Gordon Robinson | International Domino Awards 2022
Published:Tuesday | December 20, 2022 | 12:27 AM
These 12th annual Domino Awards are, as usual, named for the players who sat around Gene Autry’s 1970s domino table, featuring that happy-go-lucky idler, the Dunce. First up are the International winners. Next week the much-anticipated Jamaican Awardees will be revealed.
International Dunce Award: This was a one horse race in 2022, as Russian President VLADIMIR PUTIN gets a walkover for his insane invasion of, and continued obstinate cruelty in, Ukraine. Not satisfied with his annexation of Crimea in 2014, Putin’s imperialistic thirst for territory was seemingly unquenchable. So he keeps on following his impossible dream of reuniting the Soviet Union by force.
That, of course, is a very oxymoronic way to go about it.
Since February 24, 2022, his actions have cost thousands of lives on either side; discombobulated world trade; and produced acute embarrassment for him as most of the world rose up against Russia and helped Ukraine overtly and covertly, resulting in several Russian defeats. His own citizens have mounted short-lived protests (brutally repressed) and are fleeing Russia in droves to escape conscription.
One of Putin’s many lame excuses for invading (he also claimed Nazis were in charge of Ukraine and persecuting the ethnic Russian minority) was that Ukraine was cosying up to NATO which, if consummated, would create a military threat too close to home. In the end, all he accomplished was to drive Russia’s other two neighbours (Finland and Sweden) into NATO’s arms to pre-empt similar aggression against them.
Vlad, the Dunce has a message for you: “if a macca, mek it jook yu!”
International Dunce Move of the Year Award:
Number 10 Downing Street seems to have at least a temporary lien on this award. Last year, Boris Johnson took home the trophy for his many scandalous missteps.
This year his successor, LIZ TRUSS, wins for her extreme right-wing economic policy that kow-towed to corporations and the wealthy and caused massive inflation to burden fiscally oppressed British middle and lower classes.
To be fair, Liz had more than one nomination for the award, as her campaign for Conservative Party leader included an undignified slur thrown at French President Emmanuel Macron (said “the jury is out” as to whether he was friend or foe) that should have automatically disqualified her for the job.
But the very conservative (spelled WHITE) southern belt of the Conservative Party that makes up a majority of voting Party members preferred her to her opponent Rishi Sunak – a son of Indian immigrants. Liz Truss was ‘appointed’ by Queen Elizabeth a mere two days before that beloved Monarch passed away. The scene was poignant. I’m sure if thoughts were spoken (or, better yet, broadcast) the world would have heard:
Liz: “You don’t look like you are going to last very much longer”
Queen Elizabeth II (always quick-witted): “Neither do you, dear.”
The Dunce would have warned Liz, “If a macca mek it jook yu!”
This is another easy choice based on the credentials of VOLODYMYR OLEKSANDROVYCH ZELENSKYY (often spelled Zelensky or Zelenskiy), who surprised the world by transitioning with class, grace and dignity from a career as a Saturday-Night-Live-style TV comedian satirising politicians into the democratically elected President of Ukraine.
Campaigning in 2019 as an anti-establishment, anti-corruption President versus incumbent and prominent Ukranian oligarch Petro Oleksiyovych Poroshenko, Zelenskyy won 73.33 per cent of the popular vote. Poroshenko had won in 2014 with 54.7 per cent. Poroshenko seemed to have a good relationship with USA President Dimwit Trog. Yes, that’s the same Disney Duck who, after Zelenskyy became President, allegedly blocked payment of a congressionally mandated US$400-million military aid package to Ukraine to pressure Zelenskyy (which testimony during the first impeachment hearings revealed he did during a July 2019 phone call between the two presidents) to investigate imaginary wrongdoing by Joe Biden and his son Hunter.
Zelenskyy resisted this unethical pressure and has resisted Russian aggression with the same stoicism, patriotism and integrity (not to mention flair and charisma) as he did President Maralardo’s entreaties. When President Biden offered him and his family USA-supervised evacuation from Ukraine as Russian missiles rained down on the country, Zelenskyy famously replied, “The fight is here. I need ammunition, not a ride.” He got it.
Peace and Love.
Gordon Robinson is an attorney-at-law. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com.