Life is an emotional roller coaster. One moment we’re spiralling up into ecstasy, the next we’re plummeting into depression. How can any body endure such extremes?
Thankfully, we were built with resilience—a lot of it. We can bounce back like a basketball, so long as we allow ourselves to, and don’t remain trapped in the adrenaline surge of heady, unchecked emotions.
Is it easier to be happy or sad?
Sadness and depression are heavy. The emotional pull is strong—just like ANGER. But they are also exhausting. They leave a bitter taste and take a toll on our health.
So let’s talk about ANGER. What is it—and how do we control it?
ANGER lives on the border between control and total abandonment of reason. Whatever provokes us tends to fling our emotions outside the orbit of logic—and disaster is often what follows. The consequences may be immediate or long-term—but they’re rarely worth it.
And yet, ANGER is also a signal. A strong one. It tells us that something happening here is serious.
The body changes. The face changes. The eyes, especially, betray the level of ANGER felt. If left unchecked, ANGER takes over.
But—if held in check, in that most extreme and delicate moment—then clarity can rise to the surface. Rational thought returns. The mind focuses. Instructions are issued with forceful precision. And those around you recognize that a limit has been reached—and must be respected.
But what if everyone is angry?
Then it takes even greater strength to pull back. To defuse, redirect, and transform that explosive moment into qualified action. Constructive leadership begins with emotional discipline.
We are all capable of bouncing back. And true control over our strongest emotions is what defines mature power—what marks a leader.
Remember too: ANGER, when used intentionally—even if feigned—can have purpose. It can signal urgency. Demand attention. But it must be wielded with care. Overuse dulls its edge. Repeated displays of anger lose their meaning—and eventually, their effect.
So, if provoked, consider what you've learned about WALKING AWAY.
June 27, 2025 Title: A War Elsewhere, A Reckoning Here
🌍 A Dual Assault: Gaza’s Collapse and Tehran Under Fire
As the world watched Tel Aviv, its soldiers looked east.
In the past fortnight, Israel has conducted deep strikes into Iran, targeting nuclear and military infrastructure in and around Tehran. Over 900 Iranian civilians were killed and 3,900 wounded, according to official Iranian sources, as Israel's Operation Rising Lion struck radar systems, anti-aircraft batteries, and suspected nuclear sites (Wikipedia – Iran–Israel war casualties).
Meanwhile, Iran’s counterstrikes hit as far south as Beersheba, damaging the Soroka Medical Center and leaving at least 242 Israeli civilians injured, including 39 in critical condition (AP News).
Yet while missiles flew eastward, Gaza continued to bleed. In the past 24 hours alone, over 70 Palestinians were killed, including aid seekers. Al Jazeera now reports 549 Palestinians killed while attempting to access food aid in the past month (Al Jazeera – Gaza liveblog).
A ceasefire was declared. But nothing has stopped.
The bombs simply chose new coordinates.
🇧🇷 A Reckoning in Brazil: Herzog and the Ghost of Silence
This week, Brazil’s government formally accepted blame for the 1975 torture and murder of journalist Vladimir Herzog under its military dictatorship. His family was awarded 3 million reais (US$545,000) in compensation plus a lifelong pension (AP News).
The case resonated anew after the release of the film Still Here, which traced fictionalized accounts of Brazil’s disappeared—artists, activists, and academics silenced by the regime. Critics hailed it as a haunting act of memory-making.
Art led. Law followed.
But Herzog’s name, long a symbol of democratic resistance, now also marks the latency of state accountability.
Justice came. But only for the record.
✊ Protest and Punishment: A Global Crackdown
Across continents, dissent is being boxed in.
In Venezuela, a teenage girl was sentenced to prison this week for publishing political criticism online—one of the youngest prosecuted under the country’s cybercrime laws (Times Union).
In Togo, protesters took to the streets against constitutional overreach by President Faure Gnassingbé; police used tear gas to disperse crowds (Al Jazeera – Togo protests).
In Hungary, PM Viktor Orbán threatened legal action against organizers of the Budapest Pride march, despite the event’s official ban (US News).
Intel announced mass layoffs and the closure of its Munich-based automotive chip division, slashing 15–20% of its workforce, including over 100 U.S. staff (India Times).
