The Mystery of What Divides Them

I am in no position to address this question, let alone devote the time to answer it. First of all, like most ordinary mortals, I am no authority nor do I have the wherewithal to submit to the readers what divides human society in general.  All right, I do have a personal definition of it in my own mind and so does everyone. The question is why each of us regard our differences differently.  Yes, we hold elections like the one that just occurred in the U.S. as a way to pursue or maintain a common purpose. However, we know too well that deep within each of us, we view division among us as influenced by a lot of deep-seated beliefs, far beyond what elections bring about.  The divide today is  deeper and the chasm had become much too wide.

So I invite once again a guest contributor to this blog. Readers will remember Its  message in "Mirror, Mirror on the Wall" which It penned and submitted in June, 2018.  It garnered wide interest worldwide for quite a time there and is still being read today in places like the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Germany and Finland, each culturally and politically and socio-economically different from each other.

It, the guest writer, is an extraterrestrial and remains with an undefined gender to me so I refer to it as "It", although it found a way to call itself Seguey, which It explained in "Mirror, Mirror on the Wall".  It also wrote "The Rise and Fall of Empires" last July, 2018.  It has proven to be quite an independent observer of the human (earthling) experience. Here is Seguey once again.

Report, Seguey, Sector 3rd Planet from Medium Stellar Mass, Constellation Cassiopeia

(To the readers of my report take note that I am using earthling's nomenclature for their location and  language for my report)

I am writing about this phenomenon that earthlings seem to struggle with - division among themselves. This earthling condition may have been going on for eons of time, I surmise, and based on the mere five centuries of my own conscious existence, perhaps long before my own evolution from the simple organism that I co-evolved with when I first arrived on this planet.

Over the course of nearly five hundred years of dispatching my report back to you - my home planet of a two solar system - I do not expect any response any time soon nor do I even presume that any of my hundreds of reports have even arrived yet nor will there even be anyone there to receive them.  But I must continue with my mission just as many more like me that are tasked the same way are sending theirs from wherever they are in various parts of this galaxy. I estimate that even at light speed, my reports are not likely to arrive there in a thousand of earth years and another thousand, at least, for me to expect getting a response.

The question I am trying to answer with this report is: Why the most complex of all the organisms inhabiting this small rocky planet orbiting an almost insignificantly minor star in a swirling, endless sea of approximately two hundred billion other stars in an average size galaxy do not get along - one nation to the next, even when borders are shared - despite the condition of being confined in the only place they hope to ever occupy from birth to the end of their existence?

I am puzzled by this phenomenon. There are many reasons I can enumerate but not likely to offer one complete and definitive explanation. One earthling lifetime had over the last two centuries been increasing as to be exceedingly longer than, say, what they were in the 1500's to today's average. But the definition of a generation as identified by this century's historians is often confined to about every twenty five years.  Earthlings (they self identify as humans, or scientifically, homo sapiens) even have labels for their generations, such as, the baby boom generations, the X,Y and Z and millennial generations, each of approximately twenty five years apart or approximate duration.

In my last report on "The Rise and Fall of Empires" which I dispatched two years ago, I discussed several of these empires as having lasted for approximately  ten generations (250 years). Let me review them below:

Empires             Dates of rise and fall                   Duration in years

Assyria                  859-612 B.C.                                      247
Persia                    538-330 B.C.                                      208
(Cyrus and his descendants)
Greece                   331-100 B.C.                                     231
(Alexander and his successors)
Roman Republic    260-27 B.C.                                       233
Roman Empire       27 B.C.-A.D. 180                              207
Arab Empire          A.D. 634-880                                     246
Mameluke Empire 1250-1517                                         267
Ottoman Empire    1320-1570                                         250
Spain                      1500-1750                                        250
Romanov Russia    1682-1916                                        234
Britain                    1700-1950                                         250

It is almost as if once an empire begins, a clock starts the inevitable countdown to its demise.  One would think that later generations of empires would have learned by now from history but sadly by their own admission, someone said:

 ‘The only thing we learn from history,’ it has been said, ‘is that men never learn from history.’

It seems built in to their DNA - the blue print of all earthly organisms. Or, is it something else? I touched on it a little bit in "Mirror, Mirror on the Wall" but today I am inclined to further believe that without exception, empires decline from within, or to be brutally frank, they self destruct. Many schemes were tried to prolong the empire's existence by way of orderly successions as the Romans tried with Caesars or through birthrights as employed in western European royal kingdoms but with the same results. Some lasted only within one lifetime of leadership - the birth and death of a single leader.  One started and ended abruptly within a decade, as with the Third Reich, that was supposed to last a thousand years.

As I indicated in all my reports, I lived and settled in different areas of this planet to learn more closely, especially those where empires begun and to study their influences over the rest of earth's population.  I am currently residing in one that although they do not self-identify to be an empire, it is for all intents and purposes. This nation helped to decisively end two major conflicts in Europe and Asia, and it remains influential in spreading the western culture and leads in technology and economic development.  It is also the most successful in introducing and maintaining  the system of self governance through a democratic process that worked for the last two and a half centuries that several hundred years earlier were tried but never sustained during the Greco/Roman era, for example. The British Empire did adopt a Parliamentary system with royal titular heads but by then the sun was already setting across its vast empire.

