On Monday ST. Jaime United in Grief Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak is back before thecrowd in a Press Conference. The worldis united in grief, he said, this time over the downing of MH17, a 777-Boingflying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur. Unfortunately, inclement weather re-routed its normal flight pattern andwas diverted instead over the war zone in Ukraine, on the eastern sidebordering towards Russia where pro-Russian separatist have declared theirindependence from the Kiev government. Ukraine since November of last year has been inturmoil. It started over a tradeagreement it was ready to sign with EU that the then President ViktorYanukovych reneged to ink and turned to Moscow instead, for what he thought wasa more reasonable arrangement, given the countries dependence on Russia for itsgas. Ukraine west of Dnieper river is perceived to be pro-EU(borders with Belarus, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Moldova) while theeastern part is pro-Russia, particularly Donets'k, Luhans'k, and Karkiv. Ukraine's capital Kiev sits astride theDnieper River that conveniently divides the State. Chernobyl, the site of the nuclear accidentin 1986 is northwest of Kiev near Belarus, from which the Dnieper comes fromoriginating in Smolensk of Russia. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, NATO actively triedto get eastern European countries to join EU. Many in Ukraine's west were eager to join. Russia's President Vladimir Putin is opposedand had warned the west that there are certain parts of the former Soviet Unionthat are none negotiable in terms of their membership in Moscow's sphere ofinfluence. Ukraine numbered amongstthem. When it was still the Ukraine Soviet Socialist Republicwithin the Soviet Union, the State contributed Nikita Khrushchev who was bornin the small Russian town of Kalinovka on the border of Ukraine, and who laterbecame Ukraine's Commissar for Stalin after his involvement in the defense ofRussia in the Battle of Stalingrad vs. the German Nazis. It was Khrushchev who unilaterally attachedRussian Crimea into Ukraine. It is thisdivide between the west and the east of Ukraine that has become the world'sheadache in 2014. After President Yanukovych was ran out of Kiev by forcesfriendly to EU, and sought asylum in Moscow, Russia took Crimea back andpro-Russian separatist declared independence in Donets'k and Luhans'k. In the heat of an undeclared civil war,pro-western Petro Poroshenko was elected President and had vowed not only toregain the separatist regions of East Ukraine, but also, to get back Crimeafrom Russia. The U.S. and NATO havepublicly declared their support of the Kiev government. In the last week, as Ukrainian armed forces battledseparatist groups, two ground-to-air missiles shot two Ukrainian planes fromthe sky. Then an identified jet flyingat 32,000 was shot down, turning out to be a civilian plane. MH17 wandered into a war zone already avoidedby other commercial carriers for obvious reasons. Air controllers' diversion of MF17 to the warzone from bad weather has now proved very costly. Here is a part of a transcript of an alleged interceptedtalk between Cossack Nikolay Kozitsin and a Russian intelligence adviserreleased by Ukraine's government: “It has a Malaysia Airlineslogo on it, they say,” said the unidentified militant. “What was it doing inUkraine’s territory?” To that,Kozitsin is heard responding: “That means they were carrying spies, f**k them,got it? They shouldn’t be f**king flying. There is a war going on.” Itnow appears that a ground-to-air missile struck MH17 and the blame gamehas flown thick ever since. Separatistforces retrieved the plane's black box, have no way of deciphering it, nor arethey inclined to turn it over to Kiev, so it is believed to have been turnedover to the Russians across the border. The manifest revealed 295 total passengers, listed ascitizens of the Netherlands (154), Malaysia (43), Australia (27), Indonesia(12), UK (9), four each from Germany and Belgium, Philippines (3), Canada (1)and 41 victims still unverified. All 15Airline crew were Malaysians. Ironically, Mother Nature's fury added to the grief astyphoon Rammasun (aka Glenda took 38lives in the Philippines) ravaged the south of Manila, and raged ferociouslytowards unprepared Hainan and Guangdong in southern China. Flights were grounded in Haikou and HongKong. Boats at the Sanya port batteneddown for the super typhoon, reputed to be the strongest so far to devastate theregion. Grief not only was on lost livesbut on the destruction of the region's economy and social structures, as well. Meanwhile, Israel cleansed Hamas forces holed in tunnels inGaza. Israel does not recognize the U.S.supported coalition government in Gaza that joined moderate Hamas led by MahmoudAbbas to the more radical jihadist combatants like al-Fatah. Malaysia's PM Najib Razak was on the money when he said thatthe world is again united in grief. InIsrael's case, it seems to have become endless. In MH17, we are now looking for scapegoats. j'aime la vie pinoypanda2031@aol.com yesterday, appreciate; tomorrow, anticipate; today. participate. In all, celebrate!