March 12, 2015 – I have a number of posts awaiting approval
in Boston but here’s a non-work-related one just to tell you what’s up with me.
I am in Geneva, having come in on the overnight flight
(Freetown-Brussels; Brussels-Geneva). Let me tell you, when you hit a major
international airport after 5+ weeks in Sierra Leone, it’s like you’ve been
roped into some a sick joke. I’m sure an economist could explain to me why I’m
wrong about this, but it’s impossible not to feel like the fact that we live at
this level of wealth is somehow connected to and dependent on the fact that
they live at that level of poverty. It seems completely unsustainable, and I
think it is completely unsustainable if we care about living with a modicum of
justice or fairness. “…[H]eavens, deal so still!/Let the superfluous and lust-dieted man,/That
slaves your ordinance, that will not see/Because he doth not feel, feel your
power quickly;/So distribution should undo excess,/And each man have enough.”
When will that be, do you think? Will there be a reckoning in our lifetime, or
will we manage to lurch along for a while, or a long while, or a very long
while longer?
That said, it is unquestionably nice to be in a place where everything
works (and where it is cool). The weather is gorgeous; my generous friends are putting me up; the
health officials here are friendly, accessible, and utterly reasonable. Even
though I slept well on both flights last night, the first thing I did when I
got here was sleep four hours more. And then get up and write to friends still
in Sierra Leone for a couple of hours, and then go out and have a glass of wine
with another friend who left the country a couple of weeks before I did. Yes, I
think it will be a little hard to leave it all behind….
I can’t say anything about the latest developments yet – when/if I can,
I will.
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