Starved, Irradiated and Moving to Mars

[Osaka, 11/26/18]

“Il y a enfin, quand l'on a faim et soif, quelqu'un qui vous chasse.”—Rimbaud

That’s from his “Enfance” [“Childhood”]. Finally, when you are hungry and thirsty, there’s someone to chase you away.

Damn right! The hungrier and thirstier you are, the more likely people will shoo you away or kick you into the gutter, especially if they’re also threatened with privation, though not nearly to the same degree as you, but that’s your fault, of course. Innocent of everything, you’re still guilty! Those billion cans of baked beans must be saved for their own bellies.

While still in Namibia earlier this year, I recommended that country as a haven from the avalanche of horrors heading our way. Saying that Africa was more prone to famine thus social unrest, a reader took exception to this, but I didn’t suggest fleeing to Nigeria or South Sudan, but Namibia, a sparsely populated country very far from a Europe about to be engulfed in flames, again.

Further, anyone coming to Namibia won’t settle in its most primitive communities, but better appointed neigborhoods in Windhoek or Swakopmund, so it’s not about the welfare of the locals, especially weaker ones, but yours.

Worst places? Nearly all of the West, for those governments are most ruthless in shoving their cowed and fogged up subjects into destitution, if not the grave, the most massive the world has ever seen.

Time for some levity! Flexing her muscles, Ursula von der Leyen cracked this joke on 9/28/22:

We have moved quickly and decisively. We will never accept Putin’s sham referenda nor any kind of annexation in Ukraine. We are determined to continue making the Kremlin pay.

Having deprived itself of Russian coal and natural gas, the European Union was threatening to, get this, only pay so much for Russian oil! That’s like you marching into Le Bernadin in Midtown and insisting on paying $12.99 for its $198 four-course prix fixe dinner of lobster, langoustine, merluza, red snapper, halibut or filet mignon, etc.

Here’s a much better joke. On 10/31/22, Putin gave us this sketch about a German father and son:

Son, “Why is our house so cold?”

“Because Russia attacked Ukraine.”

“What does that have to do with us?”

“We imposed sanctions against Russia.”

“Why?”

“To make Russians suffer.”

“Are we Russians, dad?

New York Times on 10/31/22, “The Biden administration and its allies have been slow to roll out the details of its oil price cap, which is aimed at keeping Russia’s oil flowing to global markets while depriving its government of the revenue it has been using to finance its war in Ukraine.”

It’s buffoonish to demand on paying less from a supplier you’re seeking to destroy, but such is the mindset of a perennial looter and arsonist. The West is farcically sick.

When the EU suggested a price cap on natural gas from Qatar, the tiny kingdom (pop. 2.9 million) laughed it off as hypocritical, for the West had long preached the free market gospel. Hinting that this lifeline may be diverted to Asia, Qatar’s energy minister stated the obvious, “We have the right to do what we like with our volumes.”

Leaving Africa after 8 months, I’ve been in Vietnam for seven. Repeatedly, I’ve stressed the relative normality of this society, with businesses thriving everywhere, negligible inflation, much laughter and few complaints, but this calmness rests on quicksand. This govenment, you see, has put a cap on gasoline prices. Though this keeps folks happy, gas stations are losing tons, with some already shutting down.

Last week, Vietnam’s General Secretary of the Communist Party, Nguyễn Phú Trọng, went to Beijing to meet with Xi Jinping. There, he was draped with a Friendship Medal, only the tenth given. Putin received the first in 2018. Preparing for war, China is tightening its alliances.

Much shorter than Xi, Trọng had his hands around the Chinese leader’s lower back as he was honored. Cringing, people also remember Trọng’s statement to Xi in Hanoi in 2017, “Vietnamese tea is not as good as Chinese tea.” It’s a challenge for any midget to maintain his dignity.

So it’s China vs. Taiwan and the US, North Korea vs. South Korea and the US, NATO vs. Russia, Zelensky vs. Slavs, Iran vs. Israel and Saudi Arabia, Turkey vs. Greece, Washington’s bought or blackmailed perverts vs. Joe Sixpacks, Western “intellectuals” vs. common sense and reality, Albert Bourla vs. women, children and pussies with limp, angry dicks, and you vs. yourself for being so clouded! Your skies have been thoroughly sprayed.

The only war you give a shit about is Phillies vs. Astros, though Seahawks vs. Cardinals is also intriguing.

Returning to Vietnam, I thought I could linger indefinitely, with any visa problem solved with a reasonable bribe, the way it used to work, but alas, I must set out again, to Phnom Penh, Bangkok then Bangalore. The reason for the last, I’ll explain later.

Are you staying put? The most welcoming place for immigrants is Svalbard, a Norwegian archipelago requiring no visa, so you can stay there forever. It does get a bit frosty, though, and you’ll pay $20 for a bacon cheeseburger at Kroa, the best restaurant in Longyearbyen. What a lovely yet ominous name!

Barging in, you can bluster, “As an American, I ain’t paying more than eight bucks for no damn cheeseburger, you Svalbastards!”

Yesterday, I chatted with someone in Washington State who planned on teaching English overseas, in two years, perhaps, when he’s done with his studies. That’s assuming a lot. By then, will there still be air travel or enough foreigners who care to study English?

Two days ago in Saigon, I dropped by my elementary school. Before 1976, it was Catholic and named Lasan Taberd. There, I also had judo lessons. That knowledge has evaporated almost entirely, including its instruction on how to fall without hurting oneself. Most of the French I imbibed has also disappeared. My education stopped after the Independence Palace, half a mile away, was bombed on April 8th, 1975.

Empires collapse, societes are disfigured or wiped out and people, each one innocent enough, are casually butchered, and that’s just the normal course of history, before this new normal.

Hungry, thirsty, frozen, boostered and masked, you can hardly remember living any other way. Lips, tongue and teeth have always been indecent. Staring at your cracked phone, you’re reassured by Wallensky, Gates and Musk. Chewing on a mangy blanket, you still dream of moving to Mars.

[Waegwan, 5/28/20]

[Phonsavan, 1/21/20]

[Philadelphia, 10/21/11]