MEDIUM RARE
Jullie Y. Daza
Is Vladimir Putin the ferocious and aggressive tiger that the world was expecting, though in a merely metaphorical sense, upon the entry of the Year of the Tiger?
Ah, but a yoga teacher who is feng shui advocate Lillian Too’s representative/ambassador in the Philippines saw not one but three tigers ruling the year 2022. Ollay Aninion said it was a scary scenario, which was why I didn’t write about our conversation, but this was how Ollay sketched it: “There are three Tigers in the chart, like it or not. And this is how Tiger works. Just when you think you’ve everything in front of you, along comes Tiger, sweeping away everything, pouncing on your meal, destroying your possessions, your plans. That’s typical tiger behavior.”
Putin’s invasion of Ukraine looks like Big Cat toying with Baby Kitten. His declaration of war came out of the blue, and just as swiftly European states and the United States responded with painful sanctions which will hurt the Russian people, not their president – could this economic challenge be the second of the three Tigers?
Who is President Putin? He’s an enigma, a former spy who knows the value of secrecy and how to keep everything close to his vest. There are other Putins, known though perhaps superficially by those who have dealt with him diplomatically as equals (e.g., heads of state). Unlike other world leaders who wish to project themselves and their countries on the global stage, President Putin needs privacy more than exposure. His country is No. 1 in nuclear power. Their citizens live in 11 time zones.
Then there’s the Putin that writers dream of interviewing in the flesh and writing about, either for a biography or a work of fiction. Spy movies and mystery thrillers abound with Putin-like characters, the latest being the fictional Russian President Ivanov in the novel State of Terror co-written by Hillary Rodham Clinton and Louise Penny.
In this collaboration, America’s 67th secretary of state and former first lady, senator, and presidential candidate lends her insider information to flesh out best-selling author Penny’s tale woven around the most dangerous threats to world peace. Which is scarier: nuclear warfare or terrorists hankering after world domination? And where does “President Ivanov” figure in the equation?