Vive la France! (Happy Bastille Day)
Many Americans laugh at the French for being weak and lacking ambition, but what's so bad about a nation that is home to the aerospace mammoth Airbus and has the world's best healthcare, even accounting for 30,004 deaths (as of writing) due to Covid-19. whose engineering feats are the envy of the world. On this Bastille Day, let's all salute this proud nation for beating America to the post in an area that you would not expect: freedom. One look at the world of tennis provides evidence. This year's edition of the US Open (31 Aug-13 Sep) will go ahead without spectators, yet the French Open (20 Sep-4 Oct) will be at 60% crowd capacity. We are really living in the Twilight Zone when France beats America to the post in allowing humans to congregate.
Hrvatska (Croatia) held elections (not exactly a sexy headline in today's doomsday news cycle).
Croatia is in no lockdown mode, 14 European countries have opened borders and Croatia is leading the way in attracting tourists, why not, when you’re arguably the prettiest nation on earth (refer to Dubrovnik and Split not to mention its 1000 islands dotting the Mediterranean).
Note: For those playing Covid-19 death trivia at home, it has only had 119 deaths for a population of 4.1 million. Low in a global context, but high compared to a country like New Zealand with a similar population (4.9 million), which only has had 22 deaths.
Not only are they promoting tourism, but they also held parliamentary elections on June 5. It was another boil-over result, once again making a mockery of pollsters. The ruling centre-right Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) retained power (taking 66 seats in the 151-seat parliament) due to its handling of Covid-19. The electorate sadly overlooked their fascist credentials, another example of how a pesky virus can help an incumbent. Even though HDZ didn’t win a majority, there are worrying signs, as they will use the support of a right-wing populist party such as the Nationalist Homeland Movement ( won 16 seats) to pass legislation. It doesn’t help that the progressive Restart Coalition had a bad showing, ending up with only 41 seats, 15 lower than the previous election.
Mongolia needs to be on every front page (let me rephrase for Millennials: every instagram feed).
This democratic nation that balances modernity and nomadic life like no other never ceases to amaze. Not only is it able to handle China, North Korea, Russia without being bullied by their undemocratic norms, it now has the proud distinction of recording 0 Covid-19 deaths. Interesting how tourists from open societies flock to plastic illiberal cities (Dubai and Singapore) that practice the death penalty and suppress civil liberties overlook a city like Ulaanbaatar. Mongolia’s capital might not have the tallest skyscrapers, but it leaves these aforementioned cities in the dust when it comes to freedom.
America's ninth-largest metropolitan area is living through another kind of man-made disease.
The world survived the Spanish Flu and it will overcome this current pandemic, the key is to ignore the white noise and carry on, as these three countries have shown. Not that a virus is the only one doing damage, over the 4th of July weekend in Atlanta there were 31 shooting victims in 11 separate incidents, leading to 5 dead (including an 8-year-old girl) proved. If a major metropolis in the world's richest country is bloodletting, then we earthlings still have a long way to go. Maybe we're just oblivious to the fact that we're living through World War III.
