If you can't handle violence don't watch this video. - Make sure to view in 1080P Fullscreen
The above video is a primary source documentary of fierce fighting at the Sergey Prokofiev International Airport in Donetsk on 30/09/14. This is a vivid representation of what it is like to be in a War zone. In this high-definition footage, we have a modern manifestation of 'Vicarious War Tourism'. From our comfy couches and ergonomic chairs we can access intense, immersive, visual evidence of real people fighting and dying in Eastern Europe. This isn't some grainy black and white newsreel footage of Poilus dying in the Somme. This is now. It is impossible to fabricate the events taking place here, the viewer is watching history unfold before them on the screen. This is video-journalism in it's purest form. In a political sense, it may not be completely impartial, given that the footage was taken by DPR (Donetsk People's Republic - Донецк Народная Республикa) personnel. However, the 'physical truth' of the combat taking place on our screens is undeniable. Who needs CNN when you've got this? Why would anyone listen exclusively to the 'Western Narrative' when it is now possible to have the 'Eastern Narrative' as well? More often then not, the truth (or as close as we can get) lies somewhere in the middle. By watching this, we become complicit in Thanatourism (dark tourism) as we watch the world tear itself apart while doing absolutely nothing about it. Is the glut of information available to us really making a 'positive' impact? To what extent does watching these things happen remove us from the physical reality of war and human suffering? Real death, brutality, and the displacement of almost 1 million people (according to the UNHCR - http://unhcr.org.ua/en/who-we-help/internally-displaced-people): all of these things are reduced to a single perspective, an unreliable narrative, presented in the format of a 30 minute Youtube clip. There is something very gross about that, it's almost as if you can feel yourself being desensitized with each passing second.
You may be asking yourself, what does the Ukraine 'conflict' (let's just call it a war, because it is) have to do with neocolonialism, rampant First World plunder, and Second/Third world poverty? Everything. It is a geopolitical boiling point that threatens to blaze out of control and take the rest of us with it. All of the bloody conflicts taking place in the world today are in some way, shape, or form a reaction to the comprehensive structural failure of the Neocolonialist system. World Wars happen when belligerent nations/'stateless actors' are not happy with the status quo and seek to change it through military force. In fact, is WW3 not already underway? ISIS, Ukraine, Afghanistan, Israel-Palestine, Pakistan, Yemen, Syria, Iraq, Sudan, and Boko Haram all represent massively destabilizing regional conflicts. This violence causes a growing exodus of refugees from the 'Global South' to seek safety in the 'Global North'. It is easy for a citizen of the Global North to stroll through the 'front door' of Fortress Europe. For us, traveling is pleasant experience, complete with in-flight refreshments and duty-free shopping. For millions of 'others' in the Global South, attempting to gain entry to the EU is literally a do-or-die endeavor. The former colonized return to the former colonizer in a tragic display of historical irony. This video provides irrefutable evidence of the militarization of Western Borders against migrants from the Global South. Want proof? It's all at your fingertips. We have become the war tourists of the 21st century, experiencing neocolonialist brutality secondhand, over our Caffe Lattes and gluten-free muffins.
If you can't handle violence don't watch this video. - Make sure to view in 1080P Fullscreen
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