Wake up to horrific and mostly unanticipated news each morning since the American inauguration. And not, obviously, developments that affect US citizens only. Some minor advantages to being old - one’s memory stretches back to more than one administration. And I remember Trudeau père saying to Americans “Living next to you is in some ways like sleeping with an elephant. No matter how friendly and even-tempered is the beast, if I can call it that, one is affected by every twitch and grunt”.
The time difference between Eastern and Central Standard and us is seven and eight hours respectively. Which means that we wake up to find that all kinds of political events have concluded after we went to bed but commentary in North America has ceased, though just begun in Europe. And when we first travelled we were reliant on a little short wave radio where, if we were very lucky, we could pick up BBC world service amidst the static.
What is happening now with regard to the Canadian American border is well beyond twitches and grunts, and the current beast is neither friendly nor even-tempered, but spare a thought for Gaza. Roughly 400 kilometres south of us and reduced to rubble. More than 46,000 people dead, entirely disproportionately women and children. A number which will increase to well over 60,000 once it is possible to search underneath the rubble. And now Trump has announced his intent to clear Gaza totally of Palestinians in order to turn it into the riviera of the Middle East. A real estate agent as well as a bastard at core (well I couldn’t say heart).
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