The Thing About The Third World

 In the last week, I got into a discussion over Panama, and I eventually suggested that everyone in the US ought to go and spend a full year in some full-up third-world country....to appreciate reality.

Panama was this oddball place, where you could exist on base or in the Canal Zone...in the first world.  Then you'd go a mile or so....reaching some third-world zone.  Then you travel a couple of miles to find some second-world zone.

Having a 6-hour power outage....you got used to the idea.  Throughout a week, you'd have three or four two-hour outages, and maybe once a month....a whole evening or afternoon with the power out.  

Having some stop-light intersection in town where lights were out for six weeks because of lacking bulbs?  You got used to the idea.

Going to a restaurant where everything was cooked on a char-coal grill....because of no power in the place? Drinking warm Pepsi? You accepted that.

In the 3rd world, you don't really worry about hate-speech....you got better things to worry about.

I would imagine today, with cellphone towers....there's probably several hours a day in the Panama region where an outage occurs.  Telling some American teenager that his Tik Tok was going to be out for the whole morning?  He'd go nuts.

Seven Humble Thoughts

 1.  I have this theory....that Gen Z people were lucky to have access to legit drugs to medicate them through the normal stresses of life at age 10 to 21....that they skipped development of coping skills.  The only way ahead?  More medication....less interaction with actual people.

2.  There's probably five occasions everyday that I review the news, and say out loud....'this can't be real'.  

3.  I think you could round up 10,000 people who claim some Republican-status, and ask about their vote-for feelings for Pence.....to find fewer than five people felt positive about Pence running for President.

4.  There was a DUI-arrest in California....assembly-woman involved....Democrat....who says it was an actual sneezing attack to trigger her accident in the first place where the cops showed up.

Man, if you got sneezing that bad....you probably shouldn't be driving a car.

5.  Eventually, I expect the top 1,000 most wealthy Americans to have all moved to Florida.  

6.  Some judge nominee that President Biden nominated for a court...was asked if he would condemn Palestinians for the terrorism acts in Israel.  Nominee refused....saying that he hadn't read enough to anything much over Palestinians.  Pretty safe answer, but you might find that here is the one Biden-appointee who has never watched CNN ever in his life.

7.  These Democrat-run major cities with migrant woes wanting funds?  I think they were hoping for a billion dollars per each city.  So far, Biden doesn't seem interested in asking for this from Congress.  Roughly a year from the next House election, and it might not be positive in funding. 

SBF

 Someone brought up the Sam Bankman-Fried case (conviction done, waiting till early 2024 for the sentence).  Presently, the max he could get is 110 years in prison.

Yeah, the judge probably won't go that crazy and max it out.  My gut feeling is that it'll be a 15-year sentence, and with good behavior....he's out at 12 years.

So it got brought up....this is a guy who is 31 years old.  For his entire life....he's been hooked up to the gamer-world or the internet.  So there's this feeling that he's never spent a single day without some dose of gaming or internet.  

Odds of a major collapse in mental stability?  It's a likely event.

This brings me to the odd topic.....around the US...there might be a minimum of ten million people who can't survive without the gamer-world or internet connectivity.  There are people who are consumed over just social media by itself. 

What'll happen to SBF?  As you get closer to March of 2024 and his court appearance....I suspect he'll fall apart.