With notably rare exceptions, the voyage of the Titanic was uneventful. – Alan Greenspan, former chairman of the Federal Reserve and one of the faces of the 2008 financial crisis, was pretty serious when he wrote this in a column in the Financial Times. Well, not exactly this, but something similar: “With notably rare exceptions, the global ‘invisible hand’ has created relatively stable exchange rates, interest rates, prices, and wage rates.” His statement is now memefied in hundreds, making for a great laugh. My favourite so far: With notably rare exceptions, Mrs. Lincoln enjoyed the play.

What a week this has been. For Egypt – and for everyone who has tried to keep track of what was happening and make sense of it. As for my part, I watched live-streams, browsed through live-blogs, looked at images, read analyses and commentary on the matter. However, what stuck with me the most at the end of the week was one simple cartoon. It masterly boils the situation down to its essence and thus got me thinking for quite a while.