Water Wheel March/April 2021

Abstract

Promise of the Year of the Ox We have ushered in the Year of the Ox and have said goodbye to the Year of the Rat (masked). But, as challenging as last year was, the end of the King Rat’s lunar year was definitely one of the more dramatic Januaries in recent history. The first was that it saw the conclusion of the most globally consuming transitions of power in the United States ever. The storming of the US Capitol in Washington on 6 January sent shock waves around the world. It was an event that had huge significance in many directions. To many this was the physical expression of a desire by some to return America, and the world, to a time characterised by isolationism, racial segregation (white supremacy) and a highcarbon industrial model. It is alarming how this movement found allies all over the world, despite being punctuated by the reality bites of Black Lives Matter, the MeToo movement and a groundswell of new evidence demonstrating the negative impacts of Climate Change.

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