Author: wtucker

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The Caribbean – Days 9-10

Cruising

Infinite horizon:  pastel pink

Sweeping gray waves,

sun popping up round, splitting

A spherical fission.

Brisk, warming breeze

     From bow to stern

                                                                                  Layering the sweeping tide

                                                                                Sliding aft-ward

Day Nine, the last day of cruising. Already we are gathering our luggage to set out by nine tonight. Ten days hurried like waves past our balcony.  The last three days slowed the pace by keeping us on board, the churning waves keeping us from Grand Cayman.  I regret missing the island,  because it was part of my reason for taking this particular cruise. But with the driving pace of days after our stop at the Panama Canal, it was a relief to spend three days relaxing and letting time expand, instead of gravitating from one event to the next.

Waking up with radiating sun and a delivered breakfast, choosing a movie, a lecture, an entertainer for the day, made it feel more like a vacation and less like an itinerary.  Enjoyed a cocktail hour before a leisurely, four-course dinner. Nothing like our life at home, even the life of retirement with fewer demands on our time.

Cruising was all I hoped it would be. Settled in a cabin for the duration.  Constant movement and at rest. New port waiting in the morning.  The athletic, singing trombone player. The synchrony of the Vivace violin duet.  The three-course, four-star dinner menu.  And the dawn breaking over our balcony.

Fort Lauderdale again.

 

 

 

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Day 8- The Sloth Sanctuary

One of the best days so far, we spent at the Sloth Sanctuary in Limon, Costa Rica.

According to the website sponsored by the family of Judy Avey-Arroyo and the late Luis Arroyo, “The Sloth Sanctuary of Costa Rica is the original rescue center for injured, orphaned and abandoned sloths.”

The Arroyos originally used their  320-acre property as a bird reserve for tourists to visit. As a result of an earthquake that hit the island in 1991, the sanctuary was ruined.

In 1992 a neighbor brought them a baby sloth injured by an auto accident. As their website explains: “Although Judy and Luis sought assistance, not even zoos or wildlife rescue centers knew how to guide them in sloth care. So, they observed the wild sloths on their property, and used their common sense to raise this infant sloth.”

The property was declared an official sanctuary in 1997. Today the  sanctuary is the official home to two-toed and three-toed sloths, some to be released, but many requiring the special care of the sanctuary. See https://www.slothsanctuary.com/about-us .

Below, some sloths we met in rehab. Many of them are not self-sufficient to be released into the wild. For example, they must be taught to distinguish a few edible leaves from the many toxic leaves in the rain forest.  Below center, a blind sloth in permanent residence.

Some young rescued sloths are being prepared for release, if they are promising. Below some photos of “sloth kindergarten” during their morning outing. Some are too young for exercise, but others show great aptitude on the available climbing bars.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Indoors they have a “Neo-natal” room for the youngest rescued sloths, who may need round-the-clock care, administered by co-founder Judy Avey-Arroyo.

Sloths are very inquisitive, but cannot be handled except by licensed care providers. They become attached to people like the daughter of Avey-Arroyo, who gave us a tour of the facilities.

Their reputation for laziness is not deserved, said our guide. They have a very slow digestive system, taking hours to digest one meal. So they rest.

 

Eating vegetables off a plate.

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Pants on Fire

Speaker Mike Johnson insists he is not taking orders from Donald Trump, yet continues to rubber stamp the former President’s demand to shoot down any Democrat-initiated immigration legislation in advance of the election.

Can the Speaker point to one instance he has not been a mouthpiece for the former President? He has relentlessly agreed with him since the Election denial campaign of 2020. The evidence favors a House Speaker with his “pants on fire.”

The Speaker depends on the short memory of American voters. When no one was listening, he said,

“The thing about Donald Trump is that he lacks the character and the moral center we desperately need again in the White House,”  in a lengthy post on Facebook on Aug. 7, 2015, before he was elected to Congress and a day after the first Republican primary debate of the campaign cycle. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/14/us/politics/mike-johnson-donald-trump.html ]

Challenged in the comments page by someone defending Mr. Trump, Mr. Johnson responded: “I am afraid he would break more things than he fixes. He is a hot head by nature, and that is a dangerous trait to have in a Commander in Chief.”

