The Emperor and his goat and one other story

James is four. He likes telling us stories. They are a cheerfully lethal -- everyone dies in them. A further spoiler: Nobody gets married here.

The emperor and his goat

There was once an emperor who was traveling. He was riding a goat. It was his goat. He and the goat reached a bridge. From under the bridge came a bear and ate them.

Grandma: Is the story over?

James: No, the bear ate the emperor and his goat. But then another emperor came to take the place of the first one. He had a herd of goats with horns. They killed the bear. Then the new emperor ate some of the left-over goat because it was Christmas.

Edward: Is it over?

James: No, this next emperor lived until something else killed him. And so on.

The dragon

Once upon a time there was an emperor. He walked to a bridge. Under the bridge there was a dragon.

Dragon: I want chips for my tea!

The emperor did not have any chips with him, but called another man who came and gave the dragon chips. Then the dragon turned into the father of the emperor. Once he had the chips, he decided he loved the emperor. But later he turned back into a dragon and ate him anyhow. He ate him whole -- although, the feet stuck out of the dragon's mouth for some time.

For those of you who read Harap Alb by Ion Creanga -- the bridge and the father who wears a bear skin are there. So, it likely served as an inspiration for James. However, Ion Creaga gave his stories a happy ending where evil is defeated, and the hero and heroine get married. Things are murkier for James. Then there is Room on the broom -- a lovely book we've been reading by Julia Donaldson.

The year of Pandora comes to an end

I could not write an end of year post until now. Like most of the world I was too depressed and too worried until Joe Biden finally took over. Since today is inaguration day, 2020 has officially ended for me. Donald Trump was the president that made madness something permitted and applauded in the highest office -- that of president of the United States of America. He became a symbol of power in spite of all faults and a representative of a form of fake democracy, where "the educated ones" blame "the people who chose him" for all the mistakes of the new regime.

2020 was the year that showed what a bunch of incompetent presidents and politicians can do in the name of a virus. It is also the year of Brexit that might mean the end of the European Union and the beginning of madness in Europe. Brexit was facciliated by Boris Johnson -- the UK's version of Trump. Angela Merkel -- the peacekeeper of Europe -- promises to retire in 2021, and perhaps be replaced by another Trump-like person.

People always look for culprits and it's so easy to blame the elderly and the uneducated who aparently vote in all these elections that come out so shockingly close, and ruin the future. The closeness in results does not seem to depend on how different the candidates are. Such an election happened in 2000 as well. Bush went on to be president for 8 long years that deepened the climate crisis, and plunged the middle East into a war that is not yet over. In 2016, Trump won the election against Hillary Clinton in spite of all he said. It is claimed that his jargon where he talked about the size of his private parts and of grabing women by their private parts helped. It appealed to the masses they said. Yet, we have not pardoned Julian Assange -- there "no means no" and using women as weapons is a symbol of feminism. The UK lost many tens of millons of pounds guarding him, and his mistreatment continues. Any price seems to be worth paying to continue corruption at world-level and to plunge the world into hell vs. build a transparent political system, which seemes to be what Julian hoped for. In the meantime, politicians have partly moved on from destroying the middle East, and now help plunge Hong Kong and other parts of Asia into hell. Britain takes refugees from Hong Kong. They are high quality and will help the economy after Brexit.

I consider the storming of the US Capitol still part of the madness of 2020. I do not agree with the calls for the arrest of "via Getty" (or for that of his friend spagetti). And while the man with horns and the people wrapped in confederate flags are simbolic for the end of the Trump presidency, I am glad they did not hang Mike Pence and that there is no civil war to speak of.

On a personal level, I have not had major problems in 2020 once David moved on to CA to be with his mom. We miss him dearly, and when Edward enters the room wearing his clothes, I always seem to see David first and then realize it's Edward. However, it's all for the best. The first child I helped raise could not handle lock-down + no sport and online school. We did not have the strength or enough time and resources to help him through. He had long stopped listening to me or my mom. Movies and the online medium became more attractive than anything else. The fact that he crossed the world alone in the middle of a pandemic shows strength (only US citizens can enter America nowadays), and I hope that this strength together with the love and care he receives from his mother will help him thrive.

Like David and I wrote in May, perhaps 2020 was the year internet fought with oil and won. What will be the future after Pandora's box has been opened once again? I don't know. But I hope Biden and Harris will bring sanity and replace madness with values that are worth fighting for, and that the world will follow their lead.

Happy 2021 everyone!

The End of Corona-times?

When will this madness end? When will we agree that it's just a cold we have no choice but to live with? Vaccine or no vaccine?

My guess is that, if there is a peaceful transfer of power in the US on January 20, the COVID-19 lockdowns around the world will lose their intensity soon after.

If the US descends in civil war, Corona will continue to keep the rest of the world locked down for some time to come.

Sure, lockdown or no lockdown, vaccine or no vaccine, the pandemic will continue. In a few weeks, most people will be infected and immune. So, unless we have significant political forces at play, the madness should end.

We all imitate America. Trump has shown that madness is OK at the highest level. Thus, we should look forward to Trump copy-cats elected to rule the rest of the world. I worry what a Trump imitation will look like in Germany, Russia, Poland, India or China. Such copycats are likely to be more poor, more free and more violent. Like the original Trump, they will try to subvert their local frail democracies and, perhaps, win.

In the end, America may be great again. America, led by a more moderate Trump, with the more moderate and shorter Corona madness and, ultimately, in the hands of the moderate Joe Biden. An America where a reasonably tested COVID-19 vaccine is used, whereas, in other parts of the world, perhaps vaccines are developed more hastily, and with less care.

Vaccine or no Vaccine? This is the question.

Vaccines are generally safe. Nearly always, the side effects of vaccines are less serious than the disease they protect against.

Side effects exit, but they affect a very small number of the people who vaccinate. A well known recent example is Multiple Sclerosis in France, which appears to be caused by the Hepatitis B vaccine (see article also on pubmed).

Sure, even if all these MS cases are attributed to the Hepatitis B vaccine, the harm caused is still less than the harm that would have been caused by the Hepatitis itself. Thus, the vaccination campaign wasn't such a miserable failure.

Still, this is a cold... and, both the vaccine and the disease could potentially offer immunity for only a short time.

While I have no doubts about giving the vaccine to the elderly, and the medical practitioners with consent, I would think twice about giving it to children and pregnant women. Of course, the vaccine should be available for everyone just like the flu vaccine is.

Covid-19 appears to be a political phenomenon, much more than a medical problem. The mortality rate of 0.2%, which I put forward since February, doesn't justify the measures we've taken worldwide. It also, perhaps, doesn't justify a mandatory vaccine among the young and healthy.

It's just my view.

My wish for the new year: a peaceful transfer of power in the US and the end of the Corona-times.