The Moment of Truth

President-elect Trump & incumbent Obama

The White House

The triumph of Donald Trump as the 45th president of the United States, which comes at the heels of Britain’s exit from the European Union, has been hailed as the apocalypse. But apocalypse, it may not be. Though several issues and scandals fanned the embers of the bitterly fought 2016 election, what really propelled voters in the US, as in Britain (during the Brexit vote), was an unprecedented yearning for change. It probably doesn’t matter now that no one actually asked the question: What kind of change? 

President-elect Trump

Clearly, the clash between Trump and Mrs. Clinton challenged Americans to confront divisions over race, gender, religion, ideology, and the country’s very national identity. 

Farage & Trump

Interestingly, the "candidate Trump" and the "president-elect Trump" appear to be two different people. In his victory speech and in his comment during a visit to the White House for a meeting with President Obama, Trump sounded conciliatory. Now, what if the campaign persona was actually stage-managed? What if the facade of bigotry was just set up to appeal to a larger number of those angry  and desperate for change no matter what? What if no wall will be built? What if Muslims can enter the US as before?   

In a world where interest groups have usurped the rights of many ordinary people, causing the middle class to disappear and sparking anger, some believe that boosting populist movements everywhere is the best possible chance they have to upend the corrupt system. So, the emergence of Trump in the 2016 presidential election and his disregard for political correctness which many people despise, gave hope to those who felt short-changed.

Donald Trump

Interestingly, following his victory, many irritants in Europe, who mistake racism and homophobia for populism, are bracing themselves for the wind of change that they think a Trump presidency will bring.

Now, as controversial as this might sound, I think that it probably wouldn’t be a bad idea to allow the radical movements in Europe to win for a change—from Marie Le Pen of France to Heinz-Christian Strache of Austria to Geert Wilder of the Netherlands to Pablo Iglesias of Spain to Beppe Grillo of Italy—not because they can deliver, but because it will prove a very simple point, and that is: It is easier to find fault than to find a solution. 

President Obama

As many examples have revealed, campaign rhetoric and the reality of governance are two different things. And truth be told, in the history of mankind, revolutions triggered by emotions had been largely successful because they were powered by ideas, which today’s populism gravely lacks. 

There is no question at all that in the absence of a fundamental idea of statehood, blind anger over a broken system alone cannot a revolution make.  

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Classic Cute Stories

“A person who knows how to laugh at himself will never cease to be amused.” 

- Shirley MacLaine

Japanese Folktale

The House of 1000 Mirrors 

Long ago in a small, far away village, there was a place known as the House of 1000 Mirrors. A small, happy little dog learned of this place and decided to visit. When he arrived, he bounced happily up the stairs to the doorway of the house. He looked through the doorway with his ears lifted high and his tail wagging as fast as it could. To his great surprise, he found himself staring at 1000 other happy little dogs with their tails wagging just as fast as his. He smiled a great smile, and was answered with 1000 great smiles just as warm and friendly. As he left the house, he thought to himself, “This is a wonderful place. I will come back and visit it often.”

{Photo by funkeemonkeeland}

In this same village, another little dog, who was not quite as happy as the first one, decided to visit the house. He slowly climbed the stairs and hung his head low as he looked into the door. When he saw the 1000 unfriendly looking dogs staring back at him, he growled at them and was horrified to see 1000 little dogs growling back at him. As he left, he thought to himself, “That is a horrible place, and I will never go back there again.” 

All the faces in the world are mirrors. What kind of reflections do you see in the faces of the people you meet?

CHRISTMAS CARD

Courtesy of PicsGrid

I was taking a shower when my 2-year-old son came into the bathroom and wrapped himself in toilet paper. Although he made a mess, he looked adorable, so I ran for my camera and took a few shots. They came out so well that I had copies made and included one with each of our Christmas cards. Days later, a relative called about the picture, laughing hysterically and suggesting I take a closer look. Puzzled, I stared at the photo and was shocked to discover that in addition to my son, I had captured my reflection in the mirror -- wearing nothing but a camera!

Courtesy of  Dreamstime.com

MY FOOTSTEPS?

An acquaintance of mine who is a physician told this story about her then-four-year-old daughter. On the way to preschool, the doctor had left her stethoscope on the car seat, and her little girl picked it up and began playing with it. “Be still, my heart,” thought my friend, “My daughter wants to follow in my footsteps!” 

Then the child spoke into the instrument, “Welcome to McDonald’s. May I take your order?”

TOO ROUGH

A little girl asked her mother, “Can I go outside and play with the boys?” Her mother replied, “No, you can’t play with the boys, they’re too rough.” The little girl thought about it for a few moments and asked, “If I can find a smooth one, can I play with him?”

