Greg Olear writes delightful posts, in which he calls of his vast knowledge and research to say something that no one else has said or will say. This post explains why Jared and Ivanka want Sazan Island, a few miles off the coast of Albania.

They think they discovered it, and they want to turn it into a super-deluxe resort where people like themselves can find the quiet and luxury that they seek.

The people of Albania don’t like the idea of turning Albanian property and nature reserve over to these Americans, and the protests grow louder and larger every day.

Olear points out that the Kushner’s already own an estate on a secluded island in Florida. Why another one?

And that brings him to the fascinating story of Sarawak, which was gifted to a British adventurer named James C. Brooke, who became the Rajah of Sarawak. It’s a great story:

Brooke was certainly well-off, but hardly the scion of a British robber baron. Nor did he work at some cushy desk job. He was a professional soldier and seafarer. He was enterprising. He was bold. And he was opportunistic. Adventuring in the East Indies, he found himself doing mercenary work for the Sultan of Brunei—putting down uprisings and blowing up pirate ships and saving the Sultan’s uncle from assassination attempts. As gifted as he was at taking out pirates, Brooke was positively elite—Epstein-like, one might even say—at currying favor with the rich and powerful.

From the Sultan, Brooke received the governorship of Sarawak, the Malaysian slice of northern Borneo. In 1841, he was given sovereign power over the region, as well as a new title: Rajah of Sarawak. It’s kind of nuts, in hindsight. An upper-middle-class Englishman, a white guy, became head of state of a new nation in the East Indies! And it wasn’t some bogus title, either. Brooke cannily allied himself with Britain, so while he enjoyed absolute power, he also had the world’s most powerful navy to protect him when he needed it—the best of both worlds. He issued currency, putting his portrait on the coins and banknotes. He established a hereditary monarchy, the White Rajahs of Sarawak, that only ended because the Japanese overran Borneo in the Second World War.

It’s a neat trick to tie Sarawak to Sazan Island., and Olear does it.

Read it to see how he pulls all these threads together.