Meta, under Zuckerberg’s "Zuck Bucks" AI directive, is spending $14.3 billion on Scale AI, poaching top minds like Ilya Sutskever and Daniel Gross to accelerate its Artificial Superintelligence race—despite internal friction and industry skepticism (Reuters).
These tectonic shifts align neatly with the Trump-era playbook: tariffs, immigration curbs, and defense-linked tech incentives have redrawn global boardroom priorities. With U.S. foreign policy increasingly weaponized, even corporate agility begins to look like obedience.
🌫 Final Note
Wars no longer end. They rotate.
Justice arrives, but often too late to save the living.
Truth speaks, but now it needs encryption.
And power—whether in parliament, prison, or Silicon Valley—prefers to move unseen.
We are not yet in the aftermath.
We are still here.
It’s where you allow your brain to absorb what’s going on around you — and also fully absorb the activity you’ve chosen to engage in.
LISTENING means concentrating. It means paying attention. It means not expecting to multitask when you actually need to hear and understand what is being said.
Watching a favourite series — or that long-awaited film — in another language is always a challenge.
Many people see this as a chance to practise their language-learning skills. So they listen to the original dialogue, and then, for good measure, add subtitles to help them understand.
Little do they realise: they’ve stopped listening. They’re only reading.
We like to think we can multitask. But we can’t. Most of the time, we divide our senses into small packets — where we see, or read, or smell, or taste, or hear. These fragments of concentration leave gaps in the information we process.
It’s like blinking. That fraction of a second with your eyes closed could mean something has changed — and you’ve missed it. F1 drivers, for example, have been studied during races and shown to barely blink at all when fully focused. The risk of missing a vital visual cue is simply too high.
So just as seeing is important, so too is LISTENING.
In fact, we can often learn more with our eyes closed. In Japan, you’ll see this: people sitting with eyes shut, apparently asleep — but in reality, listening. Deeply. Is it because their language is so layered and nuanced? Or is it a mark of respect for the speaker? Perhaps both. And when the language isn’t your own, the importance of listening rises even more.
Yep, Fogy has a story here too.
Working as part of an IT development team, we were once called into a meeting where the company’s next steps were being shared with all departments. The meeting was in Portuguese, and Fogy had to concentrate fully, just to keep up.
Afterwards, walking out of the meeting, Fogy asked the team, “What did you think about the second item?”
Blank faces.
Eventually, one of them said, “Oh... I wasn’t really listening.”
When asked about items 3, 4, and 5? Same answer.
Apparently, the content hadn’t seemed relevant at the time — so why bother? They’d figure it out later, through the usual drip-feed of repetition and follow-up questions over the next few weeks.
But if they’d LISTENED — really listened — that step wouldn’t have been needed at all.
Fogy also loves music. But not just listening for pleasure — studying it. Music is a rich blend of beats and sounds that have to be listened to with care to really appreciate how they’re put together. You begin to understand the role of each instrument, the logic of the rhythm, and the brilliance of a well-crafted composition. It’s something only the discerning LISTENER picks up.
And yes, LISTENING can even mean the difference between peace and war.
When language is used with precision, every part of a phrase can help bridge communication gaps — if people are actually LISTENING.
“You’re not LISTENING to me” is a common complaint. But why does it come up so often? It’s usually because you’ve had to repeat yourself again and again. Yet if the listener wasn’t really paying attention the first time, how would they notice the subtle shifts — the change in cadence, the stress, the tense, the emotion?
Underneath every phrase lies a deeper meaning — but only the truly attentive can hear it.
And even when you think you’re not listening, so much is still happening around you. The brain registers all of it. But a lazy thinker will throw this input away, like a conversation that seems unimportant — and is discarded too soon.
The Power of LISTENING is, ultimately, about training yourself.
It’s about letting the irrelevant pass through, focusing on what matters, and giving yourself space to digest what you’ve heard. Not rush to react. But to understand.
A seemingly clear drop of water in a Petri dish holds more life than we imagine.
And the sound of silence can speak volumes —
—to the practised LISTENER.
It seems today, we are not reading enough. I don't mean the quick scanning we normally do, but that deeper type of actually reading something with meat on it—something that is structured and makes you think.
The posts here represent a certain level of provocative thinking, but taken down to more easily digestible bites so you, dear reader, do not get too overwhelmed with this extreme change to your natural daily pattern.
