Sheep magazine Archive 2: issues 10-17

when you are told there are 70 million Turks
lining up, like the Zulus in the Stanley Baker
film, coming over the hill, set on seizing our
jobs, our homes, our lives.
But hats off to the TV coverage that
accompanied the story, showing us
what that ancient and wondrous Turkish
civilisation was all about. They found shots
of the most amazing kebabs, laden with
spices and dripping with juices over flaming
charcoal, just so we could understand what
the Turkish threat might mean. What it
achieved in our house was a resounding:
“Bring it on”
Frankly, the current state of politics is pants
in this debate. Politics are there to serve the
people and not the other way round. So,
why don’t we simply short-circuit the daily
threats and angry squabbles, and from
now on engage in some proper grownup,
joined-up thinking, about the real issues?
What each of us is being asked to do is cast
a vote that will affect not just our lives, but
the future of generations to come. Each of
us must reflect quietly and independently
about this vote. What shapes my own vision
of things is this: almost imperceptibly (but
then again, perhaps also staring us in the
face) is that the world, whether we like it or
not, is slowly beginning to become a global
community. And this, while it may or may
not take centuries to achieve, simply has to
be the future.
With the advent of high-speed travel,
communications technology, satellites and
the rest, we are already living in much
closer proximity to one another than we
could previously have imagined. Young
people hop from country to country
exploring, experiencing other cultures,
forming friendships across the globe, and
this gives them a far greater sense than
previous generations of being comfortable
belonging to the much wider human family,
a completely diverse but nonetheless
enriching collection of democratic nations.
The results are plain as day for all to see.
Why have we now achieved so much
in science or in say, space exploration?
Because scientists from groups of nations
work closely together. The same with
advances in medicine and practically any
other field of invention and progress. The
global village is not some romantic dream,
it’s a reality.
No, I’m not a naive optimist and yes, I
know only too well about the bureaucratic
challenges of different nations attempting
to work alongside each other. I may well
be mocked for my views but again, bring
it on! I believe passionately in the human
19
June 2016