A week about war and heroes. So many wars are fought over land expansion, with no apparent relationship to size. Just look how vast Russia is - 68 times the size of the UK. Compare that to the size of minuscule Israel - 11 times smaller than the UK - and nothing makes sense. Why, when Russia’s so vast, would it want yet more land? The answer, of course, is one man’s obsessional desire to restore the past grandeur of the former USSR, ignoring completely that the world has moved on. Former Soviet states no longer wish to be part of it, now that modern tech has shown them how much better life is with individual freedom and democracy. I know that Russia was allied to the UK during the last war, each fighting the scourge of Nazism. But, for Russia to call Ukraine today a ‘Nazi’ State, when its president is Jewish, is absolute lunacy. Wars, though, can throw up unlikely heroes. Volodymir Zelenskyy is one. In true Jewish style, he used to entertain the nation as a comedian. Now he roars like a lion, holding his democratic nation together in true heroic style. There’ve been other unlikely heroes in the past - rather like the unsung Chinese hero in my new novel The Mandarin Seeds - who, when the chips are down, risk their own lives in the name of humanity. Zelenskyy (and posthumously, Ho Feng Shan) - I salute you.
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