2026 Aladdin's Magic Lamp

Aladdin's magic lamp is one of the more popular stories from "Tales of the Arabian Nights". However, if one were to read the original story he or she will be surprised to know the elaborate plot was more than just about Aladdin finding the lamp, rubbing it and out came the genie that granted him three wishes. 

And, of course, all the stories we hear now are the funny ones about three wishes  allowed the finder of the lamp.

But hardly has anyone wondered why these popular stories are all about a man or young boy finding the lamp and granted three wishes and not by a young girl or woman. By the way, the original story does not impose any limits on the number of wishes. So, let's speculate on how the story would unfold if a modern woman finds the lamp.

But first this.  This has been around for quite some time now.  This one I embellished for a bit.

A political adviser to the lady senator from Hawaii found  the lamp on a  beach in  that state one day.  As he was wiping away the sand from the lamp, blue smoke came out and a genie appeared.

Genie: Sire, thank you for freeing me from a thousand years of bondage inside the lamp.  I therefore grant you whatever you wish for.

Man: I work for the lady senator from Hawaii so I express her wish.

Genie: Go ahead, Sire.

Man: She wants a bridge from Hawaii to the mainland so she can travel in her electric car.  Oh, and add to that an electric charging station every 250 miles.

Genie:  But sire, that is impossible!  Do you know the engineering challenges involved? Construction equipment that has not been invented yet will be needed and dealing with the ocean in all kinds of weather and special metallurgy for the long span of the bridge will bring the cost to stratospheric heights. Providing the charging stations with electricity every 250 miles, who knows how many will be needed,  is definitely a pie-in-the- sky ambition.  And labor and so many other factors we need to consider.  Sire, please ask me another.

Man:  Okay, okay. The woman senator I already mentioned.  I'm married to a woman.  So, here's my wish.  I want to understand what my boss thinks and why and how she comes up with her ideas.  And likewise, I too want to understand what my wife is thinking at all times and how she generally goes about her thought processes and predict every which way she changes her mind. In other words I want to understand what a woman is thinking.

The genie after a little bit of thinking, stroking his bearded chin for a bit, replied ..

Genie: Do you want that bridge to have two or four lanes?

(My sincere apologies to all the women.  But if you must know, the  idea for the punchline was the genie's all along).

Okay,  let's have a better story not once you've heard before till now.

Genie in Suburbia

A couple had just bought an old house in the suburbs.  While the husband was away at work, the stay-at-home wife went up the attic to check for more storage space. In one corner she found a dusty sack cloth. When she opened it, there was a lamp. She was wiping it off to see the intricate design that adorned the girth of the lamp's body when smoke came out and a genie appeared.

Genie: Don't be scared my lady.  I am a genie and I am  grateful for giving me back my freedom after years of imprisonment.  I grant you three wishes.

Wife: You scared me but I'm okay now.  Three wishes, huh?

Genie: Yes, my lady.

Wife: I wish my husband will do more in taking care of household chores. I want him to take the trash out without me reminding him each time. He can load the dishwasher from time to time. Perhaps help with laundry too. Oh, on the way home I wish he'd pick up some groceries along with stuff from the cleaners. And is it too much to ask that perhaps he'll do the cooking on weekends. Yard work should not take him all day, right?

Genie: Forgive me for asking, my lady. Shouldn't you wish for more money? More money than you could ever imagine?  Just think, my lady, you can hire a maid or two, a butler to maybe  do the grocery shopping and pick up the laundry too, and hire someone to do the yard work.  With money you can hire all the help you need?

Wife: And just so my husband can watch TV before dinner and watch more TV after and live sports all night?  No! He can't be doing those. And trash had to be by the curb every Tuesday and Friday morning. And on weekends, what will he do?  No, just grant me what I wish for.

Genie: It's your call my lady.

An hour later the wife was in their upstairs bedroom. She was sitting in front of a mirror. In the middle of fixing her hair and make-up she stopped to think whether she just had a daydream in the attic.  If it was real, did she make the right choice? At that precise moment she heard sounds of the  door that connected the garage to the kitchen open and shut.

Husband:  Honey, I'm home! I got the groceries and I just stopped by the dry cleaner's.  What do you feel like for dinner?

The wife looked intently at the mirror once more, then she smiled, followed by a really wide almost mischievous grin, and yelled back ..

Wife: Surprise me!

Genie in Rural America

This nineteen year-old girl lived in a sparsely populated town somewhere in rural America.  She had just slopped the pigs, collected the eggs from the hen house and was about to prepare dinner. Her mom and dad had been trying their best  to marry her off.  There were no takers from a limited number of bachelors in the small town. She's not pretty but not ugly either.  Just a simple face and a moderate stature of 5 foot 4. Not overweight, besides she does all the work that keeps her in good shape.

She went out to the back of the house to pick some leafy greens and tomatoes. She pulled out a head of lettuce when from the hollowed out soil she caught something that glistened. She pulled the whole thing out.  It was an old lamp.  She was peeling the soil crust around the lamp when smoke came out and a genie appeared.

Genie:  Thank you, thank you, my lady.  You may wish for anything and I will grant it.

Girl: You don't scare me. I've seen men dressed more weirdly than you and uglier too.  What do you want?

Genie: You don't understand.  Tell me what you want and I will grant it.

Girl: Oh yeah? Well, I want all the young single men from the whole county to want me like bees want honey.  Or, like a pack of wolves over a freshly killed deer.

