People are not their governments – The Star Online

IN the summer of 2013, I climbed Mt Elbrus, the highest mountain in Russia and in all of Europe.

The logistics of getting to the Caucasus region where it is located -- even just obtaining a visa -- was quite complicated, requiring me and my companions (we were an all-Filipino mountaineering team) to travel to Moscow, fly to a city called Mineralnye Vody, then drive over three hours to a village called Terskol before finally commencing the ascent to one of the Seven Summits of the World.

The expedition itself was very memorable: After several days of acclimatisation, our first summit bid was foiled by a snowstorm. Fortunately, a window of clear weather opened up the following day, allowing four of us including Filipino Everest climber Carina Dayondon who went on to reach all of the Seven Summits to reach the 5,642m peak.

After the climb, I spent some time in Moscow and made sure to visit its historical sites, not least of which were the Kremlin and Red Square.

Equally memorable as the climb, however, were the people we met along the way, from Anastasia, the travel agent who arranged our logistics, to Yevgeney, our Ukrainian lead guide who despite being largely emotionless throughout the climb hugged us at the summit and gave us a bottle of vodka to celebrate with afterwards.

Speaking of vodka, memorable too was the village doctor who treated one of our teammates head injury using it as a disinfectant before suturing his wound, then offering the bottle to us to drink!

As Russian President Vladimir Putin continues his invasion of Ukraine, I think of those people we met and the communities we visited. For the past two years, the Covid-19 pandemic has been painful enough for tour operators all over the world; the sudden isolation of their country would surely weigh heavily on Anastasias company, which has already sent emails offering deep discounts for future trips.

I think of Yevgeney, too, who is from Ukraine but probably still lives and works in Russia one of many people who have deep ties in both countries. The likely loss of income, and the even likelier loss of life in his community perhaps even within his family point to an unspeakable suffering shared by millions of his compatriots today.

Unfortunately, because we tend to conflate people with their governments, anybody or anything associated with Russia is now being affected by negative attitudes all over the world. Bars are shunning vodka, notwithstanding the fact that very little vodka actually comes from Russia. Some people are boycotting Russian restaurants and some restaurants are refusing to serve people from Russia.

Beyond the invasion of Ukraine, we also see this conflation in the many other conflicts past and present. For instance, at the height of the Philippines maritime tensions with China in 2016, some politicians called for a boycott of Chinese products, while other commentators wrongly questioned the loyalties of Chinese Filipinos, conflating them not just with the Chinese government but also with the citizens of China. Conversely, some Chinese netizens called for a boycott of bananas and mangoes from the Philippines, and phrases like starve the Filipinos to death circulated on Weibo.

Such actions and pronouncements are not helpful because they contribute to concretising toxic, divisive and often racist notions of nationalism. Moreover, they can lead people to think that they are the ones being targeted by other nations when wars are waged by their leaders (who, it is important to add, will only benefit from citizens who think theyre under attack and that their leaders are defending them).

Of course, this is not to stay that people cannot be complicit with their governments; even in Russia today, beyond the unholy endorsement from Russian Orthodox bishop Patriarch Kirill, there seems to be popular support for Putins war, notwithstanding courageous voices who oppose it like the jailed Alexei Navalny, Maria Ressas Nobel Peace Prize co-recipient Dmitry Muratov, and editor Marina Ovsyannikova, who boldly denounced the war on state television.

But even popular support is often a result of state disinformation and propaganda, and the primary responsibility still lies with the people who actually decide to take their countries down a path of destruction, oppression and war.

We need to direct our outrage towards the perpetrators of violence and injustice not at entire peoples who are often victims themselves of their own leaders and governments. The Philippine Inquirer/Asia News Network

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People are not their governments - The Star Online