Never "meta" billionaire
Before we actually start to exist in virtual reality, we are witnessing Billionaires propose of out of earth ideas and projects. An example would be an out of touch Jeff Bezos’ who announced his Blue Origin company’s plan for Orbital Reef, a commercially developed, owned and operated space station to be built in low Earth orbit.
Another is a billionaire who would like centralized control of the metaverse and thus one’s activities. The company formerly called Facebook, now aims to plunge everyone into a virtual world where we can be represented by our cat or ape avatars while we relate with others in a simulated reality. I do not know if this is can entirely be our new life, but it is sure something worth taking a look at.
Back to real politics, last week we witnessed the EU go into a tail spin with the drama over “WW3” and Poland, although it’s the Indo-Pacific that is still the epicenter of geopolitical fat tail risks.
The UK rejects the European Court of Justice (ECJ) having a role in Northern Ireland, and the Polish government is also brawling over the ECJ vs. sovereignty: the Polish PM says the EU is making demands “with a gun to our head,” and risks starting a “third world war” if EU funds are withheld. In support, Hungary’s Justice Minister has tweeted: “We remember the Hungarian freedom fighters who faced Soviet tanks on the streets of Budapest. We said no to the Soviet Empire & we say no to the #imperial ambitions of #Brussels.” We have to recall that EU countries have been talking about a joint foreign policy and army.
Continuing with the EU drama-mama and as the Guardian put it, “A major trade dispute has broken out between the UK and France after Paris banned British fishing boats from key ports, vowed to impose onerous checks on cross-Channel trade, and threatened the UK’s energy supply over a row over post-Brexit rights to UK waters…Boris Johnson said the UK government would retaliate over what was described as a potential breach of international law.”
We see the EU fighting on two fronts something not new to them vis-a-vis Germany. Maybe Polexit, will be a word that might enter our collective lexicon if current rhetoric is sustained.
See you tomorrow!
- Ope