Reading is the first step. Writing is the next step.
The power of WRITING is where basic thoughts can be studied and expanded on. Where fleeting journeys through the mind can be parsed into paragraphs on a paper-white screen, to be scrolled through and liked just like any social media page worth its salt.
Yep, you too can be the author of magical mystery tours of nostalgia, excitement, and discoveries for the future.
The power of WRITING—this lost, age-old art—is where random notes can be twisted and bent around a central theme and presented as major works, even if only for your own pleasure.
More seriously, WRITING is practice. The practiced art of organizing your life's project. Not your demanding work project, but all that information that is important to you and those who willingly read it afterwards.
AI writes beautifully, right? And it should. It has been taught to acquire all of the hard-fought written phrases of others and place them in a semi-coherent form to simulate an intelligence it doesn't have.
Humans, on the other hand, can visualize the world around them, can hear this same world, and experience emotions even the most advanced AI cannot feel.
So WRITING is one way we can take back our humanity from AI bots.
WRITING our way means we have a visual reference of what matters to us.
In as much as digital photography records the visual, so too must WRITING record the mental, the emotional, the organizational us.
This Fogy blog started out as an exercise—Fogy at the writing gym, stretching his keyboard-bound muscles to try and extract the hidden depths of his long-lost reading. To prepare himself for the novels ahead.
As in all preparations, this gym has opened up even more possibilities not fully expected by Fogy.
The ideas floating out to a sea of sleep suddenly became inbound waves of literary nonsense, ready for digital manipulation into coherent thought.
Thoughts became genuine gold mines of unfettered advice, observation, and organization.
Fogy has become more productive, more inventive—and more human too.
WRITING is also giving you a voice, the chance to really place yourself among the better informed by simply taking the wasted time of scrolling, bingeing, and sleeping and transforming all of that into a scribe’s anthology of meaningful madness.
At the G7 summit in Canada, President Trump left early, skipping key meetings, after issuing a dramatic social media warning: “Everyone should immediately evacuate Tehran.”
The order sparked chaos and fear, as if war had already been declared. Within hours, Trump reversed course—calling it merely a “warning shot.” Yet the damage to international diplomacy lingered in the silence he left behind.
In contrast, President Macron—alongside Germany and the UK—pressed forward with a more disciplined proposal: a structured nuclear and missile agreement with Iran. Europe, for all its divisions, attempted to act as a cohesive diplomatic force while Washington rattled sabres.
⚽ Sport Meets Surveillance
The FIFA Club World Cup, unfolding in eleven U.S. cities, revealed another split screen. On one side: international unity and spectacle. On the other: surveillance vans and border agents hovering near stadiums.
Protests erupted as immigrant communities described the atmosphere as one of intimidation—not celebration.
While the U.S. preps for next year’s 48-nation World Cup, the contradictions of hosting such a tournament in an environment of fear and exclusion are beginning to show.
⚖️ The Law, the Bed, and the Last Breath
In Britain, a moment of quiet upheaval. Parliament passed the Assisted Dying Bill, allowing mentally competent terminal patients to request medical assistance to end their lives.
Critics warned of slippery slopes. Supporters called it dignity.
Either way, the line between state power and personal autonomy has never felt so thin—or so final.
🧭 Quinn Noir Reflection
A president, a referee, and a judge—each raising a finger. Not in guidance, but in control.
This week, authority postured across podiums, pitch, and hospital room. The thread that binds? Power dictating choice.
And somewhere beneath the thunder, the quiet voice of conscience asking: Who decides?
Have you ever watched two dogs or cats facing off? Have you noticed how difficult it is for either one of them to give in, to maybe walk away from the challenge?
That’s very much what happens to us in life with all the provocations we suffer.
It’s the belief that we can only be accepted in society—or rather, the society that we belong to—if we’re prepared to exhibit the strength and power that group demands of us.
Interestingly, the laws of the wild often dictate that only the alpha male can mate. He who is the strongest, bravest, and perhaps the smartest must implant those exact genes to perpetuate the strongest, most durable members of the herd.
It’s that same mentality that seems to drive many intelligent individuals into fruitless, unnecessary battles with no real outcome.
But is that all it is?
