“Ethical Markets welcomes this spirited response to Putin’s cruel invasion of Ukraine by our Advisory Council member and Partner, Rinaldo Brutoco.
Our proposals include:
“STOP PUTIN: Save Gas, Drive EVs, Bikes, Exercise and Walk More for Victory“ which highlights the ways to rapidly shift our economy to renewables and government use of procurement (electric Post Office vehicles, school buses, heat pumps, building and home retrofits) also invoking the Defense Production Act.
We support the Non Fossil Fuel Proliferation Treaty, now gaining global traction, with research demonstrating how we can all kick the fossil fuel addiction, which feeds Putin’s war machine and threatens our global climate.
It’s also time for the United Nations General Assembly to follow up of its 141 nations vote to censure Russia and its position in the Security Council.
Putin’s designation now as a war criminal can be referred to the International Criminal Court (ICC), which the USA should finally ratify! This leaves Russia as the only country not to ratify the ICC! Yes, rules will have to change, but we see this happening every week in all international and national entities! Democracy must prevail and the international order must stand!
The UN can offer to oversee a humanitarian “protected airspace” over a large area of western Ukraine, under the provisions of the UN Charter, signed by 195 nations.
Let’s keep all the good, viable alternatives coming!
~Hazel Henderson, Editor“
Take Back the Initiative
By Rinaldo S. Brutoco
The following Perspectives column was published in the March 17, 2022 (online and printed) edition of the Montecito Journal as well as on the World Business Academy website.
We must do more! What more can we do? These twin phrases have become a refrain throughout western civilization. We are profoundly aware that Russia is committing war crimes in Ukraine on a genocidal scale. We are tormented by a desire to do something “more” but uncertain what that could be. Or how “something more” could be safely effectuated without triggering nuclear war. Every time Vladimir Putin ratchets up the level of confrontation, every time he goes past his last atrocities to ever worse ones, we ask ourselves how we can retaliate, while fearing that our response might provoke him into using chemical, biological, or tactical nuclear weapons. We’re left in a constantly reactive mode. Worse yet, we are letting him determine which acts are an “act of war” and which aren’t. Where does he get that power?