Intricate Knots

We constantly unpack as we move, rebuilding our spoken and unspoken contracts of how we agree to work with each other. Negotiating complex relationships that we grasp at an understanding of. Meeting and not meeting each other’s expectations. 

Our decisions and approaches have both intended and unintended consequences, and sometimes we explode. We need new agreements. 

There are multiple ways of looking at the two World Wars. The simple one is the defeat of Fascism. Another way is first the controlling Empires punching themselves in the face till they couldn’t sustain/justify Empires, then a couple of decades later Colonial Powers punching themselves in the face till they couldn’t sustain/justify Colonies. Ideas of Nationalism and Self-Determination, that also sowed seeds of xenophobia, protectionism and Apartheid. 

Another part of my story is a Romeo & Juliet marriage across the aisle of angry Boers fighting in one of the Anglo-Somebody wars. Descendants of people fleeing the European wars of religion, famines, or heading on civilising missions because of delusions of grandeur. 

South Africa becoming a single country on a Canadian model that was the response of British diplomatic architects reacting to the American war of independence. 

Layer upon complicated layer of people building up and unpicking the knotted mass of strings of who they are and want to be. Deciding on a path with limited information, and controlling a slice of limited resources to make that happen.

Feeling the Choices

Local markets should be more responsive to changes in preference, because they are able to respond to tacit knowledge. The stuff we can’t put into words. The stuff we don’t always understand ourselves. Our inconsistency. Our moods. 

Local markets mean relationship building and consequences. Huge markets become more abstract. If you sell someone something that isn’t a good deal for them (because you need/want the money) and it affects them badly, size matters. In a huge market, you disappear in search of the next sucker. In a local market, you still have to engage with the people. 

Local forces commitment, recognising that what we do matters. The boundaries between client, colleague, friends, and family blur. It gets complicated. Dealing with strangers is cleaner. It is transactional. Local and intimate means getting involved in the nitty gritty. Local means we experience the results of each other's decisions. Local means wrestling with issues. 

Standardization can give comfort. Where you do venture away from local to explore, some recognition is useful. When you (think you) recognise something, you don’t have to give it thought. Conscious choice is hard. 

Daniel Kahneman talks of “thinking fast and slow”. You want to embody a lot of decisions and make them fast. Jonathan Haidt talks of our rider (head) and elephant (body/habits). We think the rider is in control, but it is mostly the elephant. 

To embody and relax, we have to trust. It is hard to trust when you haven’t done the necessary wrestling to deep soak shared agreement.

International Standardization

Live and Work

When I went to work in the UK in 2008, I needed a work visa. I was born in the South African container, and needed permission to work in the British container. The idea of “equal pay for equal work” is a goal, not a truth. We work in containers. Even if the idea of remote work is growing. If we haven’t met the challenge of breaking down the obstacles, then you get paid based on the supply and demand of your barriers to entry. Gender gaps, race gaps, national gaps… rightly or blatantly wrongly, there are plenty of reasons (beyond merit) why people get paid differently if they have different containers. We have work to do to change that. I went to work in the UK, partly to get paid more. The reality too, is that you spend more in areas where you are paid more. Again… supply and demand. The same thing doesn't cost the same everywhere when there is friction. The real key to wealth creation is the gap between spending and earning. I came back to South Africa in December last year and now work at a company (a container) that builds a container (open-architecture platform) for South Africans to invest around the world. Getting our clients money a work visa to work (and grow) overseas, while they live (and grow) in South Africa.

 

Blerrie Complicated

PK and “The Power of One” created a vivid picture of overcoming struggle, and of Oxford and the Rhodes Scholarship, for me. Cecil John Rhodes casts a shadow over South Africa with a bloody complicated legacy (or blerrie complicated, as my Grandfather would say to avoid swearing). Which includes an Oxford-like university in Grahamstown called Rhodes, surrounded by places like King William’s Town, Queenstown (where my Mom was from, with family on both sides of the Anglo-Boer war), Port Elizabeth and East London, in the area where the 1820 Settlers arrived after the Napoleonic Wars. Smack in the middle of a 100-year conflict between the Xhosa Kingdom and earlier European settlers. Rhodes’ statue also used to preside over the Rugby fields, looking with South England ambition towards the mountains, outside my leafy residence at the University of Cape Town. I applied for the Rhodes Scholarship, but didn’t get an interview. I still ended up in Oxfordshire on a different path. Living just outside the city in a small medieval market town called Burford. A Buhr is an old English fortification. A ford is a river. Crossing rivers. Crossing continents. Crossing cultures. Unpacking blerrie complication.

