Oxen

They’re teaching kids very advanced things at nursery these days, when some basic phone handling skills would be more the most practical, to avoid the nausea that accompanies video calls with a three year old. Georgia announced she was born in the Chinese year of the ox. My sister was born in the year of the rat and Georgia’s dad also the year of the ox, so they form a house of two oxen and a rat. I myself am a dog.

The orange freak that is Donald Trump doesn’t understand the complexities of how the world works, and he’s too narcissistic and arrogant to even contemplate that there are things he may not know. Plus he has no capacity for empathy, so even if he did have any useful advisors around him, instead of a bunch of similarly programmed goons, his crass brand of bigotry would override all.

An immediate pause on US federal assistance is firstly worrying because of its drastic, tyrannical announcement. Mostly I am concerned about the impact on programmes all over the world given that USAID is the single largest aid agency. Life-saving initiatives like providing HIV antiretrovirals for millions of people in Southern Africa are immediately at risk and so are their lives. And there are countless other critical examples helping to prevent malaria, provide emergency relief after disasters, etc. I am willing for this decision to be challenged so if there have to be reforms, they can be introduced gradually and intelligently.