Somewhere in Mike Johnson’s evolution as a political animal, he became a henchman for the former President, became an Election Denier, and, complying with Trump’s expectations, now promises to block legislation to reinforce border security. Even his reluctant support could save lives and decrease illegal immigration in the short term. At least he could let the bill show its inadequacy until Trump was elected to a new administration. The danger is that it might succeed in alleviating the problem. How inconvenient that would be for Mr. Trump’s campaign!

Politicians have the prerogative to change their minds, but they probably should make a good story about why. Not political convenience. Not appeasement of power-brokers. Not compromising with a man who “lacks the character and the moral center we desperately need again in the White House.” There’s no explaining how Rep. Mike Johnson became a born-again believer in Donald Trump.

And there’s no explanation of how a born-again believer could become a disciple of a man who “would break more things than he fixes.  . . . a hot head by nature . . . a dangerous trait to have in a Commander in Chief.”  Those were prophetic words about Donald Trump in 2015.   Not these words about Trump’s denial of the Election results of 2020:  “I take him at his word. I do believe he believes that.”  This is the same man Johnson said, “lacks a moral center.”

So how do we reconcile the Mike Johnson who warned us about Trump in 2015 with ““I’m all in for President Trump, I expect he’ll be our nominee, and he’s going to win it . . .” https://www.cnn.com/2023/11/14/politics/mike-johnson-donald-trump-endorsement-president/index.html.

I think someone’s pants are on fire.

 

 

 

 

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Caribbean- Days 6 & 7

The great crossing though the Panama Locks transpired on Day 6. Below is a map of our approximate path through the new locks and the old.

First, we were on a cruise ship going through the first lock at Gatun Locks  (between #1 and #2 below)  then on life boats (aka “ferries”), water shuttles (from #3-#4 below ), buses (dotted road from #4-#9 in Gamboa)) and eventually ferries that took us through the olde Pedro Miguel and the Miraflores Locks (#14-15). 

Entering Port at Colon the Ruby Princess gave us our first acquaintance with the locking process early in the morning, sailing through the the newest installation at Gatun Lake. The lock walls, embedded in the side walls, slid across to block water from the front and back. The moving walls formed the container that would be pumped full of fresh water to raise the enclosed boat 85 feet above the bottom, which is higher than the ocean bottom. The fresh water avoids the ecological clash of merging one ocean’s sea water with the other.

 

Panama Canal - Wikipedia

The trip through the old locks was more adventurous, because we had another touring ferry on one side and a thirty-foot sailboat on the other. The sailboat was lashed to our starboard side, so we didn’t bounce against each other in transit.  So we inched into the Pedro Miguel Lock [#4), and the doors closed behind and in front of us. This time they closed on a hinge, as the early locks did (photograph below).

The entourage cleared the Pedro Miguel lock and spread out as they advanced on the Mirafloras lock (between 14 & 15).  Then back into formation for the second lock. No cubic foot of water was wasted to get four craft though the locks.

We circled Panama City, an impressive skyline with modern skyscrapers. It could be a skyline in Qatar or Dubai, except for the poverty in its shadow, which we got to witness on the bus ride home– one dilapidated building after another. 

City Skyline

The significant message of the day: that immigrants from the barrios of the U.S. and Canada came to Panama to build the canal for $1/ day, plus lodging. The initial locks were completed in 1914, but work continued a century later with the construction of the new locks, completed May 2016.

We bussed back to Colon in time for a late dinner– 8 p.m.

 

 

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Days 4,5 – Cartegena

We looked forward to visiting Cartegena, Colombia: neither of us had been to South America before.  We had not even located it on a map until Princess Cruise put it on the itinerary. There it was, our destination on the fourth day of the cruise.

From the shore line, Colombia is a sprawling seaport, with several terminals for container ships.  Our guide gave us the panoramic view at the top of  The Castillo San Felipe de Barajas (San Felipe de Barajas Castle), a vision of prosperity.  That would be the initial story of any thriving city.

That Cartegena was historically Catholic is visible everywhere. Below, the exterior and interior of  San Pedro Klavier, only a few steps from San Felipe. The crypt, if course, contains the remnants of the founder, Pedro Klaver. The church is part of a set of religious buildings that is complemented by the Cloister of San Pedro Claver and the archaeological museum.

San Pedros Klaver (keys)

San Pedro Klaver (keys)

Altar San Pedro Klava

 

Crypt San Pedro Klaver

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Included in the museum’s story of the civilizing of Cartegena is the story of African American slavery. It sets a sobering counterpoint to the prosperity story. Below a painting from the colonial era, with an abolitionist perspective. Cartegena completely abolished slavery in 1852. Progressive.