The USA as an empire is in great turmoil, presently. It is as I write arguably approaching its prime, having witnessed its zenith, but it is one conclusion that will not find wanting of opposing opinions.  Be that as it may, it is never easy to hold on to that status  for so long because, as it had always been in all of earth's past histories, rivalry from emerging powers - both real and pretenders - is always a valid threat.  Today, an economic and military power is emerging from the east and it is not without a long lineage. It is after all a power that had a long history of dynasties  all of which attempted empire building but not much beyond regional reach (Qin and Ming dynasties to name two).  Nevertheless, it had left many indelible cultural and technological influences in the world.  Today, it is indeed in great position to grab empire status with a population of 1 / 7 of the entire earth population - a formidable work force and a military and a national will to forge toward world leadership.  Economically, it rivals the USA and clearly way past all of European economies combined.

I must, however, focus on where I am presently residing which is the country that just went through a hotly contested if not pivotal election as described by many political analysts. Pivotal or not, it is an exclamation point if one were to describe it as the apex of great division among its people. Or, perhaps it should be described as the abyss from which it will not be easy to come out of, if at all. (1776 to today approximates to 250 years)

Once there was one leader in Europe who was then an acknowledged brilliant military strategist whose empire building ambition seemed a forgone conclusion at one point.  But there was something he feared the most. He is well known to have said the phrase below but  he was not the original source of it:

"The pen is mightier than the sword."

The sentence was coined by English author Edward Bulwer-Lytton in 1839 for his play Richelieu; Or the Conspiracy.

True, This! —

Beneath the rule of men entirely great

The pen is mightier than the sword. Behold

The arch-enchanters wand! — itself is nothing! —

But taking sorcery from the master-hand

To paralyse the Cæsars, and to strike

The loud earth breathless! — Take away the sword —

States can be saved without it. 

Napoleon Bonaparte's biggest fear was the press, called as such for the printing process in making paper copies during that time. It was the press to begin with that built up his reputation and he knew too well that it had the power to destroy him.

Back to my report, although it was necessary to mention that footnote in history because as I mentioned earlier, humans do not seem to have the capacity to learn from it.

In its present form and in an environment different from Napoleon's time, the press is now known as the mass media.  But more than that but no different from the one that Napoleon was so afraid of, it is a king maker and a destroyer of kings when it wants to. I will explain.

I begin by asking why someone who attempted to become president three times in the past and failed, not even making it past the primary selection in his own party at the prime of his political skills and quick wit, is now the president-elect at age 78.  He begun the quest thirty two years ago in 1988 but never came close by yards where close meant to be measured in inches.  In all three attempts the press then gave him the once over and were unforgiving in uncovering many of his frailties.

What changed?  What happened? The new (mass) media of today is what happened. Today's media no longer serve as reporters of news but had evolved into makers of news.  And not only have they become king makers, they want an active role in the making of kingdoms.  They have become from passive observers to active servers of their own agenda.

I sent under separate cover and zip file many other accounts and analyses of today's media which I am at the present time less equipped to give it proper treatment. I will in later reports dwell on it a little more. There will be ample time for that and further observation on my part will be necessary to see how the new leader will be treated once in the seat of power and more importantly what state the nation shall be in about two years when another election happens for the legislature. Meanwhile, I attached as well with this report for your review the last two reports on "The Rise and Fall of Empires" and "Mirror, Mirror on the Wall" for back ground. It will be necessary before a definitive conclusion can be made as to whether this present empire I am residing in is indeed at the brink of its prime and whether the new emerging power from the east will succeed in its quest to rise as another is about to fall.  Until my next report, I bid farewell for now.

https://abreloth.blogspot.com/2018/06/mirror-mirror-on-wall.html

https://abreloth.blogspot.com/2018/07/the-rise-and-fall-of-empires.html

 

Discovered Joy

As opposed to anticipated joy, as I penned it in the previous blog, discovered joy is unknown until it manifests itself; where both are similar is that they ought to be simple to be truly joyous.

Readers who know how to play chess are familiar with the term, "discovered check" and know exactly what good fortune it brings to the player responsible for making the move against the opponent's King.  For those not familiar, let me explain.  A discovered check happens when one player moves a piece or pawn away from a square to open up a lane along which another piece ( a Bishop, Rook, or Queen) has a direct line of sight towards the opponent's King in a threat that could end the game. If the King can move it may,  but at the expense of losing a piece or a pawn as a result.  Discovered checks in chess are rare and even more so among ranked players but they do occur from time to time.  Usually though, it is a game changer and often decisive in favor of the player who brandished it, more so in ranked tournaments.  But discovered checks are not truly "discovered" because they require a lot of planning, often done way too many moves before hand before it can be executed successfully.  Discovered checks, though joyous, are not simple joys to be had.