Genie:  Slow down, slow down young lady.  Wouldn't you want to be the most beautiful woman in the world - to be desired by all the men from around the globe?

The genie, from out of the blue, produced a pad and pencil and with quick strokes drew something on it.

Genie: Here, my lady.  I did a hurried sketch of what you could look like, if you let me grant it.  You can look like this with all the fine clothes and jewelry you want.

The young lady took one quick look and said ..

Girl: No.  I want all the young men to like me as I am now.

Genie: But my lady, you don't even have nice clothes and make-up.  How do you expect  men to like you?

Girl:  I want them to be lining up from the fence line to our door, wanting to want me and marry me as I look now.

Genie: But, my lady..

Girl: Any self-respecting genie will grant me what I wish for.  That or you are back inside the lamp.  And I wish it so.

Poof! The blue smoke and the genie disappeared into the lamp. 

The young lady went back inside.  Her mom was sewing.  Her dad looked away from the paper he was reading.

Dad: Were you talking to somebody in the back of the house?

Girl: Yeah, some guy stopped by the back fence.

Dad:  Really? What did he want? Will he come by the front door next time?  Maybe later in the week, perhaps?

Girl: No, I don't think so.

Mom: Why dear?

Girl: Oh, he was just blowing smoke up my you-know-what.

Mom: That's not very nice to say dear.

Girl:  It's true, mother.  

Father:  That's okay, dear.  You're still young. 

The young girl proceeded to wash the veggies and started preparing dinner.

 

In the entire history of genie lore, this was the first time that a genie was rejected by the finder.  By the way, what the young lady said about "blowing smoke up my-you-know-what" actually had a life saving origin.

Historical Context:

"The expression likely dates back to the 19th century.

It refers to a method used in medicine where smoke was blown into the rectum, supposedly to revive drowning victims or treat ailments".

Later, losing its use or effectiveness perhaps because it really didn't work, the expression simply became, "It is often used in informal contexts to indicate that someone is being misled or manipulated".

I own up to writing the second and third stories to make amends for the first story about the lady senator and I hope they have more than made up for my version of the first story where I took so much liberty at embellishing it at the expense of the  senator and all the  female readers.

A Spider's Spiritual Theory

Two descendants of spiders whose ancestors met several generations ago got together in one unlikely place. Keep in mind a generation for spiders simply means about two years compared to about twenty five for humans. The Pholcus phalangioides and Argiope trifasciata, both obviously from different species, have co-evolved the same way that their ancestors who met years ago. The descendants have kept up with each other although their development in intelligence and view of the world remained divergently different.  Pholcus phalangioides proved to be more attuned to human culture and behavior than Argiope trifasciata. The latter was naturally respectful of the former's status. For clarity, let's identify them as, Pholcus phalangioides 3 and Argiope trifasciata 3. 

Just as it was years ago, I cannot reveal how I came across the transcript of their conversation.  The two got together in a closet of the narthex of a church. In the olden days the narthex was that part of the vestibule of a church close to the  entrance reserved for the unbaptized. This was a moderately-sized church with ample membership to match.

The following is a transcript of a conversation between the resident spider, a Pholcus phalangioides and and a visiting Argiope trifasciata.

Transcript (01/08/26):

Argiope trifasciata 3: Well, well, this is quite a place you picked to settle in. 

Pholcus phalangioides 3: To be honest, I really like the place. It is structurally safe as you can imagine and when the weather's nice I have easy access to the outside where I hunt for a variety of prey. And then when the weather is bad, prey will come inside to take shelter and I have  wide choices too.

Argiope trifasciata 3: Yes, indeed. I have a few questions though. Humans come here to worship, right? So, do you have any idea what it is all about.  Forgive me to be asking this question.

Pholcus phalangioides 3: That's funny that you use the word forgive. Yeah, well, this is in fact the place humans come to ask for forgiveness. Not in the same context that you used it. So, what is it you want to know? Your ancestors did always ask about human behavior.

Argiope trifasciata 3: : Well, I'm curious about what it is they worship about? I mean, humans are much too superior in intelligence compared to us, no offense, even compared to you, right?

Pholcus phalangioides 3: You really think so?  That they're more intelligent compared to whom?  Or, as you  conjectured,  more intelligent than my species, is that what you meant?

Argiope trifasciata 3: Remember, I said no offense, okay?

Pholcus phalangioides 3: This is really a very interesting place to live in, if you can stand long periods of uninterrupted silence on  most days.  Then it gets really loud on one day a week. And every now and then there would be special days for weddings and funerals. We'll not get into that because if I surmise correctly you are thinking about something else. Isn't that right?

Argiope trifasciata 3: Yeah. I'd like to know what it is about worship and praying and hoping that they do. Let's just focus on those.

Pholcus phalangioides 3: Well, weddings and funerals are special occasions too. But not to be diminished are baptism and other rituals. Humans have special affinity to hope, faith and everything beyond what we see as the physical world.

Argiope trifasciata 3: You mean, things not seen but perceived to be real or true.

Pholcus phalangioides 3: Simply put, yes. But it's more than that.  Let's  go back up to something our ancestors, yours and mine, had been discussing a while back.

Argiope trifasciata 3: What was it?

Pholcus phalangioides 3:Humans spent years and billions of their dollars to develop a system they call LIGO that can detect gravity waves.  My species of spiders had been detecting it for thousands of years before humans developed their first telegraph.  Actually, gravity waves when they come to earth are a source of annoyance to our senses. Sometimes, if the gravity waves are too strong our brains feel severe irritations.

