Freethinkers Focus on Ukraine
VIA SBINSIDER| December 11th, 2022
Two experts in different disciplines from the University of Arizona presented their ideas on the task of rebuilding the housing stock in Ukraine. The presentation was entitled “Rebuilding Ukraine means Building Houses” – Jane Zavisca, PhD and Beth Mitchneck, PhD
One of the salient points made by the speakers were that at the end of the Cold War in 1989, the Ukrainians separated from Russia and did a remarkable thing; The new government decided that all the housing which was occupied by their citizens automatically became theirs as private property. Ergo, in one change of government, 90% of the citizens suddenly were homeowners. There were some restriction-a person cannot sell their property at a profit so no secondary housing market exists, but you can sell it to another person at the price the government set when it was acquired from the former government. Also, you can pass title for free to your heirs.
The Russian strategy for destroying Ukraine and winning the war is to methodically destroy the housing stock with precision artillery attacks. Currently, about a 1/3rd of the housing has been destroyed running to hundreds of billions in costs to rebuild, if and when the war ends. The speakers labeled the Russian strategy as “domicide” and is effective in redirecting resources away from the Ukrainian armed forces frontline battle. The professors suggested that “we” the US and the NATO alliance, develop a rebuilding plan based the WWII Marshall Plan that the US
In the Q\A session the point was made that both sides do not seem willing to negotiate a cease fire and past wars of this kind such as Kosovo or Lebanon dragged on for many years-although this is not a civil war as those were. The speakers did acknowledge that a real possibility exists that many years many pass before any peaceful resolution is reached. One of the members pointed out that close to home in Tucson we have our own population of displaced persons and that they needed help from the local residents.
The next meeting is Sunday, 2PM, January 8th and the speaker is Kathleen Insel from the University of Arizona who will talk about the four “D’s” dementia, disability, depression.
