…heretofore from Singapore…
'I see another female CEO, Kelly Bayer Mosmarin has fallen on her sword, to take the blame for yet another Optus Corporate stuff up. Isn’t it amazing that when the men fuck up, they go out with a $20 million-plus early retirement pay-out,’ said Janno,
'I can just imagine what happened,’ said Johno. ‘She would have looked to the SingTel chairman, the conspicuously missing heretofore from Singapore, for advice. “How will I answer, if they ask me at the press briefing, if I intend to resign due to the latest disastrous outage?” He would have smiled insincerely, and told her to stay true to the original Optus branding, “Just say Yes.”
'Like it or not, we now live in a world of the twenty-four-hour news cycle, and sound bites designed for social media,’ he continued. ‘So compelling communication skills are a pre-requisite to being a successful leader, be it in business or politics. Unfortunately, this has spawned the rise of the charismatic populist figures, who understand how to effectively engage with the masses. Unfortunately, as we know, it doesn’t mean they are good or effective leaders, as the Boris and Trump show has demonstrated.’
'Now we even have the Netherlands of all places, lurching to the extreme right,’ said Janno, obviously concerned, ‘with the populist Geert Wilders looking to be their next Prime Minister.’
'When the Dutch played the Wilders card, was it a protest vote that had unintended consequences, or was it really a strong anti-EU, anti-Islam party sentiment? Plus, it won’t be good for Ukraine, or NATO, if the Dutch withdraw their military support,’ Johno replied.
'It would be interesting to know if RasPutin and the Russians conducted any interference activities in the Dutch election’ said Janno.
’Well Russia already has a connection with the Netherland,’ said Johno smiling. ‘Russian soldiers with their well-known propensity for drinking large quantities of spirits, for Dutch courage.’
Janno, turned on the television for the news, the lead story was the latest update from The Middle East.
As part of a background briefing on the present Gaza conflict, Alphy had just reported back to AC on the history of Arab-Israeli conflict in the past seventy-five years: 1948 First Arab-Israel War, 1951 Palestinian Fedayeen, 1956 Suez War, 1967 Six Day War, 1973 Yom Kippur War, 1982 Lebanon War, 1987 First Intifada, 2000 Second Intifada, 2006 Fatah-Hamas split. This is just one of the ‘perpetual’ conflicts the Saps have maintained in recent history, he had explained to the Guardians. Each time, attempts at Peace talks ultimately failing. They have no effective method of conflict negotiation and resolution at a global level, he explained. Therefore, the merry-go-round of conflict continues unabated.
'How do you expect to resolve the conflict in Gaza or anywhere else in the world if here we are in 2023, and you don’t have an effective universally accepted dispute settling mechanism,’ Alphy said, clearly angry. ‘The United Nations is United in name only. An admirable ideal, sadly corrupted over time and largely impotent.’
'More like the Benighted Nations,’ quipped Johno.
Alphy continued, ‘without effective conflict resolution, the root causes of the conflict are never identified and resolved, which eventually leads to more conflict. Resulting in a never-ending cycle of phoney peace, inevitably interspersed with violent eruptions.’
'The problem is, Alphy, that a win-win outcome is not always possible. Sometimes the claims are mutually exclusive, and therefore the harsh reality is a win-lose result,’ replied Johno.
Alphy responded, ‘To quote the Stones Johno, You can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, well, you just might find find, you get what you need!’