POPE FRANCIS

Since Pius XII, the world has got used to the Vatican's ambiguities. Now Pope Francis has chosen not to mention the persecuted Rohingya during his visit to Myanmar, creating another "riddle" in the Catholic church's struggles with truth telling. He might still bring the issue up while in Bangladesh, but the correction will be felt as having more to do with a diplomatic move than with concern for the humanitarian disaster unfolding.

The world looks as if it has lost its moral compass. Pope Francis is respected by all, believers or non-believers, but he lost an opportunity to help lessen the weight of the vacuum we find ourselves in.

L'AMERIQUE DEVENUE INDESIRABLE

L' Amerique de Trump est devenue largement infrequentable. Desormais il reste peu de place pour une relation de confiance avec les pays allies traditionnels. Le president ayant decide que lui seul compte ("L'etat c'est moi") fait table rase des politesses . Les rouages normaux du pouvoir sont sabotes et le pays n'a qu'a se debrouiller avec les lettres de cachet et les Tweets de la Maison Blanche. Tout cela se passe sans la moindre coordination (de toute facon l'administration est "purgee"). Les improvisations souvent malencontreuses font loi.

Une avalanche de realites alternatives couvre le pays reel. Le nouveau pays legal qui apparait est inquietant en ce qu'il privilegie l'interet de quelques uns et qu'il sape les gardes fou qui sont supposes proteger les droits de tous . Il ne se passe plus de jour sans qu'un reglement de comptes, sans qu'une autre fausse nouvelle, ne viennent perturber l'ordonnance politique. Trump a decide d'etre l'homme de l'ubiquite. 24 heures sur 24 ill creve les ecrans et les timpans. S'il n'a rien de substantiel a communiquer, il annonce, accuse, insinue n'importe quoi pour autant que cela mobilise ou occupe l'attention. Objectivement les media, pourtant critiques, collaborent. Accuses en permanence ils restent neanmoins des courroies de transmission.

Ces jours-ci, l'harcelement sexuel est a l'ordre du jour. Cela cree des contradictions qui seraient etonnantes sans plus si elles n'avaient pas de consequences aussi serieuses. Ainsi Trump, au parcours personnel pourtant douteux , appuie-t-il la candidature a un siege au senat d'un personnage accuse de faits sur mineures. Il entend eviter qu'un democrate ne soit elu, quitte a preferer le vice a la vertu. Une partie du pays le suit, ayant vendu son  ame a un populisme qui allie une religion pervertie a une vision primaire de la societe. Cette administration (pas vraiment majoritaire) s'appuie sur ce socle xenophobe .

Il en resulte que les milieux plus eclaires ou liberaux et l'intelligentia quittent le Capitole en masse et prennent le chemin de l'Aventin. Ceci a des consequences serieuses. En se faisant ils abandonnent le terrain. Le Departement d'Etat est vide. Les Ambassadeurs ne sont plus designes. Plusieurs secteurs importants sont desormais les fiefs de personnages sans experience, dont le seul objecitf est le demantelement des secteurs (climat, sante, environnement, education etc) qu'ils sont supposes gerer. Faute d'experience, cette administration joue encore a l'apprenti sorcier partout dans le monde tandis que la Chine et la Russie  avancent leurs interets .

Entretemps les enquetes sur une possible collusion entre Trump et  la Russie continuent. Deja il y a une multiplication de  contactcts avoues, decouverts, soupconnes. On est en droit de se demander ce qu'il faut de plus pour conclure que l'interference Russe est indeniable, qu'elle continue et que la machine Trump est activement impliquee. Le president, menteur en chef, persevere dans son bluff. Les Republicains ont trop peur de se le mettre a dos, sachant que la vengeance de Trump frappe fort. Son psychisme est construit autour d'une susceptibilite maladive, a fleur de peau, et d'un  narcissisme  qui supportent mal que ses lacunes et son ignorance  apparaissent en plein jour. Il est un president non historique en ce sens qu'il decide sans egards pour les retroactes ou pour la legitimite. Il ne devient malleable que lorsqu'il est flatte. Comme les enfants il adore les parades, le faste, les honneurs, choses dangereuses en ce qu'elles atrophient ce qui lui reste de jugement.

Aujourd'hui l'Amerique se sent mal dans sa peau, mal gouvernee, mal aimee. Ce pays qui etait considere comme positif est oblige d' encaisser la "critique categorique" des allies et l'approbation suspecte de ses complices. Obama qui etait parfois trop Hamlet avait reussi a sortir le pays de son spleen post Irakien, post 9/11. Son successeur pietine culture, esthetique, morale et vision. A defaut d'idees propres, Trump apparait avoir donne carte blanche a la mouvance de Steve Bannon qui semble etre devenu le Svengali de ce triste regime. Son nationalime et sa xenophobie pesent deja sur tout ce qui faisait de l'Amerique un laboratoire de creativite, de libre commerce, et d'internationalisme .

