The Drought (1964)
The Machiavellian war strategy in the supply side of the natural gas market ...
Rapid adaptation to change has always been seen as a virtue in human beings. Why is this the case? The answer is simple, because so-called human life is not a continuum of happiness and unhappiness or of stability and instability, fortunately, it is not... On the contrary, the itinerary of life is complex, with its encounters and misencounters, loves and dislikes, in short ..... Sometimes, our own ecosystem, jaded by pollution, reveals itself by provoking natural disasters of enormous proportions... and not to mention the deviations in the minds of some so-called men that lead to excesses that infringe all the moral canons of coexistence imaginable..., which is why our existence is constantly subjected to complex tests through extreme and always unforeseen changes, they say... which is very true..., because in the unique minds of the human being, we have to be aware of the fact that we have to face the same problems.... because in the unique minds of some writers throughout the history of mankind they have managed to visualise the plagues and changes in political systems that would affect us mercilessly, with the passing of time....
According to the journal Plos Pathogens of the University of Kent (England), on Friday 17 November 2019, in the city of Wuhan, China, the SARC-COv-2 virus was detected for the first time, an organism with a simple structure, composed of proteins and nucleic acids, and capable of reproducing only within specific living cells, using its own metabolism, according to the definition of the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE), all this in relation to the Coronavirus.
Perhaps the cruellest change that mankind has undergone as a result of the Coronavirus is in our affective behaviour. This tiny little creature awakened in us the paranoia of fear and undoubtedly, in a very mean way, let us know, and indeed it did, that being in the company of other individuals of our own species, by then already submerged by the sophistic evolution of the world 2.0, where genuine expressions of affection, handshakes and hugs... that do so much good to the intangible of the so-called soul, have been replaced by immaterial faces that flow at an infinite density (billions) per second, devoid of any merciful human contact, would cause us to die. What cruelty we have been subjected to. How many loved ones are not by our side today? And all because of a supposed human error in some laboratory in the remote province of Wuhan in millenary China...
Not even in the mind of that genius of science fiction storytelling, James Graham Ballard (JG Ballard, Shanghai, British International Treaty 1930-London, UK 2009) in his short story The Drought (1964), did he fail to visualise what would affect in the future the colony of individuals inhabiting a small, remote, and sick planet, called: Earth.
Not only the human sensory system has been affected by these new living conditions, but also industry in all its processes, a consequence of the forced confinement of human beings, which prevented them from going to their workplaces normally, is suffering from the non-existence of raw materials and components to keep the production chain in operation in order to supply the basic needs that man requires for his subsistence.
The lack of supply of essential goods... together with the excessive costs of international sea freight transport, triggers the poison known as inflation. Global Cumulative Inflation from January 2020 to December 2021 went from 1.9% to no less than 3.5%, practically doubling in one calendar year, and by the end of the period the prediction is close to 7%, according to World Bank indicators. In other words, in a short period of time, three years, accumulative inflation has tripled. There is no national economy or family wallet that can deal with this -financial storm-.
In addition to this undesirable economic context, to begin with caused by the SARC-COv-2 virus, this financial setback has been compounded since February this year by Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which has had a negative impact on the fossil fuel market, specifically on the stable and safe purchase price of natural gas from the Tsarist domain. The reason for this is Russia's sharp military strategy in the economic order in this conflict, using the systematic cuts of natural gas to its customers on the continent as a new element of warfare, known under the concept: Natural gas is the new "Russian winter" as an element of warfare?
Obviously, this clever (Machiavellian) strategy on the part of the imperial government of Russia has deepened the economic crisis to levels unprecedented in contemporary history, accelerating the inflationary process in such a way that it has the finances of almost all nations in check, (weakened by extraordinary expenditures (issuing public debt) through subsidies and investments in the health sector aimed at coping with the pandemic times) that drift to the fragile economy of hundreds of millions of families around the world, who are unable to cope with their basic financial commitments, payment of electricity bills, settlements on mortgage commitments, etc......
There is no doubt about the concern of the political authorities regarding the current economic crisis, that it is urgent and necessary to resort to emergency measures to deal with this unsustainable economic situation, however, these political actions in financial matters must be based on objective rationality, on the true origin of the crisis, the current inflationary process is the result of the result of the pandemic and the recent armed conflict. The Russian invasion of Ukraine has had a direct impact on the natural gas market, causing a disruption in prices due to a strategically planned restriction in supply.
In view of this, the electricity industry has no direct responsibility for the background of the current economic crisis (neither does the political authority), on the contrary, it is one of the most affected parties in the context because its production costs have increased exponentially. A financial intervention in the electricity industry by means of a cap-price is perhaps not the smartest economic measure, because they (the electricity industry) do not have any tools to influence the price of natural gas. This is a governmental issue, where politicians are responsible for finding mechanisms to solve the situation. In this sense, some European government officials have put forward valid proposals aimed at contributing to the relief of electricity supply to both the population and industry, without risking, firstly, social peace and, secondly, the financial health of the energy sector, which could lead to a domino effect on other sectors of the economy, on the basis of state guarantees, which could be one of the logical alternatives at this point in time.
Finally, we have to be very careful with the so-called -all in- of all installed electricity generation capacity to the system, in particular as far as the nuclear fleet is concerned, there are many plants in Europe that have not been dispatched for years, their current condition is unknown. I insist that we must be extremely cautious here, we must not look back too far: ...- an elaborate report on his visit, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said that artillery attacks around the Zaporiyia nuclear power plant, Europe's largest, must cease immediately. "This requires an agreement by all relevant parties for the establishment of a protective zone" around the plant, the report said. "We are playing with fire, and something very, very catastrophic could happen," warned Rafael Grossi, IAEA director general to the UN Security Council, days after leading an inspection visit to the plant. (Los Angeles Time, underwritten by Hanna Arhirova of Associeted Press, 6 September 2022) events to realise the risks of such an action, the worst that could happen is to throw the current crisis back into another horror as described by the great science fiction writers of the last century.
As an epilogue to these reflections, in the search for wisdom and good sense to prevail over the empire of destruction, in a call for clemency to the gods, in an inchallah of supplication, it is my duty to recall that China, the forgotten ally of the West during the Second World War, was one of the determining factors in bringing the conflict to an end. Now, equally, China, this undesirable economic situation is causing considerable financial holes in its public finances. Hopefully, out of necessity or common sense, the economic giant of the East will wake up and use the extraordinary key that its economic and political power confers on it to find a definitive way out of this situation that is wreaking havoc on the global economy.