Just When We Thought It Was All Don and Dusted.
( This article was written on 5th November 2020 but I am happy to report that it looks as though it the Don has been dusted )
It’s early morning in Indonesia. A shaft of brilliant sunlight spears through the foliage and spreads a halo of golden light across my newly created garden. A stooped woman of indeterminable age comes at this time each day to collect the Frangipani petals that have fallen from the trees overnight. Her stoic determination is always an inspiration to me as she diligently stuffs her oversized bag with the white and pink petals that will be dried and sold to the perfume manufacturers at a mere 70c a kilo.
I have sat up half the night watching the see-sawing results from an election taking place many, many thousands of miles away knowing that, whatever the outcome, the decisions made by the American voters will affect us here on this side of the planet. Although the ancient blossom collector will, in some way be unaffected by this closely fought race as I suspect she has no idea who Donald Trump is or indeed where America actually is.
This election, which has seen more people than ever before cast a ballot in a country hopelessly divided but clinging to the democratic principals on which America was founded. However, this fiasco has dragged on long enough, and perhaps a change of government in America will apply a soothing balm to vicious wounds inflicted by both sides over the last four years.
As the nation and the rest of the world holds its collective breath while counting continues others are in their counting houses tallying up the billions and billions of dollars spent by either side desperate to either attain or hold onto the reins of power. Bankers, media companies, tech giants, polling companies, advisors and lawyers are drowning in obscene amounts of cash.
And when it is all over and the Trump/Pence and Biden/Harris bunting, flags and yard signs lie trampled underfoot will it all have been worth it? Will, the incumbent or the challenger wish his opponent well and disappear over the horizon to live out his years in comfortable retirement and trust the winner will do the ‘right thing’ and lead the country back from the abyss?
America and the world have been in this situation before most notably in the drawn-out election of 2000 when, after three long, arduous weeks the Supreme Court decided that the ‘hanging chad’ on some of the voting machines in Florida was enough to declare George Bush the winner over a gracious Al Gore. One would have thought that with technology and the current checks and balances, that this scenario would never transpire again.
How wrong we can be !!
The thing about winning and losing is, as Rudyard Kipling one said, “is to treat those two imposters just the same.” Winners need to be gracious when triumph comes their way for gloating over a defeated rival is bad form. Losers too have to accept their defeat with grace and acknowledge that a better opponent defeated them.
For the last eighteen years, I have come to understand losing watching my beloved rugby team succumb to a better side, often in heartbreaking, last-minute scenarios. But, we always we tell ourselves, “there is always next year.”
Unfortunately, I fear the sitting president will not be so gracious in defeat as the one thing he fears above all else is losing. Already he and his sycophants are crying foul even though there are still swathes of ballots to be counted. A torrent of tweets, written in capital letters to his eighty- four million followers flow endlessly into the ether that the election is being ‘stolen’ when in fact every measure has been taken to ensure that this was a free and fair election.
I will be glad to see him and his rapacious family leave the White House for, all in all, it appears to have been a failed experiment. His Napoleonic, bombastic reign has caused much pain and suffering for the poor and disenfranchised while the rich cheered him on reveling in the massive gains on the stock market. However, there is only so much wool that can be pulled over the eyes of the electorate. The millions who voted for him in 2016 are finally seeing through the opaque smoke and mirrors that he so cleverly created during his term and taking a chance on electing the challenger.
In a few weeks perhaps I can awaken each morning without having to rush to my computer to see what mischief the Commander in Chief has performed while I was sleeping. Maybe the environment will be able to take a deep breath knowing that the next occupant of the Oval Office will try to protect rather than exploit pristine swathes of wilderness from those intent on extracting that which is buried beneath. Perhaps America will resort to peaceful dialogue with its allies and adversaries without treating those summits as a forum to extract a favourable ‘deal’ as if it were a dubious real estate transaction. Maybe the deep divisions within the American community will heal.
One can only hope.
Posts such as this one might be annoying to my many American readers as, who am I to criticize how America goes about their business and how dare I cast dispersions on their sitting president? I am not an American citizen, but just someone who has always looked west to that great country with its breathtaking beauty its innovative people and, even with all of its faults a bastion of democracy.
Bali November 5th 2020
Paul v Walters is the best selling author of several novels and anthologies of short stories. When he is not cocooned in sloth and procrastination in his house in Bali, he occasionally rises to scribble for several international travel and vox pop journals.
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Komentar
Fay Vietmeier
3 tahun yang lalu #35
Fay Vietmeier
3 tahun yang lalu #34
Joyce 🐝 Bowen Brand Ambassador @ beBee
3 tahun yang lalu #33
Paul Walters
3 tahun yang lalu #32
Ken Boddie Biden has a mountain to climb.All he needs are those two senate seats in Georgia and life could be a little easier.
Paul Walters
3 tahun yang lalu #31
Ken Boddie But the Mad King is still in his castle waking around muttering "I won "
Paul Walters
3 tahun yang lalu #30
Ian Weinberg Bravo....as always
Paul Walters
3 tahun yang lalu #29
Joyce \ud83d\udc1d Bowen Brand Ambassador @ beBee You vote for him Twice??? I take it that was Obama
Paul Walters
3 tahun yang lalu #28
Lyon Brave Just where is Guy Fawkes when we need him ??
