Making and breaking

The signs had been there for some time – and still it was a shock, when Russia started a full-scale war of aggression in the midst of Europe on February 24, 2022. The shock was followed by outrage in the Western world. Then came the need to do something. Anything.

Since Finland has a long border with Russia, my own actions went in two directions. Like so many others, I quickly searched and found ways to aid the Ukrainians financially. Being a Finn, I also immediately looked for ways to prepare for hard times to come; both in terms of economy and security. We Finns like to be prepared for all eventualities.

When this first flurry of activities was over, I sat down and read all I could about the reasons that led to the war in Ukraine. I felt a need to understand, why this happened. It was a need that was shared by many.

Miles of news articles have been written in an attempt to analyse the why’s of the Russia-Ukraine war. There is an abundance of theories.

According to some, Putin is hankering to re-establish the Soviet Union. According to others, he is looking to recreate the Imperial Russia of 1721 or 1914.

Some remind us that Putin has referred to the Christian fascist Ivan Ilyin as his expert on the past. IIyin considered any talk of Ukraine separate from Russia the act of a mortal enemy of Russia. Lev Gumilyov, the anti-semitic co-developer of Eurasianism is also mentioned as one of Putin’s favourite reads.

Others focus on present day mentors such as Kirill, who styles himself as Patriarch of Moscow and all Rus´ (a title that was actually abolished by Peter the Great in 1721 only to resurface in 1917 and 1943). The list of present day mentors is often topped by historian and anthropologist Aleksandr Dugin, who has rhapsodised about an Eurasian empire (including a Turkic-Slavic alliance, which is an interesting tidbit) and espoused fascist views.

The main ideologic thread seems to be ‘Make Russia Great Again’. That being the why, the how often seems to be some form of anti-globalist, anti-Western (as in anti-US) and anti- liberalistic Eurasianism.

All in all this was such a mix of ideologic contradictions that I ended up confused albeit on a higher level with regard to Putin’s goals. Not that it matters. Whatever those goals were at the start of the Russia-Ukraine war, there is only one now: to look like a winner at least in his own corner of the world. However many lies and lives it may take.

My history binge did leave me with a clearer view of how privileged I was to have enjoyed a lifetime of peace, democracy and prosperity in my little corner of the world; a world that is full of unscrupulous leaders like Putin, who set little value on anything but their self-aggrandisement.

A thrice divorced friend once commented that it took her a long time to decide to ask for her first divorce. The threshold was high, because it was a jump into something unknown. The second time was much easier as the process itself and most of the end results were familiar by then. By her third divorce she worried that divorce had become a bad habit. A way to solve problems that created new ones.

The parallels to the war in Ukraine are clear. Putin has long been on the path to full-fledged war. No one effectively called him out on his earlier forays into Ukraine. His backing of the separatists in Donetsk and Luhansk caused some, but not too many, waves, and the Russian invasion and subsequent annexation of Crimea went all too smoothly. Hence war in Europe became a bad habit. One that will create far-reaching negative consequences everywhere, not only in Ukraine and Russia.

Like a wife, who finally recognises her husband for the serial cheater he is, the Western world has finally opened its eyes and recognised Putin for the serial liar he is. The divorce is getting messier by the day. The emotional ties have been broken, but the financial ties are difficult to break.

We each tend to look at the world from our own perspective. It is understandable that the Western world feels that the ‘whole world’ condemns the war Russia wages on Ukraine. In fact it doesn’t. In many parts of the world this is just a war among others.

Some leaders see the war in Ukraine as an opportunity to wage war in their own corner of the world without Western interference. Others see it as a means to justify unjustifiable actions, such as the further exploitation of protected lands that Brazil’s Bolsonaro is pursuing.

Major countries, such as China and India, are performing balancing acts that are embarrassing to watch. Their half-hearted calls for the cessation of violence are a prime example of ‘too little – too late’.

China continues to proclaim itself a great friend of Russia. At the same time it promises humanitarian aid to Ukraine and offers itself up as a peace negotiator. It doesn’t want to be involved and yet it involves itself. China’s strategy is not two-faced; it is so many-faced that one wonders, how the Chinese will keep all faces in line. Nothing would suit China better than to have Russia take the West down a notch and end up totally dependant on China while doing so.

The fact that China only sides with one country – itself – in the long run is not unique. Most countries tend to look after their own interests. But few do it in such a convoluted manner.

