Clarissa's Blog

The entire Nova Kahovka zoo died:

I’m still not hearing a peep out of the “climate protesters” and “green new dealers.” The largest man-made ecological disaster since Chernobyl happened today, yet no climate strike has been announced in response.

As my 7-year-old would say, “it’s so hippo-critical!”

Some of the areas flooded because of the Nova Kahovka dam destruction are held by Ukraine. Others are held by Russia. The areas controlled by Ukraine evacuated quickly and efficiently. There have been no casualties.

In the areas controlled by Russia, residents are forcibly prevented from evacuating. The Russian occupation authorities are denying that anything happened. They insist that the dam is perfectly fine and there is no flooding.

There are currently hundreds of civilians on the rooftops, trying not to drown. The Russian occupiers have confiscated all the boats, preventing people from trying to leave. Many people might not survive the night as a result.

The world keeps watching as it watched every preceding Russian atrocity.

Back in early October of 2022 was when Russians started bragging about blowing up the dam. Recently, they’ve been publishing calculations about water supplies in the Crimea being enough to last for 2 years if the dam gets blown up. Now they are folding like a house of cards in fear of the Ukrainian counteroffensive, so time has come for them to make good on the threats and destroy the dam.

Yes, it’s an absolute mystery who blew up the dam. How will we ever find out?

In Spain, people tend to accept that I’m a native speaker of Spanish from the Southern Cone, and nobody asks anything. But in the Caribbean I’m not fooling anybody.

“You speak so well, you could almost be a native speaker!” people keep exclaiming.

I stopped asking how they know I’m not 20 years ago when somebody answered this question with a kindly “porque eres muy blanquita, niña.”

Also, people here refuse to believe today is N’s and mine 16th anniversary. It’s not because we look extremely young (which we don’t) but because Klara is clearly not 15. It’s really funny.

Exactly. The weaselly both-siderism 15 months into the war is pathetic.

This is the biggest man-made ecological catastrophe in decades. And now let’s watch our Green friends ignore it completely as they’ve ignored every real threat to the environment.

In the meantime, Americans are extremely bored:

That’s pretty terrible, my friends. The water that’s escaping will not only flood residential areas, it will not be able to cool the reactors of a nuclear power plant nearby.

The Russians seem to have decided to sacrifice the Crimea because here goes the Crimea’s drinking water for the next half decade.

We have found an excellent alternative to the Disney World, people. It’s a Nickelodeon resort in the DR.

First, there’s a beach.

Second, it’s cheaper.

The food is actually good. You can get different kinds of fish cooked right in front of you any way you prefer. Or steak, or chicken.

There are no people.

I mean, there are people but you rarely see them. There are definitely no crowds.

The beach is almost always empty.

Everything is included, so once you pay for the trip, there are no additional costs.

Everything has an understated space-themed aesthetic.

Coffee is excellent.

Nothing is tacky. Really, there’s no tackiness. We’ve been here for a day and a half, and nothing garish or vulgar has entered our field of vision.

There are no lines. At all. None. No waiting for anything. Because, guess what? There’s always a bunch of space between you and other people. You practically don’t see them, which I know I already said but it’s too good not to repeat.

Unless you actively seek out characters, you won’t come across them.

There are ice-cream machines everywhere, and it’s all free. Soon your kid starts saying, “Mommy, I beg you, no more ice cream! Please, can I have a salad, please, Mommy, I’ll be good forever!”

Also, to quote N, “there isn’t a single Russian here!”

I’ll post more pictures later to illustrate my point about the lack of people.