Activities are gatherings that occur on a regular schedule, usually weekly, to enjoy a specific pastime.
Moderated by Jan Selkowitz, an entrepreneur and businessman who has been dealing with Asia for over five decades, and has family ties to China. Friday, March 18th at 11 am. Zoom only
Nikki Haley: “Why China keeps me up at night.”
China’s Economic Reckoning: The Price of Failed Reform
HIKING GREENWICH POINT
OLD GREENWICH, CT
FEBRUARY 24, 2022
10:00 AM
We will meet in the first parking lot on the right after you pass the gatehouse and walk around the perimeter of the park, about 2.5 miles. If the weather is good, the hike is on. If it turns out to be a day that you would not go out on a walk, don’t come and I won’t either. There will be no announcement but you can call or email me as below to check to see if the hike is on.
Greenwich Point is a special place and we non-Greenwich types can only go in the winter. Wonderful views and a solid walking surface but it can be very windy. Layer up! No lunch after. Dogs on a leash welcome as are guests as always.
We had 18 hikers at Sherwood Island last month, let’s beat that number!
GPS and Waze for directions off either Exit 6 or 5 of I-95.
Dave McCollum
Recap:
“An enthusiastic group of 16 braved cold and windy, but bright conditions…”. That was the start of our report after the December 9 tour of Greenwich Point. Copy that for today! Sixteen of us, including three new hikers plus two dogs encountered the very same weather on this trip around the peninsula. If we get the same weather this coming December, we’re going to send the data to The Old Farmer’s Almanac. Once they print it, we’ll pick another day!
Despite the cold, all had a great time with only one slight mishap when Tom Igoe tripped but was rescued on the way to the ground by Charles Salmans. Teamwork is what the DMA is all about!
We’ll have one more winter hike at Waveny Park in New Canaan on Monday, March 21. In April we will return to our traditional hikes in area forests.
Dave McCollum and Bob Plunkett
The Great Halifax Explosion : a World War I Story of Treachery, Tragedy, and Extraordinary Heroism
From the acclaimed New York Times bestselling author, a gripping narrative-nonfiction account of the world’s largest manmade explosion before the atomic bomb. In December 1917, a freighter carrying 3,000 tons of explosives sailed from Brooklyn bound for the trenches of World War I—en route, a cataclysmic disaster awaited . . .
Entering World War I’s fourth demoralizing year, the Allies hoped to break the grueling stalemate by sending thousands of fresh American troops and more munitions than ever to the trenches of France. Before the French freighter Mont-Blanc set sail from Brooklyn on December 1, 1917, with a staggering 3,000 tons of explosives, the captain banned his crew from lighting a single match, and secured the volatile cargo with copper nails because they don’t spark when struck.
For four harrowing days, the floating powder keg bobbed up the Eastern seaboard, plowing through a wicked snowstorm and waters infested with German U-Boats, which had already torpedoed a thousand Allied ships that year alone. On December 6, the exhausted crew finally slipped into Halifax Harbour—just as the relief ship Imo was rushing to leave. At 8:45 a.m., the Imo struck the Mont-Blanc’s bow, knocking over barrels of airplane fuel. Fire swept across the decks, sending the Mont-Blanc’s crew scurrying to their lifeboats, while Halifax longshoremen, office workers, and schoolchildren walked down to watch it burn.
At 9:04:35 a.m., the Mont-Blanc erupted, leveling 2.5 square miles of Halifax, killing 2,000 people, and wounding 9,000 more—all in one-fifteenth of a second.
In this definitive account, bestselling author John U. Bacon recreates the recklessness that caused the tragedy, the selfless rescue efforts that saved thousands, and the inspiring resilience that rebuilt the town. Just hours after the explosion, Boston alone sent 100 doctors, 300 nurses, and a million dollars. The explosion would revolutionize ophthalmology and pediatrics; transform Canada and the U.S. from adversaries to allies; and show J. Robert Oppenheimer, who studied Halifax closely, how much destruction an atomic bomb could inflict on a city.
Bacon brings to light one of the most dramatic events of the twentieth century, exploring the long shadow the world’s first “weapon of mass destruction” still casts on our world today.
HIKING SHERWOOD ISLAND
WESTPORT, CT
JANUARY 24, 2022
10:00 AM
We will meet in the parking lot closest to the pavilion and hike the perimeter of the park which is about 2.5 miles.
If the weather is good, the hike is on. If it turns out to be a day that you would not go out on a walk, don’t come and I probably won’t either! There will be no announcement but you can email or call me as below to check on whether or not it is on.
Sherwood will most likely be windy so layer up!
There will be no lunch after, just a walk on the beach!
Dogs on a leash and guests welcome.
Sherwood Island is off of Exit 18 on I-95.
David McCollum
Recap:
After a little semi-threatening snow on a Monday morning the weather turned mostly sunny but cold for 18 (count ‘em 18) DMA hikers and friends to walk and talk for 90 minutes at beautiful Sherwood Island State Park in Westport.
For those who have not been to Sherwood Island there are trails through wooded areas in addition to the vast open expanse of lawn and beach. The Park contains a 911 Memorial to all those Connecticut residents who died in the attacks. The memorial is sited on a point of land which has a direct line of sight to Manhattan.
