Is their light at the end of the tunnel?
We are living in turbulent times - I cannot recall more turmoil in our world during my lifetime.
We have the continued protests against China still unfolding in Hong Kong and being supported around the world, and notably in the American Football arena. China is an aggressive power - it is trying to colonise Africa - and stealing the Spratley Islands - and we just stand and watch.
We have Venezuela teetering on the edge of collapse entirely because of President Maduro following a hollow ideology. We have riots in Chili, fuelled by a metro price rise increase? Zimbabwe - under Mnangagwa, a new version of Mugabe, so no change there. Just the continuation of a Failing African Nation.
We still have the leader of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Crown Prince Mohammid bin Salmon, accused of orchestrating the pre-meditated and cold-blooded murder of a Washington Post columnist, Jamal Khashoggi. Still in power, still unbowed, still unaccountable and still haled on the world stage.
The Iranian regime is still wreaking havoc in the middle east and on its own people - and trying its hardest to become a nuclear power.
And then we have the "Trump Factor".
Who would ever have thought that the United States of America would go all wobbly on keeping peace and stability in our world?
I am sorry - but with great power goes great responsibility.
Not something that Trump would understand.
We now have the crazy situation where President Erdogan, the warmonger of Turkey, using explosive language - like "we will crush the heads of the Kurds."
We have the European Allied troops, mostly Special Forces, being put in an impossible position in northern Syria because of America's sudden withdrawal. Consequentially, we are faced with the likely resurgence of Isis. To his great surprise, President Assad is expected to become omnipotent in Syria once again, and President Putin is chuckling his head off and rubbing his hands with glee.
For what it is worth, undoubtedly, in my mind, Putin must have influenced Trumps decision to pull American troops out of Syria? Putin has something on Trump, and he is playing his hand and pulling Trump's strings. We can all now see the results of this, and I suspect there is more to come. I cannot think of any other reason why an American President would have made such a crass decision.
The conclusion is our world is fragile — both politically and environmentally. We elect or have foisted on us, leaders who pull levers and push buttons, too often without much thought, and the results can be catastrophic for millions of people.
And we have not even mentioned Mr Johnson and our other shower of British political leaders and Brexit.
But it is now, more than ever, evident that too many of our world leaders are letting us down. Nationalism and screwy ideologies should be confined to the past, and a new thinking generation, with a new vitality and urgency, is required. We need leadership for the good of all, not just individuals. We need to work and plan in harmony.
We should also have a better way of holding our leaders to account. But it is difficult to see how, particularly when we look at North America and the UK, two of the bastions of Democracy - and we think - How? How did we get Trump and Johnson and possibly Corbyn? Out of all the people in these two countries - surely we can do better than this?
Plainly we can do much better when picking leaders. So perhaps Democracy is failing - maybe we are, as the citizens who vote. Perhaps we need a new way of selecting our leaders? It is difficult to imagine we could do much worse than we have. But that sounds like tempting fate.
Rick - Suffolk - UK - 20th October 2019
rick@notesfromengland
Comments