When the BBC’s hardened Chief International Correspondent Lyse Doucet is looking a bit teary at the story she’s delivering, you know things must be bad.
When two million people have left their homes and everything they know to go somewhere strange and to be reliant on the charity of others, you know things must be bad.
When Scouts are giving out toothbrushes to people lying on the floor in a Polish airport because they’ve left everything behind, you know things must be bad. For many of them, the things they’ve left behind include their men and boys.
Leaving because an invading force is coming. Sounds like a no-brainer. If the Russians were heading towards your town you might well leave. But your 80 year old parent who’s lived in the same house for 50 years might not be so keen. And as men aged between 18 and 60, my son and I would stay behind and learn how to use a gun and make Molotov cocktails. Not sure how much use we would be, but we’d give it a go.
Beneath turbulent seas submarines are listening and waiting. On a hard airport floor a kid just wants a bed.
TFW pings are short, unedited thoughts and notes.
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Martin Sketchley 