BERLIN (1. March, 2025) — I made this video last year, but am now putting it on my Substack journal “Berlin Stories,” for the first time. The song is Phil Ochs’ “There But for Fortune.” The artworks are drawings by children in war zones (yesterday and today) — by young people in Iraq, Lebanon, Israel, Occupied West Bank, Czechoslovakia (1942-45), Ukraine, Afghanistan, and Syria.
I’m sending it as people in Europe (and other places) are watching today’s superpowers at work — notably, the Trump/Vance U.S., Putin’s Russia, and Elon Musk, of the global X network.
Sending this on a day when a handful of men are (once again) segmenting our countries, re-allocating resources — including human resources / labor — with no sensibility of (or input from) the people who live here.
These men seem to take for granted their own power and entitlement to segment our countries — really, the entire planet — and re-allocate all resources (including domestic labor forces), without any feeling for- or input from the people who live here (including our leaders, elected or otherwise).
In the end, it is only left to us, people of the world, to express our gratitude to them for this ….
So, this is my gift to them — from Berlin, East and West, once ruled by a German/Austrian dictator who perhaps also thought that his military victories would empower him to carve-up Europe alongside US President Roosevelt and Russian leader Josef Stalin….
Peace & Love,
Topper
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