Statue Removed, Shadow Remains

Stories that Serve

Compound growth is both powerful and dangerous. I am a believer in both localisation and globalisation. In unlearning and learning. In strong foundations and courageous stretching. Conn Iggulden is a powerful storyteller who bases his tales on as much factual evidence as he can. Then fills in the gaps, collapses characters into each other and creates a story. I think that is how our memory and sense making works. His conqueror series focuses on the rise of Genghis Khan. An interesting part of that is how connected Genghis stays with his people. The life of the leader and the life of the people don’t have multiple layers of abstraction. Genghis still lives in a Ger (a portable round tent). Part of our strength lies in the institutions we build. The Nations, Companies, and Groups that we use. But if they become more powerful than us, we need to reconnect them to the base. Stories shouldn’t be more powerful than the people they serve.

Ger

Tiny Bubbles

I went to school in the same neighbourhood for 15 years. 3 years pre-school and 12 years “big school”. We didn’t all like each other. There was no escape hatch. Being “like” each other (and most of my schooling was during Apartheid) doesn’t mean you are like each other. At times we were buddies. At times we were cruel. The guys I was with the whole way saw me wet my pants as a 9-year-old. They saw my rabbit teeth. My four eyes. My tin grin. They saw me cry. They saw me try too hard. They saw me not try hard enough. When I was 16, I joined the Durban Youth Council with kids from various parts. Westville is a tiny slice of Durban. I started fresh. A new context. I could be seen. I was still at school in Westville, but I got new confidence. Sometimes, realising your bubble is just a tiny part of the world lets you release the rubbish. Realising the people you are most like are probably the people you clash with the most. “Absorb what is useful. Discard what is not. Add what is uniquely your own.” (Bruce Lee).

Tiny Bubbles

Avoiding Knob Nuts

A few years back, I got some of my money a job at Colgate. I brush my teeth every day, twice a day. I plan to continue doing that. I like businesses that solve problems people recognise. That solve them in a way that the customer is happy. Buying toothpaste is not something I think about a lot. Regular, content, repeat business. I also like companies that laugh in the general direction of Nation States. Multi-national companies that recognise that where you are born is pretty random. That have suppliers, customers, and shareholders all over the world. The great thing about my money working at Colgate is it can’t be made redundant without the other owners and managers hurting too. Some knob nut can’t turn around and decide to let my money go because they had to make a “tough business decision”. My money’s life isn’t turned upside down by some clown with the power over a real person’s life. People need toothpaste. My money makes toothpaste. Can I think about something else?

Think Smaller

Diversification is a recognition that there is both a good chance you are wrong about any decision, and a good chance that there is so much noise that whether or not you were right will never truly be known. There are Economies of Scale and Diseconomies of Scale. There are costs and benefits of Globalisation, and of Localisation. Advantages to detachment and broad framing, and details that are missed without focus and true commitment. No decision comes without unintended consequences. Micro-ambition is the idea of having small, achievable goals, that add up. Wu-Wei is the idea of action through inaction. That the true starting point is acceptance, and understanding, of how things are rather than how we want them to be. Nudging from there. Rather than arguing with people about finding one solution, in a theoretical imagined world, maybe we should start by finding the 5% of what they care about that we can support. Finding 5% of a potential solution ourselves, while allowing for a 95% chance that other people’s reality is not the same as ours. Creativity within substantial buffers, and with a foundation in the way the world is now.

Release Prejudice

In a simple world where you did what your parent of the same gender did for a living, your path was decided. Our paths are still decided partly because of a coordination problem. We don’t know the complete menu of options, different people face different obstacles, and our GPS giving the route (skills and knowledge required) is like the glitchy ones that said, “you have arrived at your destination” when you are in the middle of the highway. Race, gender, sexual preference and class are slowly becoming less foundational in deciding what menu you have. Nationality is a horribly persistent sorting mechanism in a world of Global Apartheid that prohibits free movement of people (while treating capital, goods and services more kindly). Part of the advantage of building an Engine of Capital is that prejudice falls away. Money is fungible. Meaning it can change form in a laugh-in-the-general-direction of identity politics way. You can treat it like an Avatar. Send it off to work on your behalf prejudice-free, with the widest menu possible.

