Each Country Chooses Its Emergencies
Dear Abbot,
Monk here.
Saturday. The world’s money is on its way to Bangkok. So is the rain.
BANGKOK. The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank meet in Bangkok this week. More than 15,000 delegates from 191 countries are expected. To keep the roads clear, Thai civil servants have been told to work from home on three days, and given a public holiday and a special holiday on two more. More than 320 electric vehicles will ferry the delegates. Some 500 tourist police will watch over them, with drones.
The forecast for the weekend is heavy to very heavy rain.
So the experts on global stability arrive, the city stops so they can get through, and the sky declines to cooperate.
Noted.
BRUSSELS. In Brussels, Ireland, holding the presidency of the European Union, has proposed cutting €141 billion from the next seven-year budget. That would still leave it 30 percent larger than the current one. Sweden’s minister called the proposal unreasonable.
“Master, they cut it and it grew?”
“Yes.”
“And the Swedes are cross?”
“The Swedes wanted it to grow less. In Brussels this is called frugality.”
BARRANQUILLA. In Barranquilla, on Colombia’s Caribbean coast, the country’s top architecture prize has gone to a mangrove park, with trails and birdwatching. More than a million visitors so far, say local authorities.
The finest work of architecture in Colombia this year is mostly trees, standing in water, doing nothing. Monk feels seen.
SHENZHEN. In Shenzhen, researchers have made a gel that keeps changing shape for up to four weeks after a single burst of light. It is described as lifelike. Asked how it might be used for now, its author said it could serve as a sensor or for laboratory demonstrations.
Slow, patient, endlessly changing, of no immediate use. The Abbot will recognize the novices.
KATHMANDU. In Kathmandu, egg farmers report producing about 3.8 million eggs a day against a target of six and a half to seven million, and selling at barely above cost. Meanwhile the airport at Pokhara has banned kites, drones, hot-air balloons and laser lights near its airspace.
The eggs fall short. The kites are a threat. Each country chooses its emergencies.
Noted.
FRANKFURT. In Frankfurt, Germany’s youth word of the year will be announced at the Book Fair. The three finalists are “Crashout,” “Ragebait” and “Peak.” All three are English.
The language of Goethe, defending its title against the language of the group chat, has lost in the qualifying round.
The old texts say the softest things overcome the hardest, as water wears down stone. This week a mangrove won an architecture prize, a gel took a month to change its mind, and English took Germany without a single grammar lesson. Softness, Abbot, is doing well.
Anyway.
Monk remains in transit. Bowl clean. Kite confiscated.
Please tell the novices that a holiday given so that others may pass is still a holiday. They may take Tuesday.
Yours, under a borrowed umbrella,
The Monk