Obviously not. There are countless reasons for continuing such confrontations. Proving something to a loved one, to oneself, or even to no one in particular—that they can take a beating, or even turn the tables.
There’s also that red mist that defies all logic, that blinds all reason.
As in many of these topics in The Power of series, what’s needed is restraint. That deep breath. The removal of the fear that drives bad decisions.
WALKING AWAY is a tactical retreat, a strategic move that defines how emotionally intelligent we are.
Am I judging emotional intelligence the same way we judge regular intelligence?
Of course not. Emotions are far harder to control. Emotional intelligence isn’t about being smart, but about understanding how dangerous untamed emotions can be if left unchecked.
It’s something we learn from experience—not something built through books or academic knowledge.
And once you understand the cost of red mist reactions, you’ve already reached a stronger level of EI.
WALKING AWAY actually gives you power—not the other way around.
Fogy, being a big lad, was hounded by another big lad at school for some time—until that moment everyone had been waiting for. They squared off, face to face, arms locking, ready to wrestle.
Then Fogy’s watch slipped from his wrist. The strap had broken. He looked down at his precious timepiece and saw the light. This didn’t make any sense. He didn’t have to prove anything to anybody. And being a big chap, the consequences could only be bad.
So Fogy laid down his arms, picked up his watch, and walked away.
It didn’t matter what anyone thought or said. The teachers standing on the edge, watching in silence, only convinced him more that he’d done the right thing.
Provocative language and senseless thrill-seeking are part and parcel of youth, where the consequences—while serious—are often less damaging. These are the moments when we first attach sense to our EIs. When we learn how fruitless it is to fight for lost and unnecessary causes.
So your partner keeps provoking you, calls you a coward because you don’t react. Your boss tries to bully you. A group of men push people around. That same alpha male dominance you see in prison culture.
All situations where a measured retreat is warranted. WALK AWAY when you can. And if you can’t, then let that RED MIST fade until reason takes its place.
Let rationality guide your next steps—and be prepared to lose.
Winning is NOT everything, especially when it comes at an unrecoverable cost. More often than not, losing is just the lesson you—and the one provoking you—need.
Winners become losers when the win is hollow. When they’re left holding the spoils and ridiculed for their futility. Perhaps then, a little emotional intelligence might grow within them.
Walk away when you can. Think very deeply before you can’t. And understand the consequences when you don’t.
Sometimes it just doesn't make sense to keep going.*
I don’t enjoy it anymore.
It’s affecting my health.
It’s causing problems with my family.
I really do NOT believe it’s good for me.
Too many people tell me I MUST do it.
I must quit, right now.
To hell with the consequences.
No more suffering.
No more bullying.
No more being forced into doing things I do not believe in.
I MUST quit voting for stupid politicians.
Okay, so this was not what you were expecting—but much of what’s written above is encapsulated in all those things you should think about quitting.
Do you smoke? Have you thought about quitting, or simply stopping for a while?
And drinking? Taking drugs?
Stopping doesn’t hack it. These are things that need to be cold-turkeyed, cut off entirely until they're out of your system for good. The remnants will always remind you of what once was—and what harm they caused. So, were they really harmful? The answer probably lies in those first few statements above.
The power of QUITTING is understanding when to let go.
Understanding that the time has come to release yourself from an uncomfortable burden.
QUITTING is not giving up.
On the contrary—it is the intelligence we were all born with, finally put into practice.
You might be 20 kilometers into a 26-kilometer marathon and feel your body disintegrating.
Everything is beginning to shut down.
Digging in and running to the end no longer makes as much sense as what the coaches told you.
Gritting your teeth only works for so long.
But when the pain isn’t even registering anymore, when your legs are wobbling, your chest is heaving, and colour is slipping into shades of grey... you’re not giving up.
You’re saving your own life.
Being called a QUITTER is really hurtful.
The ignorant rarely have the courage to make this kind of decision.
So they hide behind slights and insults.
QUITTING a relationship is just as critical.
It doesn’t matter what kind.
Sometimes, it’s simply NOT working anymore.
Your partner may even wish they’d had the same courage to walk away.
Most, however, never understand when they've reached this stage—so they fight on, needlessly.
There’s no point in flogging a dead horse.
And now we get down to the nitty-gritty of QUITTING.
It’s that job, isn’t it?
