Newsletter Week 2 - Floods, Debt, and the forgotten Americans

Massive natural disasters are making life on Earth difficult while debts spiral and Americans fall into homelessness.

(Too much) Water for Elephants

Almost exactly seven years ago I was scrubbing mud off the hides of elephants in Chang Mai’s Elephant Nature Park, a massive sanctuary for recovering, abused pachyderms and privileged gap-year Westerners such as myself. Today, those same majestic mammals which I marvelled at years ago are fighting for their lives as floodwaters devastate one of Thailand’s most iconic animal sanctuaries.

Luckily one hundred elephants have been saved thus far, tragically two others didn’t make it. Dozens of volunteers (tourists who pay a fair amount to stay there and help out) are still stuck on site, including five Americans. Rescue efforts are ongoing.

As Thailand and Laos reel from the torrential rains of Typhoon Yagi, people, and animals, across the globe are fighting to stay afloat. Hurricane Helene has devastated rural North Carolina, leaving at least 220 dead and hundreds more missing. In the last month, flooding has killed dozens in Central Europe, Bosnia, Nepal, Ethiopia, and others.

While natural disasters certainly predate carbon-induced climate change, the rate and severity of them seems to be accelerating with deadly consequence. While the human toll of these global catastrophes should take precedence over the predicament of the animals, I can’t help but feel sentimental for the Chang Mai elephants — deeply intelligent, powerful, and traumatized creatures contending with the fallout of our global climate crisis.

The State of the Union - Felipe Branner

The U.S. Foreign Debt finds itself at a staggering $35,679,457,017,666, skyrocketing upwards by the second. These figures continue their increase into astronomical, incomprehensible territory - but are essentially that, just numbers. A ledger behind the scenes, a testimony to a superpower wielding awesome control of the economic markets. Nonetheless, as one travels through the US — as a colleague and I had the possibility to do this summer as correspondents — these numbers take very real human shapes and forms.

This is not to say that there is a direct correlation between the size of one country’s national debt and, e.g. the ineffectiveness of its social policies in housing or towards the homeless. Instead, one could go so far as to argue, that an increased debt means more money to invest in exactly these types of social programs. Something is wrong, however, in the towns and cities of America. Deserted towns dot the landscape with by-ways guiding one past their derelict centers. At their outskirts, half-closed strip malls sport Dollar Generals and, if you’re lucky, a solitary McDonalds.

This particular photo is taken in Washington DC, at a bus-stop between 18th St. & K St NW. This part of the capital is an office-loaded downtown, moonscape at night, silent as soon as workers leave. DC is filled with such contrasts, in the hip Adams-Morgan district party-goers find themselves only a two blocks walk from dark, scorned areas with poor souls raving about, talking to themselves or simply, unconscious in a heap on the pavement. And this is nothing compared to the scenes you will find in downtown LA or Philadelphia, where victims are reeling from the country’s opioid and Fentanyl crises.

Without knowledge about his identity nor his story, this photo, to me, tells a story about a country, a state of union, engaged in a battle for its own soul. If the US in 2024 wants to offer an attractive program or style of governance for other country’s to buy into, it has to tend first to its home-front, whether more debt, well-spent, is the answer, remains to be seen.

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Weekly Recommendations:
Here are some articles that interested the TLR writers this week:

• American Election: Where the Harris-Trump race stands 1 month out from Election Day, The Hill

• Azerbaijan - Israel Alliance: Iran's Weak Spot—Azerbaijanis—Serves Israel Well, Hudson

• Israel-Lebanon War: Israel’s Lebanon assault: A double suffering for Syrian refugees, The New Humanitarian

• Haiti: Haitian Gang Slaughters at least 70 as Thousands Flee, Reuters

• Japan Election: China hawks dominate pool for Japan’s next prime minister, Responsible Statecraft