Bi-Weekly-ish newsletter of Marcel A. Wiebenga - Issue #14
Tech, Music, and Advertising communities are rising up for Ukraine!
Hi all. I hope you're well.
This is how I usually start these newsletters, assuming that, in general, everyone is "well."
Unfortunately, since last week's invasion, the people on this list from Ukraine are far from well. Myself, many people around me, and I would assume most people on this list, currently feel confused, anxious, angry, and powerless about what is going on. At the same time, perhaps, ironically, it seems that out here in Amsterdam, at least for now, life appears ordinary and often business as usual.
I feel however, that my regular newsletter with bite-sized pieces of pop culture right now is entirely irrelevant, but here are five ideas, write-ups, people, and organizations concerning Ukraine, that in the past week have touched me, inspired me, created a sense of community, offered perspectives and sometimes hope.
Perhaps they'll do the same for you.
#standwithukraine #fuckthefascist
1. Fuck Putin! Shoot in Ukraine!
Radioaktive Film is a Ukrainian film production company that knows how to get things done! Many years ago, I met them during the Cannes Lions Festival, where they were sporting and handing out t-shirts stating: "Fuck Putin, Film in Ukraine." As soon as the war broke out, they used their organizational expertise to collect and distribute much-needed medical supplies from Poland to Kyiv.
Donations can be made via PayPal, and you can follow them on Instagram for updates as they come along.
2. Music professionals are doing their part.
Jeroen Vrijhoef, aka Papa Bear, is the guitar player of one of my old bands. Currently (at least when there's not a pandemic), he's a tour manager for Phoebe Bridgers, Father John Misty, Warpaint, and some of your other favorite bands. Together with the proverbial road crew and other tour managers, he's organizing drivers and large (tour) busses to pick up people at various Ukrainian borders to arrange travel to safe-havens. If you know people who need help, or if you want to want to help, visit this link.
3. The tech community is rising.
I've been thoroughly impressed with Messagebird.com, an Amsterdam-based cloud communications platform. Immediately after the invasion, CEO and founder Robert Vis spoke up against the invasion in a LinkedIn post and called on other tech entrepreneurs to do the same.
A day later, MessageBird.com put their money where their mouth is by imposing sanctions on Russian customers by shutting down API access to their platform, outlining that:
"As technology companies, we are uniquely positioned to use our powers to -peacefully- object to the actions taken by the Russian government against the Ukrainian sovereignty by way of penalizing the Russian economy. "
Last Tuesday, MessageBird announced that together with online grocery store Picnic and bank of the free Bunq bank, they launched a $10million NGO fund to support global peace! Investing in innovative peacekeeping initiatives and providing a platform to help coordinate humanitarian efforts from the worldwide tech community.
This is but one of many tech-related initiatives. Over at Silicon Canals, they have a more in-depth overview.
4. The global creative industry rallies around the most crucial brief of our lifetime.
The war in Ukraine, in part, is an information war that, according to many news outlets, is being won by Ukraine. Heroic stories are piling up about the alleged Ghost of Kyiv, the "Russian Warship Go Fuck Yourself!" border patrol guards, and former and current heavy- and middleweight boxing champions fighting shoulder to shoulder with the president while leading the Ukrainian defenses.
A group of agency professionals and freelancers from Ukraine's advertising industry are now joining this information war as they issued the most crucial brief in our lifetime: help prevent a third world war!
The Prevent WW3 assignment calls on creative experts worldwide, including those in Russia who do not support the war, to use their talents to help Ukraine in its battle against Russia and "support peace and freedom."
If there was ever a moment where advertising can be used for good, it is now!
5. Yuval Noah Harari.
Building on the power of storytelling within an information war.
In an opinion piece on the Guardian and in the Ted interview below, Yuval Noah Harari, the Israeli historian and author of Homo Sapiens, states that Putin has already lost this war. In his book Homo Sapiens, Yuval Noah Harari says that the belief in shared myths like laws, money, corporations, and gods allows large numbers of sapiens to live and work together. Nations are also ultimately built on stories, and each passing day adds more stories to the Ukrainian nation. Myths and stories like the once mentioned above and those currently created through the prevent WW3 brief. Myths that Ukrainians and the world will tell not only in the dark days ahead but in the decades and generations to come.
According to Harari, even though the Russian army may yet conquer Ukraine, Ukrainians have shown in the past few days that they will not let them hold it. Putin's narrative has always rested on the lie that Ukraine isn't a real nation, that Ukrainians aren't a real people, and that the inhabitants of Kyiv, Kharkiv, and Lviv yearn for Moscow's rule. A lie that is being kept alive by silencing critical thinkers inland but a lie that won't stand the test of time.
Slava Ukraini!
That's it for this edition. Let's hope in two weeks; it'll seem right to do a normalish bi-weekly newsletter. Stay safe.
Marcel