a never ending list
one problem at a time
Five months ago today the horrific Hamas attacks devastated Israel’s self-confidence regarding security. The retaliation against the terrorists—and attendant Palestinian civilian suffering—has escalated estimated death counts of this particular round of savagery to more than 30,000 with little indication the violence will end, soon or later. This is a deep-seated hatred made only more bitter by the day.
The Ukraine conflict still roils central Europe 106 weeks after Russia’s decrepit Army launched its ground invasion. Tales of valor by Kyiv’s decidedly underdog forces compete with increasing questions in this young democracy still desperate for massive assistance. The United States Congress appears unable to pass legislation to provide assistance to Kyiv or other friends because of political gamesmanship. Moscow’s autocratic ruler appears no closer to adjusting his aspirations to return Ukraine to provincial status within the Russian Federation even as he depletes the current generation of young men thrown into a creaky war machine based on mass rather than tactics or strategy.
The CCP held their annual spring confab, among other things vowing to achieve annual economic growth of a more earthly five percent rather than the celestial levels of more than ten percent for most of the past twenty-five years. Yet we are likely only guessing about any and all growth since Xi Jinping’s relentless efforts to close off information from anyone falling outside a genuinely minute ‘need to know’ category within the Communist Party have made it perilous to trust economic or much other data from the PRC. U.S. foci remain on deterring anticipated, if not actual, PLA aggression, particularly with regard to the peculiar status of Taiwan while the military on the island still does little serious to prepare for what they admit is an existential threat.
The Islamic Republic continues dress and behaviour policies for women from the Dark Ages while combating a growing subtext of social pushback as the Revolution which enabled the regime passed its forty-fifth anniversary in January. Still a theocracy engendering much distrust among its neighbours, the mullahs use regional subnational proxies to incite instability as the world still worries Teheran itself will acquire nuclear weapons.
Myanmar’s military regime increasingly faces deep anger within the multi-ethnic country yet the generals feel no compunction to alter course. Violence is their governing method to intimidate the 55 million citizens.
Violence similarly stalks citizens in the Republic of South Africa, thirty years after the African National Congress ousted the Apartheid regime. Corruption runs endemic while succession challenges within the ruling party preclude any national focus on the violence or the corruption. Perhaps the greatest accessible concentration of mineral wealth in the world exists under a troubled society gradually sinking rather than thriving.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ever more strident Hindu nationalism gradually erodes the sense of national identify at the heart of India’s seventy-five year democratic success. Nationalist slogans do not substitute for education, economic improvement or upward mobility in a society now overwhelmingly the largest population in the world but one with a growing potential for a return to sectarian violence.
Haiti, a forlorn long ago French colony, remains the most pitiful society in the western hemisphere with gangs inciting violence in Port-au-Prince for the umpteenth time. Countless interventions over the centuries made little difference but the hopelessness pervades a society prone to boat people departing in search of something somehow better. Why wouldn’t they look northwest at some point even if we assuredly do not welcome them as illegal immigrants?
These conflicts occur as a result of indigenous causes yet Americans so often believe they are ours potentially to solve. The truth is we had little part in their creation and we are only a small voice, if anything, in their solutions yet we focus on fixing so many of them without recalling their roots or their consequences. NATO may be stronger now that Sweden is officially a member but that only increases the probability for internal tensions as yet another partner has its own agenda, priorities, and disabilities.
Like too many foreign problems we assume we can ‘fix’, we are similarly incapable of addressing our own domestic challenges. Water shortages during marked warmer temperatures, political wrangling over a sustainable budget for the nation’s current operations (much less future), concerns about the economy or taxation or the federal debt, access to health care for women, quality of education in schools, and a list longer than any reader has patience for me to enumerate befuddle us. I have long assumed we seek to fix the world because we simply don’t want to address our own challenges for some of the reasons I have already addressed at length this week: distrust, animus, and misinformation.
Thomas Hobbes believed the fundamental nature of man was a dark vision. He would seem correct yet we see individual acts of incredible hope, compassion, and love. We see them every single day when we open our eyes to them.
Actions do indeed have consequences. None of the issues we face are easy or we would have repaired them so we could move on to something else. As we begin hearing the campaigns at all electoral levels over the next months, listen carefully to the instruments we hear any and all candidates say they will use. Ask yourself whether they meet the sniff test? Why would a law fix a particular problem? If you were affected by that law, ask yourself what steps you might take to circumvent it if you desired? If you like a solution, ask yourself if you’re willing to absorb the trade offs it will require to enact for society. Sounds easy but these are pretty enormous tasks.
Doing so, however, will make any of us a far more educated citizen which is a bloody good thing. It probably will make you more informed about many follow on completely different items as well which is also a terrific benefit. Actions (and learning) create consequences (and knowledge). As the old Sims clothing store advert used to have Marci Sims say, ‘An educated consumer is our best customer’. Well, an educated voter is a more powerful citizen.
Do keep in mind a caution circulating on facebook today, however. David Bohm, a 20th century theoretical physicist, reminded us ‘A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices’. Be a thinker as that list of problems early in this post requires knowledge and thinking. I must remember this as much as anyone else should.
Today was spring in the Chesapeake region. After days of cold, the buds were out for the early season flowers so I hauled out the 56 macro lens in celebration. I hope you enjoy at least one of them as much as I did taking dozens of shots.
Tthere is nothing like the scent of hyacinth in spring.
Thank you for reading Actions Create Consequences today. I genuinely welcome your responses. I especially thank those who support me financially: my heroes and heroines.
Be well and do be safe. FIN