I have blogged about China’s treatment of the Uighurs and its forays into mind control, surveillance and social engineering (MCSSE for short). Now I watch Russia going into full MCSSE mode. At the same time China skirts around the truth of the war in Ukraine and edits the information it feeds to its population of 1,4 billion accordingly. Up to this day (the narrative may change) there is no full-scale war in Ukraine as far as the Chinese government is concerned. There is only a Russian military operation related to Donetsk and Luhansk.

I started blogging, when Donald Trump was elected, because I recognised early on that this was a man, who had little respect for democracy and freedom of speech; a man, who thrived on fear and unreason. Still I made fun of his alternative facts. I never thought fake news were here to stay. Sadly, they are actually a key trend (to end all trends?) of our times. In olden days the masses were kept ignorant of any and all facts. Now they are actively fed fully fabricated alternative ones.

It is always a good idea to question and cross-check the things one reads, hears, or thinks one sees. Even those who do their best to check their information get their facts wrong at times.

Some facts, however, are undeniable: Putin started the war against Ukraine – and he didn’t do it to fight nazis or fascists of any kind. His own actions are the closest one gets to fascism in this war. Putin’s army is bombing civilians all over Ukraine. The people of Ukraine never asked for this kind of help. Even the most hard core Putin fans in separatist Donetsk and Luhansk may have a hard time convincing themselves that all is as it should be.

If the goal is to turn back time, Putin has already succeeded. He has turned back the Russian economy; not all the way to 1721, but some estimate even as far as 100 years back, when all is said and done.

I end up with one final thought – the one that has kept the Ukrainians fighting, and will keep me fighting in my own small way: Democracy and freedom of speech are worth fighting for, whatever form that fight might take. My wake-up call was not the Russia-Ukraine war. I woke up to the need to fight the day Donald Trump was elected.

Doom-doom-doomers

I address my message today to the Terrifying Triplets, the authors of present day doom and gloom – not only in their respective superpowers but worldwide. I am not referring to the pandemic. I give the Triplets the benefit of doubt on that one. I am talking about the games they play with people’s lives.

Hey, doom-doom-doomers, please put some ice in your hats and cool it. Let’s not get crazy – or rather, let’s not get any more crazy.

To summarise the mess that the doomers have made so far:

Trump, America’s Darth Vader, managed to slice his country in two with his laser beam of alternative facts and bullying. While he was at it, he sliced a big chunk off the base of Western democracy and made us question its survival; trust and human decency were suddenly in short supply. Now he is trying to claw his way back into the presidential game.

In the meantime, Xi Jinping has been busy doggedly enacting Orwell’s 1984. After perfecting his mind control- surveillance- social engineering strategy on his test site, the Uighurs, he has been slowly rolling out the concept to all of China and is now ready for worldwide expansion.

It is understandable that Putin has felt a little bit left out. No to mention the fact that others have been picking on him. The Ukraine mess is not of Putin’s making alone. This may partially explain why he has gone into full Peter the Great mode. Traditional war is so old and out, but you use what you have, when trolling and cyberattacks alone won’t do the trick.

Seriously doomers, why are you wasting your energy on bullying, trolling and outright war, whether physical or virtual.

Any strategy adviser worth her or his salt would tell you that you should tend to your existing portfolios and turn around present businesses, not spread your efforts to markets, where establishing yourself will cost you dearly, only to result in failure.

While you are at it, beware of halving your portfolio as Trump did.

The first thing a strategist learns is that you need to understand the market. Is it worth the effort? Then you look at the business. What is key to market success: the people, the IPR:s, the technology (be it software or hardware), or other immaterial or physical assets? Can you hold on to those assets? Can you add value to the business? Can you scale the business? What about the culture? What obstacles will you face upon integration? Is it all worth the price you will have to pay?

As I am not that familiar with the ins and outs of other countries, I will take Finland as an example. Finland is very much a people business. The country has survived mostly on brains and Finnish ‘sisu’. The latter translates into strength of will, determination, perseverance and acting rationally in the face of adversity.

The market is small and the business is not scalable.

A hostile takeover would not end well in this case example. Even niceoldladies would turn nasty overnight. The end result would compare to the acquisition of a thriving consultancy business at a high price, only to find that the consultants you paid so much for are now fully committed to undermining your business efforts any which way they can.

