Welcome to Episode 27 of My Newsletter on Qt Embedded Systems
The war is back in Europe! In a criminal act, Russia is attacking and invading Ukraine - for the second time in 8 years. My heart goes out to the Ukrainian people suffering from Russian atrocities. I will happily help Ukrainians find jobs in Germany and the EU through my professional network.
My position towards dictatorships like Russia, China and Saudi Arabia has always been clear. I have never done business with these countries and I will never do.
Many companies now proudly declare that they stop their business with Russia. I consider this hypocritical. These companies should have stopped business with Russia in 2014, when Russia invaded the Ukraine for the first time. Even better, they should have never done business with Russia. I doubt that these companies will abstain from business with Russia once the war is "over".
European countries, especially Germany, should have reduced their dependency on Russian oil and gas over the last 20 years. Instead, they increased it to 40% on average.
These countries are surprised that rogue nations leverage this dependency to get away with a military invasion. I am not surprised. This happens when countries, companies and people trade liberal and democratic values for profit and greed.
Ukraine's fight for freedom and democracy is a strong reminder that freedom and democracy must not be taken for granted but must be fought for every day. I hope that people in Western democracies hear the wake-up call before it's too late.
It's hard to move from war back to mundane topics like software architecture and team topologies. I hope that the rest of my newsletter can take your mind off the heavy topics like war and COVID-19 - at least a little bit. I'll review the book Team Topologies by Matthew Skelton and Manuel Pais. They have written a brilliant book how to create a high-performing software development organisation with the best team structure and interaction.
Enjoy reading and take care - Burkhard 🇺🇦💜