{"id":416670,"date":"2022-03-16T00:21:20","date_gmt":"2022-03-15T21:21:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/justin-can-you-imagine-zelenskys-virtual-trip-to-ottawa\/"},"modified":"2022-03-16T00:21:20","modified_gmt":"2022-03-15T21:21:20","slug":"justin-can-you-imagine-zelenskys-virtual-trip-to-ottawa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/justin-can-you-imagine-zelenskys-virtual-trip-to-ottawa\/","title":{"rendered":"#\u2018Justin, can you imagine?\u2019: Zelensky\u2019s virtual trip to Ottawa"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_85 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a3be28f9ae1a\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a3be28f9ae1a\" checked aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-1'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/justin-can-you-imagine-zelenskys-virtual-trip-to-ottawa\/#%E2%80%9C%E2%80%98Justin_can_you_imagine_Zelenskys_virtual_trip_to_Ottawa%E2%80%9D\" >&#8220;\u2018Justin, can you imagine?\u2019: Zelensky\u2019s virtual trip to Ottawa&#8221;<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h1><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"%E2%80%9C%E2%80%98Justin_can_you_imagine_Zelenskys_virtual_trip_to_Ottawa%E2%80%9D\"><\/span>&#8220;\u2018Justin, can you imagine?\u2019: Zelensky\u2019s virtual trip to Ottawa&#8221;<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h1>\n<div>\n                                                                        Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has been the most compelling person on the planet for the last month, standing in the breach alongside his terrorized but indomitable people in the face of a Russian onslaught. The world has watched him grow paler and strained while his facial hair sketched itself into a beard. His spectacular ability to communicate the plight of his country and the ordinary, visceral intimacy of <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/social-mediaa\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"1\" title=\"Social Media\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">social media<\/a> and his frequent video addresses have made it impossible to look away.<\/p>\n<p>On Tuesday morning, Zelensky brought that remarkable presence to a jam-packed House of Commons for a historic speech. His message was as simple as it was searing: if we were you, what would you want someone to do?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI would like you to understand my feelings and the feelings of all Ukraine, as far as it is possible,\u201d he said, in English translation from two large video screens.\u00a0\u201cImagine that at 4 a.m. each of you, you start hearing bomb explosions.\u201d He addressed Prime Minister Justin Trudeau directly: \u201cJustin, can you imagine you, your children, hear all these severe explosions?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>What if it were your schools, your bridges, your cities, your historic buildings, he asked. What if someone bombed the CN Tower or laid siege to Vancouver, leaving its residents cut off from the world, without communication, power or even food, as has befallen our Mariupol? He asked Trudeau to picture receiving a memo each day telling him the number of casualties, and to imagine it included the 97 children who have been killed in Ukraine so far.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOf course I don\u2019t wish this on anyone, but this is our reality in which we live,\u201d Zelensky said.\u00a0\u201cEvery night is a horrible night.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>And then he changed what he was asking all those MPs and the people packed into the public gallery\u2014so many of them wearing blue and yellow or traditional Ukrainian garb\u2014to imagine. What if you called a friendly fellow nation for help in this situation, begging them to close your airspace to stop the bombing, and what if they responded with equivocation?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey in return express their deep concerns about the situation,\u201d Zelensky said. \u201cWhen we talk to our partners\u2026they say \u2018Please hold on, hold on a little longer.&#8217;\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Canada\u2014home to a 1.4 million-person Ukrainian diaspora, the second-largest in the world after Russia\u2014has been a \u201csteadfast\u201d friend to his country and offered military and humanitarian help the moment it was requested, Zelensky said, but even the severe sanctions levelled against Russia haven\u2019t stopped the attacks.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBasically what I am trying to say is you all need to do more,\u201d he said.\u00a0\u201cWe are not asking for much, we are asking for justice, for real support.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The emotional tension in the House on Tuesday mirrors what is h<a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">app<\/a>ening in the world at large right now.<\/p>\n<p>Zelensky and his people have become global folk heroes, their courage and verve inspiring a tidal wave of empathy and solidarity. But while that collective feeling toward them is no doubt genuine, the stark reality is that the world keeps refusing to do the one thing\u00a0he keeps pleading for: a closure of Ukrainian airspace. Zelensky keeps driving home the point that his people are just like anyone else\u2019s people, and they desperately need more help to save their nation and their own lives. And other countries keep responding\u2014sincerely\u2014that their hearts are breaking for Ukraine\u2019s dead children and obliterated cities, but they simply can\u2019t close the skies without risking global annihilation. The exchange rate on that calculation at this moment is the decimation of a single country that\u00a0is begging the world in real time not to look away.