Ignatieff Imperialist Apologist

A Tip o' the Blog to Simon Pole for bringing this to my attention.Ignatieff Angers Ukrainian Canadians

Where Liberal Candidate and apologist for Empire Ignatieff says; "My difficulty in taking Ukraine seriously goes deeper than just my cosmopolitan suspicion of nationalists everywhere. Somewhere inside I'm also what Ukrainians would call a great Russian and there is just a trace of old Russian disdain for these little Russians."

As someone of Ukrainian Canadian origin I, like the Ukrainian Canadians in his riding (one he has been parachuted into) consider such a comment a form of bigoted racism thinly disguised as national differences.

And as I come from the anarchist tradition of Makhno, Kroptokin and Bakunin, the former Ukrainian the later Russians, I have no cant with nationalism. But I do recognize the Ukraine as a country, and more importantly a peasant culture seperate from the old world Great Powers of Poland and Russia.

Ignatieff has made his role as a public intellectual to be a defender of liberal capitalist democracy ala Fukuyama, which in reality is the defence of American Imperialism and the hegemony of Empire.

The comparison of Ignatieff with PET is apt, for Trudeau had the same self hate and disdain for his country; Quebec, while wanting to be seen as the Great Canadian.

So I left this comment on Simons blog;

Leaving aside the fact the Kiev the capital of the Ukraine is older than Moscow or St. Petersburg and as a city the original city state was known as the RUS from which the so called Russians took their. The very acceptance proudly, not sheepishly, not apologetically (though with the tone of apology), by Ignatieff shows his Imperial attitude, an acceptance of the world as it is, one dominated by Empires. In his case like many anti-Bolshevik opportunists who ran to New York to declare themselves Dukes, Dutchesses and Counts to impress the New Empire with their titles from the Old, so goes Ignatieff. In his case it is to defend and take advantage of his new master. Interestingly Prince Kropotkin, a real prince and a classic Anarchist never glorified his Russian origins when defending Ukrianians or the Dukhbours. The existance of the Ukraine, known as the Borderland, was historically disputed between Moscow and Poland, as these two clashed over the region as part of their Imperial domains. The term little Russians is as much a class and racist remark as it is one of Imperial disdain. For the Ukriane was the sole area peasant serfs from both Empires could escape to and be free. Ignatieff regrets this freedom, while defending the freedom of Empire.