…in the world
When you’re on a speeding bullet train with your eyes closed, you don’t even know you’re moving!! In these situations, you gotta be aware of a background to get a perspective on what’s really going on with you. You gotta have your eyes open!! Something similar to this happens to all of us as we move in the current of history, but our eyes are closed, and we’re missing the massive changes that are hurling our world into a new dawn.
Just take the seismic changes in the world order that’s been put into play last year. The war in Ukraine ground on for a second year, with so much ammo and munitions thrown by the RUSSIANS and the West’s Ukrainian proxies that the factories just couldn’t keep up with production!! Imagine that!! It wasn’t bodies that were running out, but bullets!! Then, of course, came Hamas’ surprise attack on Israel – boy, was it a surprise!! – that forever shattered the carefully constructed aura of invincibility that US$3 billion annually for FIFTY YEARS created!! Then there was India’s Foreign Minister being asked about their seeming nonchalance about the Ukraine War. His answer was surprising to most who’d gotten used to keeping their eyes closed: “Europe should stop insisting that what’s important to them is automatically important to the rest of the world!!”
If we’re all humans – and equally so – then by that criterion we should all be equally important! But we know that ain’t so, don’t we?? The worm had turned!!
And we arrive at the Houthis – a raggedy bunch of camel jockeys in the eyes of the west – who could carry out the largest naval blockade in the history of the world without having a navy!! They’ve turned military doctrine on its head – the Houthis rule the waves!! At least around the Arabian Peninsula, where a quarter of world trade traverses!! And they say “location, location, location” was the law of real estate!!
Then BRICS decided to get bigger – brick by brick!! Saudia Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Iran and Ethiopia joined the ranks of the BRICS group on Monday, January 1. They were to join the group in August 2023 at the 15th BRICS summit in Johannesburg, South Africa, but even they had their bureaucratic challenges!! Argentina was also invited, but backed out at the end of December!! And they’re creating the full range of institutions that should give the rest of the world options they never had before: a new world currency; new development bank, new trading routes, and new leadership!!
There’s a brave new world opening up – and we’d better pay attention. If nothing else, it’ll be more competitive. And that’s always a good thing, no??
…in America
Now, let’s take a deep breath and look at what’s going on in America, shall we?? Did you, dear reader, ever think we could’ve had an insurrectionary raid on Capitol Hill, the home of American Democracy, and the man behind it all is well on his way to becoming president again – four years later?? Jeez!! Since 1776, they were the City on the Hill which the rest of the world regarded as a beacon!
But can we reconcile that vision with all that’s gone down in just the last decade? A president tweeting announcements on domestic and foreign policy at night – unmediated by the bureaucracy created to serve the Republic?? A Supreme Court that created the principle of Judicial Review as a bulwark against an always potentially tyrannical Executive – now using that power on behalf of an Executive that practised rampant judicial bench stacking?? So, what now happens about the separation of powers – which is supposed to be sacrosanct – when both Houses and the Court are gonna toe one line??
This will not end well!!
