A View Of The World From Trinidad And Tobago

THE WORLD IN FLUX

Ashton S. Brereton

We are in one of those moments in history when the world as we know it is being dramatically reshaped.

In the most astonishing political reality show in modern western political history (probably in all history) for months, politicians hector people into voting in a referendum (in Britain) and when the results come in, the leaders - for and against the proposition, run for cover. 

First – David Cameron – with good reason because the disastrous poll was his idea - gives up power altogether - as Prime Minister no less. 

Shortly thereafter, in the same Party but with the opposite - and in this case the winning view - Cameron’s all but anointed successor Boris Johnson, to the consternation of everyone around him – withdraws his presumed candidacy – and acknowledged front-runner status -  to take over as Party leader and Cameron’s successor as Prime Minister! 

Johnson won, but declined to take possession of and drink from what is clearly a poisoned chalice.

 And now today, a third major politician - Nigel Farage – leader of the Party – UKIP (UK Independence Party) whose very raison d’être was the achievement of BREXIT, also ducks and runs for cover. 

Meanwhile, the Parliamentary arm of the Opposition Labour Party has, because of the result of the referendum, publicly revolted en masse against its leader Jeremy Corbin. They want him out!

Now one can be forgiven for thinking that this political chaos and flight from leadership and the exercise of power – is about the state of politics in Britain alone. 

It isn’t. 

A new world view is in the making and Britain is only one, albeit dramatic demonstration of changes of potentially seismic proportions. 

The changes that are occurring are of all kinds, big and small and in places all over the world.

·         In Britain, one of the changes now after BREXIT, is that “foreigners” – notably Poles - in long established communities, are now under direct open threats and pressure from local Brits - to go back home!

·         Meanwhile across in Turkey, Iraq and Bangladesh hundreds of civilians are blown to bits in attacks claimed by fundamentalist Islamic killers

·         And on the other side of the world in Ohio in the US a businessman from the UAE, is wrestled to the ground and arrested at a hotel - because of what he was wearing and the fact that he was reported by an employee to be speaking in Arabic on his cell phone. (The employee does not know a word of Arabic.) The man was in traditional dress of long white robe and Arab headdress

·         Next door, the Prime Minister of Canada Justin Trudeau prominently joins a gay pride march and announces that he is exploring the use of “gender-neutral” options on identity cards. He sees this move “as part of the great arc of history sweeping towards justice,” (And it is reported that “last week, the Canadian province of Ontario said it would allow the use of a third gender indicator, X, for driver’s licenses, which are commonly used in North America to provide identification.”)

·         And on the edge of technology the world has just recorded the first death in an auto accident, occurring in a driverless,  automated car and

·         Across the seas in China, long known for and accused of copying technology and materiel from the West has just completed the world's largest radio telescope - 500 meters wide and the overall size of 30 football fields!

·         Earlier NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), reported that “April and May 2016 set new global temperature records for those two months, continuing a trend of the previous six months”. And GISS director Gavin Schmidt estimated “ a greater than 99 percent probability that 2016 as a whole will set a new heat record.”

·         Meanwhile a bigoted, misogynistic, racist charlatan and Hitler-like demagogue is being seriously supported to be the next leader of the most powerful nation on earth. But there is hope because 2016 may yet see the Presidency and Vice-Presidency of the most powerful nation on the planet in the hands of two women.

So whatever happens, life will not be dull for the foreseeable future and generations to come will look back at the year 2016 as a watershed in the history of the world. 

BREXIT will be seen as the start of the reshaping of the socio-political and economic landscape of Europe and the West.