CLIMBING JACOB’S LADDER ON THE ISLAND OF SAINTS
Jamestown on Saint Helena in the South Atlantic is two blocks wide and a mile long in a narrow deep ravine. One of the world’s longest straight staircases, Jacob’s Ladder, was an original way to get out – 699 steps each 11 inches high – and it’s a workout.
People who live here call themselves “Saints” and pronounce their island “sent-uhl-LEEN-ah.” It’s famous of course for where the Brits exiled Napoleon after Waterloo. His residence and gardens on a high promontory, Longwood House, is preserved with original furnishings and his death bed. Dying in 1821, he was buried in a beautiful peaceful glen nearby (in 1840 he was reinterred at Les Invalides in Paris).
After climbing the Ladder and visiting Longwood, you’d want to refresh yourself at one of Jamestown’s pubs, where local Saints will be happy to hoist a pint with you. And don’t pass up a visit to the Saint Helena Distillery, the world’s remotest distillery, to learn how Head Distiller Paul Hickling makes his memorable Prickly Pear Whiskey, White Lion Spiced Rum, and Jamestown Gin – all in unique stepping stone bottles in honor of Jacob’s Ladder. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #46 Photo ©Jack Wheeler)
PRESIDENT TRUMP! FORGET CANADA! WE BRITISH WANT TO BE YOUR 51ST STATE!
“The Briton... should cheerfully acquiesce in the decree of Destiny, and stand in betimes with the conquering American.” So said William Thomas Stead (1849-1912), the prominent Victorian newspaperman and strident reformer.
Stead looked at Britain’s colonial apotheosis with apprehension, understanding that the growth of new great powers meant “we can never again be the first.” This feared future has since come to be. Governing the world is, for us, yesterday’s dream.
The divergence between our two nations will only become more obvious as Britain flounders under Starmerism while America faces a rebirth under Trump’s Make America Great Again agenda. In short, we’d be lucky to be granted a deal like Trump’s (semi-) humorous offer to absorb Canada into the American Union as the 51st state.
CAN CHINA EVER WEED OUT CORRUPTION IN ITS MILITARY?
Try as he might, it is clear that Xi Jinping cannot rid his military of the insidious corruption that defines its workings much more than the count of warships and nuclear warheads ever can.
Another spate of Chinese military corruption cases serves as a reminder that a decades-long practice and culture of corruption continues to flourish within and among the ranks and relationships of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA).
Recent headlines of two more Chinese generals who are being investigated by Chinese Communist Party disciplinary authorities only repeat reports regularly found over the years in Chinese media about malfeasance in the military.
Promotions come with a price tag. Even basic enlistment requires bribes. Luxury properties both in China as well as internationally are owned by the relatives of the highest-ranking PLA officers. Procurement – always risky but fertile ground for illicit dealing – is rife with backhanders, inflated contract bidding, and other forms of bribery.
WHERE ALEXANDER HAMILTON WAS BORN
On January 11, 1755, Alexander Hamilton was born in this home on the island of Nevis, part of the British Leeward Islands Colony in the Caribbean. It was his mother Rachel’s home inherited from her father – she and Alexander’s father, James Hamilton from Scotland, were never married. It was a scandal back then to be “born out of wedlock,” over which young Alexander triumphed.
His birthplace is hallowed as a museum with displays and photos describing his extraordinary path from a penniless orphan (James abandoned him, then Rachel died) to being one of America’s principal Founding Fathers. It leaves quite an impact on you, being in the very place where the history described actually began.
Nevis (nee-viss) is an especially beautiful Caribbean island yet less visited than it’s well-known neighbor, St. Kitts. Together, they form the sovereign nation of St. Kitts & Nevis. If it’s ever your good fortune to get to St. Kitts – make sure to take the short ferry ride over to Nevis. It has a history, beauty and charm all its own. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #283 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
THE NEXT AMERICAN CENTURY IS NOW
Remember when Japan was predicted to overtake America? Back in the 1980s, Japan was the coming country. One “expert”, Herman Kahn predicted that Japan would surpass America as the world’s largest economy by 2000.
Today? Japan’s economy is a quarter the size of America’s. Today, of course, we’re told that the great ascending power is not Japan, but China.
By 2021, China’s GDP was almost 80 percent that of the US and the experts were telling us China would overtake America within a couple of decades. But look at what has happened since. China’s economy has peaked as a percentage of US output.
As recently as 2008, Europe’s economy was about the same size as the United States’. Today, America’s economy is twice the size of Europe’s. Home Depot, a single US company, eclipses all the new businesses created in the European Union since 1974.
So why are Japan, China and Europe all in their different ways underperforming America? Because each are, in their different ways, reverting back to a type of political economic tradition far less successful than America’s.
And with that tradition being revitalized by the new Trump Presidency, we should be on the cusp of an extraordinary period of progress and innovation in America.