Oil Painting of Slaves Imprisoned

Another landmark of Cartegena is the  impressive basilica, just a few steps from San Pedro Klaver. Thr giant tryptich at the front of the cathedral depicts the history that leads to the founding of the church

Cartagena Cathedral, Colombia - Wikipedia

Metropolitan Cathedral Basilica of St. Catherine of Alexandria,

 

Basilica Pulpit

 

 

 

 

 

I have to mention that the grand history of the city did not block our  memories of disturbing poverty just beyond the sights on our tour. Below the ingenious representation of two men alongside a spherical sculpture, whose purpose I forget.  I was sorry not to have the right denomination of bills to recognize their perfect transformation to living scupture.

Mimes Bookending Sculpture

 

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Tales from the Dark World

To politicize anything means to turn it into a weapon for your advantage.  Late in life I realize that anything can be politicized, which is to say: degraded, mocked or utterly corrupted.  It especially sad to see the whole gamut in one week in January.

First, the Taylor Swift fiasco is a mockery of her public image. She has become an “idol” in the religious sense and her followers endangered worshippers. Her involvement in voter registration and her support for former Gov. Phil Bredesen, who was running for the Senate against then-Representative Marsha Blackburn, and Jim Cooper (a House member who has since retired) incited insults from Newsmax host Greg Kelly who said, But I think what they call it is, they’re elevating her to an idol. Idolatry. This is a little bit what idolatry, I think, looks like. And you’re not supposed to do that. In fact, if you look it up in the Bible, it’s a sin! So, I don’t like that.”  [ https://www.huffpost.com/entry/greg-kelly-taylor-swift-fans-idolatry-sin_n_65b907bfe4b0102bd2d62292 ] It may make be spiritual to some, but to me it is mockery of things spiritual. 

The NFL has  been degraded for its politically incorrect pro-vaccine advocacy and its Rooney Rule (mandatory interview with Black candidates for head coaching).  “Cancelling” is not only the prerogative of the p0litical left.  Now the NFL is accused of fabricating the romance of Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce for public relations and for a plan for Taylor to announce her support of Democrats during the Super Bowl.

Alison Steinberg, a host on the ultraconservative One America Network, claimed that Swift’s relationship is a “fake, carefully crafted show” meant to get children “obsessed with some grown man who gets paid millions of dollars every year to throw a ball around while promoting poison death shots. 

This allegation credits  the NFL with much more daring than you would expect, since it is run by owners that worry about attendance and image first. To plan this kind of political stunt goes far beyond their risk tolerance, so there is no credibility to that rumor.

Finally, the  complex bill on Israel, Ukraine, and southern border control came out of committee and was immediately savaged by supporters of Donald Trump. The Republican Senator who negotiated the present proposal with funds and executive power is James Lankford of Oklahoma. “There’s political pressure to say, ‘If we fix the border now, then Biden’s suddenly gonna get off the hook and it’ll help his presidential campaign,'” Lankford said. But Lankford, a respected Republican, crafted the compromise bill that would potentially resolve the stalemate over border security. The complaint that it would weaken the immigration case for former President Trump is sadly cynical. Is it possible a candidate for President of the United States would sabotage a bill that would save lives and preserve security just for the arming of his political campaign? Oh yes.  A democratic process could be utterly corrupted.

Apparently everything from passing vital immigration legislation to the idolization of rock stars can be politicized.   It is as if the mere contact with a polarizing issue turns institutions and people into agents of a conspiracy.

In an election year, probably everything can, and will be, politicized, but it doesn’t make it newsworthy. Let the boycotts of the NFL and Taylor Swift concerts begin, but try not to sling mud just to degrade the reputation of every person and institution in sight.

Above all, let important compromises and desperately needed legislation pass without Donald Trump’s blessing. Talk about idolatry, what would you call the Republican Party’s fealty to the former President?  The failure to bargain over legislation in good faith strikes at the heart or democracy. That is what happened at the end of January, when the Mitch McConnell offered that legislation crafted by a member of his own party could not pass without the former President’s blessing. That was a sad day for democracy, indeed.

 

 

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Day Three, Montego Bay

We did not sign up for a shore excursion in Montego Bay, Jamaica. Trying to enjoy the food and services on the Ruby Princess. We will have a tour of Cartagena, Colombia in two days. That will be busy enough for these high-flying seniors.