Argiope trifasciata 3: But my species doesn't have that ability, right?

Pholcus phalangioides 3: Yes.  You'll know it if you have the ability.  

Argiope trifasciata 3: So, what has that got to do with my original question.

Pholcus phalangioides 3: Let me show you something from outside this closet. This big area is called the nave of the church. Look at the stained glass from both sides. Do you notice the theme of three separate or distinct parts in each window panel?

Argiope trifasciata 3: Yeah, I see the pattern of three.

Pholcus phalangioides 3: It is called the Holy Trinity. You asked about what it is they worship. And why, perhaps? Well, the Trinity stands for God, the Creator, The Son and The Holy Ghost or Spirit.

Argiope trifasciata 3: Wow, it is already too much to take in one gulp. I see symbols ...

Pholcus phalangioides 3: Now, look. Have you ever wondered how you came to be?  How did this world you and I live in first begin? Do you consider yourself a creature?

Argiope trifasciata 3: Well, yes.  Every living animal is a creature, right?

Pholcus phalangioides 3: Yes.  All right, so if you and I, a mouse a caterpillar, and so on and on are creatures then there must be a creator, you agree?

Argiope trifasciata 3: Well, I will accept that for now.  So there was a creator.

Pholcus phalangioides 3: Still is. The Creator still exists today.

Argiope trifasciata 3: And the Son and the Holy Ghost?

Pholcus phalangioides 3: Okay, here it is.  Man, representing all humans, is the apex of the Creator's masterpiece. However, humans are not exactly good or consistently possess proper morality and they are not perfect stewards of the world's environment we live in - the planet earth being that world. The Son in the Trinity is  the human manifestation, made of flesh and blood, like you and me, of the Creator God.

Argiope trifasciata 3: Why?

Pholcus phalangioides 3: It is believed, the way humans understand it, that the Son, during that time that he lived among ordinary humans was to prove that humans are capable of possessing qualities of goodness - total and pure manifestations of morality - if they worship and believe in one true God. 

Argiope trifasciata 3: Wow.  Really, really wow. Let me accept those for the moment.  What about the third one - the Holy Ghost or Spirit?

Pholcus phalangioides 3: That is why I mentioned gravity waves earlier.  But first this. You and I are gifted with eight eyes.  We see because we detect light waves, just as humans and other creatures can. But you know what, we can also detect ultraviolet and polarized light that no humans are capable of.  I already mentioned gravity waves and our highly enhanced motion detection abilities.

Argiope trifasciata 3: Okay, okay.  What has that got to do with the Holy Ghost?

Pholcus phalangioides 3: You are so impatient.  I am giving you as much background so you can grasp  what I am leading to. 

Argiope trifasciata 3: Sorry, go on please.

Pholcus phalangioides 3: Sound travels through the air.  Without air, as is the case in outer space or in a vacuum, sound cannot propagate from its source. Ocean waves travel through water. If you fall on a still pond you will create waves the moment you hit the water, spreading the energy of your impact.  Even on land waves travel during earthquakes and the up and down motion is visible as it travels on the ground.  The waves in every case I just mentioned are actually energy traveling on and over a field of water, air and ground. Remove the field and wave energy cannot travel. Now, in the case of gravity waves the energy that produces it is unimaginably stronger than what the sun produces in its lifetime.  Two massive objects collide in a massive explosion.  The energy causes massive waves to propagate over space time. Let's not get what space time is  but it is real. A massive object causes it to curve so that smaller objects will be forced to follow that curve.  That is what gravity is.  That is why you and I are on the ground right now - gravity.

Argiope trifasciata 3: Wait, wait, this is just all too much for me.  Slow down, please.

Pholcus phalangioides 3: Listen. What I'm saying is that a field is needed, actually required, in order for wave energy to travel.  Air is a field so sound can travel through it. Magnets act on a piece of iron without touching it because there exists a magnetic field for the attraction to have its effect. I can see you because light is reflected from you to me. Light through the window glass comes to us as energy.  You know what light travels on? An electromagnetic field. Light travels through space from the moon, from the sun and stars, through a field. Actually, no matter how empty a vacuum is, a field exists.  The entire universe is a field.

Argiope trifasciata 3: I wish you would slow down. So, there's field everywhere but why can't sound travel in a vacuum? 

Pholcus phalangioides 3: Good question actually.  I'm proud of you.  Specific energy waves are tuned, so to speak, to specific fields. And, mark this, because this is important.  This is also about specific detectors such as the ears and eyes of most creatures that have the ability to sense different waves. Like I mentioned earlier, we - you and I - can detect ultraviolet energy waves through our special set of eight eyes that humans can't.  Pigeons, salmon and other creatures can detect the earth's magnetic fields.  Again, humans can't.

Argiope trifasciata 3: This is just too much.  Can you at least get to the question I asked earlier.

Pholcus phalangioides 3: Okay, I think I have given you enough background.

Argiope trifasciata 3: It'll take me time to really absorb, let alone understand all of them, but please go on.

Pholcus phalangioides 3 Humans are special creatures, you see.  I've been in this church for so long that after repeated quotes the minister reads from their Holy Book - the Bible - I've memorized many of the texts. There is one that explains the special place reserved for humans, “So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” – Genesis 1:27".

Argiope trifasciata 3: Okay, again that explains just the two of the three. What about the Holy Ghost or Spirit?

