The 22nd of November 2025 is a very special day. It is the 85th anniversary of the Holodomor.
The Ukrainian community and supporters went to the special remembrance bench in Cape Town’s De Waal Park to honour this day. This day brings us back to the famine imposed by Stalin on Ukraine in 1931–1932, which has cost the lives of up to 7 million people. (The most comprehensive study about this famine is Anne Applebaum’s Red Famine. Stalin's war on Ukraine, Penguin Books, London 2018. Unfortunately famine is still used as a weapon as we witness now in Sudan and Tigray in Ethiopia. )
It is so saddening that now, on a daily basis, people die in the war in Ukraine.
Soundtracking
The cameras are in position to capture all possible angles.
The sound tracks, not always priorly arranged.
The journalist and a political stalwart,
a man with a dubious history,
in battle with a neighbouring country.
The sounds of battles ring in my ears,
enlivened by social media, Tik-Tok and YouTube features.
This sound mix is the undercurrent of the interview.
Let the battle of words begin.
The sound of his jaws.
The noise of a restless mind.
No quiet Bach Fugue, not even in minor.
‘History certifies our claims’ the head of state says.
A motion picture in my mind reconstructs his statement:
Thousands of images from Russian and Western films,
including James Bond.
‘Who is the most disgraceful personality in our contemporary history’?
It is a rhetorical question.
He offers me a glass of wine from Moldova,
imported or
confiscated when it comes from Transnistria.
Last week I spoke with Maia Sandu1 the president of Moldova who sustains her position with Ukrainian and EU support.2
The sound of occupied wine.
Does it drink differently than the wine from Georgia
or from other parts of the Caucasus?
I feel uncomfortable.
The sound of putting a wineglass back on the table under pressure.
I slow down the movement not to betray my feelings.
The show must go on.
Meals are served.
The sound of chewing gums.
The room is cool and airconditioned.
I notice a hum in the air
and the scratching sound of my shoes on the wooden floor,
quietly and with endurance.
When we get up there are no cracking chairs.
The sound of shaking hands.
There are no insects,
but the tense atmosphere is more biting.
Outside, the full blast of Moskow’s life,
The boulevards, permanent traffic jams,
The wheels on the rails of the Moscow underground.
Lenin’s Mausoleum and the eerie quietness of his body.
If just his shoes would drop off,
a miracle that nobody expects.
Fatal bangs to celebrate the 100th + anniversary of the revolution he fostered.3
It is Easter, the biggest Russian Orthodox feast.
The monks chant in the cathedral of Christ the Saviour4.
The sound of resurrection.
The Patriarch of Moscow Kirill rushes off in his priceless Mercedes.
The smooth engine or the sound of being bereft of all true contacts with his constituency.5
The sound of drones ends all other sounds,
the sound of the fratricide-driven engagements of war.
We wander in valleys and plains
and remove all debris from heart and mind.
The sound of a gentil summer wind opens my inner ear,
moving the sunflowers in the fields.6
- Joseph Koetsier, Somerset West, 22 November 2025: Holodomor remembrance day
Notes:
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maia_Sandu
[2] https://euh-editorial.medium.com/transnistria-a-ghost-state-a7383be89390 Transnistria, a Ghost State, The European Horizons Editorial Board, 25 July 2020
[3] Putin’s Russia can’t celebrate its revolutionary past. It has to smother it. Catherine Merridale. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/nov/03/putin-russia-revolution-ignore-centenary which commemorates the 100th birthday of the Russian Revolution on 7 November 2017.
[4] This main church in Moscow was destroyed by Stalin and later rebuilt. It was demolished in 1931 to make way for a never-completed Palace of the Soviets. The cathedral was reconstructed and reconsecrated in the late 1990.
[5] https://www.lrt.lt/en/news-in-english/19/1747257/lithuania-puts-travel-ban-on-moscow-patriarch-kirill
[6] https://www.amazinggrazeflowers.com.au/blogs/blog/sunflowers-a-symbol-of-love-loyalty-and-resilience-throughout-time#:~:text=It%20is%20often%20seen%20as,for%20enlightenment%20and%20self%2Drealisation. Sunflowers: A Symbol of Love, Loyalty, and Resilience Throughout Time. Posted by Amazing Graze Flowers on January 27, 2024