TAREEF PE TAREEF

Thank you, Mr. Trump, for heaping praise(TAREEF) upon the world outside America. You've inadvertently shown that the world could thrive without the United States. The world before you was daydreaming and seeing the USA as lord protector. All this while, the western media sang the frightening lullabies of communist red evil, weapons of mass destruction, terror, inhumanitarian rulers, illegal nuclear weapons, drugs, jihadis, antisemites and so on. Their true motive was to bring about instability and regime change in countries, which did not comply with his master’s voice or will. The motive was to sell deadly arms to the spooked nations, clans, or gangs in an indirect use of the age old 'divide and rule' tactic under the veil of United Nations.

From Vietnam to Gaza, we have seen the bloody trail. The predator as always walked away with its pounds of flesh leaving the carcass to rot. The prey - Vietnam, Cambodia, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Syria, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Gaza, Venezuela (to be) - met with the same sorry fate in the past. But the herd remained unperturbed, unfazed – grazing the pasture as if nothing had happened. Whose turn was it next?

This time, you, Mr. Trump, wanted the entire herd in your plate at once. Now, that was too much for asking. The herd ganged up.  China emerged as the gang leader, with Russia, India and many other small nations standing by its side, forging alliances based on trade and equal partnership more than anything else. But NATO is already shitting BRICKS. Western media is touting China as a bad guy, a safety hazard to the entire world, a narrative of American exceptionalism.

Western media's portrayal of China as a threat is laughable. How blind or naive could the world be to buy this shit? Poor China has only one military base outside of its own territory, located in Djibouti, to fight maritime piracy which is paramount to its survival. On the other hand, the US has at least 128 known military bases in 55 countries and territories only to assert its dominance. China exports playful toys whereas the ones blaming China export deadly weapons of mass destruction to the world. Sir, the imperialistic past may be masked, but it's not dead and buried.

The unity of Southeast nations isn't driven by hatred for the West but by a desire for survival and hope for living with dignity. It's time for well-meaning people worldwide to unite and uproot imperialist mentality. Let's usher in a multipolar world where sovereign nations can exercise free will and live in peace without the threat from next door. Amen!

THE MOMENT OF TRUTH!

Elon and Trump went up the hill to MAGA
Trump fell down and Musk came tumbling after.

Jokes apart. This tumble was overdue. The unrestricted hike was irrational and helping none.

The Foolish Lion and The Smart Ass

There was a cruel and greedy lion. It established a reign of terror in the jungle. But now he was getting old and weak. Taking advantage, the cheetah started to become all powerful and feared. The lion was not happy with this new development and shift of hegemony in the jungle. So, the lion hired a mouse to make him great again. The mouse advised the lion to eat grass and not let any other animal eat it. Once the grass eating animals would die of hunger, the meat eating cheetah would perish too. The foolish lion loved the idea and made the declaration that no other animal would be allowed to eat the green grass as it all belongs to him thence-forth.

All the animals panicked except for an ass. The smart ass remained unperturbed because he knew the lion wouldn’t be able to survive on grass through the winter. He asked other animals to be patient and more co-operative with each other to survive through the season.

Once on grass, the lion became weaker. The cheetah was waiting for the opportunity. And with the prize kill, the cheetah was crowned the new king of the jungle. The cheetah hired the smart ass as his advisor. The mouse was sent to exile for being an ass-hole.

Lightning in the Sky

 Written by：Carlos Santana/Chris Solberg

Lightning in the sky
Thunder on the ground
Man and beast alike
Seeking shelter from the storm
All around there is fear in the air
All around there is fear in the air
(Ukraine & Middle-East)

Burning drops of rain
Flood my thirsty soul
Cold chills to the bone
Glowing eyes filled with pain
All around there's a cry no one hears
All around there's a cry no one hears
(Europe and Latin America)

Always on the run
Never taking time to see
Beauty all around
Nature's dance is just for me
All around, Nature's dance
Just for me
All around, Nature's dance
Just for me
(Asia)

Rainbows glowing high
Evening shadows fall
Don't you wait for me
I won't be back for your call
(The USA)

I am free from your spell, I am free
I am free from your spell, I am free
I am free from your spell, I am free
Free, free, free...

The markets allover are on the run up the hill. A tumble down is in the offing.

Sneeze and Cough Freely Once Again

Finally, the pandemic has been declared over by most of the countries world over & by WHO? Ha, ha!!

That implies :

1. the humans have shaken hands with the virus after the vaccination OR... 

2. the covid19 virus has shaken hands with the humans after a series of mutations

Let’s take the case of a brand new shoe. Sometimes it bites in the beginning. But gradually it adjusts (mutates) itself to the suitable size and shape of the foot and the foot finds itself in its comfort zone. It’s not the foot, but the shoe which has to be benign. 

