Wherever you look, there are always sad news. I feel blessed to live in such a safe country, where you can tune out the terrible things that happen in the world, because they simply don’t affect you – most of us do it, right?

But three things happened this week, that are so close to my heart, made me so outraged and sad, that I wanted to raise a little more awareness.

Mauritius Oil Spill

Mauritius has a special place in my heart. This is where my husband and I spent our honeymoon, and it’s the most beautiful place I have even been to.

Last week we saw disturbing stories on Instagram and this week it’s reached the world headlines – because it’s THAT catastrophic.

Despite all the efforts to pump off the oil and save the coastline with hair, tights and straw, the damage that’s already done is huge. I remember the beautiful coral reef, but the locals pointed out that only years ago, there was so much more colour.

I feel so lucky that I got to visit this place, and so heart-broken that I’ll never get to see it the same again.

If you would like to support the cleaning efforts, here is the campaign you can donate to.

Russian Covid19 Vaccine

I saw the news breaking through one of the Russian News Telegram channels – hours before the news hit BBC headlines. Vladimir Putin announced that he’s approved a Covid-19 vaccine. The first in the world. They even named it Sputnik V, as a nod to the first ever satellite that went in space.

I wasn’t surprised. This is so Putin. What an absolute evil genius.

The guy, who hid his daughters away for decades, is now saying that his own daughter tried the vaccine. The President wouldn’t put his daughter’s health or his reputation on the line, right?

The state channel TV (read: key propaganda tool) – Yes, I endured 4 hours of it – is pouring all sorts of patriotic references – just look how amazing we are, comparing to the Decaying West! Not only Russia has one of the lowest Covid19 mortality cases (or do they?), this is the country that will save the world! And the West is just jealous, and will try to stall us, because they don’t want us to win. This will give us leverage with China!…

Here is a great article ‘We have no idea if the Russan Covid vaccine is safe or effective‘ that breaks it down better than I ever could, but the point is – Russia simply has not done enough testing to approve anything.

Put Russian propaganda tools, are unfortunately, very strong. And this is the easiest, fastest way to run a study – right? On all the patriots? On conscripted soldiers and civil workers?

My husband’s reaction was ‘It’s a marathon, not a race’, but not for Putin.

I just truly hope that this vaccine doesn’t have side effects. Russian people deserve better.

Belarus Elections

On Sunday the 9th of August Belarus had their presidential election, and the current president Aleksander Lukoshenko (aka the dictator) of Belarus, who has been ruling for 26 years – that’s the longest ruler in Europe, by the way! – simply stole the election.

Firstly, he arrested all viable candidates, and when one (ex-)candidate’s wife – Svetlana Tikhanovskaya – decided to run instead of her husband, Lukashenko didn’t think that she could become a threat – what would a housewife know?

But then the wives of other opposition candidates joined her campaign, and those ‘Amazonians’ became the true symbol of opposition and resistance.

Svetlana Tikhanovskaya is practically the Belarusian Katnis Everdeen

Fast forward to the election day – Lukashenko’s won by a landslide, which wasn’t just corrupted – the numbers were taken out of thin air. So people took it to the streets to protest. And Lukashenko, armed with the national guard was ready.

Despite the protests being peaceful, thousands of people were detained and beaten up: policy brutality is approved, if people didn’t vote ‘correctly’.

But there are no riots, no looting, no burning cars. There are people, who had enough, whose democratic choice was stolen and who are trying to get their voice heard.

They are doing it peacefully, and they are being met with force, and they will never forget.

How many more people have to get hurt before it’s the end of Lukashenko?