Not-so-dear doomers, you should be focusing on sustainable organic growth rather than costly growth by acquisition. You should be cleaning up your political closets, tending to the needs of your people and addressing the crucial question of climate change.

As you, my readers, have noted by now, this is not a blog about the video game Doom. Some of you may even have noticed that I am paraphrasing Finland’s Prime Minister Sanna Marin in my headline.

Pre-Omicron, Ms. Marin and her husband were caught clubbing with friends and acquaintances. Contrary to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s partying that is presently making the headlines, Marin’s clubbing was – at the time – fully in line with the COVID restrictions placed on Finns in general, albeit not fully in line with the added restrictions placed on cabinet ministers. Hence Marin’s political opponents and the media had a field day criticising her and dubbing her ‘the party princess’.

Normally the clubbing incident would be history by now. However, Marin unwittingly made it unforgettable at one sweep, when she tried to put a stop to the discussion on Instagram. The text of her post read: “Hey, boom-boom-boomer, put ice in your hat and cool it.” Needless to say, the post was not well-received by Finnish boomers.

Despite being a boomer myself, I was fine with the not-too-wild-at-all clubbing, but the Instagram post made me question Marin’s political acumen. The incident, once again, proved that prime ministers should not personally tweet or post on Instagram.

Not that Mr. Johnson did any better, when he tried to brush off the matter of the Downing Street party that broke the COVID lockdown rules by stating: “Nobody told me that what we were doing was against the rules.” Seriously man, is that really the story you want to go with? Who do you think is in charge of setting those rules?

Both PM:s were clearly off their game during these incidents. But the thing that strikes me as worse is all the petty politicking and scandal-mongering that was – and still is -taking place around matters like this. Leaders have enough on their plate these days. Let’s keep our eye on the big issues.

You might think that this blog post is prompted by Russia’s present warmongering. You would be right and wrong. It is just part of the picture. The spreading of doom and gloom has been going on much longer. First we saw the tip of the iceberg, now the bulk of it is slowly coming into view.

The Terrifying Triplets are dinosaurs, who have lost themselves in dreams of past and future glory instead of addressing the everyday needs of their people.

Leaders with untenable strategies inevitably find themselves in a position they never sought: Sailing off alone towards the final sunset.

One can only hope that we don’t end up on the brink of extinction before these present day dinosaurs sail off and give the world a chance to do better.

A moment of hope in Alicante

It happened early in November 2021. For a brief moment, life was sunny and filled with hope. The world seemed to be moving back towards a state of tentative normalcy.

The COVID Omicron variant had yet to surface. Putin had yet to ramp up his rhetoric regarding Ukraine and NATO to its present levels of aggressiveness. China’s ruthless trade war against Lithuania, an example of Tianxia in practice, had yet to make the Finnish news. Even Trump was laying low in terms of international visibility.

Less than two months later, we are back in the cold, be it in terms of superpower politics, COVID statistics or the weather. Finland and Finns are feeling the chill acutely on all fronts.

Let’s, however, focus on the positive. Join me on a trip back in time: to November 2021 and sunny Alicante.

My partner in life and I have long had the habit of heading for sunnier shores in November; a habit that was cut off by COVID-19 last year. This November we finally felt safe enough to pack our bags and take off again. It was our first trip abroad since February 2020, i.e. since ages ago.

On an airport you often feel slightly disconnected from the world. This time the disconnect was greater than ever as we found our way from check-in to our departure gate. Mask-faced crowds marched to-and- fro all around us, dragging carry-on bags along the endless airport corridors like industrious, faceless ants.

We had prepared diligently for our trip. Our vaccinations were in order, our EU Digital COVID vaccination certificates were accessible from all devices, the digital forms required by the Spanish government had been filled well in advance in the app provided, printed copies of all documents were packed into every bag, and we had enough masks to travel for a month instead of the ten days we planned to stay in Alicante. Our chosen hotel advertised many COVID safety measures, including the obligatory use of masks in all public spaces.

In other words, we landed in Alicante in full COVID mode.

For those, who are as unfamiliar with the city as we were upon arrival; Alicante is a historic Mediterranean port. It is the capital of the province of Alicante, which in turn is a part of the Valencian community. The population of the city itself is close to 340,000. Both in terms of atmosphere and location, Alicante is in between its southern counterpart, Malaga, and its northern counterpart, Valencia.

