Poem about Countries in 2023

    India will have more souls this year than China

    by all estimates

    Especially considering the Chinese not counting all their dead from the Hubei-based

    Corona virus - ravaging many since 2019.

    Now almost four years ago.

    

    Millions apparently suffer from symptoms of the long COVID

    We have many reports in the U.S. and England, anyway

    Indonesia has some 277 million people

    Many, many, catching up with the American nation

    Pakistan has passed up Brazil as number five

    Muslims abound in nations mentioned, plus Bangladesh

    And Nigeria

    Problems in Palestine and Israel

    Killings in synagogues and West Bank towns like Jenin

    Religious and political animosities abound;

    I wanted to be a diplomat of peace as I took the national foreign service exam

    Just saying. I tried, maybe not hard enough.

    I have taken Arabic over the years, too.

    Just saying.

    I enjoyed my share of Shabbos services and Friday prayers while in the Arab Middle East, too

    I am Christian, but I admit as any sane person that we should all get along.

    Millions of refugees from Syria have found their sports in neighboring lands, like 

    Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey

    Iraq has its problems, including Iran

    We hear very little from Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, the other central Asian republics

    Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan

    We learn of the sadnesses of Afghanistan (tristezas exist in Spanish, I think, as a plural)

   

    Sri Lanka has not been in the news much lately, which is good, I think

    What of South America? Central America? The Caribbean?

    I hear about some Canadian things on the radio.

    I learn about Mexico through work.

    Europe, we are observing the winter of the discontent and violence of Ukraine,

    Much of the western nations going without Russian fuel

    Could Greece be okay? After all the years of corruption, scandal, and bankruptcy? Hopefully 

    Less dependency on energy costs than the frozen parts of the mountainous and northerly climes

    Africa: 55 nations to count. 

    Even more ethnic groups from within.

    I suppose Libya is better than normal... Or what we saw it go through... 

    Tunisia, too

    We can be racist, ethno-centric, or at minimum cavalier about these places

    "Stay crazy, Libya!" (a government analyst regarding the Area of Operations that she covered as a paid professional, when leaving that post with a post-script)

    Yes. We can be morally dubious ourselves, when viewing and analyzing these far off, far flung

    Almost forgotten. But no, we have people making their livings off of such places.

    I have.

    

    Many more places to go: Myanmar, where Orwell shot an elephant when it was Burma

    Cambodia, of which I wear a ring from my mother (Chere res plau trau, "take the right road", in Khmer, pronounced CA-MAI)

    Vietnam, still pumping out the coffee and making money, now that they have overcome the bloody Commies that we fought and spat over for more than a decade of Western and U.S. turmoil

    Still licking our wounds

    But now we have new enemies and battlegrounds anew, because of Al-Qaeda and other would-be world destroyers and despots, generations of our troops returned

    Russia and Ukraine? 

    The fighting continues throughout this winter

    2023 sees the conflict continue

    Countries disapprove, disenvest

    Some tacitly approve

    Buying up the fuels and commodities

    What of Chile? Forest fires

    Peru? Rampant protests

    Guatemala? Haven't heard much

    Cuba, D.R., the smaller islands

    St. Kitts? I heard a report...

    Trinidad and Tobago online for better relations, I saw something about it

    I like to read the Economist, and my Church magazine, the Liahona now,

        and other journalism

        and books

    All things related to all of them

    We will learn more going forward.

    

    And wax poetic too.

    South Africa and Mozambique and Seychelles and Mauritania-- I mean Mauritius, (not Maldives my friend from work)

    And anon