Putin Is Small?!

Before I wrap up in Barcelona, I wanted to say a few words about the situation our road trip took place in. It really was a special trip this time. Overshadowed by the events in Ukraine.

Specifically linked to the worry about what would happen if Putin, that small, pale little man in the Kremlin, simply pressed the button in a fit of rage. Or had already drifted so far from reality that he believed it would be a good contribution to "solving the problem."

Putin and Gollum? Kindred Spirits?

Putin increasingly reminds me of Gollum from "Lord of the Rings." Do you feel the same? And have you actually noticed that all the "terrible" dictators were short? Genghis Khan, Hitler, Deng Xiaoping, Kim Jong-il and Un, Khrushchev, Lenin, Stalin, Putin...

By the way, Napoleon was not short for his time. At 1.68m, he actually met the standard height requirement for officers.

Counter-examples would be the head of the Politburo in China, who at 1.80m certainly shows some stature. But doesn't exactly lead a model democracy either. Almost a giant was Castro, who at 1.90m should give old-school leftists an argument for why Cuba supposedly couldn't have been an inhumane dictatorship.

On the other side, Sarkozy, who at 1.60m could easily fit into the dictator lineup, but in France is far from being an autocrat. And finally our by now, let's say, somewhat tarnished former Chancellor Schröder, in whose shadow only Sarkozy would escape a sunburn.

But at least intuitively, the impression remains that the proportion of short men among dictators is disproportionately high.

I was born in 1972. And I still experienced the fear of nuclear war as a teenager. I was in favor of deploying the Pershing II missiles. Because I simply couldn't see how this idea of "turn the other cheek and nobody will hit you" would ever work.

Later, the heated political debate dissolved into thin air and war as a topic moved further and further away from us. And now suddenly, war is here. And in Ukraine—from my perspective—genocide is being committed. Serious war crimes on the backs of the civilian population. And we are confronted with weighing moral factors such as:

"Do we stand by and watch the killing?"

or

"We have a duty to protect those closest to us."

I have many conversation partners who hope and somehow count on Putin being assassinated. I simply cannot imagine that. Through his intelligence service background, he's surely paranoid enough to be very hard to get to. And his inner circle isn't exactly made up of critics. I mean, even in 6 years of World War II under Hitler, there were so few assassination attempts that it seems unlikely to me that Russia would succeed in such a short time.

Unfortunately, that leaves essentially only: hope and wait. Or for the faithful: hope and pray. The situation is red hot. Mistakes are being made on both sides that could mean escalation. And it's not impossible that in the coming weeks or months we'll see a final escalation.

I don't know what we can do about it. But if this turns out well, we should keep in mind that our freedom and our values don't come for free. And they don't stay preserved for free either.

Wishful thinking is not a defense strategy!

In the meantime, we can only help those worst affected with donations. Here in Mallorca, we participated in a large collection organized by S.O.S. Mamas, which was truly fantastically organized.

notebooksbilliger.de AG began providing monetary and material donations to organizations helping refugees and travelers as early as February 28th. They budgeted 250,000 euros for this. Additionally, employees were and continue to be given paid leave to volunteer with such organizations.

During the road trip, I launched a donation appeal on Instagram for 1,000 euros. I thought, if every Facebook or IG friend donates just 50 cents, we'd have the 1,000 euros in no time.

So if you've already donated and think "that's enough now," that's of course perfectly fine. But maybe a small donation is still possible?

I would be thrilled if we could bring this campaign to a successful conclusion together!

Many thanks once again to those who have already donated!!!