A LITTLE BIT OF EVERYTHING

First, our Christmas-like European river cruise on Viking was fine.  The problem was me, for I had difficulty sleeping.  U.S. News and World Report named Viking in their 2025 Best Cruise Line rankings as #1 for the fourth consecutive year in:

• Best Luxury Line
• Best Line for Couples
• Best Line in the Mediterranean

Some other rankings.

• For families
• #1 Disney
• #2 Royal Caribbean
• #3 Norwegian
• For money
• #1 Celebrity
• #2 Virgin
• #3 MSC

A week ago today for us was near agony, as we left our Zurich hotel in the morning, caught a Swiss Air flight to San Francisco, and, after a long bureaucratic hassle (if our SFO-HNL flight had not been delayed, we would have missed that flight), we flew United Air, where the seats in business class were like budget tourist class.  From our hotel in Zurich, took us 27 hours to get to 15 Craigside.  While I gained 5 pounds on the trip, a couple of days ago I weighed myself and found that I was already back to normal.  More importantly, my sleep pattern appears to be returning.

Shifting to world leadership:

• In Syria, President Bashar al-Assad fell.
• In 1946 French rule in Syria ended.
• Syria and Egypt merged politically to form the United Arab Republic in 1958.
• A military coup reestablished Syria as an independent country in 1961.
• The 1968  Six-Day War of Egypt, Jordan and Syria against Israel ended, with Israel seizing the Golan Heights from Syria.
• 
  Hafez al-Assad, Assad's father, engineers a coup to take power in 1970.
• Authoritarian practices begin in 1971.
• Syria sent 25,000 soldiers to Lebanon in 1976 and stayed for 30 years.
• His father was still in power when the Muslim Brotherhood attempted to assassinate Bashar in 1980.
• In 1990 Syria joined the U.S. led-coalition against Iraq.

• 
  In 1994, Hafez's eldest son, Basil, considered likely to succeed him, is killed in a car accident, so second son, Bashar, studying in London, returns.
• In 2000, Hafez dies, and the People's Assembly amends the constitution to lower the minimum age of the president to 34, allowing Bashar al-Assad, then 34, to succeed his father.
• Much of this revolt began in March of 2011 during the Arab Spring uprising when pro-democracy protests erupted across the country.

• 
  In the Middle East Muslim religious politics are inevitably involved, with protesters in Syria belonging to the Sunni majority, while the ruling Assad family was in the Alawite minority.
• Russian assistance dropped in 2024 because of their Ukraine war.
• Israel increased air strikes against Iran's assets in Syria, particularly the Hezbollah.
• The November 26 a ceasefire deal of Israel with the Hezbollah in Lebanon, spurred the Syrian opposition to advance, and on the 29th they captured Aleppo.
• On December 7, they entered Damascus, and Bashar fled to Russia.
• Losers are Iran, Russia and Hezbollah.

• 
  Then there is South Korea, undergoing another presidential crisis.
• On December 3 President Yoon Suk Yeol declared martial law after there were protests against military rule.

• 
  Today, the Parliament impeached President Yeol.  His presidential powers were suspended, and Prime Miniser Han Duck-soo, their #2 official, took over as acting-president.
• Yoon has been banned from leaving the country, and four high-level figures have been arrested.  One them, Defense Minister Kim Yong Hyun, was stopped from attempting suicide while in detention.
• But the future remains murky.
• The Constitutional Court has up to 180 days to restore Yoon or not.
• If he is ousted, a national election  for president will be held within 60 days.
• But there are only 6 of 9 members in place, and the Parliament needs to approve three more judges, soon.
• 
  Impeachment in South Korea?  Commonplace.
• In 2016, President Park Geun-hye, the first female in this position, was impeached for a corruption scandal.  This was the first time a South Korean president was removed from office.  She got 25 years in prison, but was pardoned in in 2021.
• In 2004, President Roh Moo-hyun was impeached , but the court overturned the decision and Roh returned to the presidency.

• 

  In the USA, impeachment is carried out in the House.  But the Senate has never confirmed that of Donald Trump (twice), Lyndon Johnson and Bill Clinton.  While the process was ongoing, Richard Nixon resigned.

By the way, the NFL is in its final four weeks, ending on January 7.  I have three fantasy teams, and all of them made the playoffs.  Amazing, in that I lost track and never saw a whole game during my two-month journey.

• My three quarterbacks are Josh Allen, Pat Mahomes and Lamar Jackson, with Tua Tagovailoa as sub.
• Bettors see the Detroit Lions (+260) and Kansas City Chiefs (+450) in the Super Bowl, which will be played in the New Orleans Superdome on February 9.  Went to the 2008 Sugar Bowl in the Superdome, and I called it a technological wonder.  The sound just reverberates into your chest cavity.

I woke up this morning to The Lion Sleeps Tonight by the Tokens.

• First, I was surprised to see that the Tokens are all White.  This song was released in 1961 when I was a junior in college, and for some reason, all my life, thought that the Tokens were all Black.
• They have had four top 40 hits, with only TLST reaching #1 on Billboard.
• I also did not know that Neil Sedaka was an original member of a previous name, the Linc-Tones.  They formed in 1956 and he left in 1958

• 
  Changed name to the Tokens in 1960
• Performed on American Bandstand in 1961.
• This led to covering Solomon Linda's The Lion Sleeps Tonight, reaching #1 and staying there for three weeks.
• The group broke up, but evolved over time with different members.  Perhaps their greatest accomplishment occurred in 1998 when they performed The Star-Spangled Banner at all 30 Major League Baseball stadiums.  First ever by any group or individual.  Watch a 2-minute video of their accomplishment.

What I remember most of TLST is that I had earlier heard a similar-sounding song in the early 50's, and it was called Wimoweh, first in 1952 by Pete Seeger and the Weavers, with Gordon Jenkins.  

• Here is another version by the Weavers.
• In 1949, Alan Lomax of Decca Records, brought Linda's recording to the attention of his friend, Seeger.  So they began performing this song in their converts.
• In 1951 Seeger and the Weavers misheard uyimbube (mbube, you are a lion in Zulu), and called it wimoweh.
• Reached Billboard's top ten, included in The Weavers at Carnegie Hall album in 1955. 
• I also recalled seeing the Kingston Trio in the later 1950s singing Wimoweh.
• There was a Weavers reunion in Carnegie Hall in 1963.

Then I later learned about the sad tale of this song, which started in Africa, and re-peaked with the Weavers, Tokens and Disney's 1994 The Lion King.

• In 1939, Solomon Linda and the Evening Birds released Mbube through Gallo Record Company of South Africa, where Linda worked as a packer in the pressing plant.
• 
  In the 1940s the song became popular and Linda became a star.
• Song was on 78-rpm and by 1948 had sold 100,000 copies in Africa.
• In the U.S. the song went through a series of authorship issues.  
• When in the later 50's it became clear that this all started with Linda, Pete Seeger sent him $1000, and informed his recording company to in the future pay his share of earnings to Linda.  They never did and Seeger never checked.

• 
  In 2000 South African journalist Rian Malan in Rolling Stone recounted Linda's story and estimate that the song had earned $15 million just for the use by Disney in the 1994 The Lion King.
• 
  Francois Verster released A Lion's Trail in 2002, exposing all of this, and won an Emmy.
• Various other attempts were made to equalize the justice, but Linda passed away in 1962, and his family is reported to have been payed by Disney, with the details lacking, suggesting that the recompense was minimal, and the legal saga continues.

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