That horrible slave factory that makes you feel so miserable every day—or not.
But it’s where you just can’t be sure there’s any future in staying. (Like the relationship above.)
Fogy had a very good position once. (One of many.)
Fogy discovered so much about what life had prepared him for, and success seemed unlimited.
But Fogy also discovered he had grown some principles.
(Yes, those job killers.)
And he was no longer prepared to stand for idiocy.
Having worked hard and earned a solid dose of respect, the thought that someone might try to undermine him for their own gain was more than unacceptable.
His ultimatum?
Change things—or I quit.
They didn’t.
So he did.
Was it wrong?
Financially, yes.
Morally, not at all.
And the dilemma revolves around these two ideas:
“I cannot afford to have morals.” “I cannot afford to believe in what is right.” “I cannot afford to reject the wrong around me.”
The power of QUITTING is understanding that sometimes you must follow your righteous path—the one you truly believe in.
You are not a QUITTER.
You are preserving your health and your well-being.
It may seem the wrong decision in the short term.
But one day, looking back, it will seem like the most intelligent step you ever took.
Everything looks rosy and sweet, yet beneath that veneer lies the rotting unknown that sullies the reality we believe exists.
And it is so true in everything around us. What, on the surface, looks to be so much better than what we have is just an illusion.
This comes about more from that habit so many of us have adopted—ignoring the positives in our own lives and focusing only on the negatives.
Have you ever sat back to count the negatives and positives that revolve around you?
Nine times out of ten, those positives make up the greater proportion—that is, if we’re truly honest in our evaluations. There are so many little and good things happening that we become complacent and ask ourselves, "Is that all there is? There must be more, surely?"
The answer is: we do not really need more than what we already have—up to a point.
And this is where I have to admit that the generalist nature of my comments appears to exclude those truly unfortunate few (or many) who do not have the access we enjoy. While the grass may always be greener, that is the exception—not the rule.
In a great number of conversations Fogy has had over the years, many people have commented on how much better the outside world is compared to Brazil.
Fogy has already lived in the outside world. Fogy has seen the true nature of what developed nations are really like—and quite frankly, they’re hardly any better than what so many complain about in their own country.
So let’s tackle specifics, shall we?
Corruption—probably prevalent throughout history. Fogy often likes to blame it on the Romans. Not fair, of course, but with such a strong Latin influence across the Americas, it seems like an easier target to focus on. Some nations suffer more or less, but overall, it’s there—lurking in the background, silently polluting the sensibilities of apparently good people.
Poverty is inherent to the absolute social divide and is not necessarily nation- or culture-specific. More homogeneous societies, with less of a divide across their peoples, can claim a significant reduction in the number who are struggling in the depths of poverty.
Homelessness, prevalent especially in larger cities (but not excluding the smaller ones), is shuffled around and hidden behind distant curtains of sub-divisions where only the bravest venture. No tourist buses will drive slowly by the Hollywood-less regions, trying to identify international stars of old who may have ended up here.
That green grass—that seemingly idealistic façade over the fence—is nothing more than that. It is much the same as what you already have. The only difference lies in how you’ve been challenged to find the same negative impacts that drive you to look over another neighbour’s fence.
Now is the time to sit back and re-evaluate what you really have.
Do you have to—and have you always had to—work extremely hard to get where you are today?
Reality check: that’s what it takes in life. We’ve been programmed to want and need more, and to get more, we need to work. That’s what life is all about.
The grass is not always as green as it looks—but that’s a lesson we learn only afterwards.
In the days of the Titanic, ship-to-ship radio had only just been introduced by Marconi. News and messages could take several weeks to be received after being sent.
Most financial transactions were only learned of after the impact had already been felt and dealt with at the source—while across the Atlantic, many surprises were still waiting to be experienced.
Now? We’re living in a world of fractions-of-a-second transactions, with immediate repercussions. Corporate decisions are announced worldwide almost before they are even made. Brains are forced to digest everything at the speed of light.
Try waiting for a reply to your WhatsApp message.
Feel that stress? Ploughing through the ceiling?
We don’t send letters anymore. It takes too long—and, frankly, I guess too many people would explode from the sheer pressure of not knowing.
When we speak, we are already being spoken over.
Good ideas vanish faster than a super-fast toilet flush.
So what is this power of waiting?
