Trump's America and a Brexit UK do not really feel like friends anymore. Of course any country can do what it wants, it's just that their allies can choose to spend their time, energy and (trade)money elsewhere when a relation is seriously jeopardized. 

Millions and millions of people are hurt physically, emotionally, economically due to the voting and decisionmaking of two very influencial countries like the US and the UK. Personally, putting all emotions aside, it costs me dearly in stability and growth of my savings due to the turbulance of the stockmarkets as a result of the "moves" of Donald Trump, Nigel Farage and Boris Johnson.

No citizen of any country can vote in a referendum or election of another country. As long we don't have one big federation of states that's probably a good thing. If it would have been possible, it definitely would have felt at least a little bit better knowing that I had a say with a vote.

So some friends asked me how I'm really going to execute in an earlier article mentioned "voting with my wallet". Actually it's a funny question because everybody is doing it all the time. On personal level almost everybody has their preferences. Some men buy only Italian shoes, some women only French fashion. Usually it's driven by any specific emotion, often difficult to trace back where it came from.

On country level it's more clear: if the Russians invade the Krim, we stop buying Russian gas or prohibit selling goods to Russia. If Iran does not stop their nuclear industry, we just isolate them with any kind of trade, in and out. In fact these decisions are often on emotional level too. We hide ourselves behind international laws and rationalize the decisions but basically it's all about self-protection, whether it's about ideals, economy or border battles.

I can understand that American Democrats call out to unite now simply because: they are American! They can not go anywhere (beside a few who are really upset and plan to go to Canada or New Zealand) so they just have to live with it until the next election. It's the consequence of (wrong) voting in a booth.

But at the other side of the fence we can be upset too.

Not only because we were insulted by the current president Donald Trump or have to bear the consequences of "We only do it if it's better for America and otherwise you have to pay for it" but also because we're just disappointed in the "leader of the world" who seems to have pushed their humanity 50 years back in time all of a sudden. I've heard my PM say "I'm looking forward to continue the good cooperation with the American government" under the umbrella of "I have many personal opinions but my job is to represent the Netherlands and its priorities". Well, that sucks!. Some priorities go a lot further than just the economic ones. After all we wouldn't have different political parties if only economics were important. According to the American press, most Republican voters were upset about immigration of fugitives, abortion, home-sexuals, muslims, weapons, mexicans and Americans losing their jobs because someone anywhere in the world can do the same thing cheaper and a lot more. That's not just all about economics too.

So, what can I do? Well, i admit I have to give it some thought but there are a few things. Some are just for "voting with my wallet" some are for protecting my privacy better (obviously the US suddenly (?) does not care at all about my personal data):   

• cancel my American Express credit card (already done that !). I have other ones from European banks after all. Let's hope they survive.
• cancel my Amazon UK and US account. Alibaba and bol.com are just as good and they don't fool around with keeping your credit card details online (Amazon!!! That is really bad what you are doing and worth a cancelation by itself. Terrible!)
• remove the Facebook, Twitter and Google apps from my equipment. There are alternatives and I have to make a choice: give my privacy away to US companies or just call my friends and have a beer in a bar in stead of chatting in my pyjama's. It's kind of "social suicide" so I have to think about that.
• change to DuckDuckGo from Google search. I admit it's an American company too but they are protecting my privacy a bit better (at least, they say so).
• change to mail.com from Google gmail. Just forward all gmail for the time being until friends got used to the new address. 
• tank Shell (yes UK but Dutch too :( ) or Q8 instead of Esso (Exxon). That's not too hard. Getting Esso petrol was just a habit, nice people here in town and a good customer card system for my bathroom towels. But the others a within 100 meters and no doubt they have towels too. 
• my Apple preference is a problem. I can only hope that Tim Cook is very upset too (he is!) and "moves". Not easy with that huge home market though. There are not many alternatives (noooo, no Android !!!)
• I need a new car. Well, can't be Chrysler, Ford, GM, Tesla, Jaguar, LandRover, RR, Mini, McLaren or Aston Martin (too bad ). Italian cars are or too expensive to buy or to expensive to maintain, French cars fall apart, Swedish go bankrupt, German too expensive, mmmm . . . 
• and shopping will take a bit more time: no Californian wines, American beers, Heinz, CocaCola, Fanta, Kellogg's, Gilette, Nike, Levi, DeWalt, several hardware and software suppliers, and ooh my goodness: no Gibson, Fender and Rickenbacker guitars anymore,  Rainbird watersystems for the garden, anything from Proctor & Gamble, Burberry coats, Crocket & Jones shoes, Whisky from Scotland (well, maybe they can escape from the UK and defeat the English after all that way)  . . .  
• . . . .

Pfffff, it's gonna be difficult but fun too! I guess I can't be really strict about so for the time being I'll settle for "Apple made in China" and "Ford made in Germany" :D 

Happy shopping :)   

(this article has been published on my old website earlier)