Pholcus phalangioides 3 I am trying to explain it to you slowly but deliberately, okay? I needed to explain human's special place in creation. They have consciousness and as a whole it becomes what is described as the human collective consciousness. Collective consciousness exists in a field.  Now, set your mind back to fields as I explained earlier.

Argiope trifasciata 3: I got it. Okay, go on.

Pholcus phalangioides 3 The Holy Ghost or Spirit works in that field that is supposed to connect God's intentions and plans for humanity - through that field. You see, consciousness is meant to live through and beyond their physical lives. Again, let me remind you of how I explained the different fields, okay? Every human being, upon death, ends their physical existence but continue on as a stream of consciousness. Consciousness continues to live on in that same field where the Holy Spirit exists. 

Argiope trifasciata 3: Yeah, I got it.  Sort of, I guess.

Pholcus phalangioides 3 Now, connect God, The Son and The Holy Ghost. Do you see it?

Argiope trifasciata 3: Yeah, but don't you see how complicated that is.

Pholcus phalangioides 3 Not complicated.  It is just a complex idea.

Argiope trifasciata 3: I should have asked this early on.  How do you know all of these?

Pholcus phalangioides 3 That I cannot explain.  It just came to me.  I guess from spending a lot of time here.

Argiope trifasciata 3: What else do I need to know?

Pholcus phalangioides 3 Remember, I said earlier that the entire universe is a field? Streams of consciousness could be, as we speak, flow back and forth, making connections and every now and then some  are received as insights, inspirations, even as gut instincts, unexplained premonitions among sensitive humans, perhaps gifted with special sensitivities. I don't know that for sure because you and I have no access to human streams of consciousness but the Creator does.

Argiope trifasciata 3: I can't stop saying, wow!

Pholcus phalangioides 3 On the other hand that is exactly how it explains an All Knowing God.  You know where I got that idea? From a spider's web.

Argiope trifasciata 3: How?

Pholcus phalangioides 3 Many of our species make elaborate spider webs.  Some as wide as a huge umbrella. The spider at the center of the web knows everything that that happens within the web, what touches it whether it is a leaf, a breeze or a struggling prey. A slight movement anywhere on the web the spider knows instantly. The universe is one unimaginable web - an infinite field - where everything that happens is revealed to The Creator in an instant.  That is how I would explain it.

Argiope trifasciata 3: Wow and wow!  Well, I must go.  This has been an interesting visit.  Thank you. I will not remember everything but maybe the field will stay with me. 

Pholcus phalangioides 3 Thanks for visiting. And indeed, please remember that God knows everything through that field.

P.S.

The idea of the "field" is a real scientific phenomenon and well enhanced through the principles described by quantum mechanics, as in quantum field theory, that define the very nature of matter. Now, we already know how the electromagnetic field makes possible the internet, how our cell phones can be tracked, how satellite navigation is possible with our cars and cell phones, how images are transmitted via TV, and so many others that include MRI, cat scans and how ultimately AI can be harnessed to "know everything". Of course, it will not. The detection of gravity waves is not only real but that it proved what Einstein predicted through his theories long before we had satellites and radio telescopes.

The human intellect is perhaps how it will be possible to live up to being created in the image that God will allow us to aspire for.  Perhaps, and indeed humanity will be able to live up to God's expectations of achieving a perfect moral character and the pinnacle of goodness.

Oh, and the one not supported by scientific proof is the idea that our spider-character can detect gravity waves.

I hope I have inspired some of the readers to look up and do a little research on fields as defined by field theory and gravity waves, for starter.  Actually, YouTube is a good source for touching lightly on those subjects without going too much "into the weeds".  Remember, your router at home creates a field that makes possible how your wireless printer works, your own cell phone, even without a Sim card, still works with the exception of the ability to call or receive phone calls.  However, it will work with Messenger (if you have a Facebook account).  Your router created a field for these things to work.

From the first moments when our ancestors started asking questions to the moments of discovery and creating the kind of technology we enjoy and and marvel at today, man is approaching but not quite the potential to know everything.  Not quite because until such time, whenever that is, when man has at last lived up to that promise, complete knowledge to understand everything will not be achieved. 

  

2026: The Good, The ..

2026 not only ushers in a new year, it is a portal to things only imagined and dreamt by those who lived in the not too distant past; however, it is also fraught with dreadful anticipation. Indeed we will be witnessing what was the future of those who lived generations past and anticipated by those  from a decade ago or less who marveled at what more humanity can and will have after 2025.  2026 is like no other year for two main reasons.  (1) Artificial Intelligence (AI) will  really begin to throw its weight around but it will be a very powerful and almost unstoppable double edged sword with unpredictable ramifications. (2) The potential for world conflicts is gathering momentum that may have reached a point of inevitability although it might not be for at least another decade or so, a conflagration not yet lit but there is enough kindling in likely places. 2026 could be a sign post from which such a trajectory may begin.

And so we look at "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly" in 2026

The Good

There will be a lot of progress in technology.  Businesses and commerce will  obviously benefit from more AI.  The world of medicine will see AI applications in diagnosing diseases (already it does a better job of reading radiology reports and detecting cancer) it will speed up the development and testing of new drugs. Spread of diseases, including global pandemics, can be detected sooner and managed with more effective responses.  

Manufacturing and quality control will be enhanced several fold. Weather forecasts will have better than 50-50 prediction results and range.  These are merely tips of the iceberg on the scope and reach of AI.

Communication technology, travel, crop management, food distribution will rely more on AI.  However, there is too the possibility of an AI bubble going too fast and too big it could burst from its own weight and over promises.

