Big Yellow Taxi

We’ll begin today’s post with a bit of vulnerability.

One summer day while in kindergarten, our neighbor (a couple years older) took his sister’s pet turtles (remember when you could buy those little turtles in pet shops?) to the alley behind his house.

As we stood around watching, he crushed all three of them with a croquet mallet.

No particular reason.

My young mind could not process the senseless violence I had just witnessed.

A few years later, while living a carefree life as a child in Dearborn, Michigan, we discovered a litter of newborn kittens in the wooded area behind our house. We implored our parents to collect them up and nurse them to health. 

We tried, but all four of the kittens died.

I was heartbroken.

Not long after, while tearing down a building [we were salvaging materials to build our own house one day], we uncovered a nest containing baby pigeons. 

I know, I know. Pigeons.

Again, I implored my father to save them.

They died anyway.

Such is my life.

Now an adult, I will slam on my brakes to keep from hitting a directionally-challenged squirrel.

I will stop to move migrating turtles out of the road.

And on rainy days I relocate earthworms from the sidewalk back to the grass.

We have a groundhog digging up the church lawn, but I have warned everyone to leave it be.

They have named it after me.

Yes, the Captain is a big softy.

But mess with someone I love – or a kitten, or a baby bird – and Hell hath no fury!

You have been warned!

Here’s more you need to know about me:

A few years ago the Captain met with an environmental awareness group.

As a way of introduction, a young man – one of the leaders of the group – shared how he first got involved in environmental concerns.

He told us the story of how his father bought and cleared a lakeside lot in an otherwise untouched area, and there he built his house.

Then as the dad reveled in his accomplishment and took in the beautiful vistas that lay before him, he decided that the lake needed to be protected from development. He worked with the local government officials and others to craft laws forbidding future development along his lakefront.

This was hailed by the son as a great environmental victory.

Perhaps it was.

The Captain saw it as a patently selfish effort by the father to protect his scenic view and to prevent others from doing what he himself had shamelessly done.

I never went back to that group.

Enter Jared and Ivanka (Trumpf) Kushner. 

You will recall that the power couple were unofficial government employees during President Trumpf’s first term in office. Ivanka bowed out for the second term, but Jared continues to pop up on the President’s international trips as an “unpaid advisor”.

These trips become golden opportunities for the young grifter to pitch self-serving investment opportunities and real estate deals on the government’s dime.

Now the two have bought a private island off the coast of Albania and are starting a massive development project there.

Here are Ivanka’s actual words:

    "I'm working on an incredible project with my husband in the Mediterranean. It's massive in scale. ... It's a wonderful, unbelievable 1,400 hectacre private island in the middle of the Mediterranean."

Now, who hasn’t dreamed of buying your own private island?

I mean, Jeffrey Epstein did.

Oops! Didn’t mean to go there.

Yes I did.

    "We were on a friend's boat, and we stopped for a swim. Effectively, that's how we found it. We swam to the island, we went on a hike, barefoot all the way up to the top, and we were just captivated, and it stayed with us ever since."

The Captain wonders how many others have experienced the same sense of wonder and awe that Ivanka did upon stepping barefoot on that virgin sand, seeing the majestic creatures that inhabit the island, the beauty of the natural flora and fauna.

And the view from the top? “Captivating!”

And who doesn’t look at such a beautiful, pristine island and say, “What this place really needs is an exclusive 10,000 bed hotel resort and marina!”

Ivanka continues:

    “Over the course of many years, we developed the opportunity to help realize its potential and transform it, but with a lot of restraint and care because the land is so beautiful that, really, the architecture has to be fully integrated into it, almost rise from it.”

They want to help this beautiful island “realize its potential”.

 

An actual architectural rendering of the development. 

Or, how about… and hear me out, Ivanka… Just leave it the hell alone!

But that is not the way of the world today, now is it?

The world according to Trumpf.

We have a President who tore off the historic East Wing of the White House to build a gaudy ballroom that only he wants and no one needs.

And no one stopped him.

We have a President who is building a “victory arch” to rival France’s Arc de Triomphe in his own honor.

And no one is stopping him.

CAPTAIN’S NOTE: France’s Arc de Triomphe was ordered built by Napoleon Bonaparte following his military victory at Austerlitz. The Arc honors those who fought and died for France during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.

It bears the names of French victories and generals engraved on its inner and outer surfaces.

Beneath its vault lies the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier from World War I, marked by an eternal flame commemorating unidentified fallen soldiers. (Source: Wikipedia)

Where was I?