It’s a practiced art—one that seems to have been completely forgotten.
Buses take too long.
Food delivery feels eternal.
And let’s not even mention complex computer routines.
Yet, Fogy has always been a time juggler. Right from his early days in the kitchen, he knew: each food type requires a different amount of preparation time. Each meal must be served hot. And with 50 or more clients all vying for that perfect plate, the pressure on timing and coordination is immense.
Add to that the chaos of a megalopolis—traffic, delays, unreliable buses—and juggling the same 24 hours becomes an Olympic event.
Being time aware is absolutely essential.
Accepting the cultural lateness of many Brazilians? That’s not always an option anymore—not if things are to run.
But wait—wasn’t this about waiting?
It is. And it starts with something simple.
Let’s try that conversation again.
So much can go wrong when we jump into responding—especially when what’s been said is just a provocation.
It’s always better to pause. Take a breath.
Make sure you’ve structured what you want to say.
It takes practice—but waiting, especially for any other comment to land, is often your best defence.
Yes, but how do you avoid leaving it too late?
Practice. Timing. Preparation.
Waiting on the road
Look at traffic. Rushing. Risk-taking.
So many people end up throwing their lives under buses—figuratively or literally—through unwise, ill-conceived, unnecessary manoeuvres.
Wait.
If it really matters, move ahead—but wait for the right moment.
Waiting in line
What about the time it takes before it’s your turn in any queue?
Use that wait. Learn a little more.
Think about why you’re there.
Pay close attention to those ahead of you—what can you learn from their errors?
It might just happen that you forgot something important, and waiting gave you the chance to do something about it.
Buying that special ‘thing’
It's always so tempting, isn’t it, to take advantage of that especially great-looking deal. It seems perfect—except, do you have all the facts? Have you done the necessary research? Have you compared prices, values? Is your budget really going to cover it?
Maybe waiting a little longer is the best choice.
But not too long. Know what you really want, then wait until the stars align—or better still, align them yourself.
In strategy and negotiation
We need an answer right away! What is your figure? What do you want out of this?
Common enough questions. But the art of negotiation is to wait for the other party to respond.
So many people rush ahead with their own ideas, demands, goals—without patiently waiting to see whether those goals fall within the same scope as the other party. And how will you know?
Be prepared to wait. And wait. And wait long enough for all cards to be played.
Then, and only then, can the game move forward.
And that breakup
That heady and unnecessary attack only damages what is a serious and fragile moment. Let the steam dissipate. Let nerves settle into a more controllable standstill.
That too is part of the waiting game.
Not to exact retribution, as is so often the want, but simply to cast calm waters over an overboiling, misunderstood, and often unrepairable rent in a person's life.
Time heals all—and waiting before making it catastrophic is always going to be a game changer.
Final thought
Waiting isn’t wasting time.
Waiting is watching. Preparing. Rebalancing.
Waiting might just be your greatest advantage in a world obsessed with speed.
In the dry heat of Gujarat, a tragedy unfolded midair. Air India Flight 171, a Boeing 787 Dreamliner, plummeted shortly after takeoff from Ahmedabad, killing 241 people onboard and at least 28 more on the ground when it collided with a medical college hostel. One lone survivor, a British student, remains in intensive care.
Among the dead was former state leader Vijay Rupani, and with that, India's political and emotional core shook.
But beyond grief, the crash reignites a simmering crisis for Boeing. This marks yet another 787 incident, a model already shadowed by technical scrutiny. Shares dipped as questions resurfaced about production oversight, quality control, and the lingering legacy of deferred accountability. For Air India, now under Tata’s stewardship, it is a reputational rupture they did not cause—but must now carry.
As India buries its dead, investigators sift through debris. What failed—mechanics, maintenance, or something else entirely?
II. Lions and Shadows — Israel Strikes, Iran Burns
On Thursday, the region's thinnest line snapped. Israel launched "Operation Rising Lion", striking deep into Iranian nuclear and military complexes. Among the dead: IRGC commander Hossein Salami, Chief of Staff Mohammad Bagheri, and several senior nuclear scientists.
Iran retaliated with drones—over a hundred—most of which were intercepted. But the choreography of war has begun.
