Dear Ginac people, I think one should also call for an end of the aggressive war of Azerbaijan against Armenia, where Erdogan initiated and supports the next genocide at Armenian population one hundred years after the first one, and Germany again is calm, as 100 years ago, because Azerbaijan delivers gas to EU - better we should freeze rather then support this genocide invisible to most of us. A corresponding call would fit well to the Ginac web page. All the best Markus Am 06.10.22 um 01:36 schrieb Richard B. Kreckel:
Dear Vladimir,
Personally, I respect your fair call for neutrality in this horrible civilizational disaster. But I also think there is a delicate balancing act between *neutrality* and *objectivity*.
On 9/27/22 16:20, Vladimir V. Kisil wrote:
[...] Current information flows are full of fakes, manipulations and war-time propaganda. The sequence of events will be a subject for heated debates for decades to come.
There is certainly misleading information both on the western (uncensored, free, and competitive) media and on the Russian (censored, oppressed, and state-dictated) media. But to equate these two would clearly mean to sacrifice one's objectivity to neutrality!
Alternatively, we may delete the whole statement all together. Calling for peace we shall do the first step ourselves by not taking a side in the ongoing war.
As scientists, our influence on the course of events is limited. Yet, not to speak up would mean to relinquish all influence. (Overly pathetic example: If the "Göttingen 18" hadn't spoken up in 1957, Germany would have developed nuclear weapons.) Hence, deleting the statement altogether would IMHO be faint-hearted.
I re-read our statement carefully and found the first paragraph neutral – it merely sets a backdrop. The second paragraph then supports a call from Russian fellow scientists – among them at least one Fields medalist. Recall that their plea was squashed a few days later by authorities. (It has since been published abroad.) I suppose we all agree that shutting up a scientific community is unacceptable. In this conflict, suppression of speech happens objectively unilaterally.
Striving for neutrality we could do two things: Replace "the Russian government" by "everybody". In addition, we should add a link to this non-Russian scientists' call for peace: <https://www.mpg.de/peace-declaration-nobel-prize-laureates>. (I am aware that it is also not "neutral".)
That would be my candid proposal.
All my best, -richy.