Fantasea

It is Saturday morning in Brisbane, Australia.

I am lying on a bench in Anzac park. I am a constant visitor of this small park which straddles the Cootha hills and the town’s botanic gardens, two important natural areas in west Brisbane. My room is located just in front of the park. In fact, its proximity to the park is the main reason I decided to rent it. I am studying for my PhD in Old Europe and I’m here for a 3 month-long exchange. My initial preference was to rent a room located in a more convenient place somewhere close to the university campus at St Lucia. When I took this room soon after my arrival, my plan was to stay only for a week until I find a better one. However, when I saw in the next morning this beautiful park shimmering with life and shining with the glorious beauty of nature, I decided to stay longer so I could enjoy morning and evening walks listening to the chiming birds. I felt this would perhaps renew me and make me more in tune with myself and the universe.

The story of me and nature is that of an unrequited love.

The first ten years of my life, which are probably the happiest ones, were spent in the country side of ETHIOPIA. I grew up wandering freely in the wilderness and soaking in the bounties of nature. My parents were teachers in a newly opened rural school, and we lived in a beautiful school compound with pristine surroundings.

Our house was located in the foot of a small hill, and the hill was topped with two large eucalyptus trees. Every morning, I would join the kids living in the school compound (my two siblings, and the 3 kids of the school’s only staffer) to climb up the hill and scurry through the shrubs and bushes that litter the slopes of the hill hunting for butterflies. At the foot of the hill is a small stream that flows during the rainy season. The stream starts in the nearby swamps that grow thick, weight-high grasses. It was very exciting for us to gather and watch the stream in rainy days when the gushing floods overflow its banks and make a thunderous noise out of its usually small waterfall. In other days, the water of the stream is clear and we would go into it trying to catch tadpoles which we called ‘fish’.

Bordering the compound of our school, just a hundred meters from our house, there was a much bigger river that flows through the year. The banks of the river were dotted with dokma trees that generously grew charcoal black berries whenever it is season. The best times of my childhood in my memory are related to my adventures around the river. We would go to the river for swimming and fruit gathering every day. Climbing up the fruit trees was one way we competed among each other. As we grew up, we would go even beyond the river and the school compound into the mountains from which the river originates. These mountains contained more types of wild fruits, and it was quite a thrilling experience to climb them up.

After I started my 5^th grade of school, I was suddenly plucked out of my wild, sweet life and placed in dreary small town full of treacherous and noisy kids. My parents changed school, and there was no way I could stay behind even if I wished to. Not minding the smallness of its scope, mine was no less tragic than Adam’s ‘eviction’ from Eden. It was one of the ugliest changes in my life, and I believe I still suffer from its consequences.

Back in Brisbane.

The morning is probably not the best morning. The sun was not shining, and it is long since the bountiful jacaranda flowers that once brightly decorated the park had fallen. But it has been raining abundantly over night, and every casual observer knows how beautifully plants respond to abundant water. The earth is soaked with water, and the air is damp and wafts of the mixed scent of flowers and soil. The trees in the park, having absorbed so much water, and with their branches still wet with the night-long rain, seem happy and excited. The park seems ready to explode from the excitement of life.  

Lying on the bench, I watched the branches of the tree that towered over me, and the clouds beyond. As I sigh, I feel all my worries and troubles leaving me. I am calm and relaxed. I am full again. If the universe has a personality and could talk to me, I would tell it I am at peace with it. I felt in tune with everything around me.

Just then started the fantasy. The first thing that came to my mind was the appearance of Moses and Elijah to Jesus and his disciples on the mountain tops 2000 years ago. And the thought crossed my mind, it must have been a holy moment like this. Everything beautiful, and exactly in its place. Everyone calm and content. It must have felt so, for otherwise, Peter, Jesus’s disciple, would not have asked him: “Lord, it is good for us to be here; if You wish, I will make three tabernacles here, one for You, and one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” In his own wisdom, the disciple was trying to capture the glory of the moment, put it on hold, frame it, and put it in a place where he won’t lose it. As if a picture would keep alive the life it pictures.

Time indeed is cruel. Moments of completeness - when nothing is lacking and yet nothing remains to be added for – are rare and precious. Completeness would mean an end of the drama of life and existence, for what would be the meaning of effort - of thought and action and movement and planning - when everything is complete and no problem remains to be solved? Indeed such moments, if they occur at all, are as precious as gold. But when they eventually occur, the cruel time takes them away. As if they were ordinary moments. As if they were not the moments that make the whole journey of life worthy of its trouble.

