Coercion over Greenland

Light rain all day today. I didn't sleep well and felt tired all morning. Neither of us fancied a Christingle ceremony added to a Family Eucharist at St Catherine's, so we walked under umbrellas to the Cathedral for the well attended eleven o'clock Sung Eucharist instead. An infant was baptized during the service, in an informal and relaxed way by Fr Ian Yemm the Precentor. 

A setting of the Latin Mass by Rutter was sung by the choir which I didn't appreciate. An unusual reaction. Dissonance in choral harmony can be ethereal and uplifting, but on this occasion I found it irritating. At the end of the service we were treated to a big Bach toccata, which was a consolation. On the way home we visited Llandaff village supermarket to get some wholemeal flour. Bread ingredients had run low as Clare set about baking a fresh batch, and had to rely on strong white flour instead of wholemeal, this time, but it turned out well anyway.

I slept for an hour in the afternoon, overcame my tiredness and went shopping to Tesco's for chicken, salad and fruit. Yesterday's outing to Bute Park orchard displaced routine weekend grocery shopping and I walked home in the rain as darkness descended early under low cloud. I had nothing else to do after supper, so watched the last couple of episodes of Le Carre's 'Little Drummer Girl' on iPlayer. As a period piece of the 1960s, it was stylish, well crafted, not easy to follow as the dialogue was muted, low key. The espionage narrative portrays the story of deadly enmity, retaliation and vengeance told from both Israeli and Palestinian sides. It portrays an intelligence chief representing the British colonial establishment as contemptuously racist towards Arabs and antisemitic at the same time, failing to come to terms with the  post war situation in the shadow of the Holocaust and the outcome of the Balfour Declaration.

Here we are eighty years after the Holocaust with Palestinian Gaza in ruins its people dispossessed of land, security, as the price paid for defeating Hamas with Trump appointing a post-war reconstruction 'Board of Peace' with eminent persons to oversee the setting up of a new governing body of Palestinian technocrats for rebuilding the Gaza Strip. Will he impose his will on redevelopment and reconstruction in favour of remaking the territory as a luxury holiday destination. He has openly mused about the potential for doing this. For a long while Trump mused about buying Greenland, as an important strategic asset for the defence of the Arctic region, now Russia and China as well as western nations have navigable waters due to global warming and melting of sea ice. The security concerns are real enough. 

In principle NATO is meant to operate in military partnership to defend the region, but Trump wants ownership control, and this risks the break up of the Alliance. He is using economic coercion in an attempt to force his will on other nations, flexing his muscles like a dictator. I can't imagine Russia or China being too worried about this. Trump's behaviour, and his unpredictable style of leadership risks weakening not strengthening the ability of the West to defend itself against aggression. Uncertain times indeed.