I guess, same goes with the corona virus. The crossover virus undergoes numerous mutations over the couple of years before it is human friendly.  On the other hand it seems hard to swallow the vaccine shit, how else would one explain humans emerging out of Spanish flu without a vaccine.

Covid19 Eclipse Y2K20

 

2020 was a landmark year when IMO, in order to  acknowledge and  contribute to restrain the  growing  global environmental threat, enforced a new lower  0.5%  global Sulphur cap on bunkers.

However,  the Maritime fraternity’s great sacrifice to adopt to higher fuel standards in order to  cut down toxicity from the face of the earth was smeared by greater toxicity this year.  

The Toxicity came in the form of a novel virus, the Covid19. Believed to have been originated in Wuhan, China, the virus quickly spread around the world, forcing nation after nations to go into lockdown,  grounding airlines, shutting down factories, offices and workplaces across the world. There was huge loss of businesses and employment. The world economy came down on its knees. Shipping  Seafarers suffered the shock as many were left stranded on ships. Printing money was seen as the last resort.

Staying negative was a big positive in the foregone year. Yet, we saw some positivity in this game changer year.  The IT sector, work from home, remote, robotic, online shopping, social media, health sector were among some of the opportunities in disaster last year.

The toxicity has been brewing not only in air but in human hearts too for the past few years. Rightist movement has been gaining momentum and people worldover are more polarized and divided than ever before on grounds of race, colour, religion, caste and nation. Free trade and environment have been a casualty of the constricted thought process. However, with Joe Biden replacing Capt. Trump, we may be seeing some of the blocked trade routes opening up in coming years and the environmental efforts be restored to RFA.  

Year 2021 is gonna be a fallout year of 2020. Now that the vaccines have been rolled out, the effect is to be seen. A lot of liquidity was pumped in the financial markets last year, which will need to be mopped out gradually. The stock markets are at all time high. We will need to see a meaningful growth in world trade this year to sustain optimism in futures.

Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning. – Albert Einstein.

No Sulphur - Lead me out of the Dark Climate Change

So finally, Y2K20 is here, and for the new year's resolution merchant ships vow to cut down on smoking sulphur.

 

In deed its gonna be a landmark year in the history of fuels. Before this, 1996 was another such year when another element lead(Pb) was eliminated from gasoline for use in on-road vehicles. 

 

Notwithstanding the great challenges in compliance and implementation of the use of low sulphur fuels in marine industry, the things are expected to fall in place after teething problems.  One thing is for sure to start with, use of sulphur deficient fuels will hike up the logistics cost per ton, which will be paid by the end user as usual. But then, preservation of climate has a cost attached to it. You can eat your cake and have it too, provided you have means to replenish it. Cutting down on sulphur at sea is one such move. A move to make sure, when it falls from the sky, its not just an acid rain.

 

I thank the maritime fraternity to have taken this bold step in the right, oops left direction. Ha ha...

 

Climate has been screaming for the past few decades and trying to tell greed driven people to slow down in their pursuit of mirage and not to treat it with impunity. With extreme weather getting better of people worldwide, the climate activists are being taken more seriously lately. And in 2019, TIME actually stopped and chose Greta Thunberg as its face of the year to highlight the issue. There are some effective steps being taken by governments and organisations to moon walk over the carbon foot prints.

 

Led by hate and greed, the last decade saw an outright rise of communalism, racism and nationalism worldwide. I sincerely hope, 2020 proves to be a tipping point for the right movement to be impeached and stalled.  

Bye 2018 - Hello 2019

The year 2018 began with fear of nuclear war as USA and North Korean presidents claimed they had the nuclear launch buttons on their table. The WW III question was, whose button was bigger and more powerful than the other's.

But, by the grace of God, prudence prevailed and by the middle of the year both presidents were seen shaking hands, rather than pressing buttons.

However, one earth one family dance has gone horribly out of sync.  Nations and people have forgotten Pink Floyd's number and have started to build walls around them once again. Globalisation of trade and economics are victims of left-right politics. Erased trade barriers are seen being re-built by the governments.

What has not changed is advent of technology. The www  is growing without boundaries. Be it alibaba, amazon or flipKart, all are seeing growing consumer base in multifolds. On the otherhand, robotization of processes is at acme. Driven by economy of scale, mammoth is achieving extended dimensions.  The motto stands; Citius, Altius, Fortius.

This year, we saw a huge swing in Oil Futures briefly as a scary reminder of how vulnerable we are to energy crunch.

Nature kept reminding us that we were on an overdrive in our usage of resources. Consumerism is OK but not at the cost of the basic necessities like fresh air and water. The environment needs attention. The year 2019 is the penultimate year before IMO fuel regulation kicks-in in 2020. Chaos as usual will herald opportunity.

Wish you all a happy new year, 2019!!