You can’t be proud of your education system and practice, even if you call it democratic, if it allows you to agree to the destruction of lives and livelihood through wars. Even when we leave the ethical question aside and decide to simply apply basic mathematics it quickly becomes clear to everyone that war is a bad option. A very bad option.

After a quick research on the internet about the costs involved in the war in Ukraine, the sources give differing numbers. One of the most commonly cited is the daily cost of about 20 billion for Russia and about 5 billion for Ukraine. Other estimates are higher. These numbers take into account the direct military costs, the cost of lives and the costs of infrastructural and economic damages.

That amounts to about 25 billion € per day for both countries. By today (29/06/22) the war has lasted 126 days which adds up to 3150 billion €

Imagine what could be done with that money….

• Ending world hunger would cost under 300 billion $ (https://www.globalgiving.org/learn/how-much-would-it-cost-to-end-world-hunger/)

• Building a solar power plant that produces enough energy for the whole of the United States would cost about 800 billion dollars (https://www.inverse.com/article/56499-solar-energy-how-a-small-patch-of-the-sahara-desert-could-power-the-world) 

• The annual budget of Germany in 2021 was about 1800 billion € (https://www.destatis.de/EN/Themes/Government/Public-Finance/Expenditure-Revenue-And-Financial-Balance-Of-Public-Budgets/_node.html)

• Global annual expenditure on health care is about 9000 billion $ (https://www.who.int/publications-detail-redirect/9789240017788)

… and then think again.