Eldon-Online

No Escape - A World Transfixed

Okay, well maybe not the whole world but certainly around my world.

I have tried to keep off the topics of Brexit, Trump, Russia, China, Korea, alternative facts and downright lies because there is so much out there already I thought I should stick to the mundane issues of everyday life that affect us daily. But it's not possible. Every conference, meeting, breakfast lunch and dinner and everything else in between is consumed with discussion about these topics. "Oh yes, what was that conference about - malnutrition in Africa?" We spoke about everything but. "We were going to talk about schools, and taxes and rugby ..." - but we got side-tracked into a review of the world as we saw it, right now!

At this point one has to reach for the Emoji page and go 😱. (Mvnch's "The Scream" was just too large!). 

People say over dinner, aren't you interested about what is going on in the world? Sure I am, but will be better placed once I can make some logical sense out of it all. On the basis that it helps sometimes to see the issues more clearly, I thought I would jot down some of mine. From what I understand:

The Brexit referendum was a huge misjudgement in the first place and should never have happened, although once decided upon should have been conditional upon receiving a significant majority in favour of leaving, not the squeaking past the post outcome. I also think that if the television stations had their wits about them they should have played the "Yes, Minister" clip about why Britain should stay in the European Union. That, together with Boris Johnson arguing on the side of the "Remainers" would have created a different result. The fall-out is now going to plague debate in the UK for the next two years - at least.

Mr. Trump, surprisingly to many outside, finds himself President of the United States. That event alone and its aftermath has created enough ammunition to ensure that meetings between any two people in the street last considerably longer than usual and interminable debate at the dinner table. He has insulted the judiciary, he seems to insist on staying in business, he bans the media who are less favourable to him, he is getting US companies - at no small cost eventually to the consumer - to stay in the US so that they can build factories that will actually be operated by robots and not create jobs for the "man in the street" who voted him in ... and so it goes on.The pre-election rhetoric against countries and some leaders from outside the United States softens once he meets them, indicating to those who live in the real world that the USA does not have much of a foreign policy. And by the time people finish talking about President Trump it's almost cheese or dessert time.

And then there's Asia. Lest we forget, Mr. Kim, Chairman of the Workers Party of Korea is only 33. He has an interesting style for a leader, despatching formerly trusted relatives or lieutenants by using a well aimed missile or feeding them to the dogs, for such heinous crimes as falling asleep in a meeting. And not forgetting the removal of his half-brother with impunity. And he has something nuclear. It's true. Remember the last time a leader was suspected of having something nuclear - Saddam Hussein - coalition forces went into his country and got rid of him. It was perhaps unfortunate they found out later he didn't actually have anything, but he was a nasty individual anyway. Good enough! But Mr. Kim does have something - something that may be capable of reaching West Coast USA and certainly Japan. I find that troubling, I must say, but then how much can he leverage that position to his advantage, or is he truly just a loose cannon? No wonder Japan is keen to boost its defences - but wait a minute, the last time they built up their defences they went to war, and before that they invaded Korea. Ah, so neither North nor South Korea are particularly fond of Japan, possibly the one thing the two Koreas have in common, although South Korea is possibly less fond of China than Japan today - but let's see whether the noises coming from the current (interim) South Korean President Hwang Kyo-ahn can improve that situation.

Meanwhile China moves forward, slowly, but nevertheless forward. It is expanding into the world in general. President Xi's speech to the World Economic Forum in Davos this year promoted global free trade. A surprise to many that China thought this way, but China does want and in fact probably needs to trade with the world. Perhaps the words attributed to Napoleon about "the dragon waking" will become a reality.

Having got through that lot, and with coffee or tea on us, we just have time to round off the meal with a few sundry views on President Duterte in the Philippines, President Erdogan in Turkey, the Middle East in general, the perceived coming collapse of the European Union in general - and we still haven't reached Russia.

Seriously, it is confusing - at all levels. One has enough to worry about daily with things like creating sufficient jobs, the too many injustices and divides that remain throughout our modern world, the too little talked about coming shortage of water, and hey, people still want to live for ever! We are consumed by "news" - or at least the news we are fed by both the discerning and the indiscriminate media - from which you have to try and sort out fact from fiction. We need less reliance on rumour or half-truths, and more personal rational judgements, followed by actions.

Technology is, in very many ways a blessing, but when business and political leaders resort to off the cuff tweets without necessarily thinking through the broader ramifications of what they have just written, they create and then build on fragility in people's minds.

There is no escape from it all, no sanity it seems - and now that I've finished the coffee I probably can't sleep either!

Living ... The Luxury of Choice.

I started this blog a week ago, when it was initially to be about the fact that there are some people lucky enough in this world to choose where they live. It was prompted by an increasing groundswell of unease about the direction in which this world travelling. In the views of many - rich and poor - the current direction is not favourable and now folk, at least those with the wherewithal, seem very interested in looking at what might be described as "safe havens". But then I got sidetracked with other things

On Friday night I went to a charity event, an annual one that has had my attention for many years now - in fact since its early days - and I left as I usually do, humbled by the generosity of people in Hong Kong but as importantly by two other factors.

One, the drive of the founder of the charity John Wood, passionate beyond belief, and inspiring in his team of volunteers and those people who do get paid for full time work the same sense of "let's get this done". A spirit I might add that used to envelop Hong Kong business, but which in my view is now much less evident.

Two, the successes enjoyed by the charity as evidenced by a young Sri Lankan girl, Thirumagal Kuvendran who, a beneficiary of Room to Read's work, came to speak at the event. And no, cynical though I am - she was not a single one-off shining star selected to dazzle the audience and persuade them to part with their money, but representative of so many young people that have benefited from the charity. We have had the privilege in the past to visit their work in the field, and have realised that there is an unsatisfied thirst for learning. There are many more just like Thirumugal who would not, because they were perhaps born in the wrong place, at the wrong time, into the wrong society, or just because they happened to be female, have the opportunity that opens up them today.

Those of us born into a different society have been luckier than we might imagine, or recognise. We have had the luxury of choice. Thus the Blog got diverted from thinking about the people who are seeking safety for their futures and who can afford to do so, to the broader issue of actually having the luxury of choice just, even, to live.

In the context of living, the issues facing those wealthy people who think they will move to another country that seems safer and kinder is actually little different from the millions of disadvantaged, impoverished families living in war torn, famine-ridden areas where their leaders have little regard for life and health as long as they themselves are all right. Hence the dilemma of richer nations, and the people in them who by and large have sympathy and respect for human life, but do not see that pumping millions of whatever currency into those countries serves any purpose other than enriching despotic rulers.

So it is, and perhaps just the smallest of starts, that charities like Room to Read can help in bringing education to millions of children. Those same human beings that will inherit what is left of our world after we have comprehensively destroyed it, and reverse the trends that are becoming all too apparent.

I have lived through one of the longest periods of peace in modern history, but the rise of populism, nationalism, intolerance and hatred is causing me and others to look around nervously. Not that it matters to me - I, like others of my age have a limited life span but for the sake of our children and those to follow we need to think very hard about the road down which we are travelling. Two World Wars in the last century were created out of a rise in popularism, and the first one was probably started by the assassination of Franz Ferdinand - now look at the assassination of Kim Jong-nam. I hope there are no parallels.