The other day I read an article in the New York Times about a Venezuelan police detective-turned revolutionary who hijacked a helicopter and staged a fake attack on the Venezuelan Supreme Court and Interior Ministry. He escaped capture for seven months and led a small band of armed men around the Venezuelan interior. Eventually he and his men were caught and killed, but the story really gripped me. Venezuelans have been suffering under the worst kind of poverty and social decline imaginable, and in many areas societal breakdown has set in. And the more I read the story, the more I was also struck by Venezuelans’ courage in the face of such calamities. It really moved me.
You know what else? On that day, in the New York Times, the Venezuela story was one of very few, and I mean very few, stories that were not about Donald Trump. And that made it refreshing, energizing and illuminating. Because I’m so freaking tired of The Donald drowning out all the rest of the news across the world.
Where do I start? In East Asia, China has suddenly become a champion of both free trade and green energy. Which is a real 180 from where they were a decade ago. But you wouldn’t really know that if you were a liberal who just casually followed the news, say the NYT, Washington Post, CNN, MSNBC and Huffpo.
Instead, what you’d see is Trump, Trump, Trump. The latest is that Trump tried to have Special Counsel Robert Mueller fired last June, soon after he began investigating possible obstruction of justice by Trump. And before that there was George Papadopoulos, a Trump adviser who had ties to the Russians. And before that there was Michael Flynn, the former national security advisor who definitely had ties to the Russians. And on and on it goes. I mean it’s all so tedious you just want to scream sometimes.
But back to the world. In Brazil, former President Dilma Rousseff was impeached for corruption, and Michel Temer, a member of the old guard elite, is now President. But Brazil remains a dynamic country with a rapidly industrializing economy that’s sure to make it the powerhouse of Latin America for decades to come. You wouldn’t know about this if you just glanced at headlines or news clips, though, because like I said it’s all Trump, all the time.
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Let’s see, what else is happening in the world? In Germany, Angela Merkel has been Chancellor since 2005. And the biggest news from Berlin is that Ms. Merkel opened Germany’s borders to about one million Syrian refugees over the past two years, as the conflict in Syria intensified. And now there’s a huge internal debate in Germany about whether this was a good or bad move. Many Germans were opposed to it at the time, believing that it would change the nature of what it means to be German. But that’s the heart of the immigration dilemma really, isn’t it, as played out across the developed countries of Europe and North America? Yet you wouldn’t know about this either, really, because Germany just isn’t covered by the US media much, and who cares anyway because didn’t Trump curse at someone today?
In India, the economy is growing so rapidly that Indian politicians are starting to talk about the 21st century as the Indian century. Which is interesting, because right now that title would clearly go to China, the world’s 2nd largest economy after the US. But India is gaining ground rapidly. And there’s still plenty of poverty and other associated social ills in India, but the fact is the country is making remarkable progress.
But let’s not talk about India, because Trump just tweeted, and we’ve all gotta go rush to Twitter and give our hot take on what the Kindergartner-in-Chief meant when he included three exclamation points!!! instead of his usual two.
There are lots of other things happening in the world right now, from the US fight against remaining ISIS militants in Syria, to progress on political reconciliation in Somalia, to renewed Japanese economic growth after decades of recession. I mean, there are literally 195 countries in the world today, and each of them has a multitude of stories. It’s just that Trump, freaking Trump, drowns out everything interesting, or novel, or engaging, or redeeming, in the world.
So on this, the 28th day of January, 2018, with ten months to go until the midterm elections, I have a plea to make. Let’s focus just a little less on Trump’s favorite kind of ice cream sundae, or who he made fun of today, or his latest tweet. Instead let’s open our eyes and look out at the world around us. Because there are literally millions of stories to see. We just have to open our hearts and illuminate the darkness. And then we’ll be free to enjoy the world, and to witness life in all its glory. Doesn’t that sound a lot better than 280 characters?
