Weeknotes: the one in which the rule of law needs to prevail

What did I do last week?

Last week was one of those really "fun" working from home with the kids weeks. So productivity may not have reached its peak but the satisfaction felt at our by now seamless teamwork and seeing the resilient and adaptable nature of our family is far more fulfilling than finishing a report on time. Grateful for Covid bringing my recomposed family closer together!

What insights did I gain last week?

I had a phone interview for an article. I literally understood about 10% of what the interviewee was saying due to a heavy foreign accent. Despite my best efforts at lipreading, it amounted to nothing. A piece of advice to my future self and any others finding themselves in such a situation: don’t wing it, speak up, ask them to speak slower and spare everyone a lot of headache! In fact, speaking up in most situations is such a simple and priceless piece of advice. No one wants to wade around in the dark!

And here’s for the good and the bad of last week.

Yes, you still had my take on the US elections coming but I fear most memes and other hilarities have covered that and I will just fall into repetition. What can you do when dealing with a megalomaniac delusionist except hope that the democratic procedures in place are enough to safeguard the outcome of this historical election? And keep your fingers tightly crossed.

The good: only three weeks back I was complaining that the EU is not sanctioning its own members when they don’t abide by “the rule of law” – particularly pointing a finger at Hungary and Poland here. Last week marked a small victory in that new mechanisms have been put in place for the handing out of the EU cake – or the EU recovery package to go by its official name. You prefer not to respect the EU rule of law? You don’t get to have your piece of cake, simple as. Sounds promising.

The bad? I was horrified to read that the father of a boy who died trying to reach the island of Samos has been arrested by the Greek authorities on the grounds of endangering a life. Can we stop going after the symptoms of the disease and tackle the causes behind it please? It reminds me of so many stories where it’s the small middleman, the one that’s doing the wrong thing in order to keep his family alive, that gets busted. Meanwhile the mastermind, the big boys making the money out of it will wing it without a scratch only to continue with a next middleman when the first one gets rounded up. Like in the case of these child smugglers in Nairobi. Just makes me want to cry.