The next hike is scheduled for Monday, February 14 at 10:00 at Greenwich Point. Bring your Valentine!
Dave McCollum and Bob Plunkett
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If scarce resources were maximally devoted to reducing emissions then would the result be worth the cost? If not then how do we efficiently allocate resources to ameliorate and adapt to the changing environment?
YouTube presentations
Keeping Your Cool on the Climate Debate with Bjorn Lomborg
Why renewables can’t save the planet Michael Shellenberger
Youtube Presentation
Blogpost
Germany’s Climate Chancellor Angela Merkel grossly mis-allocated resources and failed the climate
Wall Street’s Green Push Exposes New Conflicts of Interest
https://netzeroamerica.princeton.edu
Originally published in 1926, The Sun Also Rises is Ernest Hemingway’s first novel and a classic example of his spare but powerful writing style. A poignant look at the disillusionment and angst of the post-World War I generation, the novel introduces two of Hemingway’s most unforgettable characters: Jake Barnes and Lady Brett Ashley. Based on Hemingway’s experiences, ‘The Sun Also Rises’ is the story of a group of American and English expatriates living in Paris who take an excursion to Pamplona, Spain. The novel has forever associated Hemingway with bullfights and the running of the bulls. This powerful work of modern fiction, filled with memorable characters and universal themes, is summarized in this volume, which is enhanced by thought-provoking critical extracts, focused biographical details, and an annotated bibliography. This book helped to establish Hemingway as one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century
Current Affairs: Quadrennial Report of the National Intelligence Council, Friday, January 28, 2022, at 11 am
White paper summarizing the issues: DMA Current Affairs White Paper January 2022
On Friday, January 28, at 11 am, Tom Igoe will lead a Current Affairs discussion on the latest quadrennial report of The National Intelligence Council (NIC or Council) entitled Global Trends 2040: A More Contested World. The NIC supports the Director of National Intelligence in her role as head of the Intelligence Community and is the IC’s center for long-term strategic analysis. Since its establishment in 1979, the NIC has served as a bridge between the intelligence and policy communities, a source of deep substantive expertise on intelligence issues, and a facilitator of Intelligence Community collaboration and outreach.
The NIC’s report is typically released at the start of each new administration with the intent of providing guidance as to the key trends and uncertainties that will shape the strategic environment for the United States during the next two decades. The goal of this report is not to offer a specific prediction of the world in 2040 but rather to help policymakers and citizens see what may lie beyond the horizon and prepare for an array of possible futures.
As the report notes in its sobering introductory passages, during the past year, the COVID-19 pandemic has reminded the world of its fragility and demonstrated the inherent risks of high levels of interdependence. In coming years and decades, the world will face more intense and cascading global challenges ranging from disease to climate change to disruptions from new technologies and financial crises. These challenges will repeatedly test the resilience and adaptability of communities, states and the international system, often exceeding the capacity of existing systems and models. This looming disequilibrium between existing and future challenges and the ability of institutions and systems to respond is likely to grow and produce greater contestation at every level.
In this more contested world, communities are increasingly fractured as people seek security with like-minded groups based on established and newly prominent identities; states of all types and in all regions are struggling to meet the needs and expectations of more connected, more urban, and more empowered populations; and the international system is more competitive – shaped in part by challenges from a rising China – and at greater risk of conflict as states and nonstate actors exploit new sources of power and erode longstanding norms and institutions that have provided some stability in past decades.
The NIC asserts that these dynamics are not fixed in perpetuity, however, and envisions a variety of plausible scenarios for the world of 2040 – from a democratic renaissance to a transformation in global cooperation spurred by shared tragedy – depending on how these dynamics interact and human choices along the way.
The Global Trends 2040 report, a copy of which can be accessed by clicking the link below, is a detailed 145-page document that provides a broad range of factual and analytical material. It is well written and thought provoking. Given its length, some DMA members may not have the time
or the desire to plow through the entire document. For these folks, I encourage you to read the Foreword Section (pps. v and vi), the Introduction: Key Themes (pp. 1 – 5), the Executive Summary (pp. 6 – 13), the Scenarios for 2040 (pp. 109 – 119), and the informative charts included at the back end under the heading Regional Forecasts (pp. 120 – 140).
Navigating this report can be humbling. It’s also an experience that awakens many new understandings and thoughts on possible outcomes for the long-term prospects of the world in which we live. In advance of our Current Affairs discussion, Mike Wheeler will send to the discussion group a poll eliciting your thoughts. The results will be shared at the conclusion of our discussions.
Given the complexity of the subject matter and the numerous areas to be covered, members may expect the discussion to continue for up to an hour and a half from the 11 am start time.
The following includes links to the Global Trends report and additional reading materials intended to supplement the information included in the report:
Global Trends Report: GlobalTrends_2040
Given the complexity of the subject matter and the numerous areas to be covered, members may expect the discussion to continue for up to an hour and a half from the 11 am start time.
“HIKING” GREENWICH POINT PARK
7 TOD’S DRIFTWAY, GREENWICH
THURSDAY DECEMBER 9, 2021
10:30
We will be walking around Greenwich Point starting at 10:30 am.