Let your Capital loose

Open Borders

Bryan Caplan has teamed up with cartoonist Zach Weinersmith to produce a fantastic book called “Open Borders: The Science and Ethics of Immigration”. I am a migrant myself, and am a dual citizen of South Africa and the United Kingdom. I was 14 when Apartheid “within” South Africa ended, and so have to agree with Caplan’s perspective that the Four Freedoms of Labour, Goods, Services and Capital without the right to live and work where we want is Global Apartheid. The attempt at introducing “Dompas” (Dumb passports) to keep people in their homelands provided fuel for the fires of brave freedom fighters like Gandhi and Mandela. With a chapter entitled “Trillion-Dollar Bills on the Sidewalk”, the case isn’t purely altruistic. Caplan takes the reasoning behind opponents’ arguments seriously and builds pragmatic solutions to various concerns. Particularly interesting in a microambitious way, are the Keyhole Solutions, which directly address issues. Nudging forward together. 

Conscious Connection

A big part of the “who are we?” struggle going on is a battle between Globalisation and Localisation. We live in a connected world. No man is an island. There is also no such thing as “The People”. You can’t draw borders around a group and define them with a stereotype by handing them a flag, teaching them a song, and losing your pooled tax money on a dysfunctional airline. We have communities we value. Places of worship, sports teams, social networks, languages, where we work, and interest groups. They overlap. The challenge is how to build together. Cracking on as individuals weakens the glue. Forcing glue on people creates partisan fist fights. I think we can do better. Dunbar’s number is the idea that there is a limit to how many interpersonal relationships we can have before we need to rely on prejudices and abstraction. About 150. I think we can add back names and faces if we consciously build communities of people in who we are willing to invest. If we balance the local and global forces with real people who we can see.  

Private Battles

"Everyone else is fighting a private battle you know nothing about. Be kind." Life doesn't revolve around any of us, except for us. So when we are at our low, others are celebrating. When we are ecstatically happy, someone else may be receiving awful news. In a global world that is connected, we can't get the signals necessary to know if someone has capacity. You can dump your emotional baggage on someone, and two blue ticks later it is in their heart and mind. Whether they are in a space to deal with it or not. At times it can feel too much to bear. Admitting that feels like weakness, because it is. If no one is the rock... where do we turn, but inwards? I don't know the answer. A wise lady once told me just to come back to kindness and respect. Build that first... the rest will follow. 

Stretched Soutie

As a Soutie, I can't move home. Home isn't a place. It feels more like a state of mind. Of heart. One of my feet sits on a muddy island that was once a magical and scary place beyond the Empire. Then briefly the head of an Empire. The other sits in a country on the southern tip of a vast continent that is waiting to roar. Both are having raw identity crises. I don't want to be defined by a place. Anger rises at the thought of being defined by borders and separateness. Born in Apartheid, the boiling point of my blood is division, suppression, and disempowerment. I will never be defined by a team. For me, home isn't the edges. It is the engine. Home doesn't contain me. Home releases me. I can't move home. Home can only move me. Home doesn't contain us. It empowers us.

Moving Home

Finding Roots in a Global World

I have been writing my blog almost daily for about 4.5 years now. A form of stream of consciousness, where I think aloud and then my ideas get fired in the public kiln till the bubbles crack the badly formed ones. 

One tool that I find useful is consistency. How can you believe A, and B, if B is not A. You have to choose. The problem is consistency has its limits. Our beliefs and preferences tend to be narrow, and dependant. I used to think you couldn't be racist and intelligent. Then I learned about Wouter Basson ("Dr. Death"). There are plenty of examples of people who are persecuted and persecutors. There are examples of people who are one person at work, another at home, and another at play. Whose beliefs depend on the group they are in, and who like multiple groups.

We layer meaning on top of facts. We think in categories and stories. This means we can be reading two books as we look at the same situation. Our response depends.