Unfortunately for us, time travels in one direction. It is not something that can be gone through and returned to again, or avoided, as the need may be, or paused, for that matter. At least in this sense space is more forgiving to man. It can be gone through and returned to again. Just like I chose to rent my room here, and I could leave it if I don’t like it. What if it were the same with time? Just as you can park your car in any slot in the parking lot, what if you could park your life in any of the years you lived, or even in any time all men lived? I would certainly park my life in a great moment like this one, and savor the joy of oneness with the universe for eternity.

I was awakened from my fantasy by the increasing noise of the birds’ singing. I don’t know why Australian birds like to take every excuse to sing. If it is a little dark and cloudy, they pretend as if it were dawn and start the whole circus again. And when they sing, they do it as loudly as they could. Before I got used to it, their song used to wake me up every morning.….

Now, as I listened to it, I started to realize that their song makes a certain distinct voice. If you try to spell it, it goes something like: “Errropeeeeaaan….. Errropeeeeaaan….. Errropeeeeaaan….. Errropeeeeaaan….. Errropeeeeaaan….. Errropeeeeaaan…..” and it goes on and on from branch to branch, and from tree to tree. I wondered if the birds were calling out for help. May be they are scared of me. May be they are watching from the top of the tree, and they are suspecting I am some lurking enemy. But again, how would they know I carry a European passport? Even many of my friends don’t know I have changed a passport to make my travel to Down Under easy.

The more I closely listened to their voice, it sounded something quite different. Not exactly as before, but it now it seems to sound more clearly as : “Ittooopiaaan….. Ittooopiaaan….. Ittooopiaaan….. Ittooopiaaan….. Ittooopiaaan….. Ittooopiaaan…..”

Well, there you have the answer. These birds recognize that a foreigner is lurking in their midst. They have identified me as Itopian, it seems, and I am not quite sure if I can dispute that. And I started to listen even more cautiously, this time discerning a quite distinct and different combination of rhythm: “Ittooopiaaan….. Errropeeeeaaan….. Ittooopiaaan….. Errropeeeeaaan….. Ittooopiaaan….. Errropeeeeaaan…..”

As it appears, the birds are in confusion about my identity. And the debate went on and on until I slowly woke up from my ecstasy to the inevitably mundane life. Where was I planning to go this afternoon?

Above: Anzac Park from the window of my room.

What does it take to solve the world’s biggest problem?

The day when Mr. Obama appeared at the joint session of the US Congress to deliver his much-anticipated speech, I arrived very late in my house. I was tired and ready to go to bed (yes, it is already night here in Europe!), but the excitement and clamor on TV kept me awake. So I decided to watch the 30 minutes speech about the US economy. After all, I am a student of economics, and I have enough curiosity to learn what the President of the world’s most powerful economy have to say about… yes about solving the World’s biggest problem. Which happens to be, at this moment, the sick state of the US economy. And Mr. Obama does not disappoint at makes speeches either. (I am not sure if it is a credit for him, because his opponents are increasingly presenting him as a naïve college professor whose only specialty is mastery of words …)

The US economy has been in tatters for years now. The Great Recession that started 3 years ago has left millions of Americans jobless. After spending more than a trillion dollars to ‘stimulate’ the economy, the government has not yet succeeded in reversing the gloomy state of the economy. In fact, many were talking that the US (and by extension also ‘us’) is just sliding into the second phase of what they call a ‘double-dip recession’.

Across the Atlantic, Europe’s economy is even in a more dire situation. Because of the near bankruptcy of the Mediterranean Euro countries, the Euro is in deep trouble. The situation is so gloomy that many are talking about the collapse of the Euro. And I have to confide to you, I myself has considered moving out my small saving from the Euro….

And there he comes, Mr President - preceded by his cabinet- exchanging handshakes and kisses with seemingly everyone in the crowded congress house. I noted that when you are a president everyone, and yes literally everyone, wants to talk to you. It must be a hard business. Do you run the country or exchange handshakes? Make speeches or kiss all those congresswomen? For a moment, I wondered if it is not just a kissing ceremony.

Everyone is curious about what the President has in stock. The economic situation is not just bad; it is also extremely controversial. If you put together the world’s leading economists and ask them to diagnose and fix this crisis, they won’t be able to do it. Which is why it is not solved yet. 

