File:Tear of the Sunflower (52100762838).jpg

Today we delivered 120 surgical sponges to the Ukrainian culture centre here in Varna, after giving tourniquets earlier in the week. The aid has shifted to support those fighting back in Ukraine as there is enough support (presently) for the refugees in this city. We purchased a generator a few weeks ago and I’ve been informed that it’s currently in use in the front-line Izyum region. It feels good to help, even though war rages on. And the longer it rages, the worse it gets.

The senseless and asinine war perpetuated by Putin is about to have global ripple effects. 76% of sunflower oil in India comes from Ukraine. 81% of wheat consumed in Lebanon comes from Ukraine. Ukrainian ports are blocked, and the grain silos are not empty. This means there would be little place to store the current year’s harvest, and less money to plant the next one. Without intervention, there will be food shortages in dozens of countries.

Famine starts with petty crimes to feed families, but can lead to much worse. It can progress to riots in the streets, and a government that can do nothing to feed its people. This can lead to civil war, regional conflicts, mass migrations of people, dramatically reduced GDP in affected countries and contribute to a global recession. And a lot of people will die from malnutrition. I don’t mean to sound too dire here, as there are solutions.

Grain, oil, and other agricultural products need to get out of Ukraine affordably. That means the Black Sea ports that can accept heavy ships. Every approach to this is risky, and many Western / NATO nations are against directly approaching Russia’s Black Sea Fleet. Israel just forbid Germany from giving Israeli-made anti-ship missiles to Ukraine, so that hurts too. I know that some cargo is being moved over land to other ports in the Black Sea, notably Constanta, Romania for further shipping by sea… but you can only move so much this way, and it all gets more expensive. And that’s the key thing: cost.

Food can get out of Ukraine by other means, but at what cost? A cost too high to bear for developing and impoverished countries. I feel like organizations such as World Central Kitchen ( <a href="https://wck.org/" rel="noreferrer nofollow">wck.org/</a> ) can make a difference, but such an organization cannot feed entire nations. There will come a time when charities switch their attention away from Ukraine to focus on funding the food crises when they arrive. And if the war doesn’t end tomorrow, those crises are all but assured. The war in Ukraine will continue through all of this; a grim prediction.

This image was taken using the high-resolution mode on my Lumix S1R which allows me to get farther away from my subject which allows for a greater depth of field when you crop extensively in. It’s not a magic bullet, but it can help you thread the needle between depth of field and diffraction that can reduce critical details. It was focus stacked from four frames, but had I shot this by conventional means I would have needed 15+ images. The droplet was placed with a hypodermic needle, and carefully with small droplets I added a bit more mass to the big one. It began to droop, barely holding on, and forming a teardrop-like appearance. It took a few attempts, just like the game with the yodeling man up the mountain on The Price is Right, it’s easy to go one step too far.