Leaving the Ruby Princess, we entered a building shared by Customs and local street vendors selling Jamaican souvenirs. Tried on an “L” soccer shirt in national colors (black, yellow and green), but it was too small. (Already he gains weight?). Found the same shirt in an XXL at another vendor on the Montego Bay Street called “Hip Strip.” So now I own one.

We took a shuttle from the cruise ship to the beach in Montego Bay and explored the “strip.” Besidesthe shirt, not much to see except this exceptionally tall local. This outfit gives an idea of the colors of my new shirt, minus the red.

On the way back down the strip we saw a striking statue dedicated to Usain Bolt, the Olympic champion sprinter and national hero.  The Bolt statue was actually constructed of nuts and bolts welded together with a nod to the most famous Bolt, himself. Bolt is poised in his characteristic victory posture, one arm extended diagonally toward the heavens, shooting his bolt skyward, the other trailing behind.

 

 

You can almost make out the hardware in this photo of Bill studying the construction of the statue. Behind the statue is a sports bar with the most magnificent wide screen over the bar for the sole purpose of viewing soccer. We had the nationally favored  “Red Stripe” beer on the upstairs deck with a miniature version of the screen.

At the foot of the stairs leading to the second floor, where the sports bar reigns, is a poster that adds to the glamor that is U-Bolt. The “9.58,” is his record for the 100-meter dash , set at the 2009 “World Champs,” still unbroken after 14 years.

Best All-Time Adjusted 100-Meter Performances — Men - Track ...

This local color was really the highlight of our visit to the rather depressed “Hip Strip.” The streets are narrow, the cars bumper to bumper and honking impatiently. Uniformed men line the pavement asking “Need a cab?” with obvious oversupply over demand. The stores were primarily souvenir shops, selling almost identical wares. The sports bar was the best place to pass the time of day until the shuttle returned to pick us up.

Returning to the Ruby Princess it was sobering to consider that the wealthy tourists of North America were the primary source of income for Montego Bay.

 

 

 

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Enablers of Tyranny

With all the blame for Donald Trump’s rise to power, the last culprits to be accused are his ardent followers. The limitless control of the people’s passion is usually blamed on the tyrant, not on his victims. Pundits see him as a manipulator of the minds of battered citizens, longing for a champion.
But what if the citizens are the enablers?
Enabler: a person who encourages or enables negative or self-destructive behavior in another.
What if the people have made Donald Trump what he is, by egging him on with delight of his disdain for the heartless bureaucrats of  Washington?  What if Trump was more the fulfillment of the people’s revenge, their “retribution,” than the ruthless tyrant grasping for control?
This is not to absolve the ex-President for his part in enraging the voter: In The Art of the Deal he confides, “The final key to the way I promote is bravado. I play to people’s fantasies.  People may not always think big themselves, but they can still get very excited by those who do.  That’s why a little hyperbole never hurts.  People want to believe that something is the biggest and the greatest and the most spectacular.” [ https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/08/is-passion-meant-for-politics/402457/]. Clearly Trump knows what he is doing.
But as he labors under the weight of huge legal losses, most recently of $83.3 million dollars for defamation of E. Jean Carroll,  as he stammers at his rallies, confusing Nikki Haley with Nancy Pelosi, as he makes self-defeating threats (“Anybody that makes a ‘Contribution’ to Birdbrain, from this moment forth, will be permanently barred from the MAGA camp”), he loses stature and becomes the fabrication of the people.
Lately the former President’s public appearances have shown more frustration than unflappable leadership. Viewers are reminded of his age and the burdens he carries, as he exits the courtroom before the charge to the jury in the defamation suit against him. While the  subject of aging is usually applied to the current President, the former one, himself, is 77.
His fuel remains the public passion at his rallies. He comes from them energized and ready to face his enemies in the courtroom. So who is manipulating whom?  Are Trump’s loyal fans generating the zeal for his campaign or are they enabling a driven man, unable to control his ambition? Are they propping up a staggering figurehead, someone on a collision course with disaster?
Shakespeare had insight into the psychology of the tragic politician. In his critical study of Shakespeare’s tyrants,  Stephen Greenblatt speculates:

“How does a figure like Richard III or Macbeth ascend to the throne?

