The Third 12-Year Cycle.

 Happy Birthday Jon.

ThanksFIFA

What a year it has been son. Compared to our annual discourses on the status of the world and the human condition over the years. 

2026 is the year of the fire horse- your Chinese horoscope was the metal horse. which makes you 36 this year while Zoran Mamdani make 35. I'm sure you're aware of Zoran, who is of your ilk, won the hearts of New Yorkers, was elected mayor of the cultural center of the free world last year, he took office January this year. It was an exhilarating change of political personalities for mayor in long beleaguered New York City when Mamdani and his crew swept over the city with creative, innovative even outlandish notions of promoting, governing and sustaining a city of 8.5 million people, the largest in the US. New York has twice the population of LA, the second largest city in the US. 

NYC is significant in this year's birthday post because, apart from the fact that your siblings are living and working there, the 2026 FIFA World Cup was co-hosted by Canada, US and Mexico amidst an ongoing war in Iran. The finals between Argentina and Spain was played in NY's New Jersey's Met Life Stadium accommodating over 80,000 spectators on July 21 where finally, in a controversy stained world cup, football won instead of politics and racism, when Spain beat an all-white, racist Argentinian team who put on an utterly disappointing performance as defending champions. Argentina had 0 shots at goal, Spain had 11 and scored one at extra time to lift the World Cup.

In addition Argentina showed their ugly side during and right after the match resorting to assaulting Spanish players who were celebrating their victory. This behaviour was evident to billions of global spectators via telecast during and after the finals. Somehow I could picture you there son. Being the football fanatic that you are and the lover of life and all things nice, you'd have probably made the world your playground and your workshop, with no one really knowing where you were physically on any given day. Pretty much like how you're existing now. An international man of mystery, a hero with a thousand faces. Like I said; Pretty much like how you exist now.

Continuing our conversation from last July/August. If you recall I said three things; 1. that the people of the world is currently at it's most peaceful, comfortable and technologically innovative. 2. But things could get worse or 3. it could get really bad. 

Guess what Jon?

It has gotten really bad and it could get worse. 

It was only in 2024, right smack on your day, the 26th of July that the Paris 2024 Olympics was held to great fanfare and style, and things were just 'coming up roses' but fast forward 2 years, 2026 is a disaster waiting to get worse. 

War broke out on 28 Feb, when the US and Israel decided to bomb Iran. It was a botched war hastily  planned after the US successfully invaded a defenceless Venezuela for its oil and kidnapped President Maduro & his wife in the process. Drunk from the arrogance of this swift victory, they thought invading Iran and demanding regime change would be as quick and easy, but it wasn't and now the US is in a quagmire on day 163 of the war and counting. The world is tethering on a precipice between world war 3 and the control of the Strait of Hormuz. As I see it the US/Israel have lost the self-inflicted war on Iran and is trying to make a clumsy exit by shooting whatever's left of their diminished missiles stockpile. Imagine an old drunk, badly beaten-up blond cowboy, being kicked out of a saloon while shooting his guns to empty. The entire saloon watches and laughs. I feel sorry for Donald Trump but I am also grateful to him for the fact that he showed me and those who care to see, many truths about geo-politics, the culture and the true nature of the leaders of the nations implicated in this conflict.

 

First China; thanks to Trump and his tariffs and sanctions, China found new resolve to overcome those limitations through sheer will and hard work, called Accelerationism. Fast tracking progress with hard work at scale made the Chinese stronger morally, intellectually and technologically bringing China close to, if not on par with the US and even surpassing the yanks is EV and battery tech. 

Admittedly it is rather inspiring to be witness to such achievements in real time as a Chinese. Especially when China's AI and chip technologies leap frogged the US in record time and at a fraction of the cost. 

Second the Iranians. a civilizational race like the Ethiopians, Chinese and Hindus. embraced a single continuous language, Parsi and Zoroastrianism, their religion as Persians. Today they are devoted Shia Islam believers as a direct lineage to the Prophet via his son-in-law Imam Ali right down to the ayatollahs who head the theocracy today. These people have demonstrated the sheer power of unshakable faith in their religion applying humane practice of protecting the weak and downtrodden. Iran has been almost a solitary voice and supporter of the Palestinians' struggle as well as other marginalised nations in the middle east namely; Lebanon- Hezbollah : Iran's closest and most capable partner of Shia faith and militia since 1980s. Yemen -Houthis (Ansar Allah), Iraq - Shia militias, and Palestinian Hamas in Gaza (Sunni) despite sectarian differences. This is too much information I know but such has my admiration grown for a people outside of my race and region. 

