Moving towards De-Globalization?

Even the Leave campaign supporters woke up to the shock that they had won. Brexit was finally here. It was so crude that the National Democratic Party of Britain had to admit the fact, within hours, that the 350m Pound it had promised to bring back into the National Health System was a lie. Another point they admitted was that migration would not be stopped. The remain campaign also had their fair share of lies. But sadly, they did not get a chance to admit them.

But everyone loves a big fat lie. It is so juicy and unmistakably truthless that you have to believe the sheer (dis)honesty it is mentioned with. The Brexit campaign was a social experiment of lying and an opportunity to create phantom stories, to be tested in this 24x7 technology and media world. The result? No matter how much free information you have, nobody questions a lie if told with utter confidence.

Left and the Right can be ideologically divided, but in this campaign they came together, albeit with different reasons, in unison for the Leave campaign. The Left wanted to protect domestic jobs. The Right wanted to ease the regulations. It may be noted that several bureaucrats have complained that the Brussels paperwork and policy framework is so difficult to read and comprehend, it can throw a challenge to James Joyce.

The Right in this case can be considered an exception. It is the rising inward looking behaviour that concerns me. And it has been happening for quite some time in India as well. We are all well aware of Biharis and UPites being trashed by radicals who almost consider Maharashtra a country. We know the challenges North Easterns are facing in Bangalore. The anger is justified by saying: "My place, My jobs" and "No country for outsiders".

The anger is misplaced to extent of Ravi Shastri's belief that he was a good coach (Edit Team Director) . The anger should have been vetted against the government and not against the poor people who are looking for better jobs and a decent life.

But this is what exactly Brexit did. It showed the elitist that the democracy is holding them responsible for these problems. Brexit happened not because people wanted a regime or policy change, but because the working class simply wanted to throw the Mickey out of David Cameron. They have no clue what to do after the exit.

Coming back the global challenge, the inward looking phenomenon has been spreading like a virus. Neo Nazis are on the rise, Trump has almost divided the great States into two halves and Grexit almost had happened. The Middle East doesn't want anything to do with the Western world. Only India on the international level I suppose, is going all guns blazing for foreign diplomacy. It makes their External Affairs Ministry look like travel agents. To cut short, almost everyone is going Swadesi. Gandhi would have been proud.

Britain's exit might be the easiest exit any member country could have had out of the EU. They don't share the common currency and unlike other nations, they have separate Justice and Home Departments. But Brussels would make it as hard as possible for them leave. They are bound to impose stricter norms on the nations who are still members. So much so for remaining loyal.

Can Britain survive this referendum? Surely. They have survived everything. From the East and West Companies, to everyone else being better than them at the sports they had invented.

And is the world moving towards De-Globalization? IMF, WTO, WB et al have hardly been of any use over the last 10 years. Wait and watch till 2017. Things might really change. And as a student of Foreign Trade, it is indeed bothersome.