I got up this morning to watch the Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Games. I missed the spectacle part but was just in time to see the parade of athletes. What a waste of time this is! The other day I saw a replay of the entry of athletes at the Melbourne Olympics in 1956 and everyone was immaculatelyy dressed and marched shoulder-to-shoulder in precise lines. And most peoeple were of a similar height, which is also tidier. Nowadays you've got basketballers mixing with people who are smaller. Not a good look! Today's entrances are a shambles with athletes sky-larking and mucking around. You'd think the Games were about them.
I've just got used to the new countries which have appeared in recent years - Kazakhstan, Slovenia, Uzbekhistan and so on, but now there's a whole new lot I never knew existed. Apparently, Cape Verde become a sovereign country in the 1970's but I must have missed that. I've heard of the Cape Verde Islands, of course, but didn't realise it was a country in its own right. And Comoros - broke away from France in the 1960's and is now independent. I missed that, too.
These little countries concern me. Without significant natural resources or great tourism potential, how do they survive? I can understand the driving need for independence from an oppresive overlord but at what cost. I suspect that this push in the past 65 years for countries to break apart might be balanced in the next century by amicable amalgamations of neighbouring states. Sometimes bigger is better. Let's start the process by joining hands with New Zealand, Papua-New Guinea, and the Solomon Islands and becoming the Federated States of Oceania. Maybe Tuvalu, Kiribas and Vanuatu might be interested, too.
I've just got used to the new countries which have appeared in recent years - Kazakhstan, Slovenia, Uzbekhistan and so on, but now there's a whole new lot I never knew existed. Apparently, Cape Verde become a sovereign country in the 1970's but I must have missed that. I've heard of the Cape Verde Islands, of course, but didn't realise it was a country in its own right. And Comoros - broke away from France in the 1960's and is now independent. I missed that, too.
These little countries concern me. Without significant natural resources or great tourism potential, how do they survive? I can understand the driving need for independence from an oppresive overlord but at what cost. I suspect that this push in the past 65 years for countries to break apart might be balanced in the next century by amicable amalgamations of neighbouring states. Sometimes bigger is better. Let's start the process by joining hands with New Zealand, Papua-New Guinea, and the Solomon Islands and becoming the Federated States of Oceania. Maybe Tuvalu, Kiribas and Vanuatu might be interested, too.
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