In the beginning of the crisis, everyone agreed with the Democrat’s idea of a stimulus package – that is to say the government’s intervention to step up the economy from the brink of collapse. Three years later, the Republicans argue, and after spending a trillion dollars, the economy is still in tatters. So they recommend cutting back taxes, shrinking the government and reducing the ballooning government deficit. The Democrats think just the opposite. They believe the stimulus was a success because it averted a looming catastrophe. And they add that what the country needs is more government spending. The public debt is large, they contend, but the immediate problem is the state of the economy, not the ballooning debt. The Democrats and Republicans are so divided about the priority between addressing growth and the debt that they nearly led the country into bankruptcy just a few weeks ago. That cost America dearly. Just after the bitter squabble between the two parties ended, S&P downgraded America’s debt rating, claiming that the two parties nearly bankrupted the country and led the world into an economic disaster….

If I were told to be the judge, I would have a hard time because both sides have a point. The economy needs to grow now, so it perhaps deserves more stimulus. And yes the public debt is also already 14 trillion dollars! And something has to be done about that too. The problem is that no one, not a single of the all-too-famous economists, is yet too sure as to which of the two issues should be given a priority. For every argument he makes in favor of one idea, there will be a thousand arguments for its opposite. That is why it is called the World’s Biggest Problem.

And there comes Mr President. He is already on the pulpit now, just in front of the House Speaker John Boehner, who happens to be an arch-enemy Republican, and the Vice President Joe Bidden. Hundreds of congressfolk received him with a standing ovation.

No one is sure what this man will pull out of his hat. On my part, I did not expect much. Considering the deep controversial nature of the problem, I expected a few smart ideas, with pros and cons, and a few hesitant proposals on how to fix the World’s Biggest Problem. And I was sure the Republicans in the congress –including the House Speaker Mr Boehnerwho sat there with a gloomy face– are sure about one thing: they expect no solution from Mr President. They have exactly the opposite idea of what he is to say, whatever that is gonna be. These parties are so divided that I don’t know how they stand each other. I sometimes think it is easier to take the guns and go to the jungle – the African way - than to sit together to ‘agree’ with someone who thinks just the opposite of whatever crosses your mind ….

Then followed the speech. The president detailed his solution for the World’s Biggest Problem. In one very important aspect, the speech was the exact opposite of what I expected. There was a lot of math and economics in it, with some of which I disagreed, but there was something that was exactly the opposite of my expectation.

The president was sure about his answer.

Now, that is striking. Here is the World’s Biggest Problem, about the diagnosis of which even the best economists cannot agree, let alone on its solution, and the president is sure about how to fix it? That is something!

Mr. Obama was in a fired up mood. Delivering his speech in his usual powerful and charming voice, the president made an eloquent and detailed description of his solution. He called it “The American Jobs Act,” or the AJA. Obliviously, the AJA is a meticulously developed proposal, which is reviewed and re-reviewed and consulted with his council of economists multiple times, and most importantly one that takes into account the voices and considerations of the Republicans in the House. But that is not the point. However meticulously you develop your solution, you can never be sure about it when what you are facing is the World’s Biggest Problem.  

That is where I learned My Greatest Lesson. And it goes like this: if there is something called the “World’s Biggest Problem” there also is the “World’s Biggest Solution.” When you think about it, that sentence is almost like saying that there is no such thing as the World’s Biggest Problem because all problems have answers. That was what I learned from Mr. President, not any economics at all.

A famous basketball coach called John Wooden claims to have re-discovered the meaning of the word “Success.” He completely disagrees with the definition in the Webster dictionary for the word, which defines success as getting something others don’t have. He thinks that definition is obsolete. His preferred definition is: “Success is the peace of mind which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you made the effort to become the best that you are capable of becoming.” In other words, the Biggest Solution is the Best Solution You Can Conjure Up. When you think about it, there is no failure according to this definition so long as you did the best. What a rich world, where everyone can be successful!

It seemed to me Mr. Obama has known this definition all along. His attitude for the question was the answer. And it was a big attitude. In his own words: “Man can be as big as he wants to be.” And he wanted to be as big and capable as what it takes to solve the World’s Biggest Problem. And I saw that greatness on tv that late night.

There was one thing the President did not do in his 30 minutes speech. He never emphasized how big the problem was. When he did, it was only to remind the congressfolk that they are greater still. The problem is big, but you are bigger still.

He was so fired up, so inspiring, but at the same time so down-to the earth and meticulous in his math and economics that it was hard not to believe him. Suddenly, I realized that this problem is not big anymore.

That was how I learned the answer to the world’s biggest problem. There is no Big Problem, because we are bigger still.