Into the darkest month ...
Universities in the headlights, Change in Argentina, 'Elections' in Hong Kong
It used to be that we were always working right up to Christmas Eve, but it feels that people are now checking out earlier and earlier to do whatever they are doing in the month where daylight is reduced to a bare minimum. Looking at my calendar it seems the coming week a lot of deals and events will wrap up. Well, if most people scale down for the holidays, fine, but the global affairs department is ramping up to unprecedented highs. Let’s do a quick run through.
Academic Chaos
We already knew that the war in Israel and Gaza has far reaching consequences in terms of global relations, but it is now also upsetting domestic affairs in most western countries. The virulent anti-Semitic outbursts notably on universities resulted in a congressional hearing last week where the presidents of Harvard, MIT and the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) were brought in to address these issues. As the world witnessed, they really couldn’t, at least not in a way in which normal people would address certain clear cut moral issues. Marinated in years of identity politics and fully prepared by lawyers, none of them could confirm whether calls for genocide of Jews ran counter to each institution’s code of conduct. Apparently it all depends on ‘context’. They also conflated anti-Semitism with Islamophobia, in spite of the fact that the latter is being far less prevalent on US campuses, in particular over the last few weeks. Many Jewish students are no longer safe, recall this awful scene at the University of Washington in Seattle just a little while ago.
The core reason behind this, for the uninitiated, is that Jews are not perceived - according to the ever fluent doctrines of identity politics - as a minority worthy of the care and rights that are accorded to other groups. If you wonder why, just ask yourself how these three presidents would have responded if mobs of students had called for the murder of other minority groups. Jews are ‘white’ and ‘colonial’ oppressors and are thus given the sort of treatment they deserve wherever they are. That this happens after they have faced the worst mass murder since the Holocaust boggles the mind. Does this make any sense?
It does not. But we should note that universities have been sliding steadily into the moral abyss for a long time as a cultural revolution steadily engulfed these institutions of higher learning. The Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) mission, while laudable in its original attempts to lift up all people, end discrimination and help minorities, has metastasized into an authoritarian, increasingly racist and even violent movement. Academic leaders have fallen in line with this pervasive ideology and if you want a flavour of what that means for some students, listen to MIT student Talia Khan:
The heads will now start to roll as pressure mounts and donors retreat, the president of UPenn, Liz Magill tendered her resignation over the weekend and more are expected to follow. It will not cure the deep ills that have affected these universities as Andrew Sullivan explains it here in a must-read piece. Fareed Zakaria made the very important point that universities should stop being entities that promote political agendas and go back to pursuing academic excellence. On the same day on Dutch TV Yascha Mounk explained it in more detail (in English). Recommended reading and watching.
What not everyone fully realizes is that this extreme woke agenda is precisely what is scaring centrist voters and compels them to turn and vote right. The rise of Trump and for instance the many right-wing populists in Europe are very often a response to the left’s abandoning its core economic and social policies in favour of identity hysteria. As a result the inevitable rise of the hard right will increase society’s division into two extreme camps who cannot even begin to talk to each other. So you see that if western democracies are starting to tear each other apart with ever extreme positions it will be our adversaries in Beijing, Moscow and Tehran who will relish at the political and social chaos. That college students now use Maoist tactics will put a wry smile on Xi Jinping’s face.
Javier Milei
Another sharp turn to the right took place in Argentina where Javier Milei a libertarian economist was sworn into the presidency this weekend. Among all the dignitaries Ukraine’s Zelensky was on hand to congratulate and present the new leader with a special gift, see photo. Labelled as an eccentric populist who has a long list of economic reforms to implement it is expected that he will bring some dramatic changes to a nation mired in an everlasting deep economic crisis. And not only on the economy will he have an influence, he is a man known to explore his spiritual side and has been quite open about his plans to convert to Judaism.
With 55% of the popular vote and a country that has gone from crisis to crisis it is probably the moment for some drastic experimentation on the economic front, everything else it seems has failed. Massive cutbacks in the public purse is one. More interestingly, Milei is considering to dollarize the Argentinian economy by either adopting the US Dollar or pegging its currency to the greenback. The ‘peg’ is a unique approach to manage a currency and stifle inflation; a method so far only used Hong Kong where it has been a successful tool ever since 1983. We will have to see where Milei takes his country, he has an interesting resume and is an out of the box thinker who may yet surprise the world. And: Argentina deserves a break.
Jimmy and Hong Kong
Talking about Hong Kong, this weekend district elections took place in the former British, now Chinese special administrative region. The only problem was that the opposition and most non-government approved political parties have been banned and as a result turnout hit a record low at 27.5%, less than half of what it was four years ago. Many politicians have been imprisoned and quite a few have fled the territory following intense persecution and harassment from the authorities. Last week politician and social activist Agnes Chow made a run for it and moved to Canada.
In the meantime the godfather of the pro-democracy movement, Jimmy Lai, spent his seventy-sixth birthday in prison and it is unlikely he will get out anytime soon, if ever. I called it out on ‘X’ with a short tweet and the reactions were interesting. There is a large segment in Hong Kong and globally that thinks Lai upset the stability and prosperity of the place and deserves to stay in prison forever. This is the pro-China crowd, who will do and argue anything for order and shutting down debate whatever the human cost. But note that it was Lai who actually and correctly perceived that Hong Kong’s prosperity is rooted in the free and open nature that once drove the city state. There are precious few lights in Hong Kong right now to light up its darkness.
If it were only the colleges….. Sadly, this virus has spread far and wide in society. The only way for this to come back around imo is for the wokies to push this thing beyond the edge to energize a counter movement. Witnessing their M.O. , I have all the faith in the world they will make it happen 😃
Despite all the crazy- I think we should still have faith in our free and democratic societies over the chinas of the world. We will prevail. Cheers!
It is about time that universities are in the headlights, too bad they got wrapped up in the political cross fire that evolved out to their choice made in their respective failed mission to turn universities into profit centers. Failed real estate expansion and R&D focused on licensing tech to target industry giants while diminishing focus on providing the opportunities and challenges in the exploration of core values.
"Jews" have been in the crossfire of identity politics from before middle class organizers in Russia replaced the tzar. It surprises me that the stronger alliance between Jews and Islams have not collaborated when the many opportunities have provided a pathway. The current tragedy is the betrayal of a significant number of the Israeli citizens by their own recent leadership after October 7th. So called war has already been lost. Wake up, a prolonged knee jerk is not sustainable. The territory jointly inhabited by the opposing sides is getting more and more destroyed. Israeli citizens will be paying the brunt of the reconstruction budget. Multi national corporations a lickig their chops at the opportunity to pour concrete. I still maintain one solution is the only solution to the oldest monotheistic "holy land" in the world. If there is an older monotheistic "holy land" then please enlighten me. The collective players in this conflict Christian, Jewish and Islamic are just settlers on their common "holy land." It is no wonder that Russia and People's Republic of China are snickering with glee while the foster their own agendas in the background of chaos.
I applaud Argentina's CEO Javier Milei for thinking out-of-box in presenting "his plans to convert to Judaism" that does not even guarantee his compliance. And if Milei's does embraces Judaism, then that is a preferable event from my distant POV. Perhaps a fresh breeze blowing out the smoke to illuminate the mirrors.
Respectfully submitted for your consideration to break links in the chains that bind us all.