NOTE THAT THIS START TIME IS ONE HALF HOUR LATER THAN OTHER HIKES. We will be walking about 3 miles over flat, mostly paved or packed gravel paths, which should take us about an hour and a half.
Greenwich Point is a 147 acre property owned by the Town of Greenwich which bought the property in 1945. The peninsula, surrounded on three sides by water, was the private estate of J. Kennedy Tod who purchased the property in the 1880s. Greenwich Point offers spectacular views of Manhattan and the Greenwich shoreline. It is a beautiful place to walk and only available to non-Greenwich residents (without a substantial fee) during the months of December-April. You will not regret coming on this “hike”!
We will assemble in the first parking lot on the right after you pass the gatehouse. Greenwich Point can be windy and cold so layer up! Dogs on a leash are permitted and, as always, bring guests.
We will have an optional lunch at Louie’s Italian Restaurant in Cos Cob at 136 River Road Ext, a 12 minute drive from the Point.
DIRECTIONS: Google Greenwich Point Park for guidance
Contacts: Dave McCollum and 203-858-5688 and Bob Plunkett
Followup:
An enthusiastic group of 16 braved cold and windy, but bright, conditions over a little more than 3 miles at Greenwich Point this morning. This was our first chance to tour the spectacular peninsula after a two year absence due to weather and Covid. The wait was worth it, as it always is at GP. We had a fairly good view of Manhattan and a
very look at the Greenwich shoreline on our way around. Except for a stretch of about 400 yards, the trail is hard packed or pavement and very flat. We attracted four guests and the total group was the largest since Sherwood Island last year. J Kennedy Tod picked a beautiful place to site his mansion over 130 years ago and, like many of the places we hike, a municipal, state or charitable entity had the foresight to acquire the property for the benefit of future generations. Wildlife report-birds, nonlife report-one dead fish.
The group transferred to Louie’s Italian Restaurant in Cos Cob for a great lunch after the hike. This was the 8 th and final hike of 2021, an activity well suited to the unusual conditions of this year. Thanks to all who participated! We
hope to schedule some more hikes over the winter months.
Dave McCollum and Bob Plunkett
From Kirkus Reviews:
A Hong Kong–raised entrepreneur chronicles a high-flying life of wealth and political connections, eclipsed in harrowing fashion by a new wave of Chinese Communist Party authoritarianism.
In September 2017, Shum’s ex-wife and business partner, Whitney Duan, disappeared without a trace from Beijing, most certainly among the countless victims of trumped-up corruption charges by the relentless arm of Xi Jinping’s Communist Party apparatus. Together, Shum and Duan had built a vast fortune from real estate dealings in China, from the late 1990s through the global recession of 2008, a span of time during which China fully embraced private entrepreneurial energy in order to jump-start the economy. Around 1997, sensing the “go-go energy” of the new boom, in which “stories of instant millionaires and financial sensations” abounded, the couple leapt at the opportunity to enrich themselves, their families, and associates. However, the same intricate political connections that Duan had assiduously cultivated through the years, such as with Zheng Peili (“Auntie Zhang”), the wife of former premier Wen Jiabao, would prove the couple’s undoing as the political winds began to shift with the accession of Xi in 2013. Through a deliberative, slow-building, suspenseful narrative that reveals numerous insights about the mechanics of power and greed, Shum chronicles his humble early beginnings in Shanghai, then Hong Kong, where his family moved for more opportunity and he excelled as a swimmer, through college at the University of Wisconsin and attempts at trying his hand in the fledgling field of private equity. He effectively shows how Duan, a boldly calculating investor from a humble background, helped mold him into a highly successful entrepreneur. While Shum insists that they both fervently believed their wealth could foster social changes, he learned early on that what the Party gives, the Party can take away. Observers of contemporary Chinese affairs, consistently intriguing and murky territory, will find much to interest them here.
A riveting look inside “the roulette-like political environment of the New China.”
Host: Doug Campbell
HIKING MIANUS RIVER PARK
STAMFORD, CT
NOVEMBER 18, 2021
On a spectacular mid-November day, 10 DMAers and 2 spouses hiked
for 3.8 miles in a little over two hours through the beautiful trails at
Mianus River Park, a 391 acre nature reserve on the
Stamford/Greenwich border. The combination of some still colorful
leaves, glacial rock outcroppings and a forest floor largely free of low
foliage made for a very scenic hike. Alas, again we spotted no wildlife
but we did encounter many other hikers and their dogs on such a nice
day. No injuries or other mishaps occurred extending our safety record!
The beauty of these hikes is the opportunity to converse with each
other in a quiet setting and to get to talk to every hiker at some point
during the walk.
After the hike, ten of us enjoyed a delicious and well served lunch at
Jody’s 19 th Hole at the E Gaynor Brennan Golf Course in Stamford.
Our next hike will be on Thursday December 9 at 10:00 at Greenwich
Point. Always a DMA favorite for its flat path and spectacular views of
Manhattan, we welcome a return after a Covid enforced absence of
two years.
Dave McCollum and Bob Plunkett
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