Wednesday, 10 June 2020

Quarantine entry #81 - May 10


Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks. It looks as if the U.S. - Canadian borders are still closed, though some family members can still come across. Of course, what with the current ‘civil unrest’ in USA, there is also a question as to who is enforcing the border closure, (not that Canada is doing that much better), but…

…But first, let us be honest – a fair chunk of our family’s misery is our doing, if necessary, I could come back home, to Canada, but it would be worse for some many reasons that I do not want to get into, so that is that.

And second? Let us not make things worse. Yes, I am not particularly thrilled about how the current Ottawa government is handling the border issue, but right now, there already are people on both sides of the debate – open/don’t open – to make the situation worse. Considering that Canada’s current government is a Liberal/Conservative/NDP cooperative effort, this is not making the situation any clearer or better, and if enough pressure applies, then the entire government might either shut down completely or split into several factions, (along party lines most likely but not exclusive), and then Canada will stop being a normal country and start being something more along the lines of Riordan’s Hyperborea, which is inhabited by copper-headed basilisks, copper-beaked griffins, and an occasional Lestrygonian, of all creatures.

…No, it won’t be that bad, but the truth is that the current government doesn’t really handle crises and critical decisions very well; if forced to, it will open the U.S.-Canada border fully for real, but until then, it will wig and wag like a crazy bat in the autumn using anything to delay this event, period. Just look at how it had ‘copy and pasted’ the U.S. crisis on its’ own territory, the political geniuses! May it bite them all in the ass – but that will not be anything good for the Canadian people instead.

…Listen: the current Canadian government isn’t as bad as the Donald’s American one, it isn’t as far from the people as its’ U.S. counterpart is, but all the same? It is still a government, and it has flaws. Right now, with COVID-19 in the full swing, it decided to use civil unrest to let people release the steam, manifested by self-isolation – and then we will see what happens. If this civil unrest also allows people to forget, however temporarily, about their southern neighbor, whose actions lately made everyone uneasy, and Canada – especially so, then that is an added bonus! Hooray! …Any alternative is worse. Anything else?

…’Artemis Fowl’ the movie is coming out to Disney+ this Friday, (i.e. June 12, 2020). Even from the trailers and the pre-release summaries, it is evident that AF is going to be worse. Even from the trailers, it is evident that the movie is going to have little in common with the actual novel series, and that is just sad. I am not the biggest fan of the AF franchise, but even I am less than impressed by Disney’s and Disney+ take on it. It may not be the SW franchise, but given that American people are still pissed-off and worse by quarantine and etc., and are also starved for spectacle, (cough, George Floyd’s funeral, cough), if the AF movie fails, it can be another SW-level disaster for team Disney…

Speaking of disasters, let us get back to real life. Part of the reason as to why COVID-19 doesn’t seem to be dying, is because the world isn’t cooperating with itself; USA might’ve peddled and pushed its’ ‘global village’ franchise to the rest of the world in the post-Cold War 1990s and early 2000s, but as soon as the U.S. military had exhausted itself in Libya, (2011 onwards), and the first real challenge, (say, Putin’s annex of Crimea in 2014 or so), showed that U.S. may talk the talk, but can’t walk the walk, and that was enough. The American Dream, and the American World, (Pax Americana), began to crumble – and enter COVID-19, which showed that without America to push its’ (political in this case) goods around, everything is same old, everyone and their country are for themselves, and so here we are, in the now, with COVID-19 still dominating everyone and everything. That is depressing as fuck. It is also real life.

…Well, this is it for now, though. See you all soon instead!

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