I went online to pay my milk delivery bill this morning. My bank proceeded to send me a very complicated one-time code to add to my log-on, with the warning not to share that one-time code with anyone. As if I was going to remember it in order to pass it on! This one was so complicated that I was afraid I might mess it up and end up unable to pay my bill! I am aware that we need all these security measures but sometimes they just seem to make life unduly complicated.
In some ways it’s symptomatic of the way the world has gone recently. Everything appears to be tightening up, having to conform to certain ideas. I was reading this article about the Smithsonian Institute in the USA and how the director of the National Portrait Gallery was initially and illegally fired, via social media, by the president but eventually forced out of her prestigious position anyway. I understand that the Kennedy Centre has been renamed the Trump Kennedy Centre. Will the same happen to the Smithsonian Institute?
In recent decades we have seemed to open up about things that happened in the past, revealing all sorts of people’s and institutions’ connections to slavery and corruption and discrimination. We appeared to have stopped sweeping things under the carpet. Now it’s all closing up again. There is a move against being “woke”, or against being a little controversial, or just against telling the truth about what is going on. This certainly appears to be the case in the United States, where apparently museums and art galleries have had instructions to alter the labels that accompany exhibits in order to avoid offending some parties.
And it’s happening here too. Be extra careful about what you post on social media. Choose your criticism of ideas and events so that you express it in a bland and inoffensive manner!
And the world continues to be crazy. According to this article Israel is still taking over the West Bank as far as it can.
Hunger strikers awaiting trial for their support of Palestine Action are at risk of dying.
And Mr Trump’s White House says using US military is ‘always an option’ for acquiring Greenland’.
We have a tendency to forget how geographically close Greenland is to North America, Canada in particular but so far Canada doesn’t appear to want to take it over. Most of us think of Greenland as part of Europe. We need to remind Mr Trump and his colleagues/advisers/pressure groups of this fact.
In the midst of all this pessimism about the state of the world, it would seem that there could be bright spot. And maybe city mayors have a role to play in combatting the madness. “I think mayors around the world have started to realise that we have a new role, one that didn’t exist before,” said Jaume Collboni, the mayor of Barcelona. “We’ve realised that the global problems we’re all facing require local solutions.” Here’s a link to an article about it. There are people who say that our Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham should set his heights higher and aim for parliament. But maybe he’s better battling away to make Greater Manchester as fair a place as possible.
Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!
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