Mysterious

Something is bugging me. What ? Just this. Is there anyone left in the world who isn’t lost in admiration for the way Canada is running rings around Trump? It is all being engineered by Mark Carney, Canada’s fairly new prime minister. Carney now moves quickly and eerily sure-footedly. Trump prides himself on his unpredictability. You can’t have both at once. The explanation? Carney has been planning all this for years. Even back in March 2025, when he was first elected Prime Miinister, he would be less than human If he didn’t see this his way into the history books by being the man who gave Canada its real Independence. The earliest date I’ve heard so far puts Carney’s planning beginning in January last year,, And it wasn't just trivial planning either, as well as producing spreadsheets he is reputed to have war-gamed the lot.  So he went into office, well prepared for Trump, 

  Not that Trump has anything to complain about. He has handed easy victory to the United States’ two formidable enemies, China and Russia. Xi Jinping of China can console himself wth the thought that China’s two most important goals are almost there, namely the ending of the US dollar’s dominance of world currencies, and the recognition of a China-led Asian trading bloc. (Shades of Japan’s ‘Greater South-East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere’ in the 1930s before the atom bomb put a stop to all this nonsense,) 

   In Russia. Putin can look with equal satisfaction on the oil price rise while NATO is fraying at the edges and Russia’s ‘right’ to see Europe as its playground. All this was spelled out by Trump in his ‘Donroe’ Doctrine speech. Never mind the fact that Putin’s  army and navy have been exposed by Ukraine as little more than a chaotic and nothing-to-be-afraid-of rabble. Who’s interested? Not Trump, that’’s for sure.

   Well, I’m interested.. And for a bizarre reason. I see all this as as a missed opportunity by my country of birth, Australia. You see, when John Humphreys on BBB radio was interviewing, the World’s Greatest Living Expert of the day, the WGLE almost invariably spoke with a Canadian accent. (Yes, they’ve been there before.)

    At this point i am forced to drag in some domestic details. I have ALWAYS been woken by a radio alarm clock. Today it is tuned to 93.5 Radio France Musique. Twenty years ago It was tuned to BBC Radio Four and I woke to the dulcet tones of the Today programme starring John Humphreys or Sue Macgregor. That was when I noticed something odd.

   What had changed? I didn’t have to look very far. A new nation other than Canada seemed to be supplying the World’s Greatest Living Expert  on any subject under the sun. Which overcrowded state, brimming with expertise, could this be? The answer was stunning: Australia!  This was  in the heady days when Gough Whitlam was PM of Australia. Small earthquake in Chile. No problem. Professor Bullen of Sydney University was, officially, the WGLE on earthquakes. And if the cost of a phone call to Australia is too high for a US radio station looking to interview the WGLE, there's always Justin Wolfers, professor of Public Policy and Economics at the University of Chicago, to call. He speaks with a strong and convincing Australian accent, and the fact that he took over as professor of economics from the late Milton Friedman can do him no harm in right-wing circles. (For the record he is sanely left-wing.)

   Our Man In Burundi had an Australian accent, as did ‘peacekeepers’ in. newly independent East Timor. Their  Commanding Officer was interviewed by John Humphreys.‘Yair,’ he told us,’we gave ‘em a it of a towellin’ las’ night.’   This was a reference to the untimely death of all 16 armed Indonesians who had imprudently crossed the border into East Timor the night before with the intention of setting the clock back a few years, The word seems to have spread among potential Indonesian insurgents that the Australians had to be taken seriously, because they never tried ii on again.

   Admittedly, Mr Albinese has been getting a better press in the international papers lately after asking Carney to address both houses of the Australian Parliament.  But even this is not exciting.  There is still plenty of room for improvement.

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So what's bugging me? Plenty. I wish I’d written that it was Anthony Albinese, the newish Australian PM, and not Carney who was running rings around The Donald. However Albinese’s focus has been on Australian internal affairs. Not that I blame him. Keeping the Australian Labour Party in line is a full-time job. They are an unruly lot. If Mr Albanese will take (or even read!) advice from a non-votong lone Australian living on an unfashionable island off the coast of France, here goes.  

If Albinese wants to secure a place in the history books - and which PM doesn’t? - he’ll at least try to be elected spokesman for Asia in fighting off Chinese and American domination. If he decides that this is the honourable course of action (and I hope he does) then my only advice would be to keep an eye on that Narendra Modi. Modi’s Wikipedia entry is a bit impenetrable, but he seems to have won eight elections on the trot. And he speaks good English, always an advantage., 

   If Albanese were to emerge triumphant that would make him spokesman for about one-third of the world’s  population. Think of it. He would speak for India (population 1.47 billion), Pakistan (250 million). Bangladesh ( 175 million) Myanmar (55 million), Thailand (68 m) Vietnam (100 m), Laos (7 m), Cambodia  (38 m), South Korea (52 m), Japan  (123 m) Taiwan (26 m), Malaysia (39 m), Singapore (6 m) Indonesia, (286 m), and Papua/New Guinea (10 m), not forgetting Australia (26 m) and New Zealand  (5 m). He would speak for about a fifth of the world’s exports and a formidable slab of world GDP.

PS: I see to my horror that this is the first blog entry I’ve started since 10 May last year. I did warn at some point that this was not ever going to be a regular blog. I would write only when I had something to say. I can't believe I had nothing to say between now and 10 May last year. My wife would certainly disagree!