Africa’s a bit unsettled. Europe’s more unsettled than ever.

The world is connected by a million strings. They’re best seen from afar, because up close they’re indistinguishable from the humdrum of everyday life. The ones I watch are in Africa:

Growing protests turn really violent in the DR-Congo. The Gambian president who conceded defeat in an election now says only God can tell him to step down. The Ugandan military is flexing its arms like it did under Amin.

What’s happening and is it coming to America?

France’s onslaught of terrorism is lengthy but a turning point came with the Charlie Hebdo attack which led the French to surrender their liberté, egalité et fraternité to a state of emergency, which was just extended.

This corresponded to the abysmal decline in French support for their relatively moderate president and the new emergence of an old adversary, populism. Avantage Le Pen/Hollande.

Belgium doesn’t get much attention, even from the Belgians. But when Brussel’s police chief under fire from populist factions exacerbated the ethnic Flemish/French conflict by sloppy policies, the Brussel’s airport blew.

Germany is rock solid, right? Not until the far right with horrific connections to the country’s despicable past started winning elections and that stalwart of moderation, Angela Merkel, became politically vulnerable. Boom Berlin.

Take your eyes off the ball….

The strings that tie Africa to the rest of the world are much longer and more interwoven than the strings which tie Europe to America. But they’re growing loose and wiggly. Internally, Africa hasn’t changed much, but …

… other places those strings pass through have a lot. I’m not saying that every string leads back to Langley. But I think there are probably a lot more strings running up and down Washington than anywhere else in the world, and when you take your finger off the strings…