Not enough is said about the magnanimity and sanity of the Iranian/Persian people. They are a clear example of how civilisational adults or 'grown-ups' responsibly behave in a world gone mad. The Iranians have not made any foreign invasion since 1856. However they have been building their defences against outside invasion for decades retaliating only when attacked and when they are forced to defend themselves using missiles and drones, they first issue warnings to their targets to beware and to evacuate civilians from their target zones, which are mostly military installations and not human habitats. In contrast, American & Israeli missiles attacks have killed hundreds of children, teachers and staff in schools and hospitals in Iran. This here is really what did it for me. Their deep humanity and love for life. The world can now see who the godless and the god fearing are. 

On the personal and family front, it has been a year of reckoning from the start. On January 14, your Pek Kong, my big brother Johnny passed away peacefully at home, he was 79. Although he had been frail and unwell, the news came as a shock to all of us as he was our indestructible big brother, uncle, father and clown at times. I especially took it hard as he has been my older brother for as long as I can remember through thick and thin. I wrote him a farewell essay exactly a week after his funeral > The Secret of Life...

It was also at Johnny's wake and funeral that I got to see and experience the 'gifts' my brother bestow us. 

I finally got to see and talk to your brother and my ex-wife, after seven years. It was akin to a man wandering the desert and finally seeing an oasis after seven years of mirages. 

How was it. You ask? It felt like Odysseus reuniting with Telemachus and Penelope briefly only to realise that he'd lost them entirely. The subsequent supper meeting with Zane at Ali Maju late one night sort of confirmed it and suggested it could be a last one. 

Precisely at that point it dawned on me that 'the road home' is still long and yet uncertain (cue Odysseus). Perhaps the most obvious fact is that forgiveness has yet to be considered the final act of self preservation to quell the anger that only serves to hurt the ones holding on to it. I can understand forgiveness as a path toward freedom. I cannot demand that anyone else walk it.

Odysseus spent 10 years fighting the Trojan war and another 10 finding his way home. Homer had a cruel sense of humour when he plunged Odysseus into all manner of trials and tribulations for 10 more years before he allowed him to be re-united with his wife & son. Perhaps this is the reason why the Odyssey is arguably one of the popular and most told stories in the ancient and modern world. Everyone is on a personal quest, or a journey to go home. Wherever 'home' is. 

In other words, I see it as a search for meaning. The pursuit of happiness is trumped by the pursuit of meaning. What is happiness if life is meaningless? I also wrote a piece on this here > Odyssey

Yes Jon, of course it's easier to say all these things when I am not the victim but the perpetrator of the misdeed in the first place. I am not trying to gloss things over or make light of what was done, but from the very onset, I have been trying to make sense of this life to 'truly live' or to allow life to live through me so that I can get to understand what and how this life works, in making decisions, making mistakes and making amends. I had briefly regained physical contact, only to realise I might have lost the possibility of a family relationship. Perhaps I'm talking about a relationship surviving separation.

Many have been hurt by my actions but take consolation in the fact that people who suffer most are those who commit wrongful deeds and are condemned to live in shame and remorse for the rest of their days. That is for sure... until we each find meaning and purpose for this life. 

Memories beyond the open window- PineForestAI

However, strange as it may seem, I have subconsciously worked or willed myself into this stage of my life. A life of solitude. A pilgrimage as a passage in one's life to uncover who I really am. The more I stay the course and walk the middle path, the more I find some justification and reckoning for my existence in a world of impermanence. No matter how courageous or hideous our deeds, they were only dependant on conditions arising and then passing away. What we do or don't do exists in the gaps in between.

Good or bad, cruel or kind, family is what we return to in this big, beautiful and ephemeral world. Finding the way home may mean to an earthly family or a cosmic one. 

Home is where we're all heading, while on the way, let's find a way enjoy the journey while it lasts, together or otherwise. I find liberation and comfort dwelling in the fact that; death can end a life but not a relationship. 

Just like the one I have with you. 

At the end, it all fades away (to white or black) quite like the Tornatore classic; Cinema Paradiso, shot to Morricone's original soundtrack. Point is; Life is all too short. Really short. And even; no matter how bad or wonderful the situation we're facing right now, it will pass.

So on your birthday and this post on your departure day, farewell son. 

See you again soon.