I was at Home Depot the other day looking for a caulking gun.  It has only one function.  That is because if one were to apply caulking or glue contained in a tube through a nozzle, there is no other device to do it properly and efficiently than a caulking gun.  Alas, there was not just one caulking gun to pick because there were so many choices despite the fact that there really is just one design. There is no other way, at least not as quick and as efficiently as the universally available contraption that is out there. However, the prices ranged from $3.99 to $17.99. 

One critique of the free market system is the availability of way too many choices. I looked around almost instinctively looking for help.  It so happened that there was one employee just two arms length away.  But she was busy with a cartful of sundry merchandise, that appeared to be items customers either abandoned or were too lazy to put them back where they took them in the first place, that now she had the unpleasantly menial task of returning to their proper places.  Needless to say I felt bad to ask her for something as simple as making the choice of a caulking gun. I came up with the pretext to ask if the $17.99 price was actually correct for that one item. 

"That doesn't seem right, does it"  as she un-holstered her in-store pricing gun and scanned the item.  Well, the price was correct and like me she was actually surprised.  Then she scanned the other five different ones that ranged from the $3.99 to the $6.99 ones. I told her I was taking too much of her time, almost dismissively, now that I had the answer.  But no! She wanted to see how the ratings were for each of them.  Her pricing gun can read the star ratings and comments by customers off the internet. It's a great app she said. She showed me that the $3.99 and the $17.99 both had the same 4-star ratings from various consumers who also posted their comments, some of which she read aloud for my benefit.  She turned to me and said, "You look like a do-it-yourself guy and you'll likely use this once, right?" I said, "Exactly!". She then said, "There you go.  If it were me I'd buy the $3.99".

That piece of wisdom coming from that young lady, and from someone who took the time to help me was one discovered joy.  Like most consumers, I did not expect much help from the staff of these big chain stores.  Typically, if I wanted serious help I would go to the neighborhood hardware store.  These small stores have in their employ retired plumbers and electricians and craftsmen who really know their stuff.  I've never been disappointed with them. The downside is that their prices are always on the high side, limited work hours and they are usually close on Sundays.  That young lady took the time to dispense little but real discovered joy on my part perhaps because I expected little.

"The key to happiness is low expectation".                ------ Barry Schwartz

One great example of low expectation is when the bride, instead of the conventional  traditional response, says, "You'll do".

Seriously - and I must disclose that my wife and I had been married now for 49 years and yes the wedding went as planned, despite the early morning ceremony.  Life, if we examine it closely, is full of simple anticipated and, from time to time,  little discovered joys. And most of these truly joyous ones are often free or of little cost. Somehow, there is truth to, "The best things in life are free", because life is simply made up of packets of little events, strung together to make a day, 365 days to make a year, and many years to make one lifetime.

We still need to believe in aiming high because even if we fall short we could still be farther along than had we trained our efforts low from the start. But that is not to say that there is little delight in little things.  We may aim for that one huge promotion or that much coveted dream home but keep in mind that it is the little things along the way that will lead you there. 

The optimist is someone who finds joy in little nuggets which include even tiny morsels of discovered joys.  The pessimist is someone who expects to be disappointed about something and when it doesn't come, he or she still manages to be disappointed because it didn't happen.  The optimist who trained to appreciate little joys is well equipped to deal with the big ones.  The pessimist will somehow find the little speck of discolor and misses the beauty of the whole painting.

We need to pay attention to everyday discovered joys.  The pessimist would rather  be constantly looking for the big one but when it comes he or she may still fail to appreciate it for lack of practice.

By the way, the $3.99 caulking gun did function exceptionally well and true that it will be for awhile before I ever use it again.

Anticipated Joy

I thought this is an apt follow up to "Happiness Is" (Part 2), musing written just before this, which I wrote last week.  Anyway, I did promise to write about anticipated joy - the greatest joy.  I'm sure I merely recollected that phrase from somewhere. Aside from being self explanatory, the two-word phrase will clearly have different meanings for everyone.  At one time or another each of us without exception had experienced anticipated joy in the past in varying degrees.  Although one's greatest joy could be ho-hum to another and vice versa.  Think back for just a minute.  What had been your most memorable anticipated joy.  Was it during childhood? Was it about your first crush about to notice that you exist?  Was it about your first memory of the eve of Christmas?  

Don't forget that for some children somewhere in other parts of the world their most anticipated joy was their first pair of shoes.  It didn't matter if it was leather or canvass. 

If you had thought about yours or still thinking about it, let me share mine with you.

It was 1957 or 1958.  Electricity reached our part of the barrio.  At last a couple of parallel black wires first touched the corner of our house, then a few more feet of it came snaking in until it reached the living room area plus extra wires to the wall for a light switch. The "living room" area was really where the dining table was. Food was prepared on that table over which we had our breakfast, lunch and dinner, afterwards. At night it became the study desk to do our homework after dinner.  The first and only electrical fixture was naturally going to be over that table below the center of the ceiling.

