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| St John's Island, from 'Anna M' in 2004 |
It is impossible to think, say or write anything much without reference to the dramatic events that have been shaking the world on all sides in this two thousand and twenty-sixth year of Our Lord. In Britain, America, China, Russia, Iran and many other places, there is a crescendo of existential stress which is fitfully exploding here and there. Who am I to add to the torrent of commentary? Yet to try to make sense of what is happening is a necessity for us all. We each have our own experience, and it seems to me that any spots of illumination which we think we have, we should share.
Until this last dump of material, I tried to steer clear of the Epstein files, considering them just one more dollop of sordid gossip that I would rather not bother my head with. Why would I want to besmirch my memories of the Caribbean, for example, by looking up that famous little island of Epstein's? Then I remembered that I sailed past the same Little St James' Island several times in the noughties, that Anna M had been repaired across the bay on St Thomas, and I had even tried to interest Fiona in buying a house on Water Island, further along the south coast of St Thomas, for use as a guest house and base for sailing trips.
People, especially from St John's which is largely a national park, used to call St Thomas 'St Trauma', finding it busy and stressful. Perhaps its pivotal role in the slave trade back in the day did not help! Anyway that's where they had to go for their business, the airport, where the cruise ships went and a lot of people including myself tried to make a few bucks. At the other end of the south coast of St John's is the lovely Coral Bay, where I dropped anchor off a beautiful beach, swam ashore and encountered an old black dude working on a small boat. He squinted at Anna M, and enquired "Is that an Irish tricolour?" He responded to my affirmative by holding out his hand saying "Captain O'Kelly's the name".
He ended up coming for a sail with me, doing a bit of fishing and telling me his story. I think the Irishman was his great-grandfather, who had settled in that spot with a black woman in the nineteenth century. He had owned a schooner, sailed up and down the islands trading, or sometimes did some fishing, while the womenfolk grew vegetables, made baskets and what-not. When I asked what his sons were doing nowadays, his face darkened. "You see them houses there? Million bucks apiece. They drive around in their big trucks, smoke dope and quarrel about the money!"
This incident helped to clarify a very big issue in my mind,- how may we get back to some kind of sanity? Meanwhile, I wasn't to know that peak insanity was playing out a few miles away, on the 'Epstein Island'. Nowadays I feel that I owe it to the girls, whom I then sailed unwittingly past, to try to understand what was going on. However I tend to think that, horrible as their story is, it is a bit of a side-show and distraction from the big picture, which we are only beginning to understand, though we won't get much further if President Trump and other big-wigs like Gates and Von der Leyen have their way.
The Ducky (as it seems I shall have to go back to calling him) has been desperately trying to move on, along with many of the most powerful men in America, but it seems he is tearing up his base, the genuine MAGA types who elected him on the promise of transparency and accountability. They are not going to be fobbed off with half measures. Neither are they going to be pleased if, contrary to his election rhetoric, he resorts to the Putinesque, Machiavellian tactic of distracting everyone with a war in Iran.
Which criteria is he using, in deciding what we get to see, and which not? When it comes to names, it is fair enough to redact the names of victims, but not of 'players'. What was done seems arbitrary, however enough has come out to show us that there is more than ordinary vice involved. It is hard to believe that those big money men like Gates and the Rothschilds, not to mention Mossad, the CIA, MI6, Putin, the Chinese Communist Party, the Clintons, etc were so very interested in Epstein's girls. There was clearly some bigger play going on. What could it possibly be?
In recent years, one 'conspiracy theory' after another has turned out to be true. Who now believes that the CIA was not involved in President Kennedy's assasination? Who believes that the covid came from nature? Who does not think that the whole covid fiasco was orchestrated on a global basis, that somehow managed to coopt democratic governments, media and health authorities? Who could possibly have pulled it off? Who profited from it, enormously? The Epstein files have lifted only a corner of the fabric, so far. If democracy is to have any future, we must all press on with the demand for accountability. Fauci, Von der Leyen and Beourla, all of you, out with it!
The upset and level of stress surely has a lot to do with the new tech. In principal, our access to information is unprecedented. The rulers of this world are not used to transparency on the part of the plebs. Somehow we must be sedated and distracted. Let's not let it happen. I recommend two antidotes,- sailing the sea and prayer. Best of all, combined, as in the words of Fr Anthony Keane, a monk of Glenstal Abbey who has sailed with me:-
