Aside from the ongoing spectacle of the FIFA World Cup in the United States, Mexico, and Canada, the entire world remains fixated on ongoing events in Europe and the Middle East with the kind of nervous stare people reserve for a man trying to light a cigarette while standing in a gas station.

In Europe, Russia’s war in Ukraine grinds on with no clean end in sight to the point where Europe has been forced into a sweeping rethink of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and, generally, how it fights war. In the same breath, Reuters has reported that Russian hawks, rattled by deep Ukrainian strikes, have been publicly urging Moscow to escalate further, including calls for the use of tactical nuclear weapons. These developments reflect a dangerous new reality as the phrases “World War Three” and “nuclear option” get tossed around with frightening regularity. Then there is the Middle East, where the Strait of Hormuz continues to build its reputation as the world’s greatest traffic jam. Here, commercial-shipping traffic continues to trickle following the February 28 outbreak of war between the US and Iran despite allegations that a peace agreement between the two protagonists has been signed. The disruption from this conflict continues to have consequences as fuel, food, and transport costs balloon worldwide.

To most Jamaicans, of course, the spectre of a third world war, much less a nuclear one, remains largely academic as we try to focus on our own problems. Besides, as we have been reminded by our grandmothers over the years, “Cockroach nuh business inna fowl fight”.