The Dalai Lama scuffed his own immaculate well-shined aura when making an off-the-cuff remark about the prospect of a female Dalai Lama. She should be more attractive, he said whilst chortling at his own joke. Throughout his long career as the spiritual leader of Tibet, he has preached against the objectification of women and supported gender equality. His foray into the issue of EU refugees this week was also an aberration, a far cry from his usual high standard of public pronouncements. His suggestion that Europe should be left to Europeans and refugees from Africa and the Middle East should return home eventually, caused quite a stir. A statement from his office later acknowledged that not all refugees wish to return to their homeland or are able to. If only he had pondered for longer.
Very sad are the cases of Sam Ballad and David Dowell who both died from accepting their mates’ silly dares. Ballad went into a coma, was paralysed before he died from eating a slimy slug. It looked harmless but revolting enough to the group of teenagers to challenge him to swallow it whole. Ballad developed rat lungworm disease from ingesting the infected slug. It took eight awful years before his life ebbed away. Dowell also accepted a silly dare and died in absolute agony two weeks after a bout of salmonella poisoning. His death certificate said he died from eating a Gecko. If only they had pondered for longer.
Yesterday, Australia’s Federal Court overturned the Home Affairs minister’s deportation of a convicted wife killer on the grounds that it could not be proven the minister, Peter Dutton, took more than eleven minutes to make his decision to deport the urghhling back to Malta. The lucky murderer who was also convicted of assaulting his cell mate and had his sentence extended by two years, can now safely call Australia home again. It is clear to many that the man is a very bad guy. Why would anyone not want to throw away a bad apple? All Mr Dutton had to do was ponder for a bit longer, or at least appear to do so, no matter the crystal clarity of his mind. For appearances’ sake? That’s the ugliness the legal system is moulding society into?
As for Donald Trump’s tirade over trade, his on-again-off-again Tariff Wars with so many countries will eventually lose their effect with friend and foe. His self belief in his ability to clinch big deals may have been formed from some success in his commercial manoeuvres but on the world stage, nations are starting to see through his bluff. At the recent G20 summit in Osaka, the world saw him blink whilst playing for high stakes at the table. His embarrassing backdown from imposing more tariffs on China coupled with his reversal of trade restrictions imposed on Huawei on the grounds of national security concerns were fiercely denounced by only those most hawkish against China. Of course, we ought not be surprised if he reverses his reversal of the trade ban on Huawei. It was only less than twelve months earlier that the US lifted their ban on selling components to ZTE Corp, which the Americans accused of violating sanctions against Iran and North Korea. So, Trump has again surrendered to one of China’s major technology company accused of threatening US national security. His latest offensive is now against the European Union over the EU’s subsidies of Airbus SE. For the past 15 years, the WTO has found both sides guilty of heavily subsiding their aircraft industry. Trump said Trade wars and Tech wars are easy for America to win. Another embarrassing backdown beckons for the US. These are not weak countries that America can simply bull-doze over with impunity. Why won’t the urghhling ponder for longer?
Urghhlings, please heed Albert Einstein who once said, “Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth.” Let us ponder for longer.
Urghhlings 