Paul OMahony
@omaniblog · 5:00
1,800 Refugees from Ukraine in Ireland
There have been other parts of the world where there have been refugees where I have been more aware, but I was not at all aware of Crimea, and I've done some reading about it. The history is, of course, I grew up like probably everybody over on this side, the world grew up knowing that there was such a thing as the Crimean War. But I have to confess that I hardly ever knew when I was young or even till very recently exactly where Crimea was
Sudha Varadarajan
@sudha · 1:17
And I just want to say please keep talking. It's something that I'm very interested in, and I'll keep responding. And I hope that everything in the next several weeks and months and years teaches us to be a better people's. Bye
Barbara KB
@barbarakb · 4:59
And of course, what Putin did has just highlighted it and made it even bigger. But I just want to say I'm thrilled to hear of what Ireland is doing. I know that's huge for the Irish, 250 Ukrainians. Wow, that's incredible, Paul. Of course, the challenge is going to be housing. And we all know coming out of the Pandemic, we have a housing challenge. We have it here in the United States. Housing is very expensive
Swell Team
@Swell · 0:15
Paul OMahony
@omaniblog · 5:00
And if any of us pause for a few minutes and think about the possible implications of what might happen if, let's say, for the sake of argument, the price of oil went up beyond a certain point. It's already gone beyond. Let me give you a little bit of example. The Irish government decided it was going to do something to try to keep down the price of oil because of petrol to citizens
Sudha Varadarajan
@sudha · 0:33
Paul, when I listen to you, I am struck by the fact that the cost of not entering the war may be more than the cost of entering the war. Because had we by we NATO potentially gone into Ukraine on day one and not cost the refugee crisis to happen and the collapse of the wheat market and nuclear power, and whatnot cost would it have been a smaller economic cost to pay? I don't know. What makes you wonder, doesn't it
Paul OMahony
@omaniblog · 3:15
But as time goes on, I think to myself, as you've raised, what about this scenario? If NATO troops were sent on a peacekeeping mission into Ukraine in some significant numbers so that they were willing to be peacekeeping on the front line, would Russia have attacked them? It's hard to know. And of course, there's a risk about it, because if Russia attacked NATO troops, then we really are in a war between the two sides
Paul OMahony
@omaniblog · 0:14
My goodness. What a great idea. Yes. Oh, thank you very much for that. Now, that is what I call a very helpful idea
Ray Renati
@RayRenati · 1:58
But still, it was serious. Yet it didn't affect me in any palpable way. I don't understand this world anymore. Not that I ever did did. But now I really realize I don't understand anything