When the Recent Becomes the Inevitable: Reflections on Institutions, Conflict, and Climate

I have a habit — both a vice and a discipline — of watching patterns rather than single headlines. Over time the headlines stop being isolated shocks and begin to read like chapters of the same book. The past few days have offered that unpleasant clarity: an attempted removal of a central bank governor, renewed violence and civic rupture in Israel and Gaza, and extreme weather that reads like an advance notice of a different planetary rhythm. Each of these items deserves its own grief. Put together, they feel like symptoms of a larger unraveling.

The attempted firing of a Fed governor: a constitutional bruise

When I saw reports that President Trump moved to dismiss Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook — and that her attorney signaled a lawsuit in response — I felt the sort of cold recognition that comes from having watched similar strains before Fed Governor Cook’s attorney says he will file suit over Trump’s attempt to fire her and Firing of Lisa Cook tests SCOTUS’ willingness to limit Trump’s power. This is not only politics; it is constitutional theatre. When executive power reaches into institutions designed to be independent, the loss is not merely procedural — it is civilizational.

Years ago I spoke about how fragile institutional independence could be when norms were eroded one small concession at a time. I offered a practical idea then: strengthen statutory protections for independent appointments, and rebuild internal checks that make simple dismissals legally and politically expensive. Watching this episode today is a strange validation — and a reminder of urgency. The truth of my older argument remains unchanged: whenever we let precedent slide, later crises are manufactured from yesterday’s compromises.

Israel-Gaza: protests, hostages, and the cost of reporting

The scenes from Israel and Gaza have become painfully familiar: mass protests, demands for hostage releases, and a war theatre that continues to punish civilians and reporters alike Protesters in Israel demand hostage release, end to Gaza war. What haunts me most is the specific vulnerability of those who try to tell the story. Journalists are dying while doing what democracies depend upon — bearing witness Journalists among dead in Israeli strikes on Gaza hospital.

I have long argued — and not quietly — that protecting the space for truth-telling is not a luxury. It is a basal component of public life. I warned years ago that when societies stop protecting truth-tellers, they lose their capacity to correct themselves. Seeing reporters become casualties is confirmation of that earlier warning. The logic is morbidly simple: silence the witnesses, and the wrongs become harder to see and harder to resist.

Climate and weather: the slow burn and the sudden wall of dust

It is tempting to treat climate as a distant, abstract problem while responding urgently to the political crisises of the day. But the planet refuses such compartmentalization. Scientists note that the long-term loss of Arctic sea ice has slowed only temporarily — a pause, not a remedy Arctic Sea Ice Loss Slows Temporarily. Meanwhile, cities like Phoenix are being taught new weather vocabulary: towering haboobs that disrupt airports, topple infrastructure, and make clear that extreme events are the new norm Haboob slams Phoenix with a towering wall of dust, causing damage, airport delays and power outages.

Several years back I argued for dual tracks: rapid adaptation to the shocks already baked into the system, and renewed investment in mitigation to limit future shocks. The logic then was against the grain; now it reads merely realistic. This feels like another small vindication, but it also makes me impatient. Predictions are not trophies — they are calls to action that we failed to answer.

The politics of administrative power and the quiet reclaiming of public capacity

One of the subtler stories running beneath today’s headlines is about how we equip — or disempower — the machinery of government. There is a fascinating chorus of arguments now that bureaucracy could be the thing that saves liberal democracy if it is rebuilt with intention Make Bureaucracy Great Again. I raised a similar point years ago: when the administrative state is competent and insulated from political caprice, it becomes the strongest defense against authoritarian drift.

This connects back to the Fed episode. Protecting institutions is not a conservative or liberal hobby. It is the structural necessity of any polity that hopes to survive its own crises. I tried, years ago, to outline frameworks for professionalizing key agencies and re-legislating appointment safeguards. Watching the present, I feel again that early blueprint’s quiet relevance. The same is true for how we defend data and public infrastructure from private capture; commentators in places like The Walrus and elsewhere are now articulating the same problem with fresh evidence Who Owns Canada’s Labour Data? (Hint: Not Canada).

A final, stubborn human note

Newsrooms, courts, and coastlines are not separate in the human sense. Each headline contains people who will live with the consequences for years. There is a humility that comes from predicting outcomes and then seeing them arrive — part relief that you were not wrong, part shame that your voice did not stop the event. I keep returning to that old habit of mine — pointing to what could happen, proposing concrete protections, and asking that those protections be treated as moral and institutional imperatives rather than political conveniences.

There is value in being proved right by events only if we translate that proof into policy and practice. Otherwise, prediction is vanity.

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Regards,
Hemen Parekh