JIMMY CARTER WAS NOT A GOOD MAN
MAGA CNN commentator Scott Jennings rails against President Carter, saying he had "a huge ego" and was a poor ex-president, despite him doing so much for the less fortunate, and he hated pomp and circumstance.
This is why nobody takes CNN seriously.pic.twitter.com/UHQdSGqCdM— Really American 🇺🇸 (@ReallyAmerican1) December 31, 2024
Upon the announcement Sunday (12/29) of Jimmy Carter’s death at age 100, a reporter asked outgoing president Joe Biden what incoming president Donald Trump could learn from Carter’s legacy. Biden had the indecency to say “Decency.”
Biden once set his sights high by trying to compare himself to FDR and JFK, now has to settle for being the second Carter.
On his way out the door, the media continues to insist that Biden is a good man. And that Carter, despite presiding over one of the worst administrations in history, was a good man.
Biden and Carter had many things in common, record unpopularity, crooked brothers, empowering Islamic terrorists, but decency was never one of them.
Joe Biden was not a good man. Neither was Jimmy Carter. Here are just a few of the reasons why.
THE EUROPE THAT’S STILL THERE
It’s found here – the fishing port of the ancient village of Sesimbra in Portugal. 3,000 years ago it was called Sempsibriga – high place or briga of the Sempsi Celts. So much of Europe is gone now, steamrollered by modernity. Not here, where Portuguese fishermen sail out in their tiny boats for their daily catch as they have for countless generations. The best fish you’ve ever had is in Sesimbra’s local restaurants – wow, is the swordfish good.
While Portugal is a First World country with all the modernity you could ask for, it is unique not only for the charm of its history and post-card picturesqueness, but the sweetness of its people. They are simply nice in a way that’s so captivating. Their traditional family values are part of their nature. The country resonates with peacefulness, an at ease serenity. It’s the Europe that’s still there.
You can be captivated yourself by joining our WX Exploration of Portugal with your fellow TTPers next May. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #284, Photo ©Jack Wheeler)
FREEDOM AND PEACE IN CHINA
[This Monday’s Archive was originally posted on December 22, 2005. Nineteen years ago. It is more apropos than ever, given the current headline (12/29/24): Pentagon Report: China Directs Largest Military Build-Up Since 1930s Nazi Germany. The only possible reason for this is to be a fascist threat to China’s neighbors and to us. This speech I gave in Taiwan proposes a solution to that threat that T47 might consider.]
TTP, December 22, 2005
[This is the text of a speech I delivered at Chung Hsing University in Taichung, Taiwan, December 22, 2005.]
I flew here today from Singapore. As we were flying over the South China Sea, I looked down and saw these beautiful islands – jewels of green and turquoise and white in an ocean of blue. They looked like paradise – but these, I recognized, were the Spratly Islands, claimed by China, even though they are much closer to the Philippines.
In fact, if you had an official PRC government map of China, you would see that China claims, besides Taiwan of course, the entire South China Sea as its territory, from the coasts of the Philippines and Vietnam all the way to Indonesia. 80% by value of the world’s shipping goes through the South China Sea.
The countries of Asia cannot afford to let China seize this vital waterway and build military bases in the Paracel and Spratly Islands. China has no legitimate claim on the entire South China Sea whatever – yet China is risking war with its neighbors because of this totally absurd claim.
Then the plane this morning reached the southern coast of Taiwan, and we flew along the entire length of the island to reach Taipei. As I looked down at the farmlands, the factories, the homes, villages, towns, and cities of Taiwan passing beneath me, I could not help thinking: the Communist rulers of China want to destroy all this, ruin these people’s lives, enslave them to their rule – and for what?
Because all these people want is to be left alone.
There is no possible way the 22 million people of Taiwan are a threat to the 1.3 billion people of China, any more there is no possible way China legally owns the entire South China Sea – yet China is willing to risk war merely because the people of Taiwan do not want their lives controlled and enslaved by the rulers of Beijing.
This threat of war, the gigantic threat of China to Taiwan and all of China’s neighbors, has got to come to an end. And tonight we are going to talk about how to do it.
FLASHBACK FRIDAY – CANNIBAL TREEHOUSE
August 1977. High in the mountains above the source of the April River, a tributary of the Sepik in Papua New Guinea, I had a First Contact with an undiscovered tribe calling themselves the Wali-ali-fo. They ate “man long pig,” cooked human meat and lived in thatch dwelling built up in trees. Here I am in one with my Sepik guide Peter who got me here.
Peter translated a description of their practice: “When a man dies, we take a pig to his wife and exchange it for the body of the man. We take the body out into the forest and…cook ‘im eat ‘im. We do this so the man will continue to live in the bodies of his friends.”
Not something we’ll do but something we can understand, yes? These are people we could laugh and joke with, tell stories with, enjoy being with. A very different culture, but human all the same. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #148 Photo ©Jack Wheeler)
THE GOOD CHRISTMAS GRINCH