Before the pandemic, Alicante would have been nice but nothing out of the ordinary. Now everything felt new and interesting as we slowly woke up from our COVID-induced hibernation.

Granted, pandemic or not, I am hard put to find a hotel as conveniently situated as Melia Alicante, which sits between a nice beach and a scenic yacht harbour, has a bona fide historic castle looming above it, and still remains within walking distance of everything you might want to see or do.

Even though the COVID situation was good at the time, we preferred to skip public transportation. Alicante is eminently walkable. We took a taxi only when coming and going to the airport and travelling to nearby Elche to see its multiple palm parks.

Due to our sailing background, the Ocean Race Museum was a must-see for us. It tells the story of the Ocean Race, formerly known as the Volvo Ocean Race and originally called the Whitbread Round the World Race. This globe-circling yacht race was first held in 1973.

The museum is – probably somewhat unintentionally – a quick crash course in how our lives have changed since the 70’s due to technology. It highlights the technological advances that have taken place in multiple areas, be it e.g. weather forecasting, navigation, communication, design, materials or construction. It shows us how the speed of everything has accelerated and underlines the fact that the skill sets needed to compete successfully have changed fundamentally. 

A must-see for all Alicante visitors is Santa Barbara Castle. The castle area itself is interesting and the views are to die for in good weather. The castle’s history goes back to the 9th century. It was recaptured from the Arabs in 1248 on the feast day of Saint Barbara.

The castle elevator at the floor of the mountain was closed due to COVID, one more  reminder that times were not fully back to normal. It proved to be a blessing in disguise in our case. There are many scenic routes to the castle. Walking up and down is definitely worth the effort. 

To summarise our moment of hope in Alicante: For a small moment, life was back to nearly normal. Skies were blue, the sun was shining, and we were out and about pretty much like on any other trip: enjoying sights, delicious meals and some really good wines (Alicante has some surprisingly good restaurants) in a cocoon of perceived safety. At the end of each day, we were lulled to sleep by the sound of waves hitting the beach in front of our hotel.

We had arrived in full COVID mode and departed ten days later in a state of relaxed hopefulness.

I keep going back to this moment of hope in my mind and take comfort from it amidst the cold, which is why I decided to share it with you.

There is a Finnish saying, “Paistaa se päivä risukasaankin”, which translates into “The sun will shine into a pile of brushwood too”. May the sun shine into your pile of brushwood, wherever it is – as it did into mine for a moment in Alicante.

From 1984 to the metaversum

Peace reigns in the little city of Tammisaari. Nothing in this idyllic corner of the world brings to mind George Orwell’s iconic novel 1984. Yet my thoughts drift to it.

Orwell was far ahead of his time, but not far enough. He imagined a world ruled by totalitarian superpowers; a world full of mass surveillance; a world where history was rewritten, alternative facts were introduced as truths, and cults were built around leaders. We saw all of these trends escalating, when the Terrifying Triplets, Trump, Putin and Xi Jinping (identical in mindset, if not parentage), were in charge of the world’s superpowers. Two out of the three still remain in office, and the third is frantically scrambling to get back into the game using every imaginable – and most probably some unimaginable – means.

The Chinese have taken Orwell a step further. Especially those, who subscribe to the Chinese cultural concept Tianxia and envision a world with only one center from which the rulers of different areas derive their power. While the Western world plays around with concepts like ‘back to the 60’s, 80’s, or whatever’, the Chinese play around with the concept of ‘back to a worldwide rule similar to that of the Emperor of China’. The latter lasted for thousands of years.

But even Orwell and the Chinese have yet to imagine a metaversum – a virtual world above and beyond our present one. Talk about thinking out of the box – straight into the Matrix. Kudos to Zuckerberg and those faceless entities behind him. They really think big. Why bother with physical wars, states and borders, treaties and laws. Just take the world population and virtually shift it to the metaversum ruled by you.

And yes, I do understand that the metaverse in itself is nothing new, hence the term metaversum to distinguish between the underlying technology and the content.

My favourite newspaper, Helsingin Sanomat, recently ran an article on the rise of companies like Atai Life Sciences, Mind Medicine and Compass Pathways. All of these companies engage in research of psychedelics and the use of them to fight e.g. mental illness. At first glance, this has nothing to do with the topic above. However, the ownership and direction of a company can easily change.

