State of the World September 2021

 

State of the World 2021

Time and the world keeping twirling about, the heavens continue to circle around our purviews from our respective perspectives from here on the global sphere, some of us in hotter or cooler places and spaces, some of us producing or consuming more or less towards the local and global economies, some of us generally oblivious while others acutely aware of the plight and the trajectories of our individual and collective fates, the combined effects of years and lifetimes previous to our own. History has lead us here.

Kizza, kizza, the Egyptians might say. Thus it is, or c’est la vie, c’est la guerre. Some say modernly: it is what it is.

We all try to think on and off our feet, some of us are better at this than others, some of us have gifted talents and/or strong genetic or financial inheritances, thus allowing us to enjoy, more thoroughly or robustly, the material and other social benefits that exist on our big blue and green planet, with a lot of white and brown inter-mixed.

Geo-politics is what leads me to wonder where we are at, this far into the 21st year of this millennia. Along with the power and the trends are always the money and the economics. The Economist (the British-based magazine that is one of the best at documenting things); happy to see a few copies in the library, yesterday. (22 Sept. 2021, first day of fall, spring for southern Hemishere.) How and where and why are we as we are at this juncture in time?

This last week (September 17 – 23, 2021) a Chinese company went in arrears or into financial default in China, maybe to the tune of 300 billion dollars. This news event caused the stock markets of the United States to tumble a bit, approximately 900 points on the Dow Jones over the course of two work days, which has been historically high anyway, for some years now; I am not sure how much may have dropped on the NASDAQ exchange, which is more technology driven. The shares of my wife and children are TQQQ, a mutual fund based on the world’s biggest tech companies, like Apple or Microsoft. The share values dropped from $ 150.00 to $ 128.00, of which my wife bought a few upon my request. As of today/yesterday the TQQQ share have returned to the higher 130s per share; we stand to profit 8 to 10 dollars per share if we choose to sell. If they go into the 140s again we will profit double that amount, which is not bad. We are not investing the same types of larger quantities like my 84 year-old father in Indiana, or my wife’s little brother (age 44?) in Utah, or our brother-in-law (age 42?) in Texas. They are making thousands of dollars in their sells, or simply accruing more wealth and share value by watching the shares rise over time. The 40 year-olds are actively making their own principle incomes apart from their side investments, while my dad, the octogenarian, is comfortably retired.

Elsewhere in our country and throughout the world, there are many less fortunate populations and situations, many who struggle for health, safety, shelter, and security. This is due to a lot of reasons. This past month witnessed a momentous time in the removal of U.S. personnel in one famous corner of the planet, Afghanistan, where the former repressive regime called the Taliban has regained control of the central government, after our presence ended after twenty years, to the vexing chagrin of most of the modern, secular world. China, again, is a major player in all things international, and looks to assert its influence here in this middle ground like everywhere else. The Chinese maintain their own form of repressive or draconian restrictive government, and espouse their long term strategies which are imposed upon their own population, while their policies and sometimes open threats have their impacts and reverberations on the rest of us.

Discussing India a bit with a buddy the other day, he mentioned the Prime Minister or President  Modi; I rejoined that I thought he was a part of a Hindu nationalist party, I cannot remember the name of it, but perhaps that type of organization might be in favor of the caste system, as opposed to the modernist notions of egalité, fraternité, liberté. Not necessarily in that order. Modern virtues and principles that we as the West and the advanced humanistic and secular and many times religious communities advocate and promote, through multiple hard and soft policies, such as media, money, and influence. The military and political policies only go so far. We— I am a part of the aforementioned organizations and would-be philanthropists, or those humanitarian minded or idealistic people that want a world without want, without hate, envy, and violence, without unneeded diseases and social ills, or economic or political programs that wind up harming and killing the masses in droves. In the millions upon millions, failed policies and wrong persons in power do so much bad. Sinnead O’Connor once famously cried out on live television to “”fight the real enemy”. She was right in her statement, probably misguided in her target. (The Pope in Rome.)