Such as disaster, Shakespeare suggested, could not happen without widespread complicity.  His plays probe the psychological mechanisms that lead a nation to abandon its ideals and even its self-interest. Why would anyone, he asked himself, be drawn to a leader manifestly unsuited to govern, someone dangerously impulsive or viciously  conniving or indifferent to the truth? . . . Why do otherwise proud and self-respecting people submit to the sheer effrontery of the tyrant, his sense that he can get away with saying and doing anything he likes, his spectacular indecency?” Tyrant, pp. 1-2

Greenblatt compared some of the great tyrants in Shakespeare’s repertoire, Richard III, Macbeth, King Lear and Coriolanus, in his study of famed tragic figures.  He found that they were not merely repulsive in their lust for power, but fascinating for their ability to magnetize people to follow them.

The identification with power is as strong as the loathing for it.  Every tyrant has his enablers, hoping to gain by his abuses.  Greeblatt suggests that even the audience to the drama, detached by their safe viewpoint, has a morbid fascination for tyrannical power. They fantasize, as Trump suggests in The Art of the Deal. Regarding Richard III, Shakespeare’s most ruthless and murderous  tyrant, Greeblatt says:

“We are charmed again and again by the villain’s outrageousness by his indifference to the ordinary norms of human decency, by lies that seem to be effective even though no one believes them.  Looking out from the stage. Richard invites us not only to share his gleeful contempt but also to experience for ourselves what it is to succumb to what we know to be loathsome. ” Tyrant: Shakespeare on Politics,  pp. 81-82.
As the former President’s devotees play the spectator to an epic drama of a man hurling himself toward tragedy or triumph, they should consider: could we be enablers of a man unable to control himself? Are we using Donald Trump as our proxy for power? Are we testing his limits, because he has inflated ours?  What about the media? Are they complicit in this unraveling tragedy?   Are they enabling the goose that laid the golden egg?  When the goose is exhausted beyond rejuvenation, who gets the blame?
A perspective on the possible fate of the tragic politician.

 

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Ruby Princess: Day One and Two

First Cruise: The western Caribbean

Striking Observations Day 1, 2

The length of the corridor outside our stateroom is about the length of a football field.

The length of an open dining room: about a city block.

The noise of polite conversation in an open-seating dining room: you raise your voice to converse

The sound of the ship motors when you hit the pillow at night: a soft hum below your pillow

The speed of the cruise ship at sea -download–Ocean Froth Passing

 

The tiny shower stall in our Stateroom : If you put your hands on your hips, you touch the walls.

The substantial closet space: A six-foot bar about the length of a suite closet at home.

The complications of cruise packages on Princess:

How do cruise packages they differ from “onboard credit”? How can you tell if you have a “benefits package”?  How do you squeeze 15 drinks/ day from a benefits package? Admittedly it covers more than alcoholic drinks. But how do you consume any combination of 15 drinks/ day?

The catch: You have no ability to look at your spending online; that remains a mystery. Although you can ask how your money gets spent: credit card, onboard credit or benefits package ? This mystery of how much you have spent  keeps you from deciding “I’ve spent too much.”

Generally you eat without additional charges, especially if you go to buffet meals. But they also have “Specialty Dining,” which adds to the cost of eating. You want to eat a couple of times in Specialty, because there you are in quiet dining room at a private table, with an upscale menu. We’re going to the Italian Specialty Dining: Sabatini’s. Italian, of course.

P.S. Sabatini’s was amazing– a four course dinner, new table settings for each course. An excellent bean soup, a cheesy, lobster tail salad, mouth-watering lasagna. Could not even muster an appetite for dessert without the  Quiet atmosphere in an intimate, circular dining room.

What happened to us today: we went to “Guest Services” to ask how our expenses were charged. We were blown away to find our travel agent had purchased “Princess Plus” for $208/ person, which is a $1000. per person discount! The travel agent told me the day we left that she had purchased no benefit packages. Turns out she did, for a travel agent’s discount.  Must have forgotten, but she got us better wifi coverage, 15 drinks per person per day, and all kinds of free exercise classes, other stuff we may not use. Moral: use a reliable travel agent to book a cruise.

It has been cloudy and windy all day, but we walked the Promenade Deck for three laps (equal 1.25 miles) and it was fun. Tonight we go to Sabatini’s, Specialty Dining.

Tomorrow we stop in Montego Bay, Jamaica. We’ll go ashore without a planned excursion. The adventure continues. . .