18/03/2022
I have been working in academia for the last 20 years, ten of which I dedicated to the legal intricacies of regulating the space activity. Now I can easily come to a conclusion that all my publications and scientific enquiries can be shredded to pieces.
Developing the Ukrainian Space Doctrine I asserted that global administrator, a kind of International Space Union is due to be created. Yet it appears to me that no kind of union can regulate or control anything. Even the UN, with all its might and rigid structures and institutions, has demonstrated its impotency. The same impotency that was vehemently displayed by global organisations, deemed to regulate international security, such as IAEA. Even the Red Cross could not carry out its duty on the Ukrainian land — to provide for the damned and affected by the military action unfolding in their country. So, is the necessity for International organisations and global administration actually justified? I am not yet ready to give a definite answer to this question.
Today I can only declare that International law, gradual development and global security have all been thrown into oblivion. It is all obsolete. No policies or laws at the moment can be reasonably proclaimed functional. This brings us to a conclusion that there is no mechanism in tact that will guarantee anyone security in the future, even in the case of a complacent obedience of all existing laws and directives.
Then remains a question: how are we expected to explore outer space if we cannot establish order here, on Earth? How are we supposed to believe that critical space infrastructure will not become even more critical?
We have to begin all over again — to create the nouvelle or to reminisce the past. But before that, it is necessary to focus on the individual and their awareness. Erwin Laszlo once said in one of his works: "we can and ought to influence the desired outcome. It is provided to us by fate. We are given great gifts — consciousness and will." Let us use those gifts wisely.
It is not the great dictators committing atrocities. Putin did not sit at the controls of the plane that bombed the maternity hospital in Mariupol, or the civil building in Kharkiv or Chernihiv. He did not drive the APC that shot the cars with children and the elderly. And it is us, Ukrainians, who let the crooks and cronies in the government hoard money, as we gave bribes ourselves. We conscientiously ignored the elections, letting the likes of Medvedchuk and Kiva to become elected representatives. So as the Russians and Belorussians were the ones who allowed the 20 years of kleptocratic dictatorships unfold in their Motherlands. All while the whole "deeply concerned" world expects, that they will avoid such fate. Yes, we are receiving money and humanitarian support. Yes, some countries have sent us weaponry and people. The neighbouring countries have already been shocked by the amount of refugees, but they still support us.
We are grateful.
But we are still being cold-bloodedly murdered and bombed in our own homes. It is likely that the way to the borders with NATO countries will be strewn with our bodies and the Russian army will not go further. But other likely scenario might too take place.
Sanctions are very good. But I am deeply sceptical of that the Russian society has understood anything. It is the queues for the next IPhone and the Victoria's Secret lingerie after the information that the stores will be closed that brings me to that conclusion. Don't stop them from entering the cafe, let them enter with a condition that they will be forced to watch videos of our murdered children on the screens. Maybe then they will come back to their countries as a more conscientious people and will help their compatriots to understand. What should you do, you may ask. And I will tell you. To willfully accept humane values and cosmic laws. There are political examples, after all. Scandinavian countries are concisely constructing their life according to the lagom style.
It is not the length of your yacht that determines that status and well-being of an individual. Sitting in the shelter, listening to shuddering explosions, all you want is to hug your kids and grandchildren. We have gone to space. So why can't we establish cosmos on Earth?
Glory to Ukraine!
Sincerely, prof. Larysa Soroka
