It is a mad mad world

Looking at the headlines today, it is a world that has gone mad. What has happened to sensibility? What has happened to common sense?

Triggering Brexit

The British PM Theresa May is triggering the exit of UK from the European Union using Article 50. Hence, a two year time line starts for UK to negotiate her way out of EU. Well, she is just carrying out what she need to do according to the wishes of the majority of the British people who wanted to leave the EU. Somebody has to do the deed. Not Nigel Farage, he is long gone after creating trouble and getting what he wanted.

So what does this means for UK?

Positives? Hmm…well you get to decide what you want to do with your country and not be controlled by a remote government at Brussels. You get to decide not to admit migrants? You get to wave the British flag and say you are truly independent.

Negatives? Well, lots of troubling news ahead.

The big ones. Your banks will leave UK. UK traditionally is a base for the non-German, French, Spanish speaking countries to communicate and trade with EU countries. For example, Chinese companies would use UK as a base to import and export goods from the EU because UK speaks English and English is more familiar language for the Chinese compared to German, French etc. Once, UK is out of EU. UK ceased to be a useful base. Moreover, it is possible that now taxes may be collected by the UK and the EU when there is a transfer of goods from  the EU to the UK and vice versa. So no business in the right mind will want to continue using UK as a base for Europe.

Hence, companies will close and relocate to perhaps Germany (where their command of English is strong) and severe unemployment will result. So despite, the British flag waving and celebration of independence, you will have less jobs.

For British businesses who sells predominantly to the European market, they will be in trouble, tariffs may now be put in place for the exports to EU. Their costs will go up and to be honest, it really makes no sense to stay in UK anymore if you are serving the European market. Hence, less businesses, less employment, less income, more suffering.

Now this is not rocket science, but many people do not understand this. They simply believe that with Brexit, I get rid of the cheap Polish workers and they will hire the more expensive British workers. I will have jobs. Yay!

Getting rid of Clean Power Act and Believing that Global Warming is a Hoax

Looking at the same news webpage, you have a man who was voted in as President (Nope, I still don’t believe it) who is signing a Bill to repeal the Clean Power Act which helps to reduce the effect of Climate change. Two pictures to the right, you see the effects of a Cyclone Debbie in Australia. For those who have read Geography, one of the outcomes of Global Warming is the more frequent occurrence of severe storms.

Well, Trump as we know is not a well-read man. He reads lots of conspiracy theories though. He believes global warming is a hoax but he believes the wiretapping of Trump Tower is real. And he is the President of the United States. I have a nagging feeling that the worse is yet to come from him.

It is said that he is a businessman. However, businessmen have no such luxury of choosing whether to believe global warming is real or a hoax. They can only try to prepare as far as possible for the damaging effects of global warming. For example, if you are a car manufacturer like Toyota in Queensland, you would have make sure your plant is affected as little as possible by the cyclone. If there is something that you know can reduce the frequency of cyclones in Queensland, you would do it.

Nope, not Trump. He has the luxury of believing that global warming is a hoax. He does. And its great. Believe him.

I have always held the US and UK in great respect when it comes to handling world matters.  However, this time round, I will have to look elsewhere for leadership.

More information than before

There is clearly a need for some sense and intelligence in this world. We have more information than ever before and yet we are choosing not to read them. We are only choosing to believe in what we want to believe. It is clearly a dangerous situation we are in. Do we want to see a Holocaust sweep across the land once again with racism on the rise. Do we want to let our children inherit a planet that we have destroyed through our misguidedness and ignorance?

A Call for Action

Let not our immediate needs and wants be a cost to our children. Let them inherit a world that is even more beautiful than the one that we had. As parents, we all want our children to grow up safe and be happy. But why then are we doing the reverse by compromising their safety and their future?

Let’s make the future world a better place for them. And for us. It is our responsibility and it is most necessary to do that.

“So, let us not be blind to our differences--but let us also direct attention to our common interests and to the means by which those differences can be resolved. And if we cannot end now our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity. For, in the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children's future. And we are all mortal.”

US President John F Kennedy, June 10, 1963