THUMB SUCKING

Illustration:Cute Baby Sleeping Vector

A boy had reached four without giving up the habit of sucking his thumb, though his mother had tried everything from bribery to reasoning to painting it with lemon juice to discourage the habit. Finally she tried threats, warning her son that, “If you don’t stop sucking your thumb, your stomach is going to blow up like a balloon.” Later that day, walking in the park, mother and son saw a pregnant woman sitting on a bench. The four-year-old considered her gravely for a minute, then spoke to her saying, “Uh-oh… I know what you’ve been doing.”

SO KEEP THE SINGING DOWN, OK?

A Sunday school teacher asked her little children, as they were on the way to church service, “And why is it necessary to be quiet in church?” One bright little girl replied, “Because people are sleeping.”

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The Pussy Generation

Beyond the controversy...

Of all the silly terms that men have used throughout history [such as ‘Baby Boomers’ & ‘Generation X’], to mask their narcissism and validate their inadequacies, perhaps ‘Pussy Generation’—borne of a debatable political outburst—is the most apt.

The term, Baby Boomers, is generally used in reference to the people who were born (approximately between 1946 and 1964) during the post-World-War II baby boom demographic. But the follow-up cohort, Generation X, has been used at various times to describe alienated youth - a generation that has become adept at playing victim. A generation that  has always had scorn for convention, and in spite of everything, is capable of taking on the impossible and beating it. This is the generation that turned the digital evolution into a full-blown internet revolution. And then, having successfully shattered myths, it stopped seeing the ‘X’ as an unknown variable but as a desire not to be defined. Thus, freedoms were won, rights acquired, goals attained, sensibilities were heightened. In the process, notably, sexuality became fluid and political correctness was entrenched.

Then the bomb dropped as a new cohort - Pussy Generation - enters the fray, suggesting that perhaps this generation has all along been called by the  wrong name. 

Clint Eastwood

“We’re really in a pussy generation,” Clint Eastwood, actor and Academy Award-winning director, said in a magazine interview. “Everybody’s walking on eggshells,” he lamented, and this exaggerated sensibilities, according to him, is creating havoc in society. But, “secretly, everybody’s getting tired of political correctness. We see people accusing others of being racist and all kinds of stuff. When I did ‘Gran Torino,’ even my associate said, ‘This is a really good script, but it’s politically incorrect.’ And I said, ‘Good. Let me read it tonight.’ The next morning, I came in and I threw it on his desk and I said, ‘We’re starting this immediately.’” 

The principal attraction to Donald Trump, many supporters say,
is that he is just about the only public figure willing to speak frankly.

Kyle Smith, writing in the New York Post, thinks Eastwood might be right. 

“Generation X, the generation that had political correctness beaten into it at college, is now in charge of huge swathes of the media. Generation P (The Pussy Generation), which is even more easily offended, is rising to positions of influence. Together they’ve brought to the nation the campus mindset of going completely bonkers over random remarks—even if meant in jest—deemed insensitive to

one group or another.” 

He also notes that Eastwood has somehow pinpointed the principal attraction of the

 Brendan Eich, a co-founder of Mozilla; Milo Yiannopoulos,
a conservative journalist, and Tim Hunt, a Nobel laureate

republican nominee, Donald Trump. “These days,” said Smith. “A Nobel laureate (Tim Hunt) can lose his job for making a joke about women overreacting to criticism, a Twitter user (Milo Yiannopoulos) can be permanently banned from the service for razzing an actress and the co-founder of Mozilla (Brendan Eich) can be chased out of his own company for having held the same position on gay marriage that Barack Obama had at the time.”

It must be said, though, that internet trolling is as obnoxious as the political correctness (and the exaggerated sensibilities) that Eastwood denounced.

Kevin Roberts, Saatchi & Saatchi's chairman

However, Smith, buttressing his argument, explained that just as Eastwood’s controversial interview was being published, a case in point came to public attention. Kevin Roberts, chairman of the advertising company, Saatchi & Saatchi, lost his job for saying that women do not occupy as many leadership roles as men because they don’t have the same "vertical ambition, even though a    

Harvard Business School study (written by three women) share that same view.

So, is it safe to say that if society’s sensibilities were a bit more refined, some of Trump’s outrageous remarks would not have kicked up a dust, and therefore would not have increased his appeal among those who are tired of walking on eggshells?

Ellen DeGeneres

But what about the Ellen DeGeneres case? The talk-show host, surprise, surprise, was accused of being racist because she used a photo-shopped image to make a comical point. She had tweeted a meme of herself riding on Usain Bolt’s back in a hilarious celebration of Bolt’s athletic performance at the Rio Olympics. It turned out that the sensibilities of certain internet users were too fragile to condone the sight of a comedienne (who happens to be white) riding on the back of the world’s fastest man (who happens to be black).

Now, while the so called checks and balances of the internet in our social media-obsessed society appear to be healthy, it still remains one of the uncountable wonders of the Pussy Generation that someone saw racism, and not humor, in that meme. 

What is not surprising, however, is a 2015 Rasmussen poll that found that 71% of American adults think political correctness is a problem in the country, while only 18% disagree and 10% remain undecided. 

