reached its just end a couple of days back. To say that it shook the world is to say less. Besides the fact that there was a bloodbath in the global markets, this madness literally pulled the carpet from under many ordinary people. And this is what really mattered to me.
These mad political decisions always strike at the ordinary people. People who want to earn their livelihood and lead a peaceful life as best as they can, as happily as they can.
It is the immigrants who are going to be the most affected. Brits who live and work in other European countries will have to go through the hassle of visas, work permits and the usual horrible bureaucratic hurdles. Likewise people from other European countries who live in the UK will have to get their papers in order. This is not an easy task anywhere in the world. Plus, for those immigrants who have fled war-torn countries hoping to find a safe haven for themselves and their families in the UK, all hope is lost.
The world is not an isolationist world. It was not created thus. We may have lost sight of the real issues of life, but the fact remains that all people are interdependent no matter to which country they owe their allegiance. We are all human beings first and last and we all depend upon each other no matter which part of the world we live in.
It is the younger generation that matters. The results of the referendum brought home the fact that the older generation selfishly voted for a country in which they would feel comfortable, but which is close to destroying the dreams, hopes and ambitions of the younger generation.
What came to me, an Indian, whose parents lived through the trauma of partition was that this was Divine Justice. The Brits have done untold damage in all the countries they colonized. Their policy of dividing people on the basis of religion, language, place of origin, identity seems to have come home to roost. With arbitrarily drawn lines, they partitioned tracts of land which was home to millions. So many homes were destroyed, so many people displaced, so many refugees poured into other countries that were ill-equipped to deal with them, so many people killed. Many people have still not come to terms with their personal traumas created by the British Empire - they are still struggling to put their lives into some kind of a pattern that would make sense for the coming generations.
There are so many good things about British culture that we admire....All forgotten in the mad frenzy of the referendum. Look at the demons of hatred and divisiveness this referendum has unleashed in the tiny little country that it is.
It is also very telling of the people of the UK that after the results were out many people started googling EU to find out what it was. The young are clearly unhappy and worried about their future - they see a disastrous pattern emerging.
How could they not have educated themselves on what the fall-outs would be? How could they so blindly accept the rhetoric of certain politicians, who are now trying to backtrack? Did they not think this through? Did they not realize that they are just one among many other nations in the world and what they do will impact on the whole world? How could they turn their own country on its head?