SOME CLOUDS DISPERSE

 

Well, “Sleepy” Joe Biden won, the unenergetic, slothful, but experienced machine-politician of no great distinction, overcame the hyperactive narcissist and screwball maverick Donald Trump who, true to form, is skulking in his tent crying “Foul!”. Biden’s victory was narrow in the key battleground States and Trump harvested about 71m American votes, so he represents a large constituency of citizens to some degree disaffected by Establishment policies and attitudes. His short Presidency has delivered a nasty shock to global assumptions about America and shown that some of her values to be, at best, skin-deep. Biden’s hopes of rebuilding and reconciling his nation will be a Herculean labour. 

                                                                        A Happy Biden

Trump at bay

As many others say, the US has not rejected Trump’s policies, it has rejected Trump the man. His boorishness, his inarticulate ramblings, his insults to friend and enemy, his monstrous ego, his contempt for the truth, have combined to embarrass the American electorate beyond toleration. He is quite simply unable to represent his country to others in an up-beat and civilised fashion. He will probably remain a force in US politics for some time but I cannot believe he will successfully run again for the Presidency. In short, Trump is permanently leaving the international stage. Hurrah!

There was more good news. The US pharma giant Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech have announced preliminary results of their new vaccine to combat Covid-19 and it seems to be 90% effective. Much needs to be done before the vaccine is available to the public, but for the first time, there seems to be real hope that Covid can be suppressed, to global applause. The nightmare that 2020 has been, may evolve into the rare aberration we pray it to be. It seems that the technique Pfizer uses to zap the Covid bug is very similar to that being researched by AstraZeneca and Oxford University among others, so other effective vaccines may well emerge soon. What a relief all that will be!

                                                

Nasty Covid-19 viruses

Good news in the UK is harder to find. Our feeble government has been bounced into a second drastic lock-down by scientific advisers relying on dodgy data and tendentious mathematical projections. Maybe there is no better way but serious debate on the supporting evidence has not happened; I feel sorry for Boris as he read Classics at Balliol College, Oxford and can easily be bamboozled by epidemiologists – he would be much happier with Euripedes, as would we all! The lockdown in England is very damaging economically and seriously undermines public morale. A return to “normality” is devoutly to be wished.

We hope against hope that a trade agreement with the EU can be reached for the mutual benefit of both parties. But both the UK and EU are playing hard-ball and concessions by both sides are required, of which there is little sign. A hard Brexit looks much more likely. Common sense is notably absent, but we await some kind of breakthrough.

 Frost and Barnier still apart

Although the world is grasping at some rays of light, the gods can still be unpredictable. My lovely wife and I have spent most summers for the last 20 years in our house in bustling Karlovasi on the  Aegean island paradise of Samos. On 30 October, out of the blue, an earthquake struck, damaging many houses, including the large 19^th century Cathedral, maybe 100 yards from our front door. Our properties were unscathed but many were not so lucky and some 90 died in nearby Izmir in Turkey. We live in dangerous times.

The collapsed side and roof of the Cathedral at Samos

SMD     

10.11.20               

Text copyright © S M Donald 2020