Here we have an image of a Chinese banknote, featuring Chairman Mao, followed by a seemingly incongruous German word - schadenfreude. Is there an error here?
Happily, no. We’ll begin with the word, schadenfreude, which means “harm-joy.” It’s used to express an occurrence that’s destructive, yet brings about happiness.
This would seem to be a conflict in terms, but, looked at a bit more deeply, it could be said that the killing of an enemy may mean that peace will soon prevail - and so the event brings happiness. Or, another analogy: the bulldozing of an old structure may mean that a new one - a better one - will soon be under construction.
And that’s the case here. The world’s most powerful (and most oppressive) political/economic power structure has begun to go under the bulldozer. Its replacement will hopefully be a better one.
The Brussels SWIFT system is currently the largest economic settlement system in the world. Almost all financial transfers are made possible through this system. As such, those who control SWIFT have the power to threaten financial institutions and sovereign nations that, if they don’t do as they’re told, can be denied access to the system.
No comments:
Post a Comment