More fantastic science fiction predictions are coming.  We've seen  past predictions from Jules Vern's submarine in "20,000 Leagues Under The Sea" and from "The Earth To The Moon" that became realities and now Star Trek's instant language translations and Isaac Asimov's robots, etc.  There will be more from science fiction writers' imaginations that are yet to become realities. 2026 will draw the curtains even wider.

There will be a lot of other good news but AI will predominate.  One great news is that, hopefully, the wake up call will be loud and clear on the issues of human conflict and will be heeded in time.  That's one good news the world can hope and pray for.

The Bad

The other side of AI's double edge blade will also manifest itself. We can only hope that it will not be in the same equal dosage as the good that will come out of AI's pre-eminent influence.  Will AI make people dumber? Not. if managed properly.  After all, the same was predicted when computers first came around.  Many psychologists, however, warn about the pernicious reach and scope of the deleterious effects AI may have on young minds.  Already teenagers and young adults fall into emotional, even psychological relationships with AI entities. High school students may no longer read entire books or write their own papers.  Social media addiction will seem to grow unabated.

We hope not but this could be the first time that technology may have potential to leach into the human psyche to permanently have an enduring but dangerous ill effects. We already see AI's reach into the criminal mind. Fraud and still unrealized scope of criminality that could come from AI will increase.

Politics' bad image and influence will be far flung and thoroughly pervasive in unprecedented levels as to be irretrievably beyond repair.  We might see erosion in political discourse to a level unparalleled in history.

The Ugly

Beginning this year, projections for population growth from 2026 to 2100 indicate the apex to reach 10 billion people.

Population growth will be one of the top concerns beginning in 2026.  It will affect food production and availability that will not just be a concern for third world countries but a direct pressure on the developed nations that will include a huge immigration burden. Famine and a far more serious possibility of pandemic will shape geopolitics. 

AI in military armaments and the pervasive use of more sophisticated drone technology will make war making decisions by political and military leaders a lot less personal. The slippery slope is going to be a lot steeper and almost impossible to stop once it starts.

2026 will become a stage for many plots and drama of many acts that will make the proverbial theater of war far wider than it had ever been. There is a stage play around Asia where the lead actor is China. Japan, India and other Pacific countries comprise the other players that will extend the area of instability.  Australia and the U.S. will be drawn into the widening theater, reluctantly at first and by necessity later.

Friction between western and eastern Europe  will heat up even more if the Russian/Ukraine conflict is not resolved. So much blood has already been spilled while bad blood could be near the boiling point between the two European divide.  Lest we forget both major world wars I & II ravaged the entire continent that spread in many parts around the world.

Let us not forget the tension building up in the American continent.

The (Intriguingly) Beautiful

As far as geopolitical strategies are concerned and depending on which side of the international intrigue one is aligned with, the latest breaking news in Venezuela is either a beautifully maneuvered move by the U.S. government or blatant military adventurism and regime change in the eyes of the other world leaders and domestic politicians.

Let's just examine the side from the U.S. perspective because that is the only view that we can see clearly.  It is not just so much as drug trafficking elevated to narco-terrorism that the Venezuelan dictatorship is accused of but that a host of other tethered group of player-nations could conceivably unravel as a result of events that just transpired.

The U.S. action may have the equivalence of "casting one stone to get multiple birds". That is perhaps what it hopes to achieve. If successful, it will be one intriguingly beautiful strategy. But it is also one fraught with many ill defined scenarios.

1) Venezuela - The IMF's estimated inflation rate for Venezuela this year is 270%. How can a country of just under 30 million people with oil reserve that rivals if not exceeds Saudi Arabia's suffer economically. It is a failed socialist state with very little hope of recovery.  Only a major change in how it manages itself will reverse the downward trajectory. 

2) Cuba - will be the first and most directly  affected Caribbean country as a result of Venezuela's predicament.  Cuba is solely dependent on oil coming from Venezuela. Once that spigot is shut Cuba's already depressed socialist economy will plummet even more.  Besides, it is likely due for a correction reversal to undo the ill effects of the 1952-55 revolution.

3) Iran - is another country about to suffer a reversal of the 1979 upheaval. One other oil-producing state that failed to reach the level of economic comfort enjoyed by other oil producers like Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Brunei, etc. Recently, demonstrations are approaching the levels of the 1979 uprising that brought the Ayatollah to power.  Iran is linked to Venezuela because it has provided the means to cut Venezuela's highly viscous but high quality crude oil with its lighter material.

4) China - It has been slowly but methodically making successful economic and ideological incursions into S. America with cash loans and purchases of raw material, not the least of which is Venezuelan oil.

"A Venezuela-Iran-China energy axis in the viewfinder as Venezuelan oil has become a strategic point of convergence between China and Iran". 

5) Russia - It is, of course, the other oil producing player that needed to be added to the mix. However, it too must be concerned with its own domestic pressures as it continues to be mired in the war with Ukraine where its mounting casualties and internal economy both conspire to its instability.  It must be concerned at the potential for unrest as its population could be encouraged or inspired by movements from abroad. A kind of revolution not too dissimilar to that which occurred in 1917 cannot be ruled out.  Oligarchy that is rampant today glaringly mirrors the Romanov dynasty.

Debatable conjectures perhaps but not outlandishly improbable.  We'll see as the year progresses.

     

The Immigration Conundrums

Today - domestically and globally - and for years to come, immigration is and will continue to be the top "geopolitical hot potato" in search of a justifiable solution or dispassionate relief. It will not be easy.

