It's been a fun few weeks for global politics. Vučić in Serbia, Bolsonaro in Brasil, Netanyahu in Israel, and now Trump in the USA: right-wing strongmen have been rejected in several elections (I guess we can thank Orbán in Hungary for showing them the way in May). Of course, Netanyahu is not quite out of the picture yet, and could even manage to hang on to the premiership, while Trump himself isn't going anywhere (probably?) and has two lame-duck years left, during which there will no doubt be many tantrums and vetoes. Still, the people have spoken, and though they're probably not asking for the ideological opposites of the men and parties they repudiated, clearly they/we want change.
And change they/we had better get. Fuel prices, healthcare prices, grocery prices, RAM prices, Nobel peace prices; the pugnacious hyperbole, mongering fear and hatred and political violence, excessive immigration enforcement by masked thugs resulting in serious injuries and deaths, weaponizing government agencies and resources against real or perceived foes, corruption, wars and invasions and occupations, and lies, lies, lies… it's all insane and out of control. Does anyone really want things to continue in this fashion, and for the shoe to be on the other wing when voters do what they do?
Of course, let it go long enough, and build up enough steam, and the people resort to other means. Today is the fifth of November, the date of the failed Gunpowder Plot which would have seen disgruntled Catholics blow up the English House of Lords as well as the Protestant King James. Not sure they would have been gruntled had they succeeded, but the fact remains that they felt their only recourse was violence. So, too, in the film "V for Vendetta," released 20 years ago. It's been re-released very briefly in theaters, and I'm going to watch it in one, fittingly, tonight. "The only verdict is vengeance; a vendetta, held as a votive, not in vain, for the value and veracity of such shall one day vindicate the vigilant and the virtuous." Stirring to read, and to watch on the big screen, but while the tree of liberty does seem to need refreshing with patriots' and tyrants' blood from time to time, that should never be the first (nor even the second) resort. Ballots can be frefreshing, too.
"Artists use lies to tell the truth, while politicians use them to cover the truth up."
I made it to Egypt this month. My employer, Microwize Technology, now has a team working in Cairo, and our CEO promised the rest of the management team and me late last year that if we hit a particular milestone in sales this year, he'd take us to Egypt (well, those of us who don't already live there). We did, and he did!
It was great to meet in person many of my Egyptian colleagues, and to check out the gorgeous office space we have in a modern area in Cairo. We got to see some incredible beaches, from El Alamein and Alexandria on the Mediterranean to Sharm El Sheikh on the Red Sea. We admired the exhibits and the mummies at the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization. We also cruised down the Nile River and visited several ancient temples and the Valley of the Kings along the way, with time for a hot air balloon ride in Luxor (what a view!) and a sailboat ride from Aswan to lunch at BenBen Hotel. And of course we went to the Giza pyramid complex, where I got to ride a camel.
I enjoyed all of it, the amazing views and the terrific food and the fantastic weather (16 sunny days with no rain? yes, please... and yes, I did return to the US with a tan), the camaraderie, the chance to run my fingers across hieroglyphs carved over 3,000 years ago and to dip those same fingers in the waters of the Nile. I've always been interested in ancient history, and to set foot in places that were so pivotal to Egyptian, Greek, and Roman history, to Amenhotep III and Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar, left me feeling awestruck.
Modern Egypt is quite the marvel itself. There is a lot of construction going on, with infrastructure and improved transit a goal of the government. (Traffic in Cairo and Alexandria is, it's, well...) The 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference, better known as COP27, is taking place in Sharm El Sheikh next month. Don't worry, guys, I turned off all the lights and water faucets before I left. Of course, none of this really masks the fact that the country's human rights record and freedom of expression leave a lot to be desired, or the fact that its president, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, is a retired military officer autocrat intolerant of dissent.
Speaking of retired military officer autocrats intolerant of dissent, Brazil's version, Jair Bolsonaro, will hopefully have his grip finally peeled away from the country's neck in tomorrow's election. His mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic, his disinterest in the Amazon rainforest and its indigenous population, and his ignorant yet inflammatory rhetoric have led him to be nicknamed the "Trump of the Tropics." I don't know that his opponent, Luiz Inácio "Lula" da Silva (no relation), can right the ship, but I have much more faith in him as a leader and as a human being. Yes, he was found guilty of corruption and money laundering, but the convictions were later annulled and the Supreme Court ruled that the judge who oversaw his corruption trial was biased. Even with that recent history, he's the preferable candidate to someone who admires Brazil's former military dictatorship. #ForaBolsonaro!
The reports of Twitter's becoming a free-for-all hellscape have been greatly exaggerated. I am wary, to be sure; Elon Musk is capricious and prickly. But all the pearl-clutching and running for the exits is just silly, and even if he did want to burn it to the ground, that doesn't mean that he'd be able to do so. I'm not deleting my account(s) anytime soon. Let's just wait it out and see what happens, shall we?
So bummed to hear about Jerry Lee Lewis' passing yesterday. We shared a birthdate, and I actually got to see him do a show at B.B. King Blues Club & Grill on our mutual birthday in 2017. The Killer was another prickly man, and hardly a hero, but few could rock a piano, or embody rock 'n roll, like Jerry Lee.
