world playground

this post does not start with the word 'so'. It's almost instinctive for me to start with the 'so, I was thinking...' or 'so, this is my idea..' it's just the way that things seem to flow eh.

even at the age of 50-something my language, syntax, sentence structure is influenced by what I consume, Amercian TV content, podcasts, whatever. the English language has always evolved and i realise now it's not for me to judge it or condemn it.

globalisation. that's part of it.

which leads me to a point.

so, I was thinking of the state of global affairs in the context of a school playground. not many laughs here tbh.

America would be the fat, spoilt, bragging rich kid who only wants to play with people who will play whatever he wants and is always telling us about how much money his dad has & how really great his family were, caring nothing for anyone else

China is the crafty kid, bringing in sweets to sell to everyone, taking their pocket money & throwing litter all over the place

Russia is the menacing bully, quiet and scheming, nipping & tripping people when they're not looking, then daring them to fight or run away

In the middle of them all should be Europe. a group of sensible kids who study hard, get good marks placate the bullies, humour the fat kid, clean up after the litterers, share their sweets & let everyone's friends play with their top trump cards and that.

I'm pretty sure that was the idea. we started a lot of it, the Europeans I mean. As a united homogenous group of countries, Europe could be a world power, a voice of reason on the global stage. There are some problems to address of course, but compared to some of the other kids we could still hold our own for sure.

Right now, the UK is the sulking kid, who doesn't want to play with anyone & is taking their ball & sitting on it in a corner somewhere on our own, while all the other kids look at us with a mixture of scorn and bewilderment.

I like being British, I like being English, I like being European.

We and much of the whole playground has forgotten what it's like when we all fight for real. We're angry about nothing and so we sulk and squabble. The playground is on fire, and we're wondering if we should make toast.

like I said, not many laughs. sometimes I just like to rant into a void