An immigration phenomenon, if we must describe it with just two words or two major components, is dictated by geography and population.  These two go together regardless of how we define them in the context of discussing immigration.  Geography is territory, population is made up of people.  We cannot have one without the other if we were to discuss immigration and the conditions that explain what ails or helps it. 

There are many conditions for any country to have an immigration crisis. If we were to get to the point right away, we must accept one clear, indisputable reality.  Geography is fixed.  Population moves increasingly in number. While we  can no longer create new geography, the  population increases everyday and, to a certain extent, will do it exponentially.

From ancient times geography was like an empty canvas, population was a dripping can of paint - slowly but surely spreading over every empty unoccupied area. Since geography is fixed while population is a growing entity and no two entities may occupy the same space, established territories set a limit to how far the paint may spread.

 

That is how the immigration conundrum can be summed up. Let us not rehash, because we can't within the confines of one blog, how territories were established from the beginning but suffice it to say that we presently have them  as they are.  Each territory is a country with codified rules and laws and let's assume now that territorial boundaries have been set to where it is today.  

These conditions of territorial boundaries with rules and laws that govern them have many ways of being managed.  Of course, "managed" is innocently enough the crux of the issues the world faces today.

Before the word immigration was invented the engine that propelled population movement everywhere in the world was naturally driven.  Migration was very much in humanity's DNA to move from place to place for many reasons that included the seasons, food availability, shelter, etc. Later, as settlements were established and grew into large concentrations of people, labor became a factor when the hunter/gatherer ratio among the people switched lopsidedly to the development of agriculture. Agriculture became labor intensive as food production increased in priority to support a settled population.

Along with agriculture came the building of living structures. Later to be followed by larger edifices like palaces, fortifications, places of worship and monuments. Labor intensity went far beyond what the existing population can sustain when industries for producing food and other goods became common. Importing workers, either by invitation or force by means of enslavement were the beginnings of immigration.  Coerced, forced or induced by whatever means created the earliest form of human trafficking. Human trafficking is not a phenomenon brought on by the U.S. border crisis.  There were human traffickers from ancient times and throughout the development of the west, the Caribbean and South American plantation boom for sugar, coffee and other crops.

Slave labor was not solely an American phenomenon that began in the early 1500's but was widespread in all of South America, the Caribbean and as far as Barbados. The Portuguese brought them to Brazil, the Spaniards to places from Columbia to Cuba and a few others, the Dutch to places like Aruba, Curacao, Suriname and others, the British to Barbados, Jamaica, Belize and several more in between.  Human traffickers profited from the same conditions then as they had during the unparalleled border crossing that occurred in the U.S. during the period between 2020 to 2024.

To be clear, going back again to an earlier era, slavery in the U.S. gained notoriety for the size and scope of the newly created nation that was becoming and did become a wealthy and powerful nation. Then a civil war broke out that pushed the issue of slavery to the forefront. But it should be well noted that it was America's collective social conscience that pushed for the pivotal reforms that later put into law the Civil Rights Act in 1964.  Lest we forget, long before 1964 black Americans like Wilma Rudolph, Jesse Owens, Nat King Cole already gained general public acclaim, just to name a few, as great examples of America's social trajectory towards equal treatment of talent and abilities beyond skin color.  

History is what it is. The future now requires that immigration must be managed. Not just in the U.S. but in places like Europe. 

Everywhere there is an immigration crisis anthropologists and political scientists recognize what ails and helps both the host country and immigrants.

As first generation immigrants my family and I have a story to share that hopefully will give credence to what I have to say about immigration.

We came to the U.S. forty six years ago. Our two sons were five and six years old, neither spoke English and only the eldest had a kindergarten education before we immigrated. We enrolled them straight into  public elementary education. In less time than we expected they were able to keep up with school work and spoke fluent English by the end of the school year.

Both went to college to earn engineering degrees; the eldest graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy and served in a nuclear submarine after graduation. It was by no means an isolated feat because there were many first generation immigrant children who attained similar levels of achievement under similar circumstances.  All went through the same immediate academic immersions without the benefit of bi-lingual education.

I feel that I have a good basis for what I am going to say:

1. Bi-lingual Versus Monolingual Education

Bi-lingual education deters rapid and effective assimilation that only accomplishes prolonged racial disconnection and social maladjustment. The pain and difficulty of immediate immersion in language is more than made up for by the benefits of developing   effective social and commercial communication coping skills quickly .  Anything that hinders the rapid development in communication with a single language only creates delaying assimilation.

2. Assimilation versus Multiculturalism

Multiculturalism is a liberally misguided attempt at helping immigrants to cope more easily into the host society.  In reality it accomplishes the opposite.  Assimilation is the key to a cohesive and united society while multiculturalism achieves perpetuating the isolation created for the immigrants.  Hyphenated designations as in Chinese-Americans, Somali-Americans, etc. do not lead to assimilation; instead, leads to prolonging racial division. The host country, any host country, is best served when immigrants who decide to settle in the new land voluntarily adopt the existing culture and social norms.  Otherwise, what is the point of living in the same land together but living separately. Assimilation promotes unity and cohesion; multiculturalism slows adaptation and unity of purpose.