Let me back up a little bit. I was born in a different house, delivered by the local midwife.  Generally speaking, surviving childbirth was, like everywhere else at that time, plagued with so much peril that mortality was quite high for the child and sometimes even for the mother.  But all I remember was this house and I was now into my pre-teen years to this point of the narrative.  Up until then, we managed without electricity in the house.  No indoor plumbing either. You need not ask where the toilet was.  I will tell you anyway. Three steps down a wooden stair in the back and a few more steps just before the property line was a lone structure, roofed with tin and walled in by wood and a simple door.

Petromax was the brand name of a pumped up kerosene lamp that was hanging by the center of the living room.  It was a rather high tech gadget of a lamp actually.  For its time, anyway. The base of the lamp was the reservoir for kerosene.  A small hand-operated piston pump was located to one side of the reservoir at an angle, through a threaded hole.  Kerosene is refilled through one hole but only partially to allow for air space in the reservoir/tank. The pump will pressurize the air and kerosene by pumping more air into the reservoir. Air and kerosene will exit through the top cowl but downwards through a soft fire resistant pouch where combustion occurred to produce the light. See a similar lamp in the photo below.  Light will go out by cutting off the fuel with a simple control wheel, or when fuel runs out or when there is no more pressure in the reservoir to push the mixture out.

Imagine what anticipated joy it was for me and for everyone when at the flick of the switch several homes will have their living rooms bathed in white light from a 48 inch long tube attached to the ceiling.  Up to that point in time I did my homework, reading under that Petromax and the constant swooshing of the air/kerosene mixture combusting up above.

I can still remember as if it was yesterday when  everyone in that part of our barrio was in  a congregated crowd around a single black post - all filled with anticipated joy. At last the utility man clambered up that post to push up the one huge toggle switch. That vertical bridge opened up the lane for high voltage electricity from the main line to be divvied up into tiny tributaries that were single dwellings with 220 volt electrical power for the first time.  There was applause followed by everyone rushing back to their homes to see if  their fluorescent lamps did indeed light up.

Anticipated joy has to be simple.  If it were to be one great joy.  

We want it simple, not complicated. A wedding is anticipated but complex joy, for example, particularly for the bride and the bride's mother, if she were like most future mothers-in-law. A job promotion, something to be anticipated with joy, can be life-changing joy.  But it's not simple when one is waiting for the final word that he or she did indeed beat the "competition". That anticipation until it is announced is not a simple anticipated joy.  In fact, new responsibilities, even a location change, working for another boss are all complex issues to make this a simple anticipated joy.

Still thinking about your last anticipated joy?  I did not get my first library card to the city library until I was old enough to walk from home to the city center where the library was next to City Hall and the health department.  We did not have any books at home, except for the text books my sisters and I had plus some magazines and day old newspaper. And there was a big, thick Holy Bible (Old and New testaments in one, King James version).  I had a pocket one which I used at every Sunday school Bible drill - a competition for  who can get to a specific verse called out by the teacher. We had to flip to it and read it first to win a point. First, we had to know each book's location and its relative order with the others.  For example, one needed to know where the Epistles written by Matthew, Mark, Luke and John and their relative locations to Paul's letters to the Romans, Galatians, etc., to be good at it.  That's where my love for reading first begun.

The library card opened up a new window to the world.  There was no Google or Wikipedia or Facebook.  It was such anticipated joy to apply for a card and to be approved right there and then. It was an adventure to look for references via rows and rows of small wooden boxes, each one thick with index cards.  That's how we searched.  

Fast forward to today amidst the Covid pandemic.  I search everything online for any book at the local library website.  I request for the book.  I am notified by email when the book is available.  I call the library with my car parked at curbside and describe the color and make of my vehicle.  I am instructed to either open the passenger side window  or trunk.  In a few moments out comes through the sliding door a library staffer carrying the books I borrowed and off I go. I did not have to park, walk and enter to get a book.  It is amazing how all of these are bookends (pardon the pun) in a single lifetime - from my first library card in that one island city in the Pacific to a suburb just outside a metropolis like Houston, Texas.  But the anticipated joy of my first library card is still fresh in my memory.

I went from the joy of our first fluorescent light fixture to where I am today - unlimited ways to reconfigure the lights at home.  I installed indirect lighting where appropriate, created my own LED task lights, even a few grow light fixtures for the indoor plants, spot lights and bright fixtures for the woodworking shop. It is remarkable that in one lifetime, one can go light years (permission to use another pun) across a gaping divide between the first electrical fixture and countless gizmos to choose from.  But you know what?

That  joy of anticipating our first  fluorescent light was simple but much too memorable to forget. One simple light from that Pacific Island home to half way across the world where my family and I reside today, with light galore to one's desire - all within one lifetime.  That is simple joy to behold.

Let's keep our anticipated joys simple.  In the midst of the pandemic we can still anticipate more joys than ever before.  We can still anticipate to have joy next week, to the day.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!!!