These seemingly separate issues took on a whole new life during a lively family discussion about potential combinations of the metaversum and psychedelics. As the family library used to contain hundreds of science fiction books before its remove to Kindle, some pretty scary alternatives were envisioned. The potential for the trip of a lifetime – in more ways than one – was clear.

As you can see, I am jumping all over the place, combining issues with a free hand. There is a common thread, however. I wonder when we will confess to ourselves that things are slowly, but surely, spinning out of the national and international controls we have set up so far. Even though it is hard to notice in slumbering cities like Tammisaari.

I know climate change is a big issue, and I support every effort to save Planet Earth. But what about its people? Are we doing enough to ensure that they will be free to enjoy the planet we – hopefully – save; or will the world fall on its own digital sword one way or another, while we just watch from the sides and blog about it?

I keep coming back to the totalitarian mantra from 1984: “War is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength”. It seems the world is intent on building on said strength. A foundation similar to quicksand.

I feel as overwhelmed as Orwell’s main character, Winston. Democracy seems to be slipping away. Not only due to actions of the Terrifying Triplets and like-minded leaders but also due to actions of multinational companies seemingly beyond democratic controI.

Call me suspicious, but I have stayed out of Facebook aka Meta and I will definitely stay out of the metaversum. Most of my cheerfully facebooking friends will probably not even notice that they entered it.

Leaders and followers

Important fights are being fought today – and have been fought throughout history – in the name of social, political and economic equality. Many of them for causes that I support; not only with words but with actions.

However, being a niceoldlady and an old school liberal, I have a tough time buying into some of the fighting methods. All too often the fighters are so caught up in the righteousness of their cause that they are intolerant in the name of tolerance, harass in the name of non-harassment and at times even call for glaringly unequal treatment in the name of equality.

To be clear, when denouncing calls for glaring inequality, I don’t mean calls for measures that can help minorities catch up with the head start that years of inequality have given those in positions of power. Sometimes such catching up can best be facilitated through measures that in themselves are unequal treatment including, but not limited to, quotas.

However, lines have to be drawn somewhere. Mine are drawn pretty much at the point where French writer Pauline Harmange proudly states: ‘Mois les hommes, je les déteste’, which basically translates to ‘I Hate Men’. This is not just a catchy title for her pamphlet as one might assume; it is the prevailing sentiment throughout her essay. The thinking being that you are allowed to blatantly hate those that have done you wrong, if you are in a minority.

Even if one were to buy into that theory, the problem remains that not all men have done Harmange, or women in general, wrong. Still Harmange feels free to profess to hate men in general. I am not into hating, but should I profess to hate something, it would be sweeping generalisations and hate speech.

Then there are those, who feel free to rewrite history and interpret past actions with total disregard for facts and truth just to prove their point. My favourite newspaper recently carried a major story on women as software engineers. To make a short story longer, the writer took all sorts of liberties both with facts and their interpretation.

As if gender equality wasn’t a good enough cause on its own merits, the writer saw a great conspiracy in the fact that Finnish card punchers in the early 1960’s and 70’s were predominantly female, while a majority of the early 70’s software engineers were male.

As one commentator pointed out, card punching (a computer-related job, which in itself required great concentration and careful execution, but had nothing to do with software engineering) was as closely related to software engineering as my online banking is. In order for the software to work properly, the inputted information has to be correct, but that does make the one who punches or types in the information a software engineer.

Instead of acknowledging this, the article writer sweepingly alluded that the female card punchers could be considered the first software engineers, and that the hiring tests for software engineers were different from those for card punchers in order to favour men. The fact that the jobs were totally different – hence the hiring tests were different too – did not fit into her storyline. Therefore it was disregarded.

The writer then proceeded to speculate that the use of the term software was related to the fact that the early card punching “software engineers” were women and hence the programs were considered easy to produce i.e. ‘soft’ as opposed to the term hardware, which referred to something difficult and hard.

And here I was, thinking that the use of the term hardware originated from the mid 15th century concept of small metal goods i.e. referred to the physical components of a computer.

The sad thing is that with less emphasis on proving a point by any means – right or wrong – and more emphasis on getting the facts right, the article would have been interesting. Instead, it became a sorry example of how a good article can turn bad and a good cause can be undermined by blatantly disregarding facts.

Finland was actually training both male and female software engineers as fast as they could be hired in the early 70’s. The real story to tell would have been, why the number of female software engineers didn’t increase in proportion to the early numbers. That story did not make its way to the surface past the alternative facts, so it has yet to be told.

