2021 - The No Normal
If you love news, 2021 is the equivalent of the office full of coke in Scarface - let's just hope we survive the rest of the assault...
The Week
Do you remember what it was like to be normal?
To not have crazy dreams because there’s a pandemic on? Back in that time when you knew who to hug and who to shake hands with and not to fist-bump because you’re white and it’s ridiculous?
The news cycle currently looks like the climax of Scarface - news all over the place, while we sit, paranoid, at our desks, armed to the teeth and wondering if we can possible stand any more.
Then the explosions start again.
These recent days have shown no signs of any sort of a return to what we used to call normal - and it’s probably fair to ask now whether anything will be normal again.
We have a United States Of America teetering on the brink of … something that is not quite clear. The danger is in thinking Biden will take over and the Nazis will just go home.
History tells us they won’t.
Remember when Anders Behring Brevik detonated a bomb in central Oslo, and then shot 69 people dead in cold blood? That was ten years ago. Back then the Social Democrat prime minister, Jens Stoltenberg, made a speech promising more openness and more democracy, and the world marvelled at his compassion.
The electorate didn’t. A couple of years later he was dumped out of office and replaced by a coalition that featured the Progress Party - a far-right party that Breivik had once been a member of.
That’s not to say it’s all gloom and doom. Biden has already announced that he’s going to open the purse strings to combat the pandemic, and that may go some way to easing the tensions in American life. As we see in Britain and elsewhere, when resources are scarce it’s easy to pit people against one another, but when everyone is looked after a sense of solidarity gradually grows naturally.
At least, that’s the hope. If there’s anything we’ve learned in the last year it’s that you can’t rule anything out.
The Island
For the first time in almost a year, my suitcase is standing in the hallway and my alarm is set for 4 AM. By the time you read this I’ll be in Paris en route to Abu Dhabi for UFC 257, where Conor McGregor will fight Dustin Poirier for our entertainment, rather than the lightweight belt he previously held.
I’m looking forward to getting back on the road, even if it’s only for a week and most of that will be spent in quarantine and then in a specially-created UFC bubble. they have had plenty of positive tests among athletes, but they have managed to keep their organisation running better than most.
It will be interesting to see it from the inside. Like politics, sport has seen the level of access to athletes and decision-makers drastically reduced by the pandemic, which is fast becoming an easy way to dodge hard questions. It is absolutely not ideal. Even in Sweden where decision-makers were available during the pandemic, they are now withdrawing and it’s a lot harder to get answers outside of staged press conferences.
The costs are also astronomical - this trip will cost me the same as Conor’s last two fights combined did, and it’s not even for a title. Let’s hope it’s worth it.
The Podcast
This week I spoke to Paul Redmond, himself a former UFC fighter now competing in Bellator. Paul is a Dubliner, a jiu jitsu black belt and a personal trainer, and the perfect man to talk to in early January when everyone is talking about losing weight and Google ads are targeting you like you were a dissident hiding in a cave in Tora Bora.
There are a lot of myths about nutrition and training, and there’s a lot of failure too - if you’ve been thinking of losing a few pounds, have a listen to my chat with Paul first. It might save you a lot of trouble.
The Birthday Girl
Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg turned 18 recently, an occasion she celebrated with her usual wry, understated humour. Her opponents in Sweden (usually middle-aged men named Bengt who subscribe to car magazines and listen to Creedence Clearwater Revival while drinking beer that tastes like it was brewed in a dog’s bladder) were always discouraged from criticising her as she was only a child, so she gently reminded them that it is now open season because she’s turned 18.
A stamp with her on it was launched this week, which led to me having to do a very quick story about the whole thing. Though she’s probably flattered, Greta is not really one to get carried away by these things. The hardest part of doing the story was getting a close-up of her on the stamp - there’s only so close you can get before the camera lens can’t take any more, but luckily there was a slightly bigger version of it on a poster that I could film.
Now that I think of it, the hardest part might end up being explaining to people of her age what a stamp is …
The Next Big Thing
For the second week in a row, I’m going to break some personal news here and I need your feedback and advice on how to turn an idea I have into reality.
For the last two or three months I’ve been writing a book about Sweden and the pandemic - what went right (not much), what went wrong (a whole lot) and who was affected by the whole thing.
The idea is not to have a go at certain individuals (although this will invariably happen), but to try to tell the story of the Swedish experience through the eyes of people here who worked in hospitals, who drove the cabs and the busses and indeed who ran the country at the time.
The above image is what the cover looks like. Np prizes for guessing where the inspiration came from.
Now here’s the thing - there’s a lot of options when it comes to publishing, and I want to try to pick the right one.
I was going to publish it, chapter by chapter, as paid content here on Substack. When that’s done I’ll collate all the chapters and put it out as a physical book and en e-book.
Alternatively, I can just wait and put it all out together in March or April.
I have spoken to a couple of publishers about it but to be honest it’s not worth the hassle. They have a backlog of thousands of titles still waiting to come out (I should know, I wrote two of them in Swedish that were supposed to be out last March), and there’s little sense in me throwing another one on the pile.
Is this something that would interested you? Would you recommend it to your friends?
Or is it better just to publish the interviews and stories for free and see if it generates any heat?
All feedback gratefully received, to the usual address. =)
The Signoff
Thanks to all who got in touch over last week - it seems Saturday morning is a popular time so I’m going to ensure that this mail comes out weekly in the future.
There may be bonus versions if something big happens, but this feels like a good, steady start. If you’re enjoying it, please share on social media and encourage your friends to sign up as well.
Until next time, look after yourselves and each other.