3. Woke-ism is Incongruent with Immigration

Fueled by one component of woke-ism that is identity politics in the name of diversity encourages racial division. While diversity cannot and should not be diminished or even denied because culture and language that someone grew up with should be maintained, even cherished, but when someone chooses citizenship of the new adopted country  allegiance becomes a priority. That is because allegiance is a unifying condition that defines a country. DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion), as prescribed by woke-ism does not unify.  It is divisive when decisions are partly, if not wholly, made based on race and gender, guaranteeing equal results to everyone instead of disbursing rewards based on merit.  Inclusion is not forced but rather made automatic based on equal opportunity to anyone willing to work and make the proper sacrifices for better results.

All three above are synopsis of what ails and what helps immigration.

We often hear of a country that is host to so many diverse races as a "melting pot".  There is a much stronger analogy on cohesion that is characterized in the quality of forging a "Damascus Knife".

It is a process done by hammering together two types of steel with differing carbon content. Two different pieces of steel, one harder than the other, are hammered together, 'folded and re-folded' over as many as sixty four times or more until it is completely fused as one under repeated high heat and pressure from repeated pounding.  Once tempered and shaped the blade's hardness and ability to keep its edge is unequaled although the swirls created by the two metals are evidently visible.  However, it is now one solid blade with a far superior cutting edge.

A successfully assimilated country is made strong from a combination of many people and different races fused and tempered together by countless trials, hardship and sacrifices in meeting diverse challenges, until it is one and yet still able to show evidence of the beautiful swirls created not in a melting pot but as in a Damascus knife.  

 2026 Happy New Year!

  Bonne Année!    ¡Feliz Año Nuevo!   La mulți ani!                Frohes Neues Jahr     (新年快乐)   Chúc Mừng Năm Mới    Kullu   Aam wa Antum Bi-khair          Manigong Bagong Taon

(I can't list all the countries where my blog is read but my greetings extend to all of you)

The River's Parable

The river's purpose is not to reach the ocean or lake. And for it to die there. That is because its work is done along its journey as it travels downward but it is not about reaching  a destination.  

I paraphrased that from somewhere I read a while back but didn't quite get what context it was trying to convey. Indeed, is the river's aim then  not on where it will end but what it does along the way? I see the parable of the river of life upon which all of us are a part of.

So we begin with, "Why do we have rivers in the first place?"

Unless one lives along a river bank, or on a river cruise along the Danube, the Mississippi or the Yellow river or the Mekong, or watching the news on flood disasters, rivers do not pre-occupy one's thoughts.  Let's for a moment focus on it.

Let's see. We have rivers because we have mountains and hills. And  we ask, "Why do we have mountains in the first place?"

It took a lot of energy over eons of time to create mountains and hills alongside them. Undersea volcanic eruptions gave rise to islands, plate tectonic collisions caused lands to rise up and it is still going on today. The Himalayan mountain range, where Mt. Everest is a part of, is one great example of two tectonic plates pushing against each other to create the peaks we see today. Mt. Everest is still growing at 2 millimeters per year. Major rivers that include the Indus and Ganges and the Yangtse are fed by the Himalayan mountains from both sides that provide water to China and India and several other countries.

The forces that build up a mountain are stored as potential energy in every drop of water on top and along the mountainside for every foot that it is  above sea level.  Water will always flow to the lowest level so it is the difference between where it is coming from to the lowest possible level it can go to that defines its potential energy. It is from that where a river converts it to kinetic energy as it surges downward. We see that energy in action in waterfalls, the rapids, and the devastation caused by floods.

The other amazing thing is that the river's kinetic energy can be stored  by damming it, thus effectively converting it to potential energy contained in a dam until water is released to run turbines to produce electricity via hydroelectric generators as in the Hoover Dam and the three Gorges Dam in China.

Rivers, history tells us, were instrumental in the development of early civilization. 

Mesopotamia, from Greek which means between two rivers - the Tigris and Euphrates - is known as the cradle of civilization. Everywhere we look around the globe human settlements grew at the mouth of rivers before emptying to the open sea or lakes. Note that from the left corner of the map below, we see another pivotal location in ancient history - the Nile Delta that is the area before the river empties into the Mediterranean.  The region called the Fertile Crescent is bound by the three rivers of the Nile, Tigris and Euphrates.

Rivers are not just carriers of energy from the highest mountain peaks to the sea but the first conduit for mass transport of goods and people.  Even more important is that rivers actually move nutrients from the foot of mountains to the river banks. Early agriculture and human development flourished on the plains near and along rivers. Flooding is actually a river's chore as an annual clean up event at the same time  to replenish the nutrients along the river banks.  "The annual flooding of the Nile River dates back to ancient times when civilizations used its waters to nourish their crops. This flooding is of great importance to the livelihood and ecology of the region. It is known as the Nile flood and is an integral part of the historical legacy of Egypt and Sudan". The annual inundation is a celebrated event to this day.

The Parable of the River

It is the river from which we may extract moral and spiritual guideposts in our journey through our own personal river of life where indeed it is not where we end up but what we've accomplished along the way.

Anyone of us had the same potential energy at birth as in every droplet of water from the mountain top, allegorically speaking that is.  Our life's journey proceeds with the arrow of time that only goes  forward in the same way that the river flows only in one direction.  It is therefore what we do and how we navigate ourselves along the way that makes up the story of our lives. It is not  merely about striving to arrive at a destination but it is about how we spend every moment along the way.

Every river at its origin begins from tiny droplets that converge to make a thin rivulet. Rivulets converge to form narrow tributaries that soon join to make a stream.  Streams join up to make a river. That also describes our lives from the moment of conception, to our birth, growing up and making our way through life.

