Now that the elections are over, some plain speaking is in order.

A priority in the governance agenda of coming years should be a better planning of long term public investments. Despite the great economic successes of the past years, which cannot be contested, in future people could judge that the use made of the funds generated in those years was not good enough. Insufficient investments were targeted to power greater volumes of future productive activity or socially meaningful initiatives. Instead, too much money was diverted to consumption. To compound matters, the resulting financial commitments were of a recurrent nature - they would re-emerge every year in the government's schedule of expenditures.

Part of the problem probably was that after all, planning never was holistic, but disjointed, quick to change according to shifts in public opinion and the political impact of public relations being conducted by the government and the opposition. So there was a shift in how the discussion about the future came to be framed - from "plan" to "vision". Likely, it conveyed quite well why investments took a back seat. In a plan, the nature and size of an investment would need to be specified in some detail. In a vision, the soothing language used and the impressionistic displays presented will be enough.

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MONOTHEISM

The Jewish religion, Christianity and Islam are considered as humanity's three major monotheistic religions. Christians understand their god to be the same one as the Jews'. "He" simply renewed the testament originally made to the Jewish people by including in it the whole of humanity.

However the more one reflects about this, the less such an interpretation sounds  coherent. The god of the Jewish people is a tribal god - "his" only concern was the destiny of "his" tribe. "He" made all "his" essential promises to that tribe. Constantly "he" shows "him"self jealous and vigilant regarding the honour due to "him" by the tribe. "His" commandments apply only to members of the tribe, not to the rest of the world. For instance, "he" finds no problem to order the genocide of other tribes. On life after death, the immortality of the soul or even on the existence of the "soul", "he" has little to say, or doesn't say anything. "His" main promises relate to the positioning of "his" tribe in the world of the Middle East, so long as the tribe continues to obey the commands "he" gives it.

By contrast, in addition to showing "him"self open to all races, independently of their tribal allegiance, the Christian god discusses the soul, a Greek concept - and declares that there is a life after death... One fails to see how this can be the same god of the "old" testament.

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MIDTERMS

This year's partial elections to the US Congress are drawing nearer. Many (and not just Democrats) have been hoping that voters will be sending to Congress representatives who will be willing to stand up to the Trump administration. During the last year and a half almost, the Republican majority in Congress has been endorsing with head bowed all that President Trump wanted to carry out, even while he ignored Congress completely.

Depending on how the voting goes, if there is a big enough swing to rub off Trump's existing majority there, the President could be prevented from continuing to have his way no matter what. In the US, there is at present much discontent with his style and actions.  Hopes are rising that the midterms will reverse the majority currently in his favour. Yet what's really sure as of now, is that such an outcome cannot be taken for granted!