Whatever criticism you may have concerning my long absence, dear reader, you would be justified in expressing it, though hopefully in a polite and constructive manner. My excuse is simple: though I have been as opinionated as ever I simply lacked inspiration in expressing said thoughts. Life has been smothering for many reasons, leaving me unable to vocalise all I wanted to say in my normal manner... So I just shut up!
But I'm back, ready, willing and able (I hope!) to keep you informed and entertained once again. There is plenty to observe, discuss and criticise in the world today and, while our opinions on what is taking place may vary, we all have thoughts and expressed or unexpressed observations.
World events have given us plenty of food for thought with, perhaps, the Middle East leading the way. Not only have the horrific events in and around Israel, showing human behaviour at its worst in so many ways, but the recent Syria developments overthrowing decades of tyranny but potentially dragging the country backwards into a theocratic, brutal and unenlightened existence. Further south and to the east in Yemen there is further unrest, directly affecting shipping traffic in the area and thus having an impact on our daily lives wherever in the world we reside.
The main developments that I am concerned about are in the USA, so far away from my European domicile but nevertheless affecting the whole world. The voters there have decided to reelect Donald Trump as President despite his many manifest failings; as the comeback kid he seems intent in upsetting not only the way the political system has operated in the USA since its creation, but also the current world order, established alliances etc. Nothing in his past performances leaves us confident that he actually has a solid understanding of how anything works and that he has well thought-out plans on how to bring about real, positive change anywhere. While the US is potentially the main beneficiary of his benevolence and creativity, the rest of the world will also be affected to a lesser or greater degree.
Russia is, of course, also a concern, with President (Dictator in all but name...) Putin seemingly intent on impressing the rest of the world with his country's might both militarily and economically, but achieving decidedly mixed results. It is unclear how he will seek to mitigate his lack of success, but I sincerely hope that as the dead mount up he does not resort to greater aggression. I fail to comprehend how Russia with all its natural resources cannot afford its normal citizens an adequate standard of living, while supplying the world with robber barons living the high life in their mega yachts. President Putin would have cemented his place in history if he had achieved internal balance and happiness rather than pursuing dreams of empire, in my opinion.
The past summer highlighted some of the problems of Global Climate Change, ultimately global warming, which is upsetting the sensitive balances of local microclimates with potentially devastating results. Long droughts, exceptionally heavy rainfall and prolonged periods of very high temperatures have caused problems in many parts of the world but it is the longterm effects that are the most worrying in both local and global terms. Current form suggests that things will only get worse, making me grateful not to be in the first flush of youth.
Still, I'm not quite ready to pop my clogs so you'll have to put up with my musings for some time. Regularly!
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