Into the World:
The Random Thoughts in My Mind

Finding myself on the streets of Shanghai for the first time since 2017 , I was rather surprised by the vibrancy with which the street life returned to the megacity. With major international news outlets covering the popping of the real estate bubble, the high unemployment rates among the youth, and stagnant wages, it is easy to come to the conclusion that people are less willing to spend the decreasing salaries from increasingly precarious jobs. Yet, despite the anecdotal and statistical evidence that would discourage such development, the streets are seeing more and more shops competing for customers.

In the past election cycle, the dichotomy of America's two-party system has been rather simple and consistent in the eyes of casual observers. The Democrats stand for the downtrodden little guys, fighting to survive in a harsh, competitive world. Its policies advocated redistribution, ensuring that big businesses transfer some of the massive financial resources available so that the average Joe and Jane can have what they need to feed, clothe, and house themselves while staying healthy and aspiring to self-improvement through education. The Republicans, in this narrative, would be making lives easier for business owners.

The simplest of addictions can crop up at any time. Whereas being hooked on drugs and gambling requires one to make an active effort to go to the nearby dealers or casinos, there are plenty of ways that one gets buried in an alternate reality for hours and days without having to spend a single dime. A vacant hour between meetings, a sudden urge to procrastinate from an inevitable task, a desire to kill off time without a concrete purpose...something more productive is definitely there, but it is not found.  A few game downloads, watching videos, or even a session of casual banter with  ChatGPT  could all do fine.

I grew up not so wealthy. Being not wealthy usually means that when inconvenience strikes, "let's buy something" is not a viable solution. When shoelaces snap, a piece of string would do well as a replacement. When soy sauce is gone, salt is just fine as an alternative. When the curtain or the windowsill is broken? A piece of cloth would do well to cover up the gaping holes. While my conditions were not often bad enough to resort to such, a mentality emerges: if an inconvenience appears, the priority is to find a workaround with existing resources.

Nature is ruthless. As COVID has shown us, a world that seems to be humming along so well can suddenly be stopped dead in its tracks, borders thrown up and people holed up, by something so small and invisible yet fast-moving and deadly. And an epidemic out of nowhere is by no means the only way that nature can hurt us, very badly. From earthquakes to tornados to landslides to sinkholes, nature will put mankind into a calamity, without any prior warning. Unlike a manmade war, no compromise can hope to halt the disaster. Nature does not negotiate.

People get old. Old people's mental processing power and ability to react quickly to new information are weaker than those of younger people. These are plain biological facts that govern the human body. Absent radical scientific breakthroughs that allow people to retain their brainpower and youth through chemical and biological enhancements, these facts will befall everyone, including the most powerful and important individuals in the world. A more efficient world requires that some older people retire from their positions and let more mentally qualified youths take over.

The concept of time in the Maltese summer can take some getting used to. The cloudless brightness can start as early as 5am, and darkness does not revisit until 9pm. During the day, the sun can be blazingly hot, making any outdoor activity that does not involve jumping into the cold water of the nearest pool or the sea too physically demanding. The result is towns that were empty during the day coming alive with people after 7pm, with the crowds not departing well after midnight, as the loud music and artificial lighting keep the folks jiving.