Happy New Year!

I've been thinking a lot about a couple of different topics since yesterday. One is the Mosul Dam in Iraq and the other is Egypt.  These oddball thoughts are probably a result of reading this week's issue of The New Yorker magazine which I've subscribed to for nearly 50 years. Both of the topics were covered this week. One article was about the Mosul Dam which is located in Iraq and has the potential to burst and kill up to hundreds of thousands of people. Its danger has been considered since its construction began in 1981 under the orders of Saddam Hussein (remember him?). Such a structure could highly impact the power and strength of the country and its leaders. So reading about it and how compromised it is by its own weight made me spend some time thinking about water and the power it has to influence civilization as a whole.  These are heavy thoughts for me to have so early in the year.

The other article was about Egypt, in particular its leader President Sisi, a country and a political figure I can barely comprehend. In fact, I can probably just almost describe Egypt's location. I have nearly no knowledge of its leader or even how its people and culture work. Here's what I do know: Egypt is the oldest country in the world, was home to an ancient culture that is still influencing the whole world, and seems to be subject to a lot of revolutions. I used to long to go to Egypt myself because I was so fascinated by the excavation of King Tut's tomb.  I wanted to see it and absorb the desert history that flourished so long ago in this arid valley so far away.  See?  More weighty thoughts.

So I started the New Year lost in random thought about far away places and people and even though I was thinking about a possible catastrophe and a country where a voter can be arrested for "spoiling his ballot," I am nonetheless considering heavy topics having nothing to do with the monumental changes that will occur soon in my own country.