ADDING ONE'S TWO CENTS

I was on my way to spend a penny

When I was offered a penny for my thoughts

So I’ll put in my two cents worth,

In for a penny, in for a pound.

 

The current planetary winds have exposed a multiplicity of viruses. Although the affliction of Covid 19 may have brought the scientific community into a degree of co-operation (given that multiple groups set about mixing up a vaccine in record time} the political community has yet to form any degree of co-operation or global plan for distributing the vaccine to the entire planet. It is a global problem and should be dealt with accordingly.

 

The leadership that should have been in place is nowhere to be found. What we have is a rise in national self-interest. The scourge of Donald Trump’s America First campaign has spread through country after country, with baffling support for demagoguory of the most invidious kind. The racism exhibited by so called law enforcement personnel is an almost daily occurrence, prompting demonstrations throughout the world, that black lives matter. Indeed they do, but I was under the impression that all lives matter. Why, after the civil rights movements of 70 years ago in Mississippi and Alabama, the Watts riots in Los Angeles, the end of apartheid in Africa, Buddhist monks setting themselves alight and numerous other past and current examples, are we still having this discussion?

 

The American elections, so far as the Senate is concerned, is still to be completed in Georgia.  The state of Georgia has already elected various Representatives. They do not seem to have progressed beyond preachers of discord. In 1949, Rodgers and Hammerstein wrote the musical South Pacific. It contained a song that caused controversy in America. There were a number of legislative challenges to its decency and supposed Communist agenda. Lawmakers in Georgia introduced a bill outlawing entertainment containing an underlying philosophy inspired by Moscow. One nameless legislator said “A song justifying interracial marriage was implicitly a threat to the American way of life”. Here is that song from an album entitled American Standard:

The desire for nations to come together was once an ideal, which, after two catastrophic world wars, brought about the creation of the United Nations and the European Union. The graves of those people whose lives were thrown away in pursuit of peace and freedom are strewn round the world. One wonders why they bothered. 

 

South Africa

Japan

Thailand

France

Under the slogan of taking back control, the separatists are on the march, only to be thrown completely out of control by Covid 19. As a result, the UK economy will suffer greatly, as will others. Still, they persist, just as a failed fantasist persists in avoiding reality. Mr. Trump's niece Mary, has written a book about the family. Her uncle Donald was 3 years old in 1949 at the time South Pacific was first performed. She describes him as someone who was carefully taught to be the energumen that he is.