Wrongs do not a right make. The spreading of hate and unreason – or just alternative facts and untruths – do not promote equality; they promote hate and unreason as well as an increasing disregard for facts and truth.

Yet my favourite newspaper chose not to correct the story, but to argue that by reading the whole article a discerning reader would realise that card punchers were not software engineers, despite what the title of the article and the alternative facts presented in the early paragraphs of it claimed.

Since when did good journalism mean that the sorting of facts from fiction was to be left to the reader?

Social media has a tendency to make mountains out of molehills, but it also has the power to highlight wrongs that deserve our attention, yet they might never have come to our notice through old school channels. Most people recognise that things may be blown out of proportion, or less thoroughly researched, on social media sites. Which is why it’s so important that traditional media continues to take a more factual and in depth approach.

Originally newspapers where just that – papers with the latest news. With the growth of electronic media as well as the internet and social media, newspapers didn’t have the means to keep themselves in the forefront as news breakers. Instead, they focused on the context and the background of news.

Today social media darlings with little or no journalistic background are invited to write for newspapers in order to keep up with times and win over the next generation of readers. Unfortunately, fact-checking seems to be the first to suffer from this development.

Why give up your true competitive advantage? In addition to its adherence to time-tested journalistic ethics and standards, the reliability of its fact-checking process has so far been the true value-added of my favourite newspaper. Both are missing on social media.

Life is messy. Life is complicated. Life is seldom Instagram-ready or Twitter-formatted. Social media can serve as a podium for all sorts of voices: from silly to wise, from scary to nice, from hate to love; but we still need the context and the background.

A good newspaper is all about getting the story right and interesting enough – not about making sure it’s catchy and instantly trends whatever the cost. There will always be leaders and followers. A good newspaper does not let itself fall into the latter category as times change. It finds new ways to build on its competitive advantage instead of eroding it.

Privacy, Chinese bots, nice old ladies and a bottle of wine

If I were to ask you, which of the above is a rarity in my everyday life, chances are you would answer Chinese bots. You would be wrong. Colour me surprised, when it dawned on me that my blog’s most loyal fans are Chinese bots.

Or so I assume. I find it hard to believe that there is a rising demand for Niceoldlady blogs among real, live Chinese people. Especially during times, when no new blogs have been forthcoming.

It should be comforting to know that someone still follows me – despite my literary dry spells. Instead it highlights the way China has become obsessed with surveillance of everyone and everything. There is no matter insignificant enough to end up under the radar as far as China is concerned: Proof positive being my blog, which is fun to write, but grantedly insignificant.

To make my Chinese followers visits worth the effort, I have decided to take an in depth look at China. In depth meaning that after reading a few books and googling China, I will write whatever comes to mind and try to sound like I put a lot of thought into it.

Which doesn’t necessarily mean my thinking will be any further from the truth than those thoroughly compiled China analyses that well known international ‘think tanks’ keep churning out at a steady – and costly – rate.

One thing is certain. My blog will be just as factual and comprehensive as the information shared by the Chinese regarding the origins of the coronavirus, not to mention Chinese statistics.

Let’s start with a key strength. The Chinese have something I, and many other Westerners, don’t have: patience.

It may take a few generations, but if you keep moving steadily towards your set goal, you will get there in the end, irrespective of the course changes needed to avoid obstacles on your way.

What is the goal? Where is China heading? In addition to creating a wealthy socialist state, China’s openly stated goal for 2050 has as of 2018 been to become a leading global economic, industrial and political power. In other words, to regain the position that was lost in the 19th century and then some.

To make a long story short, China is heading towards you and me and everything around us. Buying, spying, doing what great powers do – and aiming to do it better than others.

Some claim that the Chinese approach to winning is not your classic ‘go in for the kill’, but more along the line that it is better to leave some scraps to the competition, so that they are tied up in safeguarding what remains and thereby less prone to attack to regain all that was lost. I decided to toss that in here, because the concept has merit, whether the Chinese actually buy into it or not.

I am all for ambitious goal-setting. I also think it is smart of China to focus on artificial intelligence as a means to gain its goals.

But dear Chinese friends, no one is an island. Potential friends are friends no more, when you put them under unauthorised surveillance and try to hijack their intellectual property, knowledge bases, and politics – not to mention blogs.

