Ah, look at the events in our world this week! We lurch into a new month that will propel us into summer! The warmth is palpable, but still tinged with a breath of chill in the morning and persistent gray skies. Our President was out in Tulsa yesterday to highlight the century-old racial tragedy that occurred there. He seemed pretty worked up about it, and rightly so. It was an appalling act of violence. Still, considering he has been in the government for more than 50 years, you would think the matter might have come up before this week. Oh well, I guess things “evolve.”
Out in the wide world there are some interesting events that suggest other old things have become new and are still in progress. Reports this morning are that Iran lost one of its largest naval vessels in the Gulf of Oman, one of the places my seagoing pals know well. There was apparently a fire in a critical system that spread uncontrollably. Thankfully, all 400 members of the crew got off safely before the ship went down after a twenty hour blaze.
I have no specific information to support a suspicion I have held for a while. It started with the revelations about the Stuxnet cyber attack on Iranian infrastructure a couple years ago. It grew with the recent penetration and destruction of the Natanz uranium centrifuge plant. Both attacks were attributed to Israel (possibly assisted by the U.S. in the first) and may have been part of an ongoing shadow conflict that includes the provision of thousands of rockets to Iran’s Hamas proxy group in Gaza to strike the Israeli homeland.
All interesting stuff, and it is playing out in front of some other fundamental issues that span the globe. One of them deals with demographic change in the world. Japan, as you have heard, is an aging nation challenged by maintaining the old with fewer youthful workers. China followed a harsh “one child” policy to deal with an exploding population. Last week they announced “three kids OK!” The imbalance in their society is marching forward, and the ready cadre of young men to fight wars is diminished.
(The Socotra House Editorial Board blanched in unison at the failure to mention young women with bayonets, so their concern is noted).
Europe is shriveling as birth rates decline, one sort of people being replaced by another. The U. S. is holding fairly steady, but below replacement rate and the domestic decline is covered by an open border. All these things are having consequences. You can see some of them in the slide above. Criminal activity is skyrocketing in cities across the land. What is more troubling is that we are going to feel them.
Copyright 2021 Vic Socotra
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