A theme of my writing has been the homelessness of my circle of friends and family, in a world that is battling with Globalisation and Localisation. Home has had to become a collection of my favourite competing stories. To maintain my mental health, I have to switch between worlds. To learn to let go of things that really matter to me... temporarily.

I am a Soutie. I have one foot in the UK and one foot in South Africa. I have good friends in the US, China, Brazil, and New Zealand. My family is all over. Even when people are in the same place physically, they are often not available. Everyone is so busy, it becomes near impossible to arrange events when groups get bigger than two or three. It isn't that they don't care. They are just reading something else. So there isn't actually an option of "moving home". My home is always moving.

As someone who loves seeking out patterns and layering meaning, I have had to develop a lighter touch. A half-hearted detachment. Not everything means something. Not everything is consistent.

I would love to figure out how you can build community in this brave new world. How do you develop roots that are oceans apart? Letting go is required just as much as digging in.

Be the Tree-v

Tianjin

When Britain made South Africa a country by force, each of the preceding countries bar Natal (which got cash) was given a Capital. SA has three Capitals... Pretoria is where the Executive sits, Bloemfontein where the Judiciary sits, and Parliament is in Cape Town. Pretoria and Johannesburg are not the same city... but you wouldn't know it on the 60km drive. In China, Beijing is the Capital but just 130km away is Tianjin - also one of the biggest cities in the world with over 15 million people. In 1856, officials suspected a ship was engaged in piracy and dealing opium. They boarded and arrested 12 men. In response the British and French sent gunboats. The resulting "Opium Wars" allowed Britain to continue trading, but according to their rules rather than those of local authorities. Along with opening up to trade, the city also has numerous European style buildings in the concession areas. Architectural reminders of their rule in the form of Churches and Villas.

Church of Our Lady's Victory - 1869

Personal Schism

Trev:

I grew up in a religious, mostly protestant, mostly white, liberalish community in Apartheid South Africa. One of my watershed moments was being forced to choose between two of the local churches. The one I had grown up in, and the one I was enjoying attending because of my circle of friends. To become a member of the Baptist Church, I had to be baptised. To become a member of the Methodist Church, I had to confirm my baptism. I had been dunked as a baby, which was not recognised by the Baptist church. Being 'baptised again' would mean that my first Baptism was rejected in some way which would upset some people who were important to me. I didn't really know why it was important, but in the end went back to the Church I grew up in for Confirmation classes. The long history of the Abrahamic Religions is a series of these kinds of 'there is only one path' splits. This was my personal Schism.

'The Angel hinders the offering of Isaac'

Rembrandt

Mike:
The Protestant Church grew out of the idea that you should be able to look inside. Rather than a delivered truth, people should be able to look inside. They should be able to be their own ministers and priests. They should be able to read "The Word" in their own tongue and interpret it according to their own contexts. The movement was as much a political statement as a convenient shift in religious beliefs. The Christianisation of the Barbarian Tribes was also an attempt to control them. Vladamir The Great dated all the Abrahamic Religions before choosing Christianity because he liked wine. Charlemagne and Louis The Great were also one country, one religion, kind of guys. It was Louis who kicked the Protestants that headed to South Africa out.

Paul:
You should take another look at the Church Trev. It is not the same place as when you grew up. Also, don't you remember all the good bits? Church provides a centre for the Community. A shared belief that brings people together once a week to think about something bigger than themselves. It is a place to look after each others mental health, and to think about those less fortunate than ourselves. Surely that is a good thing? The Churches in Westville have done a lot of work over the last 20 years. There are more women involved in leadership roles, the demographics of the services are more mixed, they are wrestling with their homophobia monkeys and the various churches are starting to put aside their different interpretations and work together. Even the Catholic Churches are very much part of the mix. And the Mosques and Temples. The door is always open to you. 

Trev:
It does play on my mind that leaving the Church leaves these spaces only open to particular parts of the Community. I now live in the UK, where most villages have beautiful little churches. Churches that are struggling to get people to come. I can't teach Yoga at my local Church because it is viewed as "Hindu". I could, but I would have to strip out the Oms and Chants and bits that freak people out. That is kind of like saying, you can make the Braveheart movie, but I don't want there to be any Kilts. I feel like we get excluded from a lot of the beauty of seeing different perspectives because we are forced to choose which one is "right".

