The mere sight of multi-colored balloons is enough to put smiles on children’s faces. A party isn’t a party until you add balloons. They are, for children, a big treat after coming home from mass or a park.
Parents tie them to their children’s wrists to prevent the balloons from floating away, and to calm a tantrum. They are a good pick-upper on a boring day.
Such is man’s longing for things magical like a balloon that a song was written about a man-sized version of the kid’s toy that captured the era of the incredible music of the late 1960s that went: “Would you like to ride in my beautiful balloon? We could float among the stars together you and I. For we can fly… Up, up and away.”
It goes on to say that the world is a nicer place in that beautiful balloon where you can sing a song and sail along the silver sky.
You can’t say the same about other kinds of balloons nowadays. Man has found other uses for what makes children and adults, happy. Take the recent news about a suspected spy balloon from China that was shot down by a US fighter jet after being discovered in American air space.
Republican lawmakers have accused China of using the balloon to survey military sites. China, on the hand, did not take the incident sitting down, saying that it will take necessary measures to deal with similar situations.
China says the balloon was an errant weather observation craft with no military purpose, but Washington has described it as a sophisticated high-altitude spying vehicle.
Imagine a balloon now being the cause of animosity between two powerful nations. That’s how a once innocent child’s amusement toy has degenerated through man’s own folly.
After slowly traversing the middle of the United States, reportedly over several top-secret military sites, the balloon headed out over the east coast, where it was downed. The balloon itself was up to 60m tall and carried a payload weighing several thousand pounds that were roughly the size of a regional jet aircraft.
Retrieval of the shattered balloon, said American authorities, is ongoing. They said they will take a good look at the controversial balloon which was said to have propellers and steering to give it a measure of control, contrary to what the Chinese are saying.
Beijing lodged a formal protest over the weekend over what it said was an attack on an unmanned civilian airship by military force.
The presence of the balloon in US skies dealt a severe blow to the already strained relations between Beijing and Washington that was highlighted by the abruptly canceled high-stakes trip to China by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken. He would have been the highest-ranking US official to visit since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.
US President Joe Biden, who issued the shootdown order, had just had a recent meeting with Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in Bali, Indonesia, which many hoped would create positive momentum for improving ties that have spiraled to their lowest level in years.
Washington and Beijing are at odds over a range of issues from trade to human rights, but China is most sensitive over alleged violations by the US and others of its sovereignty and territorial integrity.
The South China Sea is a major source of tension. China claims the strategically key sea virtually in its entirety and protests when US Navy ships sail past Chinese military features there.
Even as both sides maintain they will calmly manage the balloon incident, the mutual recriminations, that drew a stern Chinese protest, do not bode well for rapprochement.
Let’s hope that the setback is only temporary. The world does not need an ugly war erupting over a balloon.
As the Fifth Dimension reminds us in their song: “Love is waiting there in my beautiful balloon. Way up in the air in my beautiful balloon. If you hold my hand we’ll chase your dreams across the sky. For we can fly…. we can fly.”
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