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2023
April
12
Wednesday

Monitor Daily Podcast

April 12, 2023
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Noelle Swan
Weekly Editor

Covering the war in Ukraine is more than an assignment for Martin Kuz. It’s a “full investment of head and heart,” says the Monitor special contributor.

Although there wasn’t much talk about Ukraine when Martin was growing up, he remembers his Ukrainian father, who died in 2015, feeling obligated to help the world understand that Ukraine was not Russia. 

Politically speaking, Ukraine gained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. “But independence is not just a political construct,” Martin says. “It’s what’s within the heart. And within the heart of the Ukrainian people is this deep desire to live free, same as my father. And so there’s a connection between the current struggle and what I understand about my father’s own journey – and then extending back to earlier history.”

In our lead story today, Martin explores the role of historical remembrance. The Ukrainian people have, in essence, been battling Russia for centuries.

“This trauma is like a terrible national heirloom. But it also explains the strength of the Ukrainians,” Martin says. “They’re bound by this idea of collective memory.”

Every Ukrainian citizen is fighting to shape how this war will be remembered, he says. These battles are waged both publicly and privately as individuals and communities process the horrors that they are living through.

For this story, Martin spoke with a psychologist who advises residents who have endured loss to establish new routines to break free from triggers of their sorrow. Beyond the immediate coping strategy, that advice also “allows for a kind of a shard of sunlight to fall upon Ukraine and a recognition that there will be a brighter day,” Martin says.

In that sense, he sees potential for Ukraine to find a kind of positive transformation known as post-traumatic growth on the other side of this war. 

“That doesn’t mean trauma magically dissipates,” Martin says. “It means that you recognize that you can overcome things beyond what you ever imagined ... and that will allow you to have that brighter future.”

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Today’s stories

And why we wrote them

A deeper look
Efrem Lukatsky/AP
Children play on a playground in front of missile-damaged buildings in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, in late March 2023.

For Ukrainians, memory fuels fight for sovereignty

( 13 min. read )

In Ukraine, remembering does more than honor those lost in the war. It charts a path forward to a future free of Russia. 

By Martin Kuz, reporting from Kharkiv, Ukraine
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Sarah Matusek/The Christian Science Monitor
Craig Elmore gives a tour of his farmland in Imperial County, California, Feb. 20, 2023. “I don't think there is a solution to the Colorado River that doesn't somehow include the Imperial Valley,” he says.

Is fallowing farmland a fair way to conserve water?

( 10 min. read )

Calls to sacrifice a shared resource raise questions of equity. The people in one California farm region facing the possibility of having to fallow land wonder whether that’s fair.

By Sarah Matusek, reporting from Imperial Valley, Calif.
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Making crime pay for the public? France gives seized property to charity.

( 6 min. read )

Selling criminals’ ill-gotten property to benefit the state is not new. But France is trying something different: giving confiscated real estate directly to charity, to transform crime into public gain.

By Colette Davidson, reporting from Paris
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Retirees’ self-help in Israeli schools: ‘We all want to be relevant’

( 6 min. read )

In Israel, a very organized group of retirees from all walks of life is helping support failing schools. It’s good for the kids and good for the retirees, who enjoy a sense of community and purpose.

By Danna Harman, reporting from BAT YAM, Israel
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Whitney Eulich
Angel del Rosario Hau Paat, who raps as ADR Maya, hangs out with his mother, Filiberta Paat Mas, on March 4, 2023, in Tulum, Mexico. Mr. del Rosario grew up resistant to speaking Maya, but now embraces it.

Rappers keep the Maya language alive

( 6 min. read )

For some young people in Mexico, rapping in Maya offers more than self-expression. It also presents a path to cultural preservation.

By Whitney Eulich, reporting from Tulum, Mexico
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The Monitor's View

A key lubricant in Mideast talks

( 2 min. read )

A few wheels of peace are turning in the war-prone Middle East. Last month, Iran and Saudi Arabia reached a tentative rapprochement. Israel further cemented new ties with two Gulf states. Syria, long an outcast, is getting more attention. And then there is a country with a conflict that reflects the region’s religious and tribal tensions: Yemen, home to a long war and the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

Serious talks to end the conflict began last week when Houthi rebels who control the Yemeni capital met with officials from Saudi Arabia, which backs the government ousted in 2015 by the Iran-backed Houthis. All sides have reasons to end the conflict. The death toll in Yemen and the hardship to civilians, for example, have been high. Yet the real lubricant in this particular wheel of peace is Oman, a neighboring country that has been a critical mediator and facilitator.

As Oman’s foreign minister, Sayyid Badr Albusaidi, explains, his country is a trusted go-between in the region because it assumes the integrity and good intentions of all participants. It avoids a blame game by seeing the world through the eyes of others. It encourages rivals to talk with each other, not at each other. It creates room for dialogue by acting with calmness, friendship, and tolerance.

In general, “The posture ‘you are with us or against us’ will not solve the problem,” he told Le Figaro newspaper last year.

Oman has a long track record of mediating between Iran and its various rivals, including the United States. It has allowed two Israeli prime ministers to visit the country. In Yemen last year, it helped bring a truce that opened the door to the current negotiations. Hopes are high that a deal will be reached soon to exchange all prisoners, fully reopen ports and airports, and design a solution to Yemen’s many political divisions.

In a region where many states use sharp elbows to gain dominance, Oman has stood for a wholly different approach. It is a friend to all and embraces dialogue. When warring parties tire of conflict, they know who to call.

By the Monitor's Editorial Board
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A Christian Science Perspective

About this feature

Each weekday, the Monitor includes one clearly labeled religious article offering spiritual insight on contemporary issues, including the news. The publication – in its various forms – is produced for anyone who cares about the progress of the human endeavor around the world and seeks news reported with compassion, intelligence, and an essentially constructive lens. For many, that caring has religious roots. For many, it does not. The Monitor has always embraced both audiences. The Monitor is owned by a church – The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston – whose founder was concerned with both the state of the world and the quality of available news.

Birth order can’t limit us

( 3 min. read )

Whether born first, last, or somewhere in the middle within a family, we all have a unique God-given light and the ability to let it shine.

By Blythe Evans
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Viewfinder
Amr Nabil/AP
Mohammed al-Dahshan accompanies his donkey, wrapped with colored LED lights, to wake Muslims for a meal before sunrise during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan in Dikernis, Egypt, Wednesday. Mr. Dahshan is a mesaharati, or dawn caller. Each night, he sets out after midnight with his donkey, banging his drum, chanting traditional religious phrases, and calling on residents by name to wake them for the pre-dawn meal known as suhoor.
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( The illustrations in today’s Monitor Daily are by Karen Norris. )

A look ahead

Thanks for joining us. Please come back tomorrow, when we look at how much federal pandemic funding for U.S. schools is going toward specific academic needs – in particular, boosting math skills.

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2023
April
12
Wednesday

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