When I go into town during the day , I'm passed by throngs of students all talking about everything under the sun . Chinese , German , Iranian , Spanish , Canadian , Italian , Dutch and Danes . They're exchanging ideas , networking , chatting each other up ... learning about the world and all its possibilities . Learning about each other , how to work with each other and how to get on .
That Europe consists of a lot more than hen nights in Amsterdam , making out in Magaluf or getting frustrated in a traffic jam on the way to a tent in Brittany . That there are many different ways to organise train networks , schools , theaters , hospitals , hotels and libraries . That not everyone remembers the 20th century the same ...
These students aren't the future elite , our college is the equivalent of an old polytechnic , but what they pick up in the next few years will affect daily life for us all for years .
British students need to be able to join them , they need to have the freedom to get work experience in Bremen or Bologna . To sofa-surf in Munich or Lisbon or to commute in Salzburg . To eat something ribsticking in Budapest and to swing through Antwerp in a tram .
I want this for my grandchildren and their friends . But thanks to Brexit , it's just got a lot harder .
Goodbye 2023, Hello 2024!
10 months ago
8 comments:
These are aspects of European that I envy so much -- although we have so many of the world's cultures come and live happily enough amongst us, it's considerably more difficult, distance-wise, for us to travel through them. It's very tough for me to understand why anyone would deliberately reject that possibility -- particularly for younger generations to come. . . .
It's so disappointing, predicated on misinformation and narrow thinking.
Hearbreaking.
After a writing gap of months, I posted a piece about Brexit yesterday. I suspected that some people might cancel their email subscription to my blog. They did.
I meant 'heartbreaking' - am all over the place right now . . .
Why, indeed. It feels like we just pulled up the drawbridge. Dark days.
You know my opinion on that. My heart shrinks too at the thought of what the future might hold for some. I remember so well when I was young and curious and friends with the whole world. It certainly seemed to be like that then. Now the outlook is dismal.
Boris and Donald, there’s a team to heal the world’s ill. Or rather not.
Boris has bowed out. Let's hope Donald is doomed.
Awful, awful times. But perhaps so awful that they must change somehow, to save us from the disaster we've signed up for? And if not our generation, hopefully those who are young now will learn from our terrible mistake and put it right? Perhaps foolishly, I clutch onto tiny fragments of hope....
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