This was not a skirmish. It was an assassination of capacity. A surgical rewriting of deterrence. For Israel, the objective was clear: halt Iran’s capability to build. For the world, the implications are murky and manifold. Global powers urged restraint, but markets shuddered and oil surged. And still, Tel Aviv and Tehran remain locked in the rhythm of retribution.
One wonders—who gains when the region bleeds?
III. Markets in Shock — Oil, Fear, and Fragility
The conflict in the Middle East brought more than airstrikes—it brought volatility. Oil prices jumped nearly 13%, the sharpest spike in four months. WTI and Brent flirted with the $78 mark as traders priced in risk across the Strait of Hormuz.
Energy stocks soared, but aviation and shipping recoiled. Indian energy firms dropped, fearing a prolonged crude climb. Equity markets staggered, gold rallied, and investors reached for the security of the old havens—bonds, dollars, and doubt.
War, it seems, is the only inflation hedge that still works.
Not exactly what the voters signed up for.
When they thought senility had taken over the White House, little did they know the miracle drug promising so much would turn out to be a national cancer instead.
How can this TACO be taken seriously? Trump Always Chickens Out — it’s practically his biography. Failed universities, crumbling casinos, bankrupt hotels. The collapsing towers of Jenga have nothing on the Trump empire.
A spiteful spat with Musk became the epitome of how precarious any relationship is with this power-crazed individual.
Now?
The proliferation of fake news, direct from the duck’s mouth, has made belief unbelievable and trust non-existent.
And what of California — to be sacrificed in the name of a vengeful autocrat hell-bent on Making Trump Great Again?
Oops.
Said that before.
So… does that make it true?
Seriously — this buffoon may end up in history books as a great leader.
The man who “stopped” two wars.
The man who brought “pieces” to the world.
Oops again — I meant peace!
It's hard to define this decline and fall — this shredded reality being decimated in his wake.
What once looked like a promising future now barrels toward the nuclear waste dump the Cold War never delivered.
Roll over, Beethoven.
Roll over, Founding Fathers.
Roll over, next three and a half years — and please take the nightmare with you.
When agreeing for the sake of agreeing is just not right.*
Let’s blame it all on social media, on fake news, and power-wielding politicians.
It’s so much easier, isn’t it?
The fact is, we’ve forgotten how to question anything and everything.
Too much is taken for granted. Those words of wisdom cannot be false—because a wise man said them.
A while back, when Fogy was still trying to grasp the advanced nature of education, he happened upon the works of Socrates and Plato and marvelled at the scope of their thinking. Some time later, however, Fogy recognised that much of what had seemed far-reaching and profound was actually limited to the Athenian culture and the borders they inhabited.
This is when DOUBT set in. How could these words of wisdom be accepted as the exclusive truth?
In later years, philosophers became better travelled—exposed to new cultures, ideas, and contradictions—and concepts such as these widened greatly in scope. From the Renaissance to the Enlightenment, the intellectual lens gradually broadened.
And yet, even today, taking each and every revered work at face value remains a risky way to develop an understanding of the world around us.
Several times now, I have mentioned critical thinking—the art of looking into anything and questioning whether what is stated is truly right.
Is this The Power of Why?
No. Similar, but subtly different. We are not interested as much in the method or the reason for something, but more the reasoning and the truth behind something.
“I doubt you have ever travelled to the South Pole” is a legitimate doubt.
And doubting even the simplest statement, article, news report or academic work is where true critical thinking skills kick in.
The purported truths presented in publication are more often than not just the perspective of the writer or writers. Even presenters can alter this perspective in the way they read the text, the emphasis they place on words and facts—and when seen, their own expressions and postures are designed to further their own positions.
So doubt is fundamental. Always question what is presented to us with a modicum of doubt. Believing is a personal—and, sorry to say, a lazy—choice for many. When something appears to be too complex, the “accept it without question” gene steps in. It changes nothing in my life, so why bother.
Oh, and by the way. This is not a support of conspiracy theories. These too must be taken with a heap-load of DOUBT. But they do represent the makings of critical thinking and must be analysed and understood just as much as the so-called normal sources. There are some underlying gems—and sometimes truths—behind such theories.
The conclusion here must be: do not take everything at face value. Be prepared to think through what you have been instructed to do. If inconsistent, then voice your doubts. Be aware that your own doubts will trigger deeper analysis of your own points. Your reputation and legitimacy depend very much on how carefully you express these doubts. Moderation is the key. Understand what doubts are important, and when they need to be expressed.