There you have your answer dear readers – the Chinese bots, the nice old lady, and even the bottle of wine are all part of my everyday life. Privacy, however, is becoming more and more rare. Not only thanks to my Chinese followers, but also thanks to every Tom, Dick and Harry (no genders presumed) serving me cookies and mining my data.

When it all becomes too much – retreat. While the wine works too, I can warmly recommend butterfly photography as a means of escapism.

Divine intervention

Years ago my four-year old son came home from his day care centre in a huff. Someone at the centre had taken on the daunting task of explaining God to four-year-olds. My son’s take on the matter was that God resided in heaven and heaven was somewhere in the clouds.

If the story of Amazon kicking Parler off Amazon Cloud had broken that day, my son would probably have seen it as divine intervention.

However, as that story was to unfold some 40 years later, my son’s mind was instead wrapped around the – in his mind totally impossible – idea that people searched for God. How could that be true, he questioned. There is no ladder tall enough to reach the clouds.

On a more serious note, when global mega-actors like Facebook, Twitter and Amazon finally restrict the results of their own actions – their enabling of the spreading of fake news, hate and violence – there is nothing divine about their intervention. They are just scrambling to safeguard their backs.

It’s like the call for non-violence that Trump finally made. Too little, too late, and guided purely by self-interest.

None of these people should have been given the power they have today: not Trump, not the decision makers of Facebook, Twitter and Amazon. I think we all see it clearly, but have no idea what to do about it.

Yet the problem needs to be addressed. There has to be a reasonable way to make sure that social media giants can’t act as gods of free – or censored – speech on their platforms without any real outside control. Owners come and go, platforms easily remain, whether benign – or not.

It’s not only about allowing calls for hate and violence on worldwide platforms. It’s just as much about the ability to suddenly turn the off-switch on a president, however misguided he may be. None of these decisions should be solely up to a few decision makers, whose primary loyalty is to their investors.

Since self-restriction is difficult, there has to be enough outside pressure to ensure that the fine line between free speech and criminal, systematic misguidance is drawn by institutions that have been set up for that purpose with due process.

No border safety measures and defence programs are more important than this. The ever-existing missile threat may prove to be a small problem compared to the threat posed by the potential to subtly and systematically spread disinformation to billions of people.

This has to become a priority for decision makers, however long their to-do lists already are.

Trump did teach us something valuable. The Former White House Chief of Staff John Kelly has the right of it: We need to look infinitely harder at who we elect, including examining the candidate’s character and ethics.

However, since this is easier said than done, we also need to look infinitely harder at how lying and bullying could become the presidential norm overnight.

My favourite newspaper, Helsingin Sanomat, published a remarkably thorough info package on the what, where, when and why of the Epiphany of Trump’s Presidency.

I am not referring to the Christian holiday Epiphany – although the dates do coincide. I am referring to the storming of the U.S. Capitol; the sudden manifestation of the essential nature of Trump’s presidency: Self-inflicted chaos.

One of Helsingin Sanomat’s excellent articles explained how the angry dissent that Trump built on has been steadily growing online since the early days of the web. What the article forgot to mention is that extremist groups become big much more easily, when they have access to big platforms with algorithms that speed up their growth.

Trump could write the manual on “How to lie and bully your way to the White House”, but he could not have succeeded in creating the chaos of today without Twitter and Facebook.

It’s time to move on and make sure that votes still matter, that good government still matters. We need international co-operation and legislation to ensure that reason prevails on and off social media in the future.

Note: My featured image is an excerpt from Angeles Santos’ painting “A World”. Since the painting is from 1929, it’s safe to say that is was never meant as a commentary on Trump or social media. But somehow it fits our world today. Sadly, my camera never caught the whole painting.

Finding a way back

Sometimes it takes a while for reason to prevail. I wrote my blog Bowing to fear and unreason in December 2016. It remains to be seen whether I was right. Will America find its way back from the abyss of fear and unreason that it has been dragged into these past 4 years?

As my blog of 2016 proves, it is no mystery how America ended up where it is. The country has been there before. I hope I was right in my conclusion too. Democracy is still alive and well. The system will correct itself with a little help from the American people.

Hopefully there will be a day of reckoning for the active promoters of the fear and unreason that Trump’s travesty of a presidency brought about.

App attack

I am under attack. My life has been taken over by apps. Whether I am entering my home, calling an elevator, banking, buying, or using products and services; everything is “conveniently” handled through apps.

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