“Why should a tiny island across the sea regulate the price
of tea?” Sings Alexander Hamilton in the
musical, Hamilton. And I think to myself, hmm the tables have
turned.
So it’s the Fourth of July, and while everyone is grillin’
& chillin’ I’m at work with the rest of my department getting stuff done. Working a holiday grants, us lunch on the firm’s
tab, so some of the office guys are running a campaign to find a place on
Seamless that is open and will deliver some good barbeque that we should all partake,
otherwise it may be the Nathan’s food truck for hotdogs and a Coke. Happy Independence Day.
Full disclosure: the head office of my employer is based in
London. I work for a British company, so
I guess I should take working on the Fourth of July as a given, no? Fifteen years ago I basically had an
internship visa to work in the United Kingdom from 2000-2001 and spent July 4th,
2001 at work, getting teased by my British colleagues for hailing from a country
founded by religious zealots. This meme
floating around the internet kind of summed up how that day had gone down:
Their jokes didn’t bother me much, this was a nation who
fancied prawn-flavored potato chips and considers tuna and corn pizza
toppings. Their judgement was clearly
unsound.
This 4th of July, I wasn’t getting taunted by the
Brits in the office. Firstly, they were
grossly outnumbered here in our Midtown location. Also, our vending machines’ choice of potato
chips was much more palatable, but mostly, the United Kingdom was still reeling
from their own declaration of independence with their June 23rd
Brexit vote to leave the European Union just less than a fortnight ago. The sentiment of that decision metastasized
into a black cloud which had swiftly jetted across the Atlantic, and was
clearly palpable in the office on June 24th. Arriving at the office in the few days after
the vote felt like walking into a funeral home.
Honestly, I was hoping the ‘Remain’ campaign would eke out a victory,
but to no avail, Great Britain basically told the EU and Brussels to piss off.
Though I (an outsider with no vote) was in favor of the UK
staying and stabilizing the EU, 52% of voters chose to leave the EU. But I get it.
I do, I get it.
Well over 50 nations have separated from the United Kingdom,
either by force or by negotiation or a bit of both, and the U.K. just wanted to
have a slice of that feeling, to know what it’s like to be the one doing the
breaking up, and not being the one left at the altar. After the Colonial 13 were the first subjects
of the Crown to break the seal and head for the door, Canada, Australia, New
Zealand, South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria, Pakistan, India, Iraq, Bahrain, Jordan,
Egypt, Belize, Barbados, The Bahamas, Jamaica, Cyprus and (the Republic of)
Ireland among others followed suit. Many
of which only obtained their independence in the last 100 years or so. After
a century of bleeding out territories, colonies and ‘subsidiaries’, the United
Kingdom wanted its turn to say “Thanks, but no thanks”. Feeling used and abused by the European
Union, among other fears, rationales and factors, Britain decided to say “Adieu”
and got their shot at being the dumper instead of the dumpee. The geographical mapping of the votes to stay
and leave looked something like this:
With the blue area wanting to leave the EU and the yellow area wanting to remain.
But I get it, I do. I
live in the United States of America. Do
you think all 50 states like each other? Do we always get along? No.
Doesn’t Texas think it’s its own entity from time to time? Even Staten Island propositioned a secession
vote from New York City. Just two years
ago Scotland held a vote to stay or leave the United Kingdom. Scotland got itself off the brink and decided
to stick it out with QE2 only to get sideswiped by the ‘blue states’ in the
above picture.
Within the next few days after the Brexit vote, the head office
issued emails and memos to staff to the effect of “Dear Employees, Don’t Panic,
um, that’s all we have for now”. The Brexiters
didn’t really have much of a plan put together in the event that they would
actually win. What is known, is that the
UK may be in need of a new Prime Minister shortly and that there is roughly a
two-year time period to actually withdraw from the EU. And that the value of the UK’s currency, the
Pound, has effectively taken a nose dive, and that affects me directly working
in financial reporting for a US Dollar-denominated branch whose parent will be
converting all our figures in to Pounds at a now-volatile exchange rate. And so goes the question:
What comes next?
You’ve been freed
Do you know how hard it is to lead?
You’re on your own
Awesome. Wow.
Do you have a clue what happens
now?
Oceans rise
Empires fall
It’s much harder when it’s all your
call
All alone, across the sea
-
“What Comes Next” from Hamilton