Oh yes…

We have a President who is having the bottom of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool painted “American Flag Blue” (while not addressing the underlying plumbing issues that cause algae to grow in the body of water).

And no one is stopping him.

We have a President who is hosting a UFC Cage Match on the White House lawn as a birthday gift to himself.

And no one is stopping him.

Because when you’re rich…

And the funny thing is, he’s not paying for any of this.

We are.

That’s our tax dollars are work.

Our nation is $40 trillion in debt (25% of which was incurred during Trumpf years), he has gutted numerous social services – both national and international – and he is spending money on these vanity projects like there is no limit on our nation’s credit card!

But I digress…

Naturally, the Albanian people who once enjoyed visiting the primitive island and protected ecosystem (like Ivanka did) are upset. Barbed wire has been strung up to prevent visitors from enjoying the beaches, and the destruction “transformation” of the once “beautiful” island goes on. 

The prime minister of Albania insists this development is crucial – CRUCIAL! – for economic growth, high-end tourism, and foreign investments.

Which apparently everybody needs.

But at what cost?

The island is home to nesting sea turtles, migrating flamingos, and monk seals.

Or at least it was, until the bulldozers arrived and started pushing down trees and moving sand dunes.

Previously described as “off the grid”, it is highly unlikely and unfeasible that this monstrous project will be “integrated” into the natural beauty of the island.

They will have to have electricity.

And fresh water.  

Even food will have to be shipped in.

For 10,000 hotel rooms.

And what about waste removal?

And wastewater treatment?

Not to mention the number of people it will take to staff such a compound; where will they live?

Yes, the Captain has read Herman Wouk’s “Don’t Stop the Carnival”. 

Living on an island is not as easy as it sounds!

In the early ‘00s, the Captain and First Mate splurged on a vacation trip to Cancun.

Some friends had done it and they raved about it!

The hotel we stayed at was one of many high-rise resorts along the little tourist spit of sand off the Yucatán Peninsula. 

It should have been the perfect vacation.

The ocean was beautiful, the sand was pristine, the rum drinks were plentiful, and there was a topless beach just a stone’s throw away!

The First Mate was not as excited about that as the Captain was!

But to get to this fabulous location, the shuttle from the airport took us through one of the worst slums in Mexico. It was heart-breaking to see such poverty at the very doorstep of so much opulence and wealth.

The cold Cerveza offered by the bus driver did not help to assuage my concerns.

CAPTAIN’S NOTE: Apparently the Captain carries a high degree of angst and has a significant liver capacity.

During that vacation week we learned that the white sand beaches were “pristine” only because low-paid locals went out early in the mornings to rake up seaweed and trash that washed upon the shore.

The promise to them was that if they did a good job, they could one day move up into a low-paying job inside the hotel.

At least there it was air conditioned.

Being able to speak English was also an incentive / requisite to obtaining an inside job.

On the snorkel tour we took, we saw all kinds of beautiful fish in the clear blue water where the Gulf of Mexico meets the Caribbean Sea.

But I discovered the fish were only swimming around us because the boat guys were circling above throwing out fish food.

And while we were enjoying the beautiful scenery, they were diving for conch – their side gig.

Sell the shells to tourists, the meat to the resorts.

To be honest, all of this put a bit of a damper on the week.

At least at Disneyland I know everything is fake when I purchase the ticket.

But most of all, the Captain is not geared toward enjoying “the good life” while I know others are suffering just outside my doorstep.

The moral to today’s post is this:

If you’ve got billions of other people’s dollars at your disposal (as the Kushners do), you can buy your own private island.

You can pay off officials who will let you rape a fragile ecosystem for your own warped pleasure and enrichment.

You can build whatever you want, do whatever you want.

Did I mention Jeffrey Epstein?

But don’t try to convince me you are improving this island.

By your own words, Ivanka, it was beautiful before you got hold of it.

It’s “potential” – it’s true potential – was well-recognized by many just the way it was.

But now, it will become just another resort island among many – and there are many – catering to the wealthiest and least-caring people on our planet.

And that’s a damn shame.

Tragic even.

They take Paradise and put up a parking lot

With a pink hotel, a boutique, and a swingin’ hot spot!

-Joni Mitchell, 1970

 

CAPTAIN’S NOTE: As I finished writing this blog I read that the SPAK (Albania’s specialized anti-fraud, corruption, and organized crime unit) is looking into the Kushner development. It has frozen assets of the Qatari-owned landholding company while looking into allegedly fraudulent land titles and transfers, as well as the legislative fast-tracking of the project, especially since it is in a protected area.

Maybe money can’t buy everything.