Jessica:
You need a shared story for the place to be Holy. It can't be a free for all. It isn't about being right, it is about keeping stories clean. A genuinely open Community Hall might be great because it is all-inclusive, but it will be excluded from the magic of keeping things pure. Imagine a Buddhist Silent Retreat that now had to accommodate your Oms and Jaya Ganeshas... even though they share a common underlying philosophy, they would probably also tell you to pipe down.  There is nothing wrong with that. Just because Coke, Orange Juice, Milk, and Vodka are nice drinks doesn't mean you can throw all of them into a bucket with an extra thin mint and think your stomach will accept it willingly. Tolerance doesn't mean you can't protect spaces for a coherent story. Even if you admit that it is just a story.

Trev:
Sure, but then how do you create a shared narrative? The rulers of the past just issued "the truth" and then used their monopoly on power to brainwash everyone into that. The new Churches are just political parties. Protestants and Catholics may have made peace, but now we have Partisan Political Parties. In the UK, US, and South Africa where I know most about the politics relative to other countries... the majority of voters are hugely tribal. They interpret "facts" based on the opposite of whatever the other team thinks. Too many people believe anyone who disagrees with them is stupid, evil, or has some other Bad Faith incentive to obstruct and destroy. 

Rory:
It's just noise. People do actually get along pretty well. Particularly if there is money to be made. We huff and puff a lot on Social Media but as soon as you put people into a room together off camera, then people tend to learn social skills that make things work quickly. It genuinely isn't as bad as all the Drama Queens out there are making it out to be. If anything, it is just distracting us from continuing the progress. Yes, Church buildings are emptier... but there are far more cross-community communities springing up. The world has never been more tolerant, less xenophobic, less homophobic, less sexist etc. than now. We just focus on the bad stuff. It makes for a better moan. And we have always loved a good moan.

Trev:
There are more cross-community communities, but they weaken local communities. If we all live in digital land, we have less motivation to make friends with our neighbours. If the shows we watch become global, there is an increasing sameness to our storytelling. There is a larger "structural" risk, because we aren't trying different things. There are no fire breaks for if we try something that seems to work, and it goes horribly wrong.  There is also a local disconnect. In the past, leaders in communities used to live very similar lives to the people they led. Increasingly the CEOs, MPs, Professors, Priests and other leaders live in unrecognisable bubbles. Physical lives separate from mental lives. That means we become these mindless bodies and bodyless minds living different lives.

Alex:
You can't go backward. The communities of old weren't these glorious little neighbourhoods we like to picture. Think about how difficult it is to live in a closed community where everyone knows everything. Where your mistakes follow you like they are burnt into your forehead. There are positives to a separation of physical space from the mental. We all get a little more peace. We also aren't as subject to the geographical lotteries that force us to interact with the people where we were born, and believe what they believe. It is also much easier to physically get off your ass and go visit the people you meet online than ever before. In my experience, people make more of an effort to see you when you don't live where they do. The visit triggers a "must make a plan" attitude, rather than a "but I don't feel like it now" vibe.

Trev:
I get it. But I, like a lot of Global Citizens, probably feel like Theresa May nailed it when she said Global Citizens are "Citizens of Nowhere". It sometimes feels like that. Rootless. I know there is no way to solve this. We are Scatterlings of Africa. Everybody. Everywhere. People have always migrated, and the stories we have used to describe ourselves have always changed. I think that is beautiful, and it allows us to evolve and work through our problems. But it also leaves me feeling rootless a lot of the time. Like my foundations are creaking. Like I have forgotten something somewhere. A sense of unease. Maybe that's just life.

[Mike, Paul, Jessica, Rory, and Alex are fictional]

More Than a Whisper

Trev:

I got my British Passport a year before the Brexit Referendum. As someone who believes the C20th introduction of passport control was simply the physical role out of Global Apartheid, getting another passport has its ironies. Rather than burning Dompas like Madiba, I was collecting another one of the things I don't believe in. I came on a Migrants Program that gave me the opportunity because of my education, salary, language, age and work experiences. Kind of like a lottery for those who have previously won the lottery. Still, I was proud. Like a recovering Alcoholic, the description of Britain at my Citizenship Ceremony reminded me of the scene of Marcus Aurelius in the Gladiator. "There was a dream that was Rome. You could only whisper it. Anything more than a whisper and it would vanish, it was so fragile." There were people from all over the world becoming citizens of a country that seemed to stand for so many things I believed in. Then 2016 happened and whispers became shouts.