What we read and see and hear needs constant analysis. We have the tools—and a much wider world view than the ancient philosophers—so our own determination of what we want to believe should be easier. Unless, of course, we consider being overloaded with too many options and too much data.
Humans are a vengeful lot, constantly seeking repayment for some conscious or unconscious slight.
And that's where the problem lies. We tend to ruminate and suffer over the silliest affronts, twisting and torturing our very insides. This is how stress gnaws at us, how illness can creep in with no clear cause.
This is how wars start, nations topple, and worlds are decimated.
This is how families fracture across continents.
This is how business empires are crushed.
Sowing seeds of dissent and creating unforgettable slights—these meaningless distractions are what tear seemingly solid relationships apart. It’s the ethos of entertainment that sells big at the box office.
This is not for the weak of heart—and is totally unnecessary.
Think about how bad you feel when something goes unexpectedly wrong and you know sabotage was involved. The thought of retaliation wells up into an uncontrollable red mist.
An immediate response follows, and suddenly, everything you’ve worked for is thrust into the garbage disposal. You’re left with what? Unforgettable shame, loss, regret. All for what?
And that is where the power of forgetting becomes so important.
‘An eye for an eye’ guarantees vengeance. Turning the other cheek and preaching forgiveness are hard lessons to learn and harder to live by.
But life is too short to waste seeking vengeance for every misstep.
The power of forgetting isn’t really about forgiveness. It’s about noting what happened, how it happened, who made it happen—and making sure it doesn’t happen again.
And it is this last one that is the hardest to control.
A young child learns and practices the art of temptation and testing tolerances—a lifelong pattern that can either shorten or extend one’s time on this earth.
If left unchecked, anarchy can well up and conquer. Controlling this, without falling into vengeance, is extremely hard to do.
Some acts must be punished—not out of vengeance, but with clear, unbiased boundaries set around those who transgressed.
Noting what happened—and by whom—isn’t truly forgetting. It’s the practiced art of turning tragedy into a lesson, not a reason for revenge.
Having learned the circumstances, now is the time to distance yourself from recurrence. If possible, plan for better outcomes rather than revenge. Dig deep into your emotional reserves, and turn a potentially life-altering event into wisdom.
“In the end, it’s not about letting go of what happened, but letting go of the urge to retaliate.”
Now I know that most of you do NOT know how to say NO.
It seems as if you are being anti-social, you’re misbehaving, revolting against the machine.
Friends ask us to do things,
family expects us to do things,
and bosses demand that we do things.
And each time we’re asked, we board that long guilt trip of how to say NO, NO, NO.
If I say no:
Will they hate me?
Will they disown me?
Will they fire me?
And the truth is—yes, they probably will.
But that probably has very little to do with you saying NO.
Nope.
It’s more likely related to their own laziness, jealousy, ungratefulness, and disbelief that you—once so compliant—could possibly find the courage to say NO.
Ridiculous, isn’t it, when we think this way?
If friends truly are your friends, then they should have the good sense to realise that they might also need to say NO someday.
And you don’t need a reason to say NO.
You say NO because it’s probably just not possible.
And family—those selfish blackmailing individuals who use a lifelong knowledge of reciprocal abuse.
They know all your weak points just as well as you know theirs.
Yet emotionally mature individuals understand that that life has passed, and new lives have begun.
Lives where there isn’t always time to jump at their beck and call every time they ask.
And bosses.
Get a life, why don’t you? You sad excuse for a boss.
I’ve dedicated enough of the time you pay me for—without needing to constantly sacrifice the time that is mine.
Time you’re probably not even going to pay me for.
I value my position.
I value my future.
I value my salary.
I respect the company, and even you as a boss.
The only thing I ask is that you respect me—as a person.
But seriously folks.
The very best way to find that delicate balance in your life is to know when to say NO.
You can’t expect to say it always. You’ve got to be selective.
Pick your moments.
But never be afraid of saying NO, just once in a while.
Try it in front of a mirror.
See how it looks.
Note how it feels.
Listen to how it sounds.
This new YOU that you become…
will be a whole lot healthier—
and a whole lot more respected—
over the long run.