Happiness Is (Part 2)

In Part 1, which I wrote in June 1, 2015, I ended "Happiness Is" with the last paragraph below:

This much we know.  In any culture, from any region on earth, from the poorest to the wealthiest, from the most powerful to the ones barely able to defend their borders, the happiest from every population are the children.  Yoda had it right when he said, albeit in Yoda speak, “Truly wonderful the mind of a child is.” You see if laughter is the side effect of happiness, children seem to have an unlimited amount of it.  Not only that, children have the sincerest, most genuine form of laughter. I used to not pay attention until our grandchildren came to brighten our lives.  Reader’s Digest was right all along with their monthly, “Laughter is the best Medicine”.  If so, then children are the best portable carriers of it and they must be allowed to infect us all.

How different was five years ago? Anyone's perspective, attitude and insights will obviously have changed over time as can be expected.  Situations change, personal predicaments altered and we find ourselves re-thinking. But do prerequisites for happiness change? Should our capacity to be happy be different from years ago? Should our aspirations for happiness change, even diminished as we get older? 

Lets get this one out of the way first. In the U.S. today about half and half are happy and sad over the results of the last presidential election. Those from one side are ecstatic. Some from the other are outright furious and the country seems to be even more divided and the fissure appears to widen instead of closing. 

Surfing through YouTube channels yesterday to stay away from cable news and editorial broadcasts I chanced upon what people will label a nerdy presentation.  Julius Sumner Miller fits that nutty professor look of gray almost curly hair in desperate need of a good combing where dabs of brilliantine can be easily justified, if not required. He talks funny in a way but if you listen carefully his sense of humor is evident in the midst of making a scientific fact or nugget of information expressed a little differently, actually a little easily for any lay person.  Mind you, he had been asked to lecture several times at the U.S. Air Force Academy.  The one I watched was a video done seven years ago, titled "The Pendulum and Other Oscillating Things".  I heard for the first time too that there is such a word as pendula.

Aside from the familiar stuff on pendulum from physics in high school and engineering class, he demonstrated literally with props, devices, bench top contraptions  by presenting to the audience what he always fondly calls enchanting examples of the wonders of physics.  

However, I saw something else.  The pendulum is a great metaphor for defining a perspective in how we should all look at life and the world. We need to do it with more frequency as a mental and emotional balm because when all is said and done the pendulum swings one way and it will swing the other, as assuredly as the sun will rise tomorrow and for countless tomorrows to come.  Whichever side you were last November 3, count this as one infallible phenomenon - the pendulum will swing the other way in not so distant future. That is the way perspectives work.  Look at anything this way but as inevitable as the next sunrise, it will look another way in no time. 

Goodness, we got that out of the way. Whew!

The prerequisites to happiness do not, should not change for any of us under many circumstances, the last election included.  Granted, anyone of us will at one time or another encounter unexpected circumstances, sometimes far beyond what is humanly possible to cope with. But not always  necessarily true because only in death is the possible ever completely out of reach; except for those whose faith extends beyond mortality. But we will not go there. You will not be thinking about the end of possibilities since you are obviously much alive; you are reading this, after all. 

We should be like children again - unencumbered by a lot of adult prejudices, pre-conceived notions and compulsion to worry.  In worst cases the proclivity to worry becomes incessantly obsessive and emotionally incapacitating.  This reminds me of  Frenchy  the driver who drove our tour bus  for near ten days at and around Yellowstone National Park. Frenchy  immigrated from France and he wanted us to call him that. Frenchy printed on an 8-1/2 by 11 poster to the driver's side window to his left that read (per my recollection):

"Half of what we worry about does not come true; the other half we have no control over, so why worry then?"

Worrying too is like running in place. You don't go anywhere but you waste a lot of time and energy.

This goes to show that if we eliminate half of the things we worry about  we will be left with those we can't control. Of course, this is easier said than done.  But is it really?  Well, let's get to it. 

In Paul's letter to the people of Corinth, he said in First Corinthians 13:11,

"When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child..."

I am obviously taking Paul's message slightly out of context here but I hope you agree with the point I will be making.

Every mother knew, even from the days of our cave-dwelling ancestors, that her baby's only prerequisite to happiness was to be warm and dry and well fed. Hundreds of thousands of years later through today, discounting the fact that every baby does not really know to have any prerequisite at all, we know too well that our happiest moments in life were those when we were young children.  Those were the days when our needs were the least, we knew little about what to want, and so there was less to worry about, if at all.  That was the key to how easily we met happiness - the freedom from worry.

Many of the happiest people in the world, according to researches in anthropology and statistics, do not live in the richest, most advanced, most sophisticated countries. Granted that the state of happiness is all relative, there is one piece of data that you might find interesting: the global distribution of the rates of suicide by country.  I know this is quite a leap, even morbid, but psychologists tell us that suicides are extreme responses to pressure, desperation, frustration and the ultimate resignation or escape from life.  Let's look at the data.

In 2016, the World Health Organization (WHO) compiled the data this way. The global rate of suicide was 10.2 per 100,000 population. Europe registered at 15. 4; Southeast Asia at 13.2 while the lowest was at the Eastern Mediterranean at 3.4, with Africa at  7.4. You can see that the lowest rate was not from the wealthiest region.  In fact, both Africa and Eastern Med are farthest from the top of the economic scale of wealth and power.

