Martin Eisenstadt’s Blog

How grateful I am to be visiting a city as magical and quaint as Annapolis. Personal disclaimer: I was recently diagnosed with high blood pressure and cholesterol. I am now thankfully under medication. A reporter from India, my drinking buddy last night, told me that in his country, my ailments are treated as mental problems. That my cure is to be more grateful to the universe. LOL. I was worried about the dollar falling against the rupee but not anymore. What a quack.

Anyhow, this morning, a bit hungover I must confess, we visited the docks where almost every African slave passed through on his way to employment in the Americas. Here you had the country’s largest and most boisterous markets, a port city with all its connotations and implications. I just read that in early Annapolis, 40% of womenfolk worked as prostitutes. So when I hear from people that the sky is falling, that aliens are taking away America’s jobs, that we’re too engaged with the world, I am reminded of Solomon’s wise words in Ecclesiastes, “There is nothing new under the sun.”

We’ve been through this many times, and lo and behold, we keep coming out okay.