Rockin' In The Free World - March 5th 2025
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It is 5th of March. The other day I got a haircut, an army style one of course, done with clippers so that for the next month until the next trim I wouldn't even have to think about a comb.

And while they were cutting my hair, I found myself humming "Almost Cut My Hair", a true masterpiece by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, probably the greatest band in rock'n'roll history. The irony is that the song tells the story of someone who was on the verge of cutting their long hair, the symbol of rebellion and free spirit for the sake of mundane bourgeois life, but at the last moment held back.

I, on the other hand, have nothing bourgeois about me, yet I keep cutting my hair short. Out of all four musicians in Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, I always liked the last one, Neil Young, the most. The most restless, the most rebellious of them all. I've loved his music since I was a teenager. You know that feeling when a song seems to be telling the story of your own life.

That's how it was for me, even when I grew up. When I was arrested by the police in Egypt and sent to prison, Neil Young's "Mid-East Vacation" was playing in my head. By the way, back in 2012 I was arrested on charges of spying for the United States.

I took pride in that for years, but now, looking at the United States, I think: "No, that was not worth going to jail for". Even for those few hours which the police needed to find out that I was really a journalist covering the Tahrir revolution.

At the beginning of the full-scale invasion and my military service I kept recalling Young's "Living with War" and when I miss it home and my family terribly, his "going home". And just recently I remembered that the very first thing I bought on my first ever trip to the United States years ago was Neil Young's book "Waging Heavy Peace". I bought it in an airport bookstore right after passing passport control.

And the day after my latest haircut I read in the news that Mr. Young is coming to perform here in Ukraine. This is a real miracle. I don't quite understand how it's going to happen, because gathering people in a stadium or a large concert hall is extremely dangerous. We are under constant bombardment.

I don't know if I'll be able to attend the concert because I'm in the army and it's far from certain that I'd get leave or that there would be even available seats. But, but, the most important thing is that he's at least planning to come. That at the very least through his plans he is supporting Ukraine.

The only ones I'm more grateful to than him are you, my listeners. Those of you who go out to rallies for Ukraine, who support our resistance, who make it possible for us, sooner or later, to finally rock in a free world.