The Upside Down World
It was early morning in the fall of 1992, I awoke in a panic with the bedroom spinning. My immediate thought, ‘I'm having a stroke.’
My wife phoned our doctor to ask: “Should we call 911?” In a reassuring voice he told us that he had just seen a similar case and was quite certain my symptoms pointed not to a stroke but to vertigo. The world wasn’t spinning, but signals to my brain going haywire.
Fast-forward to 2020 and a world gone upside down.
In “The Unraveling of America," in this month’s Rolling Stone, Wade Davis highlights a new upended reality, one that I’ve witnessed first-hand while living the past seven years in Asia. American Exceptionalism, if it ever existed, has ended and to fix what's wrong will take longer than any vaccine, if ever.
“Odious as he may be, Trump is less the cause of America’s decline than a product of its descent...(and) Americans remain almost bizarrely incapable of seeing what has actually become of their country, (W. Davis)
Here in Asia friends and business associates view America’s free-fall with a mix of shear incredulity and palpable concern. Most are speechless about America’s Covid-19 death toll.
“Why are you letting so many die?"
Simple statistics make for stark contrasts. Malaysia, my current residence, a country of 32 million mourns 125 deaths. Florida, with 25 million residents, a similar climate and economic sectors will soon surpass 10,000 victims.
Numbers don’t lie. That’s left for elected leaders. America #1.
On the world stage with the curtain pulled back, concern grows in Asia of China moving forcefully to reshape regional order. Hong Kong is not an aberration. Just ask the Taiwanese. Or better yet, the Uighurs. Well, that’s not so easy as most are in what Human Right’s Watch refers to as prison camps, with recent reports of Chinese factories producing American goods with their forced labor. While I understand that China has few truly close allies in the region with America arguing about home mail delivery it's easy to imagine Beijing's glee.
Meanwhile the effects of America's decline have spread globally with pandemic-like ease. My friend Jim Brooke of Ukraine Business News reports Putin’s eyes squarely on Belarus. A rigged election and weeks of street demonstrations present an enticing opportunity for Russia to further isolate Ukraine from its European aspirations. With the admiring gaze of Trump, Putin has no fear of U.S. intervention.
“One day, it’s like a miracle. It will disappear?
In his Rolling Stone article, Davis suggestively asks if Trump’s Covid musings serve as a harbinger of America’s demise. Traveling abroad and carrying a U.S. Passport may offer a cruel, early-onset reality check. Want to visit Asia, Europe or nearly anywhere on the planet any time soon, get ready for this greeting.
“I'm sorry, all U.S. citizens must go into quarantine.”
“And, have a nice day.”
Returning to Penang this week from the nearby island of Langkawi, imagine my delight to find my new guesthouse across the street from The Upside Down Museum, proudly claiming itself as 'the first museum in the world to provide an upside down interior.'
As for what’s going on in the outside world, how's this for a new homegrown motto:
"America, the first developed country in the 21st Century to provide an upside down reality."
And my vertigo .. while it's never fully gone away I've learned to control it with non-traditional interventions. The most reliable technique involves violently shaking my head to jar things back into shape.
It's a practice I also recommend after catching up on your morning newsfeed here on LinkedIn.
###
Encourage you to read: https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/political-commentary/covid-19-end-of-american-era-wade-davis-1038206/