Poorly planned, ideated, developed, implemented, and obliged policies and undertakings do end up hurting many otherwise unsuspecting victims, in this case all of us. When one nation falls under destitution, anarchy, tyranny, malfeasance, we all suffer, we are all to blame, yet we shift those blames around. “It did not happen in my country, it did not happen to my people, it did not happen to my type of people, it did not happen on my side of town, it did not happen in my neighborhood, it did not happen in my backyard, or, it did not happen in my driveway or living room.” To surmise: “It is not my problem, I cannot take accountability for it.” Also, in the United States for sure, “We are not the world police!” and “Bring the troops back home!”

Meanwhile the last few days we have Border Patrolmen on horseback laboring diligently to push back thousands of illegal Haitian immigrants on horseback at the Rio Grande of Del Rio and Ciudad Acuña, many of whom were squatting or surviving in different manners in Chile, South America, a country many thousands of miles to the south, of both the Caribbean poor island and the United States and its infamous southern border.

Problems in Africa, Bangladesh (all of South Asia, plus further to the east), Central Asia, Latin America, the Philippines, the Caribbean, over-run Europe, affect all of us. Forced laborers (slaves) of North Korea and the prisoners of re-education and concentration camps of China are us, too. The bullied Ukrainians and helpless disenfranchised Russians or Armenians in Azerbaijan or any number of other nations show us that we have more than the wage issues and political divides in the Fifty Nifty and its territories, or the heavy handedness of the police upon the local populace of American citizens who have issues with complying with the law, a la George Floyd and countless others. Including the policeman Derek Chauvin, who thoughtlessly killed him, the modern day martyr of abusive law enforcement.

After all this, the United States is still a beacon to the world community, in strength and moral underpinnings. Sure, we compete with avarice for money and resources, for services rendered and relationships with foreign partners (see France fuming for the new submarine deal between Australia and the Brits and us), but the United States and its projected law and order are basic tenets that the world holds on to as true; millions of U.S. peoples are dedicated to these principles and platforms. Naval ships, air bases and their outreach, the law enforcement and intelligence communities, the space and mapping experts and programs, transportation and commerce and energy, nuclear, chemical, and biological plus the ever growing cyber worlds of interplay and interaction. Let us not forget green technologies, or even the amorphous artificial intelligence realm. The United States and its allies are on the forefront of these domains, based on our insatiable corporations and business models, the constant striving for profits, production, and Fordian efficiencies, cars and trucks and other vehicles ever progressing and evolving and delivering us its passengers to our many points of desire on and off the globe. We now have Space tourists. Hello 2021! And reciprocally we have a Space Force. Outer space is closer than ever. But does that conclude in benefits for human kind?

Climate issues aside, the world progresses in many ways of human rights and comforts like never before, but there exist many formidable challenges to assuage, confront, and conquer. Hunger and disease, government oppression and militant ideologies still abound in too many capitals and regions of our continents. We the United States had to check ourselves this past January 6 in the not as peaceful transition of executive powers as hoped. The year prior we dealt with sit-ins, street protests, parades, violent riots, and destructive pillaging and lootings of many communities due to the perceived threats to our local populations, particularly against people of color. In quarantine and pandemic stressful months nation faced some real hurdles and challenges. I think that we have made our way past many of them. But not all. Always more to do.

In sum, the world is in an ever burgeoning and teeming place, full of opportunities, problems, wealth, disparity of wealth, climate issues and pollution, social and moral issues that have evolved and in some cases digressed. There are natural catastrophes that harm and endanger us, there are diseases and chemicals that ever vex us. Human history is replete with these phenomena. There are military and security threats that are constant and continual, there are U.S. domestic and international challenges and disturbances that we confront, as a national, as a confederate member among other like-minded individuals and groups and communities, like NATO, like the EU, like the IMF and WTO.

The world is an interesting place which can be cruel and unfair. We are lucky to be around for these things, to witness the good, the bad, and the ugly. And the beautiful. Enjoy the ride and stay low if bullets come flying.