OF SEXUAL MISCONDUCT IN THE USA

Anglo-Saxon countries, the United  Kingdom and the United States, still show a peculiar puritanical DNA.  Biased laws survived in the British Isles until the Fifties and in the USA parts of the Bible Belt are still stuck in the aberrations of cults, religion and backwardness.

Today, in America the sexual harassment cases pile up. The culprits are sanctioned, rightly so. Non-consensual or forced intimacy are wrong. However, in the current polarized cultural war this mass hysteria can appear to become a war waged against the "liberal" elites or the establishment. The Trump administration is waging an overall attack against the media, news outlets, Hollywood and academia. This is the more paradoxical since the president has a curriculum worthy of that of a predator-in-chief,  but for Republicans "De minimis non curat praetor". The infamous Access Hollywood tape is downgraded to "locker room banter".

This guided strategy, in the shadow of an attorney general who looks the part of a villain in "To Kill a Mockingbird", can be yet another effort to deflect from the Roy Moore issue in Alabama.  It can also send Steve Bannon's (himself guilty of domestic violence) priorities into the fast-lane.

The correction of the "wrongs" cannot be achieved on the back of the "rights". This administration always uses deforming mirrors to hide its moral deficit and its denial of facts and truths. Not a day passes without revelations of lies and corruption. "Preoccupation" with misconduct is right as long as it doesn't become an "occupation" of the news cycle, meant to hide the fact that this king and administration are naked.

Europeans, among others, look on in sarcastic disbelief. Soon American intellectuals might again choose Europe's nonchalance over the local brand of narrow righteousness.

TRUMP THE VIRTUOUS.

The bed in Delacroix's painting "The Death of Sardanapalus" is rather crowded. So is the one of the GOP which has to fit the president's body-mass and history. With Alabama's candidate for US Senate, Roy Moore, the God-fearing groper who could play Trump's Sancho Panza, this scene gets even more grotesque. 

The indignation of the evangelical Republicans is "sick".  It only shows that this puritanical wave goes hand in hand with the ruling absolute hypocrisy.  Republicans come up with their usual home-brew, pointing the finger at former president Clinton and Senator Franken (who apologized). Both cases are totally different in nature. Consensually sex- be it totally inappropriate- or some in  poor taste "play/ posturing " are  categories which are different  from gross loitering and pedophilia. Trump's unusual silence regarding Moore's "gun and genital antics" speaks for itself :  double standard, deflection (as usual) and running for cover, given his own past pedigree.

This episode shows yet again the nefarious consequences of America's puritanical awakening, since the Trump machine came to power. Western Europeans are often  accused of laxism in matters of sex. Nevertheless they are not sickly obsessed as some Americans are  and are adverse to the lethal mix of religion, guns and sexual paranoia. 

The Access Hollywood tape should be mandatory viewing. It is the right comment on the current Zeitgeist in parts of the American heartland which chooses party over morality and prefers to whitewash facts when "inconvenient". Trump fits this mood.

TRUMP'S ASIA TOUR

The American president's Asia tour was embarrassing. There are no other words. He reinforced the US overhaul of the former pivot to Asia policy. He recognized China's de facto leadership, giving President Xi Jinping an opportunity to steer the larger themes of globalization, trade or climate change. He tried to cozy-up with Japan, North Korea and Vietnam. He was serenaded by the Philippines' "Mr. Nice", President Duterte, of all people. All the leaders he met remained polite.

He brought his usual wardrobe, went off script and left some bewildered, bruised or not believing their eyes and ears. He acts like Pythia, the high priestess of  the temple of Apollo in Delphi, uttering surreal one-liners ranging from North Korea to the Indo-Pacific surge, without going into detail. Against all rules of protocol he attacked the American intelligence agencies in the presence of other leaders and  reiterated his "penchant" for President Putin both in words and by embarrassing body language.

The US administration, under this pathological president, is actually waging a war against truth in all possible domains, inside and outside America. Facts are the enemy, spite is the driving force since Day One. All accepted rules have to be reversed, while the institutionally accepted bedrock of international relations and alliances must be dismantled. The Trump/Bannon Republicans are the ultimate demolisseurs d'empire", in contrast to Boris Vian's "Les batisseurs d'empire". Hence, cabinet secretaries are practicing euthanasia on their own departments while abroad an empty State Department is no longer willing or able to monitor all the various theaters which are now barely outsourced to amateurs who are accountable to no one but the president. As a result the unknowns pop up, from Niger to Lebanon. 