Both the river and each of our lives would  seem to be hostages of the arrow of time but time is also the enabler of growth and the facilitator of our journey. Time means we have to look forward and like the river there is no going back. Like the river we go through life rushing to grow up from childhood to the teenage years in a hurry to adulthood.  Along the way, we went through the rough rapids, then the calm serene flow of a widening river, then to rush again through the narrows  but that is how it is to be alive, to feel alive. Some of us may have gone through a waterfall - an illness, a breakup, a failed business - and survive it. The river continues. Along its way, the river carries with it nutrients from the soil above to be dropped off to the river banks. 

That is the parable of the river. We go on that journey from where ever it was we came from, from whenever it was, but in our journey we've affected others along the way as we had been affected by those ahead of us - parents, teachers, our elders, etc., but always mindful that the arrow of time only goes one way. We "drop off" what we can along the way - helping a friend, a neighbor, a loved one who had fallen on hard times and every ounce of kindness to the less fortunate among us, even to strangers - because, as with the river, it is not about reaching the open sea but what it does along the way.

And you know what, even the open sea or lake may not be the end for the river after all. Some of the water evaporates to become clouds that soon come down as rain over the mountains, some freeze to become snow caps. Then the droplets including those from the snow melt will begin the new season and thus  the cycle starts all over again. So even as much of the water remains at sea or lake, a good part of it goes up into the clouds and comes down again. That is the river's parable.

 

Net Worth

Net worth 

Noun:

".. the total wealth of an individual, company, or household, taking account of all financial assets and liabilities..."

Stripped of everything one owns, at that one moment, that final moment when all tangible assets no longer matter, defined by the expression, "you can't take it with you", how much is one really worth.  We can come up with at least one set of double meanings. We'll get into that.

First, we have this one clinical definition of net worth - efficient and unemotional, coldly detached - of the average human body.

Bill Bryson wrote in "The Body - A Guide For Occupants", his recollection while in high school in the 60s of what his biology teacher said the human body was worth based on the chemical elements that it was made from. His memory was hazy but he thought it was $13.50.  Perhaps, the teacher calculated that the human body is mostly water, carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, calcium, about 99 % in all and the rest of other unknown (at that time) elements that can be had from the local hardware store. Skin, tissue and bones were worth $13.50 in 1960's dollars that are now worth about $140, due to inflation over all the past decades, which is about 3,682,280 VND (Vietnamese Dong) or 11,156 Russian Rubles.

But wait, the Royal Society of Chemistry in London, using only the purest form of elements, such as about 30 pounds of really pure carbon, and additional amounts hydrogen and oxygen (water being H2O), iron and rare elements of thorium, etc., puts the the value of the human body at "precisely $151,578.46 plus sales tax".

However, in a PBS 2012 broadcast of NOVA, a science program, the value of the elements to make an average human body was only $168.

It just goes to show how imprecise it can be to put values on anything. (Let me acknowledge Bill Bryson's incisive attempt at coming up with something based on inexact estimates).

Anyhow, that's about what the average human body is worth. Dare we mix financial net worth with that?  Just for grins, let's do that.  Let's pick on Ariana Grande.  She could tiptoe to 5'-1" and perhaps tip the scales at 100 pounds.  Financially, her net worth is estimated at $250 million plus several Guinness World records. However, her widely gossiped weight loss put her physical net worth at the bottom rung of the ladder, quite well below the average run-of-the-mill sumo wrestler at between 250 to 450 pounds. But then top ranked sumo wrestlers could only earn $100 grand annually, while most will barely get $30 K a year. Grand champions can earn more but they won't cover Ariana's jet flights and limo service alone between concerts and shows.

That's what I meant by a set of double meanings for net worth. Which is, "neither here nor there", some of you might say.

Let's segue to something else. You are reading this because your DNA, which is the most durable and enduring part of your existence, managed to survive countless and uninterrupted cell divisions over eons. Had there been just a single break, you would not be here.  Think about that. Before your parents met to conceive you also means that each of their parents had to have met to go through the same process as did all the generations earlier who started the "ball rolling", so to speak, that kept on rolling that hopefully is still rolling because you gave it another push through your own child or children.

DNA is not only a road map that leads backwards in time and towards the future, but it is also a blueprint for making generations of inheritors yet to come. 

This microscopic double helix strand of material is so plentiful in the average human body that if connected end-to-end into a single strand will extend to 10 billion miles, way past the orbit of Pluto, Bill Bryson wrote.

In a sense, there  should never be a question about your net worth, despite what your bank account says.

Let's talk about the other net worth. There are, for example, intangible net worth of a person's accomplishments and contributions for societies' benefit. What value should we put on Abraham Lincoln's and Martin Luther King's moral and social net worth?

What is the net worth of a physician who chose to practice in the poorest rural communities of Bangladesh, Bhutan, or the mountainous regions of Mindanao in the Philippines or Quitman or Tallahatchie in the Mississippi Delta in the wealthy USA? 

How do we compare the net worth of a Masai herder in Tanzania who owns a handful of cattle with  a Texas rancher?

 

We can't. And, should we? No.

In the end, it is really what net worth anyone has accumulated that he or she will be remembered for.  In other words, what intangible net worth we leave behind is what counts. Of course, both intangible and physical assets are governed by the same rule, "you can't take it with you". Or, can you? With intangibles, that is. Perhaps, there is that kind of non-material DNA that is also passed on from generation to generation with  a far wider and far longer reach than material goods. That, I suspect, is why civilization is able to transcend beyond moral inequities.  And so we must hope.