Into the World:
The Random Thoughts in My Mind

Scholars of geopolitics have been talking about geographical chokepoints for decades. The Strait of Hormuz for oil, Malacca for Asia, and Gibraltar for the Mediterranean are all raised as fine examples of narrow waters that, if blocked, can bring national economies tumbling down. Their strategic values remain paramount, and their controls a matter of national security. The recent blockage of the Suze Canal, a manmade geographical chokepoint, showed just how vulnerable the world economy is when such a narrow body of water is suddenly rendered inaccessible. Billions of dollars of trade are lost and the attention of global media remains fixated on the blockage.

After spending months denying that COVID-19 is a big issue in Tanzania and promising that God will save the country from the epidemic, Tanzanian president John Magufuli was suddenly pronounced dead. His death only comes weeks after his public disappearance, leading to speculation that he was airlifted to Kenya for urgent medical treatment. More than his denial of the seriousness of COVID, Western media made sure to include references to his attacks on Tanzanian democratic institutions and opposition politicians since coming to power in 2015 in their obituaries of Magufuli, implying that his death provided a chance for Tanzania to reverse its democratic decline.

It has already become a cliche to say that the COVID-19 pandemic will be revolutionary for human civilization. Countries keen on securing vaccines and personal protective equipment have worked quietly to roll back globalized supply chains built up over past decades. Differing policies and level of success handling the virus' spread in different countries mean that, at least soon, the physical mingling of a globalized elite will be minimized, as airlines fail and borders shut. What people took for granted as everyday life, such as going to school and commuting to work, will remain somewhat of luxuries that are subject to cancellations and restrictions at any time based on public health concerns.

As the global vaccination efforts against COIVD continue steadily, governments are preparing for how to systematically handle international travel in the post-COVID world. Aside from putting in place measures that detect new cases from incoming travelers, facilities to quarantine, and creating institutions responsible for continued monitoring, governments around the world are seeing a new "vaccination passport" as a way to ensure safe travel on a large scale while minimizing risks of a new contagion. The argument goes that if there is some sort of global standard for assurances of a traveler's inoculation from epidemic diseases, costly prevention measures would become obsolete.

It seems like the MeToo movement has finally hit the pop music industry. The grassroots criticism of how male managers and guardians of young pop stars like Britney Spears that have been brewing for years and decades have now re-emerged as society reexamines the power dynamic of the entertainment industry, with older men in power abusing their power to overwhelmingly benefit, both financially and sexually, from the hard work of female workers. As the world comes to acknowledge and be appalled by the behavior of Harvey Weinstein and his associates over the course of decades, there is a growing call for other men to come forward with their misdeeds.

When people talk about automation in the world of work, they assume that it is the unskilled blue-collar laborers that will be the victims of it. As factories and warehouses depend more and more on machines to operate, thousands upon thousands of people who depend on their hands and feet for a living will be out of work, with nowhere to go since other menial jobs they are qualified to do are also disappearing. In this scenario, the wealth gap between the uneducated, vulnerable to automation, and the educated, evermore in demand due to their ability to thinking critically and innovate, will only become wider and wider.

「お二人は3月にゴールインしました！」goes the TV program that discusses the relationship trajectory of a newlywed couple. Literally stating that "the two people reached the 'goal in' in March," this phrase uses "goal in," a Japanese-made English term that is commonly used to refer to two people that have been dating for a long time getting to the stage of marriage. The term is so commonly used that Japanese speakers rarely think about the underlying implication of the term itself, and how marriage, as an institution, is perceived within modern Japanese culture.