by IRENE FOWLER, Contributor

Upon being informed that her famished and desperate peasant compatriots could not afford their staple diet of bread, the Queen of France Marie-Antoinette (1755-1799) allegedly retorted – “let them eat cake.” The dire situation of looming mass-starvation was due to harsh, inclement weather and concomitant poor harvests from 1877-1899.

In essence, her callous and cruel message to her fellow citizens, who were being deprived of their daily sustenance through no fault of their own, is on par with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s cynical, heartless, response to Africa’s Russia-driven food shortages. In true megalomaniac fashion, he nonchalantly swatted away alarming concerns, by falsely blaming sanctions imposed on Russia for the portentous catastrophe. Thereby, Putin, made a mockery of the debacle and the continent of circa 1.4 billion people.

Putin’s illegal and unprovoked brutal war on Ukraine, now in its fifth dark month, is notable for the level of…