Saturday 21 January 2017

Day 21 - The enigma code...

Warning.... contains political views which may not accord with yours! 😉

Reactions to my enigmatic post yesterday were varied... ranging from concern to empathy.  

In a way, all of the comments were correct.  I did do a bisque firing yesterday, which is always a tad worrying.  I had set the kiln to switch on in the early hours of yesterday morning, so that it would complete around lunchtime, which it did.

I wasn't able to open it till this morning... opening the lid after a bisque firing is always trepidatious, but thankfully, it had executed a perfect firing.

So, huge sigh of relief.

But that was only part of the story.  This week has seen a series of momentous events in the wider world, outside my cosy little miniature bubble.

Firstly, Brexit.  Or to be more accurate Hard Brexit.  Since last June, we've all been wandering around in the dark, waiting to hear details of the Grand Plan.  Turns out there was no Grand Plan.  Not even an ordinary plan.  No plan at all.  

We keep being told that the vote was the will of the British people, as though everyone had voted to leave, when in fact it was just over half.  It's no wonder then that just under half of the people who bothered to vote have been worried and scared about what the future holds.

Looking forward, exiting the EU will mean that businesses who trade with EU countries will have a new layer of bureaucracy to navigate.  At the moment I don't have to complete customs declarations every time I send a package to an EU country, and the recipient doesn't have to pay any import tax.  It's clean and simple.  But that will all change in two year's time.

Brexit has also had an impact on the value of the £pound.  The supplies that I currently regularly buy from the US are already much more expensive due to the low value of the £pound against the $dollar.  Conversely, this disparity makes UK goods much better value for US customers as they get more 'bang for their buck'.

So that's the first thing.  

Then there's all the bad stuff going on in the world.... Syria, Ukraine, The Gambia, fundamentalist fanaticism and the rise of nationalism.  Not to mention the threats of Russian internet hacking and expansionism.

Which neatly brings me to the US, and their new President.

Love him or loathe him, he is undeniably a divisive maverick.  He is replacing one elite with another.  I struggle to understand what dispossessed blue-collar workers living in run-down rust belt areas think they have in common with a billionaire businessman who lives in a gilded tower, but they have blind faith that he will make their lives better.  

However, I fear for those who will fall by the wayside and slip between the widening cracks. Those who don't conform to the all-American ideal.  Immigrants, Muslims, LGBT, Mexicans, even Women....  it's a long, growing list!

But Britain and America, have chosen their path, and now we all just have to buckle up and get on with it.

Doesn't mean we have to like or agree with it though.....







7 comments:

Daydreamer said...

Exactly! Same here! Thank you!

The grandmommy said...

I think we all have to ask ourselves what will/are we doing to keep things emotionally, spiritually and socially to keep things fair and even.

I know an elderly person who has taken to writing love poetry to be published. Others are volunteering for various causes like never before.

We all must STAND for something or we will fall for anything.

Contrastes-Rosa Mª said...

Una pena lo que está sucediendo, los más ricos quieren ser más ricos y se piensan que son el ombligo del mundo y no piensan que sin los de abajo ellos tampoco son nada. Hay un dicho aquí en España referente al cuerpo humano, que se ponen a discutir quien es el que manda, dice el cerebro yo soy el jefe, el corazón no soy yo, no yo soy los riñones y al final dice la mierda, yo soy el jefe; todos se pusieron a reírse de ella; entonces enfadada dijo pues no salgo. Poco después empezaron a no funcionar los riñones, el corazón etc, apresuradamente dijeron a la mierda "de acuerdo sal que tu eres el jefe". Eso está pasando en el mundo y no se en este caso cual será el final.El egoísmo del hombre es como un depredador. Buen fin de semana:-)

Sandra Morris said...


¡Ama tu analogía española Rosa-Maria! :)

Kathy Moore said...

I am not really qualified to comment on Brexit, except to say that I found it foreboding that there was apparently quite a bit of anti- immigrant feeling motivating some Britains. Foreboding because I feared that there were likely more people with anti immigrant sentiments here in the US. Looks like I was right too. I am appalled that such a man could ever be President of the US. I admit to smiling when I read that there were only 900,000 in Washingtin for Trump's inauguration yesterday, and 1.8 million for President Obama's last time and, best of all, there were 2.5 million marching in the Women's March today!! Plus unknown thousands marching in sympathy all over the world.Your advice of taking it one day at a time is good advice, so I will do so, until 4 years is up!

elly in amsterdam said...

Same here- Brexit was not the best decision the UK made . After the so-called leaders of the campaign shouted their slogans around they hastily exited after the voting was made , like you say, with the slightest possible majority. Hard Brexit will affect most ordinary people adversively - plus the promised billion extra for NHS is not going to materialize, a.o. - and it won't stop the Saudi millionaires who already own London (and as far as I know, Saudi Arabia never was part of the EC 🤔) . Trump is pea out of the same pod, and we can only hope to survive the next years without a big war . Yes, I sure as heck am afraid, too.

Rosanna Rolla said...

I commented your previous post before reading this and I realize that I guessed right. I wish I were wrong and that we shouldn't be afraid but alas it isn't true.
Let's live day after day
Rosanna