It doesn’t matter what America’s publicists, or apologists, or blatant promoters are trying to say. The superpower country is that school hunk well-known for all the wrong reasons.
Thailand is one of the girls torn between the security and protection that may not last after a while and a highly-controversial image that can stick for much longer. Being his girlfriend may draw some jealous looks in the hallway but the majority of the turned heads will be filled with anything but admiration.
Sooner or later the girl will have to make up her mind. As of now the Iran war is still far away, despite the ship bombing, but the bad boy will definitely come knocking one day. Me or him, he will say to Thailand.
China is the other man. He is dull and rather introvert, but, somehow, he has become strangely attractive. The bad boy had demonised him and poked fun at him on a daily basis, but the enigmatic nerd has led school grades do the talking.
The bad boy has been busy with something else, so he has left the nerd alone for a while now. He should, because all the bad things and jokes he said about the nerd are coming back to haunt him so fending them off has to be the first priority.
The hunk has called another man, Russia, who he had also demonised and initiated sanctions against. “The restrictions are off,” he told Russia. “Just help me make sure the oil crisis doesn’t get any worse.”
Russia is cunning. He’s benefiting both ways from the school hunk’s Iran problems. The Washington Post, among others, has reported that Russia was suspected to have helped Iran target US forces with intelligence information. Meanwhile, The Wall Street Journal, also among others, has said Washington was easing oil sanctions against Russia due to the energy crisis the White House had initiated.
The bad boy is hoping the energy havoc will help reverse public opinions, which have been against him so unprecedentedly. He is hoping the entire neighbourhood will forget that the oil shipping lane had to be militarily blocked because of him and more than 160 school girls were slain because of him.
A scenario is playing out in the bad boy’s head. When nations have to ration power usage and families have to set aside one third of their incomes or more for electricity and cars, poor and defiant Iran will become villainous and stubborn Iran. Knowing that nobody really cares about nuclear weapons, which are all over the world already anyway, the bad boy is betting on Iran being eventually blamed for day-to-day public miseries.
After one attack on a shipping vessel, Thailand’s ambivalence must have increased. True romance only exists in movies and novels. As they say, growing up means realising that in the blockbuster film Titanic, Rose throws a diamond worth billions of dollars to the bottom of the ocean in memory of a pauper artist she knew for a couple of days and then had sex with one time, instead of giving it to her husband or grandchild and thus changing their lives for the better.
Thailand’s relationship with the bad boy is like that, more or less. She has to choose between romanticism and practicality. Should she weep for the Minab schoolgirls forever, or should she move on after two weeks and get back to the stock markets and a familiar world economic order that her savings are all tied to?
Maybe she should consult Spain and Italy. To different extents, the two have called out the bad boy, breaking the European ranks while doing so. But a more litmus test will come when they have to decide about participating in the World Cup the bad boy will be hosting later this year. If Spain boycotts and if Italy, in case it is qualified, does the same, their decisions will influence Thailand’s.
The bad boy has been heavily indebted, but thanks to a system he invented called “leverage”, he still has a Ferrari and a big home and is still living luxuriously. Which is why Thailand cannot really say “No” to his advances. But she is keeping her options open, being polite to both him and those offering her a new route.
The introvert nerd is quietly ambitious. Along with a few other rivals of the hunk including Russia, he has been architecting a new global economic system that could spell an end to the Ferrari. Joining BRICS fully will crush the bad boy, and Thailand knows that, which is why she is not in a hurry.
Critics say the bad boy is following all the crucial stages in “How an empire collapses” textbook, be it military overextension, creation of massive debts and currency debasement. The first two stages have been obvious for everyone to see, but the last one is only being gossiped about.
(Other stages include alienating allies and misallocating resources. Again, most analysts believe the bad boy is undoubtedly doing it.)
For good, the hunk has taken off his mask, which he used from time to time while preaching his ideas of righteousness, humanitarianism and democracy. At least I’m showing everyone who I really am, and you must take that into account, he will be telling her. Stay with me means you have chosen security. You won’t throw a diamond into the ocean for the sake of a few schoolgirls, will you?
That kind of dilemma should be clarified. A true diamond shines wherever it is. A fake one may look good in some light, but that’s it.