The alleged "chaos theory" does not spare the former bi-partisan ideological consensus within the United states. The civil war by proxy between the conservative/evangelical camp and the Democrats/establishment Republicans is becoming ugly. The Poland/Brexit situations in the EU have a lot in common with the "survival of the whitest" here (while the more religious-leaning factors are more prominent in the US).  Steve Bannon is supposed to be the brain behind the war against the "deep state" and favoring the priority given to a mix of nationalism and nativism. Presently America is a vast conservative no-man's-land flanked by liberal western and eastern corridors.  The Trump base occupies this fly-over middle. Many observers see in the results of the partial elections last week a hopeful sign for the elections in 2018 (for a number of seats in the House and Senate). One can hope, but the Trump machine is changing the rules of the game by way of judicial appointees, electoral hocus-pocus, tax breaks, gun lobby and blatant corruption. In Trump's words, the Russia investigation is a "hit job". It is certain that the majority of his followers stick with him, whatever the news or outcome might be. It is likewise probable that he will come up with some form of a stunt in the Middle East or North Korea, whatever the cost, as long as the Barnum added-value is assured. Truth again will be the first to climb the scaffold. In Hilary Mantel's words: "Bring up the bodies"!

BARON FRANS VAN DAELE MINISTRE D'ETAT

Tous ceux qui ont connu Frans Van Daele retiennent de lui l'image d'un diplomate intelligent alliee a un temperament d'homme politique redoutable.

Son savoir faire est reconnu par ses pairs, Belges ou Europeens. J'appartiens aussi  aux collegues qui lui accordent un talent et une intelligence au dessus du commun, mais qui restent reserves sur les aspects plus controverses d'un caractere suppose plus "Escurial" que convivial.

Son influence a ete determinante pour garantir une succession "controlee" entre Albert II et Philippe I. Au demeurant il a reussi a consolider un reseau de contacts hors sentiers battus en Belgique et en Europe. En tant que Ministre d'Etat il pourra, si besoin en etait, sortir le Conseil de la Couronne de l'oubli.

Il est bon que ce diplamate hors pair se voie recompenser par un geste innovateur.

 

THE UGLY AMERICAN IN ASIA

President Trump has left for his grand Asia tour. He leaves behind a trail of lies, gaffes and overall underachievement. He walks into a terrain which is booby- trapped from start to finish. Too intellectually and culturally lazy to familiarize himself with the sophisticated Asian ways, he will be the elephant in the porcelain room. After having killed the Trans-Pacific Partnership for no other reason than spite, he gave China what it wants and deprived Southeast Asia of what it needed. His zero-sum resume fits in his usual trademark outbursts. As he said, "I am the only one who counts"...it shows.

Speaking thereof, this administration is "spooked" by the inquiry into possible Russia collusion and its denials sound more and more hollow. Only Fox News continues to spread alternative scenarios and a narrative that would make Goebbels envious. Trump acts angry while the crime syndicate which surrounds and protects him is decimated day after day. The ship of fools is running empty. He might listen to his master's voice when summoned by Putin. After all, there is the "dossier" hanging over his head. 

The Asia trip is important. North Korea is a challenge that requires quite a bit of savoir faire. The Chinese might try to teach the president a lesson in the form of containment. Nevertheless they will present a Qianlong-like show. It is to be hoped that Trump will not have to return empty-handed like Lord McCartney. The allies, Japan and North Korea, will certainly beg for less noise and more subtle diplomatic and strategic support. Vietnam is as communist as they go but these United States seem to have chosen the good communists over the bad ones (Cuba). The meeting with Duterte is already bread and butter for Saturday Night Live. Most of those countries have, one way or another, disputes with China. The teleprompter will be the only lifeline to separate Trump from major  embarrassment. 

It is said that China is the rising power and that America is a power in decline. Today is appears so, indeed. The China "high" and the US "low" should nevertheless be considered in a more sophisticated spectrum. Both powers have to deal with almost identical problems: an "abroad" that is problematic and an inequality internally which is almost structural. Of course, the fact that China has almost become a legitimate equal of the US, says a lot about its progress. The absence of Europe in this global reshuffle is the result of both the lack of hard- power and the growing irrelevance of its soft-power. By the way, President Xi Jinping is slowly but steadily marginalizing the American dream which, contrary to its demise in Europe, is still alive in Asia, but for how long? Movies, media, revisionist history, policy, all join efforts and imagination to boost the Chinese dream and the return to the Middle Kingdom's might in the "world".

Trump is the worst emissary the West might have in China, or in Lee Kuan Yew's Asia (the ultimate statesman of Singapore's influence is second to none). He appears crude and gross, oblivious of others' sensitivities and impervious to cultural differentials. He will be flattered by the pomp but will remain tone-deaf to the message. Quid novi ?