" Nationalism " !

The fires of " Nationalism " are being stoked in Ukraine to justify what is in every aspect a military invasion of that country.   The Russian speaking sectors of Crimea are describing the residents of Kiev as " fascists " and pandering to Vladimir Putin's claim to be offering them " protection ".

Ukrainian history is not kind to Russia as a benevolent neighbour.  It was forcibly invaded in the days of the Soviet Union and under Stalin it's productive farms were collectivized and it's farming families decimated.  A politically contrived famine killed millions - and when the German army invaded in the early years of the second world war - many Ukrainians greeted them as saviours.

The spectre of nationalism is always lurking in the background across the countries that makeup the European map.   It is not a European custom for people to adopt the nationality of the country in which they live - if their background is from another European region.

It is not unusual for a family that has lived for many generations in another country to still retain the nationality of their original country and still speak that language and observe the customs and holiday festivities that apply in their old homeland.   This seems to be a European peculiarity - which the rest of the world finds puzzling.

It is certainly not a custom that prevails in either America or Australia.   The great waves of migrants that settled in both countries originally clung together for mutual support, but their children quickly adopted the lifestyle of their new country and by the time of grandchildren - they were fully assimilated.  Both America and Australia are " migrant " nations.   The vast majority of their citizens came from elsewhere and their numbers far exceed the original indigenous inhabitants.

It seems that what some call the " tyranny of distance " worked in favour of breaking down old nationalities. Both America and Australia are a long way from Europe and this removes the distraction of having a former country just a short distance away.   Europeans are served by a steady overlap of television, newspaper and travel links that make it easy to retain close contact with an old homeland - and hence national bonds remained strong.

In past centuries, Europe was notorious as a place of constant wars and these were the clash of both nationalities and religion.   It seems that little has really changed, despite the hope of Jacues DeLors, one of the originators of the European Union, that a common market embracing all of the countries of the region would enhance prosperity through trade and banish war.

The citizens of Europe still cling doggedly to their links to their old countries.   Ukraine remains a flash point between east and west - and it seems that the prospect of war remains a European reality !