A Promised Land

America as a Developing Country

In the Name of Love: MLK Day Matters More Than Ever at Home and Abroad

Nonviolence over brutishness, inspiration over resignation, love over hate.

Monday marks Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Preaching nonviolence over brutishness, inspiration over resignation, love over hate, his message rings truer than ever as we tread into 2024. I’m marking it here by sharing videos featuring a remarkable rock song and an even more powerful speech.

One lesser known aspect of MLK’s work was its international dimension. Traveling to India in 1959, he wrote that “India’s [Mahatma] Gandhi was the guiding light of our technique of nonviolent social change.” He further linked “the Christian doctrine of love” to the Hindu leader’s words and actions.

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Happy New Year! From Vaccines to Homicides to Poland to Brazil to America to Cats…Good News

Yes. Even in America. And even cats.

These are not the best of times, to put it mildly. But it’s important to see the rays of hope piercing the doom and gloom. They illuminate the fact that America and the world can recover, that we’re not trapped in an irreversible downward spiral. Instances of progress across the globe remind us that what once seemed lost can still be found.

For example, from increasing global vaccine availability to positive health developments in Mexico and Bangladesh to improved animal welfare practices to a record drop in U.S. murders to a host of other beacons, some significant changes made aspects of this world better in 2023.

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“We Got the Bas***d!”

Trump Loses. Women and Justice Win.

Shortly after arriving in the Philippines in 1987, a year after the peaceful uprising known as People Power deposed dictator Ferdinand Marcos, I attended a Manila meeting of the Philippine Council for Foreign Relations. I recall the discussion somehow turning to the former strongman. Reflecting on both People Power and the longer-term, unflinching opposition that fueled his fall, the PCFR chair declared, “We got the bas***d!”

From Manila to Manhattan

The same sentiments cross my mind as I reflect on the results of E. Jean Carroll’s case against Donald Trump. In the legal equivalent of a New York minute – less than three hours of deliberations – a Manhattan jury held him liable for sexual abuse and defamation.

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From Classic Cars to Our Electrifying Future

The Good Old Days Give Way to Better Days

My new hometown of Benicia, CA hosted its 28th Annual Classic Car Show a week ago.

I suppose I could start discussing the event, as well as the global car market’s electrifying trends, by lamenting America’s historic love for gas guzzlers and their legacy of overconsumption and pollution.

Nah.

More on the future later. But for now…

Wow

Having wandered around the show, I must confess to being wowed. It’s the first such gathering I’ve ever been to. I have no idea how many autos were on display…400? 600?

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The Larger Lessons of the January Insurrections: Why Western Democracy Aid Failed

And What Our Own Struggling Democracy Can Learn

Money for Almost Nothing

In January, backers of Brazil’s former President, Jair Bolsonaro, seized the country’s Congress and Supreme Court buildings, as well as its presidential palace. The action represented much more than a repeat of America’s January 6,. 2021 debacle. It signified the failure of several decades of massive democratic development aid across the globe.

Reaching back to at least the 1980s, America and its wealthy European and other allies poured many billions of dollars into buttressing democracy, good governance and the rule of law around the world. The efforts continue to this day. Focusing on post-communist and poorer countries, including Brazil, they have been driven by a mix of cynicism, foreign policy priorities, naivete, idealism and good intentions.

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