V-Day

So here's a fact for a change: in the UK, representatives of her majesty's national healthcare system injected a vaccine in a person from the general public for the first time.  From here on, we pretty much go back to the subjective speculation and interpretation our sensitive individual belief systems allow us to.  

Should we have seen similar images broadcasted from China or Russia, mostly all of the western world would seriously eyebrow and instantly question their truthfulness.  

The press has been told the 90 year old woman, born and raised in Northern Ireland was chosen at random.  It is more likely, HM SNS was instructed from the highest level to conduct a surgical analysis of plausible candidates that would fit well into the public eye and thus inject a boost of confidence of what will go into history.  

My bet is that as soon as scientists declare conformity with the absence of side effects, before Boxing's Day, another nice old lady in her 90's will be vaccinated for all the world to see so that the Common Wealth, the USA and also the EU can open their borders to acquire the UK produce.

I would also guess that Boris Johnson takes at least two sets of vaccine when he goes to meet (face to face we need to add in 2020) Ursula von der Leyen in a final action to conclude a EU-UK trade deal.  One as a genuine offer to another kind of head of state, the other as a symbol of sarcasm for a 70 year old French Politician who has been heading up the EU Brexit team and happened to be in self-isolation when the the Brexit negations appear to operate smoothly.

There is no question of the relevance of tying a nation to the research, development and actual roll out of a virus in the midst of a pandemic and if there are various countries, a competitive race evolves wherein only one victor can be flagged.   Especially with this virus, it is not about public health but about putting social and economic behaviour back on track and thus here too, leverage is available for those who will enter an up cycle ahead of others.

2020 will linger on in history for a long time, eventually as a mere pop up disclaimer in all the world's statistics safeguarding future comparisons with what was an extra-ordinary year.  We will spend a significant part of 2021 debating on what went wrong, how we allowed this to happen and whether we went about this in the best way and here too, any society which can archive its review of events in order to look ahead will be at a clear advantage.

It's the way it has always been.  We call it a level playing field.

Buying and selling beliefs

Today is the day on which Donald Trump will conclude the deal of the century, prepared by his son-in-law and this time this will certainly get him the nobel peace prize and a Trump tower build by Palestinians.

The announcement will be made alongside two of Israel's political leaders which are in competing parties but not certainly not opposing each other's beliefs, hinting that the plan is much larger than the individuals who engined it.

There is no other country in the world which manages to align the colours of its nation with its beliefs and religion into its worldwide diplomacy as Israel does.  What makes any nation strong and keeps it alive is its ability to collect and hold hard records of its people throughout history.

Israel is not a country which can claim any particular reknown achievements in science, arts or sports, neither is it high positioned in world economics or trade.   Yet, we all know quite a bit about this relative small country even if we do not all recognise its borders in the same manner.  When we think of Israel, inevitably we are swiftly confronted with religious and territorial conflicts which tend t to overrule everything else.

Throughout history borders have been under dispute and countries have come and gone while names attributed to territories and populations remain or are reinvented.   The world has seen exodus and genocides for as long as populations sought settlement and the human need to overpower others.  But it is only since the 20th century and towards the end of WWII that humanity came to work on the notion of the massive killings of tribes and races.

We look at genocides in absolute numbers and not relative to world populations.   Numbers, so great they almost become scaringly surreal, driven by even scarier distorted politicians.

In the 21st century there is certainly purpose to apply the mans we have and teach or remind the world of historical suffrage in the worst form possible.

Israel chose to commemorate the 75 years passed since then soviet soldiers reached the concentration camp on the outskirts of Brezinka in Poland and the world discovered what Nazi Germany had been undertaking alongside its military territorial warfare.

I once visited what is left of the concentration camps of Auschwitz and Birkenau and it is a must see location in order to get away with that surreal feeling generated by history lessons.

Time appears an inevitable factor for us insignificant humans and whereas the circumstances wherein colonisation and slavery as we have equally learned in history books have longe gone and ancient empires and civilisations tend to be romanticised, the horror of the Holocaust is the indescribable underlying modern and pragmatic extermination which made it happen.

I salute any individual, any organization, local, national and international that seeks to impose upon those living to commemorate those that died and suffered.  I am impressed with the fact that Israel managed to roll out its biggest diplomatic event ever on this occasion.

One would hope however that with nearly 50 heads of state together in the same room, someone would rise to the occasion in search of some hopeful promise to wipe any risk of any one population seeking to empower another by any means from the face of the earth.

But ...... instead the event addresses anti-semitism and with the exception of some fitting words from whom represents Germany today, high profile speechers take the opportunity to point to present day Iran, feeding into some notion as if Iran 's sole purpose o existence is no other than to continue killing jews.

Sorry guys, but no one can buy or sell their way into any place of worship.  It's not going to be great  unless you truly employ your indeed fantastic historic and contemporary intelligence and start to look at the world as a whole.