More Than a Whisper

Alex:
The way you pitch it is as if the primary reason behind Brexit was closing the borders. You and I have very similar beliefs. We both want this "Rome" with an open society that is inclusive. We both believe in Freedom of Trade, Movement, Services, and People. I didn't see the Referendum as anything other than a vote of no confidence in the INSTITUTION of the EU. Not Europe. Britain can't physically leave Europe. It is a part of it. All the crying and gnashing of teeth makes out as if all Brexiteers are racists and xenophobes. What about the European border in Ceuta? You can't paint the EU as this Liberal Democracy. I was voting against a Brussels run by technocrats.

Paul: 
I didn't actually think the vote would go through. I have just been a Eurosceptic for years. I was undecided when I stepped into the voting booth, but I didn't feel it would be right to moan about the EU and then vote for them. I have business in Europe, but the European regulations make my life an absolute nightmare. I prefer hiring Brits. I really didn't think Brexit would actually happen, and even when it did, I didn't think there wouldn't be some sort of deal that allowed life to carry on pretty much as normal. It doesn't make sense for anybody for us to not be able to keep on doing what we do. Anyway, if things don't work out, I am okay. I'll just close up shop and go traveling.

Stewart:
I don't really follow all this nonsense. I have my own stuff to worry about. There is no point in worrying anyway. The people in London will do what they do and life will go on. It is not going to affect me. I voted for Brexit because the NHS is creaking at the seams with all the immigrants in the waiting rooms, and the jobs going to people who aren't even from here. Look after your own first I say. Don't have guests until you can afford to keep your house in order. You have to choose. If you want to have a Welfare State that looks after people, it is simple maths that you can't afford to look after everybody else too. Get rid of that stuff, and then sure... people who can afford to look after themselves are welcome to come.

Angela:
The reality is we are a small island. Environmentally, we can't afford to have more people here. 60 million plus is probably too many already. There aren't enough houses, which is why housing is unaffordable for the people who were born here. I am all for being accommodating to others, but there is the question of sustainability. The roads are clogged. The trains are clogged. The Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty are being filled with new housing that doesn't have the necessary schools and facilities. We may be a rich country in theory, but there are lots of problems we need to sort out. Leaving the EU is the only way we can do that.

Michelle:
There are fundamental political differences between the UK and the EU. You either believe in central decision-making technocrats, or you believe in devolved responsibility. In the UK, you hire and fire your political representatives directly. I can meet with my Member of Parliament, and it doesn't matter how much of a big wig they are, they have to serve their constituency. Nigel Farage certainly doesn't represent my views, and I resent being associated with him because I am against the EU. There is some irony that he has never ever won a seat in the UK, and his voice has been handed to him by Europe. Nigel is not the voice of Leave.

Trev:
The problem I have with these views is that they are mostly ideological. Much like my "I don't believe in Passports". The problem is Passports are a real thing. It doesn't matter if I believe in them or not. At the end of the day, I have to use them to move around. I am a deep pragmatist. What we do matters. Results matter. Yes, beliefs matter, but in the real world, we have to work with other people. The EU may have chosen Proportional Representation over "First Past The Post" seats. That has advantages and disadvantages. South Africa made the same choice. The inability of minority parties to get a voice in the UK is one of the disadvantages. Sustainability, Resource Allocation, and Regulatory Simplicity are all important... but we can't just vote for everyone to agree with us. The EU is much more likely to reform from within. It is better with the UK in it.

