I have just arrived home after a 10-day cruise on Beyond, a new cruise ship that is part of the Celebrity fleet. It is an impressive piece of maritime construction designed and fitted out to the highest standard with the client’s needs at the forefront of the concept. Did I enjoy the experience the answer is yes, has it converted me to become a “cruiser”, the answer is no, though Hasta la vista baby. The reason for this is that I will describe this approach to holidaying as “skimming”. This means that you see a lot of places and venues but only on the surface and have no chance to experience the culture or the location in any depth. A couple of hours in Athens, the home of western political thinking and democracy is normally the amount of time I would spend eating and enjoying a good meal. I would suggest a review of the itinerary may be worth looking at. However, many Americans I met who had cruised on dozens of occasions seemed to be happy with the cruising concept as is. We will get back to some of them later.
One thing that elevated every aspect of the experience was the staff, to whom I introduced myself and talked. Their backstories were quite frankly inspiring let alone their personalities and communication skills. There was Welder a young gay man from Brazil who any parent would be proud of, Michael from the Philippines a father any child would be proud to call Dad, Karen, a mother from Nicaragua supporting her children, working 70 hours per week. Then there was Manish a young man from Mauritius seeking love and supporting a family, Fabrice a sommelier from Mauritius who intrigued us with his knowledge of wine, Shaquille whose personality was infectious and finally Marina a young woman who escaped from the war in Ukraine, travelled through Europe to get a job on the ship, what tenacity. There were other members of the cruise team that was our pleasure to meet, however, whose names I cannot remember.
We met many people with whom we had great craic, as we say on the island of Ireland. There were Scots from Edinburgh, Liz and Len (not his real name) who was a dead ringer for Strictly Come Dancing’s Len Goodman, a bunch of Geordies from Newcastle Upon Tyne and a bunch of Scots from Glasgow and finally Mancunians called Priya and Sanjiv. All of whom it was a pleasure to meet. We also met several Americans; this was a very different experience and to be fair the cruise was packed with American cruisers as you would expect.
The first couple let’s call them Mark and Glenda who started a conversation with us, as we were in the same bar. I was talking to the husband who seemed a nice guy and my partner started talking to his wife. I was told by my partner in very clear terms if I met any Americans to avoid talking about US politics. This is because I write a political blog called The Gob Uncensored on thegob.org.
In the recent few weeks, I had written three rather critical articles on the US called, Welcome to Gilead, The Demeaned Court and The Plot Against America: A Two State Solution.
Mark and I discussed NFL versus Rugby Union and then he pivoted to an America First agenda in other words to become more insular and not interfere in other parts of the world resulting in forever wars. I pointed out some of the world’s geopolitical problems were actually created by American foreign policy, particularly in the Middle East and South America. In addition, it was America’s full-blown embrace of globalisation that played an important role in the rise of China.
My partner, who is non-political or more accurately hates politics started talking to Glenda. Glenda made a comment out of the blue, that the Black Lives Matter movement was phony and it was a vehicle being used by the Clintons to raise money, for what I have no idea. My partner then asked what Glenda thought of Trump.
Well, the answer was swift as it was obvious, Glenda loved him and dismissed any news reports to the contrary. Glenda also implied that we in the UK and Europe were being fed anti-Trump B.S. Mark was a retired commodity dealer and I presume had made millions, then without any prompting, they said they were Jews.
Then I began to think, why would a pair of Jews be supporting Trump? Have they overdosed on Fox and Friends and News Max? As Jews, you would expect people from this community to understand the discrimination, repression and economic injustice.
The most disturbing thing is that they still supported Donald Trump despite of the fact that he garners and welcomes support from neo-Nazi white nationalists such as the Proud Boys. It was such groups who at Charlottesville chanted Jews will not replace us. This was followed up when Trump was asked about the clashes between anti-racist protestors and Neo Nazis groups, his answer was, “there were fine people on both sides”. Now, that was not a difficult question to answer, even for Trump, whose daughter and grandchildren are Jews. These two people did not seem to care or understand how America’s original sin still infects many aspects of American life from policing to the criminal justice system, voting rights and the opportunity to climb the mythological pole of the American Dream. I reckon Mark and Glenda should read the Philip Roth book “The Plot Against America” and open their eyes to the rise of anti-Semitism in the US
Then I met two African women one of whom described herself as an influencer who was given a free cruise for posting some videos on her Instagram. The other was on the cruise to celebrate her 54th birthday. The younger one said she was from Florida and preceded to ask me what I knew about the state. I think she expected me to say Disneyland, Universal Studios, or the capital Miami. I responded that as I followed American politics and the thing, I knew about Florida was Governor Ron DeSantis. Then I went on to say about him trying to rewrite history through his campaign to change the school civics curriculum, particularly around slavery. She retorted that she neither supported DeSantis nor Trump. I further said, as Europeans, allies and critical friends, we look across the pond with uneasiness at the state of US politics and the polarisation within society. I added when Trump calls those who want to migrate to the US coming from shithole African countries, maybe he should have looked in the mirror before he made such comments. He was clearly race-baiting to the white supremacists’ part of his base. Her response was touchy and responded by saying she had travelled to many countries and did not feel the need to criticise any of the countries she visited. I responded by saying that I was not criticising” the country” but rather how it is being governed, the loss of a national vision, the role of the current Supreme Court and the failure of many Americans to navigate the dangerous misinformation ecosystem which is contributing to the polarisation happening in the US.
That was my last comment, as we left their company saying I hope they have a good holiday. From that point onwards I avoided all Americans after meeting several groups all of which were Trump supporters. The real reason I avoided all conversations with Americans was that my partner said, “she would rip my balls off” and this was probably the most romantic thing she had said to me in weeks.
Look, as a young man, I looked at the US with envy as Reagan called described it “The shining city on the hill” where dreams come true. Today that light, to my despair, has dimmed. In the UK, where I am a resident, America is seen as our closest ally and friend, so the current polarisation is of concern. As I sit here in the UK, looking at the world’s first democratic republic and see 72 million Americans who voted for a man with no morals, no humanity, no humility, a narcissist, who is a pathological liar, all facilitated by a bunch of self-serving republican sycophants, any wonder I am concerned.
The party of Lincoln started to die when Newt Gingrich became speaker in the 90s and it is now up to the likes of McCarthy, Taylor Greene, and the dark prince himself “no balls McConnell, to bury the party of Lincoln.
“God Bless America and all who sail in her”
Let us know what you think in the comments below 👇
Suneil Sharma
24th August 2022
The Gob 
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