With Brexit and Trump as the US president, countries like the UK and US have obviously chosen to go their own way. They don't want the consequences of globalization: free movement of goods, capital, services and people and most importantly like in case of the US, commit to global agreements like the Paris Accord. Instead, they want to make their "countries great again" whatever the consequences are for the rest of the world. Well, they believe that their greatness is automatically beneficial for the rest of the world.
At this very moment, the "rest of the world" does not agree. Leadership of Theresa May and Donald Trump in- and outside of their own countries is challenged by "the rest of the world" with awesome examples of Emmanuel Macron and Angela Merkel. May and Trump have shred the prime leadership positions of their countries in just a few months after hundreds of years of dominance and they will never get it back in this new world order with a strengthening EU, China, India and a few others. How foolish can anyone be?
Democracy is a high good. People from a country can vote for a leader or in a referendum demand a certain policy. The rest of the world can't vote for it which is OK by itself. After all, the people of the said countries build their own environments and therefore their own democracies. It would be a mess when people from all over can vote anywhere.
However, those people (from the rest of the world) would still have to live with these globalization-fobic countries. Fortunately there is a simple solution: if you can't vote in a booth, you can still vote with your wallet. It's exactly the same as the sanctions countries punish other countries with. Only on a personal scale. The concept of "Buy American" can be easily reversed.
Personally I already had a shortlist of countries I tried to avoid. Not going on vacation to them, avoid buying their goods or services, avoid advertising their qualities. On my list far far away countries like North Korea, Syria and South Sudan do not do much harm, either way. I would not know any product I would like to buy from them and I certainly would not go there anyway. Russia and Suriname are already a bit more difficult. Should I not buy Russian vodka anymore? Start to ignore my friends and colleagues from Suriname?
Now the UK and the US not only are moving away from my personal "good world" vision but more explicitly, ruining my pension savings severely, ruining the ecological future for the planet, ruining the ideals i've been standing for all my life, it gets more nasty. Maybe it's time to stop admiring Apple iPhones, using Amazon and Google services, watching BBC and Netflix, shopping in London or New York, playing golf in Scotland, buying Levi's, Coca Cola, Ford, Jaguar or even fuel from Exxon for my car. Instead of a blacklist I at least can have a whitelist of countries where I would spend my money preferably: Netherlands, Spain, Germany, France, India, China, Japan and a few more. Not that they are perfect but at least they don't insult my ideals that much or harm me personally.
I was wondering by myself, is this disappointment, bitterness, revenge? Not really. Brexit and Trump just opened my eyes that this world obviously still is too complex too have equal multi-lateral cooperation between large economic and military powers with too big ego's. Although I do believe that we should never stop putting in energy in multi-lateral unity, for the time being "focus" is the key-word. Focus on simplicity, strength and growth. Smaller countries (say smaller than 250 MIO people or a GDP less than 2.000 B$) are irrelevant in this game and better unite with others. It's like the old G5, G7, G10, G20 or whatever Gxx from the "old ages" still try to show their leadership and willingness to cooperate. Unfortunately these G's are all history because they hang on to the old "world leadership positions" instead of what is actual today.
I suggest a maximum of 10 conglomerates in which every country has its place. Those who do not want to join one of the 10 conglomerates, give up their votes in the global play. This new BIG-10 replaces the security council too. If there are changes in power (= volume in GDP), the BIG-10 changes too accordingly. No more fuzz with smaller countries without significant power. "Participation" is the key-word for them as focus was for the conglomerates. It will hurt the smaller ego's a bit but that's the price for "great together" as opposed to "small alone".
So to the EU I would say: Stop the hassle and let's make Europe (finally) great (again). Forget NATO, TTIP and more. Go your own way, create a "Make and Buy European" culture (which does not mean to close down all other business relationships), invest in security in all levels and stop relying on the UN/US/UK, create a strong if not avoidable even federal coalition. Borders in Europe have changed in the last 200 years frequently and more often than anywhere in the world! So what's the point? Unite, invest, protect, forget the differences and focus on the strengths. (and try to avoid the bureaucracy a bit).
By the way, above advice is alike for any to build conglomerate, whether that's in Africa, South America or Asia.
And for the people who still have to vote for their own future this year: Happy voting :)))
(many thanks to Martin Sutovec and Ingram Pinn for their awesome cartoons)