Georgians rally in support of Ukraine after Russia began its invasion on February 24. Photo / Getty Images
OPINION
You'd think with some 40 localised wars and conflicts happening around the world, that would be enough to go on with.
There may be the odd woman leader mixed up in that lot, but you can be certain these power games are plotted and playing out with men heading the field. Always has been.
It seems the human race can never live in peace and harmony. We're just not wired that way. Our leaders are always looking over the back fence.
What have our neighbours got that we haven't, but now want? Resources; oil, minerals, water, cheap labour, more fertile land? Land that was once ours, that we have a right to and so, too, the people. We used to control both, everything. We have often had the same language and customs.
The same shared history, even if it was eons ago. The territory should still be ours. Never have been annexed. And anyway we're the better ones to rule.
There'll always be justification, excuses and defensible reasons for making war. One country against another, one group or sector against another. I wish world leaders would "stick to their own lane".
Most countries are doing okay by themselves and they'll ask for help if they need it. But no, leaders want the world to know they're in control. And if they can't have things their own way they'll kick up hell. Make their neighbours' life hell. They'll go to war.
Most of today's wars and conflicts are in the Middle East, North West Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. But not all wars are formalised with official declarations of war between two countries. And not every ongoing armed conflict is classified as a war.
Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq are the ones we know well, but whether it's civil war, insurgency or terrorist activity, it's armed conflict.
And in all countries where war and conflict have been happening for decades, the toll is devastating for the people who live there.
With Russia's decision to invade Ukraine, we can sit back in our armchairs at home in front of TV or pull out our mobile phone and voila, we're watching a real live war unfold as it happens.
We see cities being targeted and shelled, people getting killed, tanks rolling across fields and people fleeing, taking whatever they can carry. We've been here before. Another country, more killings, history repeating itself. Have we learned nothing from wars fought in the past 100 years.
No need to go any further back than that. Don't we have serious issues that world leaders could concentrate their efforts on? Combine their widespread skills and focus on: stopping and solving the impacts of climate change; world depopulation; water scarcity; severe hunger; viruses and pandemics; poverty.
There must be hundreds of projects to keep them occupied and to stop them looking longingly over the fence.
I have this picture of old men, once were soldiers now politicians, sitting and plotting where to send their young soldiers to die. It appears to me that nothing much has changed. But it should have.
In a world of plenty that we are fast managing to stuff up, there is enough food, water and shelter for every human being.
Yet leaders continue to want to crush the human spirit. To bend it to their will. Surely they must know by now this will never happen. The human spirit burns eternal. It is not for crushing. It will find the smallest glimmer of light. It has the ability to face the uncertainty of the future, believing its problems will be overcome.
The fierce resistance we are seeing from the people of Ukraine, fighting for their right to live as free Ukrainians on their own lands, as their own sovereign nation, shows a human spirit that will not be cowed.
The English philosopher Bernard Williams said "Man never made any material as resilient as the human spirit".
The Ukrainians will need to call on all their reserves for this challenge. The Russian leader Putin will not want to lose this war. Not with the world having a ringside seat.
- Merepeka Raukawa-Tait is a Rotorua district councillor and member of the Lakes District Health Board. She is also the chairwoman of the Whānau Ora Commissioning Agency.