Maybe Clint Eastwood wasn’t exaggerating when he said that “Everybody’s walking on eggshells.” Maybe he was right, after all, that “secretly, people are tired of political correctness.” 

Truth is: not everything race-related is racist. And not every political incorrectness is wrong. Whatever your take... Welcome to the Pussy Generation.

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Transforming Bullshit into Success

WITH THE CRAFTY LOGIC OF A DACHSHUND

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Dachshund_brown_puppy

In recent times, certain triumphs that have become rather phenomenal and utterly inexplicable—in politics as well as in other spheres of life including show-business, society, and even literature—have baffled many. People have tried in vain to wrap their heads around the possible logic behind such unforeseen trend and coup de grâce. 

Now, here’s a story that explains it perfectly:

Female leopard

A certain wealthy man goes on a safari in Africa. He takes his faithful pet dachshund along for company. One day, the dachshund starts chasing butterflies and before long realizes he is lost.

Wandering about, he catches a glimpse of a leopard heading in his direction with the obvious intention of having lunch. The dachshund thinks, “Oh, my goodness! Am I about to die?”

Albertine Rift Safari monkey - Western Uganda

Panic-stricken, he looks around him, notices some bones on the ground. Hurrah! He has a brainwave. He immediately settles down and begins to chew on the bones with his back to the approaching cat. Just as the leopard is about to leap, the dachshund exclaims loudly, “Boy, that was one delicious leopard. I wonder if there are any more around here.”

Hearing this, the leopard halts in mid-stride, a look of sheer horror on his face. Slinking into the woods, he exclaims, “Whew, that was close. That dachshund nearly had me.”

Leopard Vs Monkey

Meanwhile, a monkey who has been watching the whole scene from a nearby tree figures he can turn the detection into a bargaining power in his quest for protection from the leopard. So, off he goes. 

The dachshund turns in time to see the big mouth primate heading after the leopard with excitement, and somehow understands. Long story short, the monkey catches up with the leopard, spills the beans and strikes a sweetheart deal.

As expected, the leopard is furious that the dachshund had made a fool of him, and says, “Here monkey, hop on my back and see what’s going to happen to that devious canine.”

Now, the dachshund, still unable find a way out of the woods, sees the leopard coming with the monkey on his back, and thinks, “What trick dare I pull now?” Suddenly, he has another brainwave. So,  instead of escaping as one might expect, he sits down with his back to the looming danger and pretends not to notice the furious leopard and his new friend.

As soon as they are within earshot, he says, “Where’s that monkey? I sent him off half an hour ago to bring me another leopard.”

There! (I'm sure you get the drift.)

SOMETIMES IF YOU CAN’T DAZZLE THEM WITH BRILLIANCE, JUST BAFFLE THEM WITH BULLSHIT.

Note: If you understand the satire, leave a comment.

Disclaimer: The story of the dachshund on a safari in Africa is not my original creation.

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The Exotic Settings of a Troubling Story

Prato della Valle

ANNABELLA

Is partially set in the university town of Padua - from the fabulous Prato della Valle, a 90,000 square meter elliptical square, which is the largest square in Italy, and one of the largest in Europe - to Pedrocchi Café, best known as café-without-doors for its long tradition of keeping its doors open, night and day. It was founded in the 18th century in central Padua.

Prato della Valle

The early chapters are also set in a spectacular location known locally as Colli Euganei, meaning the Euganean Hills, which are a group of hills of volcanic origin that rise to heights of 300 to 600m from the Padovan-Venetian plain a few km south of Padua.

Book Blurb

She wanted the truth, now it has ensnared her

Annabella is a gorgeous college sophomore, passionately in love with a young army recruit, who is forbidden to love her. When her father conspires with the military to send him to a foreign country on a peacekeeping mission, a series of unexpected evil begins. Annabella’s reliance on the Red Cross to circumvent her father’s plan seems perfect, until a strange young woman, declared dead in her country, crosses the Mediterranean into her home with a story that’s poised to change everything...

Excerpts & Snippets ...

Pedrocchi Cafè

It was a breezy morning, almost the end of September; the hustle and bustle that often marked graduation ceremonies here had eased up today. Three flags perching at the top of the Town Hall were fluttering in the autumn breeze and the stern-faced police officers standing outside it, ogled her as they did every woman who walked by, mercifully without accompanying catcalls.

Colli Euganei

“1973 is a crazy year, isn’t it?” she heard her father’s smug voice in her head and winced. Sometimes there was no escaping genetics unless, of course, love was at stake, she mused. Still, she reckoned that her dad’s theory might have some merit because there, indeed, was something about the year that hinted at madness.

City of Padua

Padua is a city in Northern Italy’s Veneto region. It’s known for the frescoes by Giotto in its Scrovegni Chapel and the vast 13th-century Basilica of St. Anthony. In Padua’s old town are arcaded streets and stylish cafes frequented by students of the University of Padua, established in 1222.

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