Even more interesting is when we go by individual country from all 183 registered nations. Russia at No.3, and like the top two above it (Guyana and Lesotho) they tripled the global rate of suicides per 100,000. By the way, Russia - a super military power - also has the highest rate in alcoholism, which is often associated with escapism. 

Interestingly, the U.S.A., holder of the top economic power (arguably with China) was at No.34, 13.4 per 100 K way above the global average; The Philippines, one among the poorest regions was at No. 159 with only 3.7 per 100 K.  

Get this. The lowest by individual nations are from "neighboring" five countries of tiny islands  stretching from Jamaica in the Caribbean to Barbados. All at 2.0 and under.  Barbados had the lowest rate at 0.4 per 100 K, not even half a person as statistics go. It is followed in ascending order by Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Grenada and Jamaica. These are tiny places who  see wealth paraded in front of their faces everyday of the tourist season, from the richest to upper middle class from everywhere else - all temporary resident/vacationers.  Aptly, the still popular musical icon, "Don't Worry, Be Happy", sung by American singer Bobby McFerrin was widely recognized as having that Caribbean beat, particularly when people mistook the song as having been sung by Bob Marley - whose genre was reggae music. Bob Marley never ever had a version of  "Don't Worry, Be Happy". And the original phrase was from the Indian mystic, Meher Baba, whose influence extended to the Beatles. But I digressed.

I have a personal anecdote.  At one time while in oil trading, I was sent to Barbados to cover for a month a vacationing regional trader based there. Coming from a sprawling metropolis of Houston, Texas, Barbados was a postage stamp in the middle of a deep blue sea, easternmost isle of the Lesser Antilles. Go any more easterly and you will reach the west coast of Western Africa, without encountering any land mass or island in between. 

My wife had a chance to join me for a week of that temporary assignment.  We were not tourists technically but we did enjoy the amenities of the tourist experience.  It was an eye opener in more ways than one.  Like all the islands in that region, tourism was invariably the major, if not the only, industry. Almost everything had to be brought in - from construction material to tomatoes, orange juice and milk to toilet paper, etc. But the island's airport could handle big jets, including the then once much vaunted supersonic Concorde.  Barbados was once a British colony so there was a tourist pipeline of direct non-stop flights from the UK.

Amazingly, then as today, as currency exchanges go, one U.S. dollar will only get you two "Badian" dollars. A very strong BBD vs. USD exchange rate for a country that does not have anything to export, but imports practically everything. It was explained to me then and I'm sure it is still true today.  Their government does not and will not spend money they do not already have for any project. No matter how enticing an infrastructure or social project, they will not borrow money to fund it. If I remember correctly, it was in their constitution. I am not sure but what a concept!

On my last day I had a conversation with the driver who took me to the airport. He told me that in all of 47 years since his birth he had never left the island, not even once.  I asked if he had plans to one day do it or was he even curious to find out or see what it was like even in just the other parts of  their hemisphere.  His reply surprised me. In Badian fashion he said, "No, none at all".  TV told him as much. He had no desire to adjust what he needed nor increase his desire to want anything more than what he already had.  He did not care to let what some people want become his needs. He had what he needed and that was good enough, he said conclusively.  As simple as his message was, it actually said a lot.

“Wealth consists of not having great possessions, but in having few wants”.

-------Epictetus

Aspirations from any of us fall into just two main categories - the column on the left is where we list what we need and the one on the right is where we enumerate the stuff we want. The problem arises the moment we blur the line that separates the two. When the list in the want column starts migrating to the need column we upset the balance almost immediately. It seems then that each of us has a more-than-fair amount of control over our personal happiness by merely keeping the balance between "needs and wants" at the level we are comfortable with. And it would be different for every individual. 

That is why children in general and people from the poorest regions of the world have something in common. They have fewer needs and they know little about what so much more to want.  

"Eat with the rich, but go to the play with the poor, who are capable of joy".

----- Logan Pearsall Smith

And I must say that, " The state of Happiness is at its greatest maximum when worry is kept to a minimum".

Let's end with this:

Anticipated Joy is the greatest of all joys.  Children and the poor have copious amounts of them while those with everything, such as the rich, have the least.

That will be a good topic to muse on my next blog.  What is anticipated joy? 

2020 Questions

The title is a double allusion.  It is alluding to the last election and a referral to the popular optical phrase, "Hindsight is always 2020".  Regardless of what the final outcome is vis-a-vis the results as seen today and what, if any, will come out of the protests and lawsuits by one party, the possible resolution is a scenario out of view for the moment and probably dire.  

Regardless, we have some questions  into what could have been, why, and what could have been done differently by the administration to remain in power. Let's take a look back, shall we? 

There are a few "why" questions that needed to be asked.

