 31, 1941 U.S. State Department report, these tankers carried oil that was eventually delivered to Nazi Germany. Standard Oil also provided tetraethyl lead to Japan. Source- www,11points.com
Hugo Boss
In the 1930s, Hugo Boss started making Nazi uniforms. The reason: Hugo Boss himself had joined the Nazi party, and got a contract to make the Hitler Youth, storm trooper and SS uniforms.
That was a huge boon for Hugo Boss… he got the contract just eight years after founding his company… and that infusion of business helped take the company to another level. The Nazi uniform manufacturing went so well that Hugo Boss ended up needing to bring in slave laborers from Poland and France to help out at the factory.
IG Farben 's Bayer Division
During the Holocaust, a German company called IG Farben manufactured the Zyklon B gas used in the Nazi gas chambers. They also funded and helped with Josef Mengele’s torture “experiments” on concentration camp prisoners. (Source: Alliance for Human Research Protection, Pharmaceutical Achievers)
[I'm sure many expats in PNG have used BAYGON once owned by Bayer before selling it to S C Johnson & Sons Ltd]
IG Farben is the company that turned the single largest profit from work with the Nazis. After the War, the company was broken up & Bayer went on to become its own company.
Oh… and Aspirin was founded by a Bayer employee, Arthur Eichengrun. But Eichengrun was Jewish, and Bayer didn’t want to admit that a Jewish guy created the one product that keeps their company in business. So, to this day, Bayer officially gives credit to Felix Hoffman, a nice Aryan man, for inventing Aspirin. (Source: Alliance for Human Research Protection, Pharmaceutical Achievers)
Coca-Cola, specifically Fanta
Coke played both sides during World War Two… they supported the American troops but also kept making soda for the Nazis. Then, in 1941, the German branch of Coke ran out of syrup, and couldn’t get any from America because of wartime restrictions. So they invented a new drink, specifically for the Nazis: A fruit-flavored soda called Fanta. That’s right: Long before Fanta was associated with a bunch of exotic women singing a god-awful jingle, it was the unofficial drink of Nazi Germany. (Source: New Statesman)
Chase bank
A lot of banks sided with the Nazis during World War Two. Chase is the most prominent.
They froze European Jewish customers’ accounts and were extremely cooperative in providing banking service to Germany. (Source: New York Times) [What NO Sanctions!]
Random House publishing
Random House’s parent company, Bertelsmann A.G., worked for the Nazis… they published Hitler propaganda, and a book called 'Sterilization and Euthanasia: A Contribution to Applied Christian Ethics'. Bertelsmann still owns and operates several companies. I picked Random House because they drew controversy in 1997 when they decided to expand a softer definition of Nazi in Webster’s Dictionary. (Source: New York Observer, ADL)
Most of the above companies have eventually apologised and have paid some compensation in money transfers, certainly not in pigs, to the 6 millions who died in Nazi Concentration camps. As your Jiwaka Kaiyer Auwin would say that is a vital economic rule of tribal or clan warfare.
Posted by: Philip Fitzpatrick | 03 April 2022 at 09:59 AM
Can it be that a tide is turning?
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/russian-soldiers-not-carrying-out-orders-and-sabotaging-own-equipment-british-spy-chief-20220331-p5a9os.html
Is it that "Russian soldiers had low morale and were poorly equipped"?
https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/russian-soldiers-refusing-to-carry-out-orders-as-ukraine-braces-for-fresh-attacks/1zddwx312
Posted by: Lindsay F Bond | 31 March 2022 at 05:47 PM
What do people in Europe think of their neighbour Russia, going on recent history?
Finland – Previous Soviet invasion and Russian domination
Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania – Previous Soviet invasion and Russian domination
Poland – Previous Soviet invasion and Russian domination
Hungary – Previous Soviet invasion and Russian domination
Germany – Divided and Soviet occupied East
Romania – Previous Soviet invasion and Russian domination
Bulgaria - Soviet Occupation and Domination
Moldova - Previous Soviet invasion and Russian domination
Georgia - Soviet Occupation and Domination, aggressive war, by Russia
Ukraine - Soviet Occupation and Domination, current aggressive war by Russia….
etc.
Hmmmm….
Then there’s the Russians themselves now reportedly hurriedly leaving the country for fear of being called up as conscripts or sent to prison for 15 years if they know about and protest against the Ukrainian war being raged against their non-aggressive neighbour.
Why is the current flag of the Russian Federation a double headed eagle that looks both right and left?
Tarangau istap na lukautim ol lo kisim planti kaikai.
Posted by: Paul Oates | 30 March 2022 at 12:48 PM