<\/p>\n<p>Enforcing a closure of Ukrainian airspace could very possibly lead to nuclear war, and for NATO, it is a non-starter. Closing that airspace may be the only way to save the lives of tens of thousands of Ukrainian civilians and preserve the sovereignty of their country. Those facts do not refute each other; they only click together like agonizing puzzle pieces.<\/p>\n<p>What was so harrowing about Zelensky\u2019s address to parliamentarians was the inability to ignore either of those truths. When he finished speaking, he received a three-minute thundering ovation from the entire House and the packed public galleries above it. Chants of <em>\u201c<span title=\"Ukrainian-language romanization\">Slava Ukraini!<\/span>,\u00a0Heroiam slava!\u201d<\/em> (\u201cGlory to Ukraine! Glory to the heroes!\u201d) boomed across the cavernous green space.<\/p>\n<p>Those people meant it. You cannot watch Zelensky and his citizens day after day displaying this sort of bravery and sustaining the losses they have and not be deeply moved. And yet the answer to Zelensky\u2019s plea\u2014do more, stop them from killing us from the skies, put your money where your mouth is if you think we\u2019re so poignant and brave\u2014from Canada and other NATO countries remains unchanged, unmoved.<\/p>\n<p>When that ovation for Zelensky finally subsided, various party leaders took turns delivering extended, self-indulgent remarks that sounded utterly lurid after his simple, heartfelt speech. The only person who said anything equal to the moment was Senate Speaker George Furey, who invoked an old Hebrew word from the Bible to sum up the courage of Zelensky and his fellow Ukrainians. \u201c<em>Hineni<\/em>\u201d translates as \u201cHere I stand,\u201d Furey said, explaining it as an expression of willingness to lead in the face of daunting odds.<\/p>\n<p>But that word is staggeringly evocative of Zelensky\u2019s wartime leadership in a more literal way, too. As Russian forces closed in at the end of February, he filmed a selfie video with key members of his government on the nighttime streets of Kyiv to dispel rumours that they had fled. He did a roll call of sorts, declaring over and over that each of them were, simply, \u201chere.\u201d A few days later, when the U.S. offered to move him to a secure location, he reportedly replied, \u201cThe fight is here; I need ammunition, not a ride.\u201d And on Tuesday, he spoke to the House of Commons on a slightly wonky internet connection from a room whose hospital lighting and sparse closeness suggested a basement setting.<\/p>\n<p>The nature of Zelensky\u2019s heroic leadership of his people has been, simply, to be \u201chere.\u201d There he stands, where they are, bearing witness, employing his extraordinary communication skills to bring the world\u2019s eyes to that \u201chere,\u201d lining up alongside his citizens in solidarity.<\/p>\n<p>As the various speakers in the House droned on after Zelensky\u2019s speech on Tuesday morning, they kept addressing him in the second person, as though they were having a direct conversation with him in public. It might have been an expression of sincere empathy, it might have been grandstanding; most likely it was both.<\/p>\n<p>But Zelensky could not hear those people sitting in their pressed blue-and-yellow clothes in their tidy rows of seats in their intact city, because he was by that point long gone from the video link. On the other side of the world, darkness was falling on another night of war in Kyiv, and Zelensky was with his people, in their ever-present, perilous \u201chere.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"under-article-widget-nl\">\n<p class=\"under-article-widget-title\">Looking for more?<\/p>\n<p class=\"under-article-widget-description\">Get the best of <em>Maclean&#8217;s<\/em> sent straight to your inbox. 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Follow us on\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMLG0nwswvr63Aw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">For forums sites go to <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/forum.buradabiliyorum.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Forum.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/news\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"2\" title=\"News\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">News<\/a> articles, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/general\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">General category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.macleans.ca\/politics\/ottawa\/justin-can-you-imagine-zelenskys-virtual-trip-to-ottawa\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;\u2018Justin, can you imagine?\u2019: Zelensky\u2019s virtual trip to Ottawa&#8221; Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has been the most compelling person on the planet for the last month, standing in the breach alongside his terrorized but indomitable people in the face of a Russian onslaught. The world has watched him grow paler and strained while his facial&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":416671,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.macleans.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/CP152559594-766x431.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[67806,70868,100713],"class_list":["post-416670","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-editors-picks","tag-ukraine","tag-volodymyr-zelensky"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416670","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=416670"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416670\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/416671"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=416670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=416670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=416670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}