1. Why did a once popular media star and host of one of the most successful reality TV shows went into deep and profound disfavor in the eyes of the entertainment industry that he was part of immediately after winning the presidency in 2016?  For one thing he defeated another media favorite, darling of Hollywood, married to another media icon who happened to serve two presidential terms whose charisma was unscratched despite a sex scandal while in office that captivated the nation. The 2016 victor dashed to smithereens a much awaited made-for-Hollywood fairy tail - the election of the first woman president in the USA. The entertainment media's disdain for the "impostor" was immediate and unforgiving and their resolve was unified by one theme -  they will not, they cannot allow his re-election.  The president-elect at that time could easily have opted to charm his way back to the entertainment elite.  But he did not. And to add salt to the gaping wounded pride of Hollywood and its satellite moons on TV, talk shows and producers, he turned to his newly discovered supporters - the middle and lower class, the blue collar workers and those who reside along the Midwest and central corridors of the country and pretty much abandoned both East and West Coast. Perhaps he was forced to because even his manner of speaking and "locker room" talk did not match the polish and politically correct elocutions of those in the airy upper crust.  Furthermore, he literally and figuratively found religion by embracing the equally responsive Evangelical group. He opted to step on the political land mines of abortion, immigration, fervent nationalism over globalism and vocal abhorrence toward extreme liberal social agenda.

2. Why did the mainstream news media decide to overwhelmingly and unabashedly tip the balance scale of fair and neutral coverage of the news to just one side? The once unelected keeper of democracy's greatest asset - free and transparent press - became a solidified platform from which to launch a barrage of daily negative press against the administration. A generally viewed 92% negative coverage has never happened before towards any administration. What happened? Hardly unnoticed was a degenerative symbiosis between news and entertainment. That critical line that used to be a clear demarcation between them was blurred in some instances or simply erased. A news anchor is almost indistinguishable from an editorial commentator; a journalist, even a field reporter, engaged in political punditry or irreverent display of argumentative or combative questioning in every administration press briefing. Negative news about one side was either covered lightly or completely ignored while amplified or overemphasized for the other.  Even today, it was the news media that rapidly declared the winner of a close election despite the lack of a yet to be announced official results.  Why the rush?

3. Why did the high tech industry - born out of the bowels of modern capitalism - turned on a president who is an unapologetic promoter of the free market system? One would think that the landscape on which the industry is deeply rooted in is the same as that which a capitalist administration was cultivating would be a common ground. So, why the animosity? 

The area of business for high technology products had become the battlefield for nationalism versus globalization.  The demand for smart phones, laptops, hand held platforms and all related accessories had not only become global but so is the need for them to be manufactured as cheaply as possible.  The one crucial phenomenon that cannot be ignored is that the high demand for it is  at places where cheap labor also resides.  In other words, almost two and a half billion people in China and India are consumers of these devices because they are affordable and manufactured predominantly in one of the two.  The birthplace of the high tech industry that is concentrated in the Silicon Valley of the U.S. depends on that cheap labor for its business because to insist on manufacturing them in the U.S. will make those products cost at least three times what it is today.  Apple, Motorola and other U.S. brands must make their products as cheaply where Samsung, Huawei, LG, etc. are made. 

So, what is wrong with that?  Labor is as much subjected to supply and demand as consumer goods. As soon as the new administration started to rail loudly against China's trade and monetary policies, the friction begun.  The new administration and the President personally deemed that China's monetary and trade practices, exploitation of cheap labor, technology piracy, are not fair, thus violating the western definition of the free market.  The administration insisted that while the U.S. must comply with strict labor laws, stringent manufacturing rules and regulations, such encumbrances do not affect foreign manufacturers, especially China. There lies the conflict between U.S. nationalism and globalism. 

The high tech industry did not much like that the administration was bashing the very source of cheap labor and one major market sector.  The industry that created the social media that seemed attuned to political correctness as a means to elevate the human experience  also seemed to close its eyes to the lack of human rights in what is still a communist regime in ruling its people but adheres to capitalism in conducting its worldly business. That is what the current administration insists as unfair and detrimental to the human experience.

4. Why did the sports industry also turned its ire against the president who was one of its preeminent patrons? Why did some star athletes suddenly become advocates for human rights?  Why and since when did sports franchise owners become sensitive to human rights abuses.  It is once again about the business of market expansion.  There is enough talent among U.S. players but take a look at this phenomenon.  Yao Ming was a 7-footer from China and national sports hero there.  His skills were all right but still not at par with similarly built human cranes among U.S. players in terms of basketball prowess.  When the Houston Rockets hired him, viewership in China shot up to the upper atmosphere.  It helped all the sports-related manufacturing industry as well.  99% of athletic shoes and apparel are made in - you guessed it.  Sale of basketball shoes went up in a place formerly known only for making them. 

Major league baseball teams had known this phenomenon for decades.  Players from South America and Japan were a source for talent.  But can you tell how many of them really performed to Hall of Fame levels or even had the longevity of U.S. players.  Fernando Valenzuela did extremely well but only for a short number of years.  However, these imports help tremendously in promoting the game and increased international viewership.  The NBA and the Hockey league knew too well that by bringing in import players increased the TV market in places never once imagined.  Basketball, like baseball, was largely an American sports but look at how basketball is now a European staple when hockey or winter sports are not in season.  The NFL a few years ago started playing a handful of games in London and Tokyo.  Someday, watch when one NFL team hires talented, fast and agile Sumo wrestlers as line backers.  The Japanese viewership of American football will promote one trans-Pacific surge of a game even hardly understood in Asia for the moment.

