Sailing Afrikii

Misool is a big island in the south-east part of Raja Ampat’s 2 million square hectare marine park. In the south east part of Misool, fingers of small islands pepper the Ceram Sea. Towering karsts, with their crisp outlined limestone cliffs, mark the starting point of amazing coral formations that are fish nurseries for the oceans.

We anchored in several of the scattered islands, some with no name on the map. Dropping anchor in 30m (very deep?!), tying bow and stern lines to cliff walls to prevent us from swinging onto a reef in a squall–we learned some new skills (wear gloves when scaling limestone to set a chain loop to tie onto, use chain because any line will easily get cut on the knife-like edges of rock).

The diving is endless, exploring edges of reef where everything is different from one place to the next based on current, temp and sunlight. My favourite sites are narrow tapered islands that capture the adventure of fish capitalizing on the ripping current that bifurcates at the point. Huge bait balls of small fish form here and you can just pin yourself in one spot and watch schooling trevallies, a couple of tuna and swirling eagle rays dive in and out feeding.

Nature is so amazing. In jarring contrast, we have the US disaster–the US government’s real-time evolution from flawed to fascist. Historian Heather Cox Richardson reminds us of something journalist Ron Suskind wrote in the NYT in 2004. He had the new world order explained to him by a senior advisor of George W Bush– saying that people like Suskind live in a reality based community where they believed people could find solutions based on their observations and careful study of discernible reality. But such a worldview was obsolete. That’s not the way the world really works anymore…”We [the US government administration] are a empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality–judiciously, as you will–we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors…and you…all of you, will be left to just study what we do.”

Heather Cox Richardson points out that members of the current US administration hope to shape not only perceptions but reality itself—and they are discovering that reality is fucking stubborn (my emphasis added 🙂

I believe the laws of nature still apply to this US administration, and those laws state that 7 billion people aren’t going to stand idle while they attempt to take us backwards where human rights don’t matter and clean water and air don’t matter. These are dark times ahead but as history shows, karma’s a bitch that will bite.

Thanks to Kate on IG @sv_polaris for directing me to Heather Cox Richardson 🙂