To continue from yesterday’s blog, how the World has changed in the 2 years I have been absent on sick leave. And how dramatically it has changed since I published my first blog that promoted my first book THE GULF: “Reaping the Whirlwind.” 9 years ago.

The subscript of my book was “It’s all about oil” – and indeed in those days OPEC (remember them and their dominance) and fluctuating crude oil prices were never out of the headlines. Now environmental issues are centre-stage, and it seems that the long slow murder of the international oil industry has begun with Egon Musk’s success with battery technology, and electric motor cars.

For the moment coal seems to be the main target, but oil will surely follow?

The focus of geopolitics has now shifted from the MidEast to Asia-Pacific. I am fortunate to find myself – once again – at the centre of events. So why am I reluctant to change gear? Because for me the whole basis of my Judaeo, Christian, Islamic civilization was born, dveloped and reined in that region. The Fertile Crescent.

It will be a Tectonic shift for me to focus my efforts on Asia Pacific and its rim.

For the moment my book is still available on AMAZON’s Kindle – or from my publisher FEEDAREAD on their website as a paperback.

If you like reading insights into the making of history – read it.

Well almost. After a 2 year hiatus caused by severe complications after routine knee replacement surgery. OMG how the world has changed.

Is my main focus, The Arabian/Persian Gulf, still valid in the (post?) Covid/Global Warming world??????

Only time will tell I guess.

If I have any readers at all, watch this space.

In my prolonged recovery phase I have started with art lesson again, and have become obsessed with the 1900-10 era in Paris where artists like Picasso, Braque and Matisse were forced to paint form the imagination, and not copy nature – because photography had made natural art redundant.

In fact the modern art world was probably initiated by Cezanne “Close your eyes to see” and burst dramatically on the scene by the amazing outpourings of Van Gogh and Gaugin. Hopefully I will not become too academic and will let my art flow freely and spontaneously?

In my short stories, I have tried now to change from my rather pessimistic European outlokk, to the more positive “Spit in your eye and choke you,” attitudes of my adopted country Australia – although I still yearn for the 20 years of blissul and childlike happiness I found living in Mediterranean Spain. Espanya Querida!.

Watch this space