Andrew:
I have severe Brexit Fatigue. There are more important issues that which club different Rich countries belong or don't belong to. "Meanwhile in China" the world is carrying on while the Government of the UK grinds to a halt in this big talk shop. Whatever happens, won't change that much anyway. Like the Y2K "Crisis", the Global Financial "Crisis", the news always needs some Armageddon event to keep it entertained. Proper Crises like the World Wars, the resulting global flu pandemics, and the starvations in China and (now) Venezuela are proper things worth worrying about. Not how long it takes to fill in some bloody forms so you can sell your stuff or have to put another sticker on it. Britain "exiting" Europe is like a divorce where the spouses stay living in the same house. It's ridiculous, and we talk about it too much.

Alex:
I would probably change my vote now. I still believe I voted in good conscience the specific question that was asked. I wanted to leave the EU. I didn't want to end Freedom of Movement or any of the other nastinesses that get attributed to me because I think the EU is a bullying Leviathon. I think we have handled the negotiations terribly. Other politicians could have done a better job at negotiating with the EU instead of pandering to them. All the political parties are pretty weak at the moment, at a time when we needed strong leadership.

Trev:
I worry that the price of Brexit is simply a dismantling of the United Kingdom. The real world price of Britain leaving the EU, in my view, is that the UK will be dismantled. Ireland will reunify (I can't see any other solution to the "Backstop" issue) and stay in the EU. Scotland will then be left with a choice between the UK and the EU, and politically I think Scotland is more aligned with the EU. Andrew is probably right that "all will be fine". Relatively speaking, I do think there are bigger issues to worry about. It just makes me sad. I certainly feel that the first few sparks of seeing Britain as an "X years sober" alcoholic are at real risk of quite a few years of falling off the wagon. I am positive. I do think we can sober up again. It just didn't need to be this hard. 

[Alex, Paul, Angela, Stewart, Michelle and Andrew are fictional]

Chengdu

Two thousand years of Imperial Rule ended in China in 1912. A lightly held Republic was established, but that descended into Civil War as "The People" had different views of how to govern. A common foreign enemy in the form of Japan brought temporary alignment before the Civil War resumed after the second World War. Part of the Cold War, in 1949, the Government of the Republic was forced to Taiwan and the Communist Party established the People's Republic. Chengdu is unique as a major settlement that mostly maintained its name through these periods. It means "becoming a Capital". I like that. Cities are the closest thing physical places have to people with limited lives. They may still be there, but like growing children, you have to love them while letting go of each moment as they fundamentally become something else. King Tai said a settlement needed "one year to become a town, two to become a city, and three to become a metropolis". Today Chengdu is home to 14-18 million people depending on your definition of its borders. It is still becoming.

1949 Troops entering Chengdu

ending the Chinese Civil War

Success

As the world becomes connected, our stories become more detached from our daily realities. When you in a small pond, pretty average people get to lap up the glory of being the biggest fish. Then that protection falls away. As Global and Local mix, the benchmark for being the "news maker" gets higher. The "good life" pushes to the edges. Unless we let go of comparison. If we celebrate good enough. If we celebrate mediocrity. If we celebrate the things that are on the menu. There is nothing wrong with being gloriously average. Spectacularly unspectacular. Unless the stories we consume make us think our lives aren't good enough. We can raise the profile of simple. Of affordable. Of plentiful. Of thinking inside the box. Rare and unique raise the price of things... not the value. Price is just a clearing mechanism. A measure of how much there is of something. That is a very bad measure of value. Success needn't be about setting yourself apart.

Big Fish

Guangzhou

Guangzhou has a 2,200 year history as a Silk Road port. What we think of as "The Age of Discovery" is analogous to an undergraduate University student discovering a philosopher or book they like, and thinking no one else has (literally) every read it. Cities and Ports are always evolving. Domestic (Chinese) migrants from other provinces make up about 40% of Guangzhou's 14-25 million strong population (depending on where you mark the city's edge). Until the Opium Wars forced the opening of other points, it was a single point of entry for most foreign traders. "Canton" derived from Cantão, which was a muddling Portuguese pronunciation of Guangdong (The Province which Guangzhou is the Capital of). Muslim conquests sacked and held the city for a century from 758. Following that, foreign trade came in an out of favour depending on the Emperor. Legal Trade was often restricted to tribute delegations. Eventually, around the 17th century, when the Portuguese became regulars, they were permitted to warehouse their goods at Macau instead of Guangzhou itself. Trade increased under the Canton System as the city gradually became a centre of Global Trade. 

City Montage