What’s gone wrong?

A few days ago, I watched footageof the laughable, but sad spectacle of German police officers, weighed down with their riot gear – stuck in the mud while trying to defend a coal mine from angry, jeering protesters. The struggle has been going on for weeks against the demolition of a village to expand the mine. Even more bizarrely, in the video that I watched, the police were being tormented by a tall man in a monk’s habit and wearing a mask, who just won’t leave them alone.

I thought to myself that 2023 is beginning to take on a somewhat surreal air – already. And it’s not the end of January, yet.

On our island, I get the sense that…