Paul Walters
3 tahun yang lalu #27
Fay Vietmeier heres hoping he will be gone for good taking his awful family with him. Thanks for stopping by
Paul Walters
3 tahun yang lalu #26
Nick Mlatchkov Except the surf is much much better here and with beer at a dollar, a bottle exile will not be too bad rally
Fay Vietmeier
3 tahun yang lalu #25
Fay Vietmeier
3 tahun yang lalu #24
Lyon Brave
3 tahun yang lalu #23
Joyce 🐝 Bowen Brand Ambassador @ beBee
3 tahun yang lalu #22
He did a few things--he changed Dodd-Frank, our banking protections. Now when we deposit our money in a bank, that money becomes the property of that bank. We become unsecured creditors. If the bank chooses to declare problems big enough, it can institute a Bail-In--the confiscation of depositor funds to pay its own debts [no more bail-outs]. Even safety deposit boxes are not safe. They can crack those open and take the contents whenever they want. The depositor gets a scrap of paper showing they own shares in a failing bank--bye-bye FDIC. I voted for the guy twice. I had no idea he was such a charlatan Some of the things he did I don't even want to come close to believing. But I do--I have to...
Fay Vietmeier
3 tahun yang lalu #21
Fay Vietmeier
3 tahun yang lalu #20
Fay Vietmeier
3 tahun yang lalu #19
Fay Vietmeier
3 tahun yang lalu #18
Robert Cormack WII-FM ... the oldest radio station in the world "What's in it for me?" Sponsored by self-interest Just tell me what I want to hear. "Tell me lies Tell me sweet little lies Although I'm not making plans I hope that you won't understand Close your, close your, close your eyes"~ Fleetwood Mac There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what is not true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true." Soren Kierkegaard https://www.bebee.com/producer/@fay-vietmeier-pennsylvania/closed-eyes-hard-hearts 3) I always find it fascinating that no one seems to carry about national debt anymore. It used to be a topic of concern It is noteworthy that former President Obama almost DOUBLED our national debt ... I'm not an economist but that CONCERNS me https://www.thebalance.com/national-debt-under-obama-3306293
Joyce 🐝 Bowen Brand Ambassador @ beBee
3 tahun yang lalu #17
Don't worry... They got that covered... https://patents.google.com/patent/WO2020060606A1/en?oq=WO%2f2020%2f060606
Ian Weinberg
3 tahun yang lalu #16
Joyce 🐝 Bowen Brand Ambassador @ beBee
3 tahun yang lalu #15
Joyce 🐝 Bowen Brand Ambassador @ beBee
3 tahun yang lalu #14
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cz3VKZYe8Xw
Joyce 🐝 Bowen Brand Ambassador @ beBee
3 tahun yang lalu #13
Hell--those were they guys/gals I went to for help in April 2019. Was the other guy a better option? I don't know. But the people I went to let me know that my pharmaceutically-injured family does not matter--nor do the millions of others. We are just to do as we are told. And what we are being told to do will kill us. It's so easy to see people do not research. [Try actually looking at what bills are being passed or considered at Congress.gov. And try researching the impetus behind them...] What is happening in our capital is pure theatrics. The more research I do, the more terrified I become. Try it. It's much better than sitting down and watching a horror movie. Besides--you'd have to watch a DVD to avoid the propaganda that a guy I voted for twice legalized. So Harris is now president. Who knew? At least that's what her husband is saying in videos. [He said he's married to the next president of the USA.] https://www.bebee.com/producer/@joyce-bowen/hanging-off-the-vaccine-cliff
Joyce 🐝 Bowen Brand Ambassador @ beBee
3 tahun yang lalu #12
Hell--those were they guys/gals I went to for help in April 2019. Was the other guy a better option? I don't know. But the people I went to let me know that my pharmaceutically-injured family does not matter--nor do the millions of others. We are just to do as we are told. And what we are being told to do will kill us. It's so easy to see people do not research. [Try actually looking at what bills are being passed or considered at Congress.gov. And try researching the impetus behind them...] What is happening in our capital is pure theatrics. The more research I do, the more terrified I become. Try it. It's much better than sitting down and watching a horror movie. Besides--you'd have to watch a DVD to avoid the propaganda that a guy I voted for twice legalized. So Harris is now president. Who knew? https://www.bebee.com/producer/@joyce-bowen/hanging-off-the-vaccine-cliff
Ken Boddie
3 tahun yang lalu #11
Spot on, Jerry 👍 After all the excitement of the last few days, my faith in mankind is almost rekindled. Let's hope that democracy is the winner here, along with a focus on improving the lots of our brothers and sisters and taking care of the environment we live in, and that political BS and self interest are the loosers. Looking forward to the reconstruction of the old international alliances again. What we all need now is leadership and a collective will to improve, rather than political shenanigans that inevitably fuel the old adage that "politicians and nappies [diapers in your land] should be changed regularly ... and for the same reason."
Paul Walters
3 tahun yang lalu #10
Jerry Fletcher I guess if you are a democrat in America today it must be a wonderful feeling. However, there are 70,000,000 Republicans who voted must be having a terrible day. However, democracy here was the winner. I can now re-visit your splendid country which I will do as soon as the pesky virus disappears !! Thanks for stopping by.
Jerry Fletcher
3 tahun yang lalu #9
Jerry Fletcher
3 tahun yang lalu #8
Paul Walters
3 tahun yang lalu #7
Harvey Lloyd Well said Harvey .
Harvey Lloyd
3 tahun yang lalu #6
Robert Cormack
3 tahun yang lalu #5
Harvey Lloyd
3 tahun yang lalu #4
Harvey Lloyd
3 tahun yang lalu #3
Ken Boddie
3 tahun yang lalu #2
Paul Walters
3 tahun yang lalu #1