Nothing wrong with any of the above, really.  Where it is wrong is when sports athletes in the U.S. focus on police conduct here in numerous but not major routine incidents but turn a blind eye on harsh labor conditions where Nike shoes are made or where human rights abuses are systemic, ignored and hidden from world scrutiny. It is significantly glaring when used to criticize the administration because of its international policy for fair play.

As the saying goes, "Go and check where the money is".

These are all 2020 hindsight.  These are the things to watch.  Notice how protests and city riots stopped and disappeared like a wisp of smoke?  Statues of dead people are safe once again. Kneeling during the National Anthem will stop and basketball courtside BLM slogans will disappear.  Twitter and Facebook censorship will cease and once again the mainstream media elites will do frequent sleepovers at the Lincoln bedroom in the White House.

Such was a short career for a non-politician's foray into the political forest and swampy Washington D.C. We can keep our hopes up but we will not hold our breath for a different result after all the lawsuits and plea for recounts in some of the places lose momentum and time. All we can say is, "Good Luck America".

America Voted!

Setting aside all the controversies, doubts, even a diminished integrity - real or perceived - of the process itself, American democracy will prevail. 

The electorate - though split almost down the middle - had made its bed.  Now, it must sleep on it for the next two and four years and at similar intervals for years to come. Each morning a reminder of the choices it made but it must live with it until such time to make another one. The Framers of the Constitution knew a thing or two about choices so they made sure that every two years the people get to tweak both houses of Congress.  They get to keep it for all the pleasant dreams and guaranteed a chance to change it for all the nightmares that come - from sleeping on the same bed every night. That is the American version of democracy.  Two years to tweak it each time and four years to either continue or change course.  It had worked for over two centuries even after going through one devastating Civil War, two world wars, an economic depression, three presidential assassinations. There is no reason to doubt that it will survive.  The fact that the country is able to go on and remained intact for so long is testament to the effectiveness of the model it picked in 1776.

Election promises people have come to live with, even if they were pies in the sky, because making pledges to the people by those who aspire to lead is fundamental to framing the candidate's platform from which to launch an agenda for governance and a checklist from which performance can be reviewed for the next election. That, however, is the center of democracy's major weakness. In fact, there are over two hundred years of history when pies in the sky were always half-expected for the most part to never  hit the ground.  They're there to whet the appetite to make the voters feel good about the promise that someday they will get to taste it.  Of course, they know too well that there are not enough days and years in their individual lifetimes to wait for it.  Otherwise, to paraphrase one political quote, if all the promises made by politicians were to come to fruition, wishing for heaven will no longer be necessary nor remain an imagination.  We should all be living in it now. The fact that we are not is one incontrovertible proof that we are not dead. At least, not yet.  Of course, no one from the afterlife has come back to tell us  about whether political promises were made real there either.  Let us not forget politicians are people too and their fate is the same as those who elected them. So, it is safe to assume not to let it get past them to not mess things up there as well.  Just teasing.

Such is the consequence of a democratic process.  It is the best we have.  It does not mean, however, that it is the best there is.  This takes us back to political promises again.  They are the best there is to hope for and keep our dreams alive.  To say that political promises are for the most part hollow echoes is to also say that huge caverns produce the loudest reverberations.  Career politicians get to practice the longest at producing echoes while non-politicians have a high expectation to overcome and a status quo that is almost immoveable.  A non-politician has one shot allowed and no less than a bull's eye is expected. And there lies the problem.  A less than perfect performance is easily exploited by those with more than enough in their quiver to blunt a continuation by its  administration. It all comes with the territory.

Over the course of its long history and Constitutional amendments aside, the present governing format seems to be effective overall, so there is no reason to start re-imagining (this word again from the previous blog). Re-imagining the Supreme Court, for example, or composition of the Houses of Congress, if the electorate so decides on a new bed design, so be it. For as long as the electorate accepts to lay on it then democracy had served its purpose. Elections, like all choices in life always have consequences.  There had been many instances of pivotal decisions by the people in the course of this country's history and it somehow managed to not only survive but it had flourished.

There will be much reckoning, second guessing, complex analysis, even profound regrets, and there will be enough blame to spread across, but the sky has not fallen and the country will survive.  For that, both halves of the electorate should be grateful for and remain hopeful that democracy remains a viable process. Alternatives that other parts of the world, past and present, dabbled in and experimented on serve clear reference points for all to see that what America had and will continue to have is about as best as is humanely possible. The 2020 results are more cautionary than celebratory. At best, the electorate will be at a much heightened level of vigilance; at worse, it is a reminder, once more, that democracy is indeed a fragile piece of national treasure that is not easy to hold onto or keep for the future generations to come.

America had made its bed for at least the next two years at the very least or for the entire four years until the next general election.  Sweet dreams or nightmares are consequences that it must face each morning. America will either come out strong and comfortable or restless and weakened.  It made its bed and only time will tell if it was such a good idea.