The Great Resignation

@wwaycorrigan

[Listen to an audio version of this blog entry here.]

Much has been written about various "new normals" in our lives in the wake of the covid-19 pandemic. The enforced pause on people's modus operandi has led many to re-evaluate their situation.

An honest day's work. It's nice to do it every now and again.

Getting "Brexit" done

In high-income nations and those in the comfortable classes elsewhere — in a Colombian context, I'm probably still classified as comfortable, the low bar that it is — this moment of reflection has been particularly felt in the employment sphere, resulting in what has been termed the Great Resignation.

Those with any sort of financial wriggle room and who were heretofore merely going through the motions at their less-than-fulfilling jobs decided to take action as they dealt with stay-at-home orders and other radical restrictions.

'If I can't implement change during a large-scale disruptor event such as this, then I never will.' That, no doubt, has been the thinking.

Now,  it would be stretching it to call me a trailblazer, but I did take that leap of faith — leaving behind a relatively well-paid but unfulfilling job — before the coronavirus catalyst got to work on the rest of the restless.

In advance of finally deciding on the nuclear option, I had been trying to plot a more financially secure exit strategy, keeping in mind the adage 'It's easier to find a job when you're in a job.' But the few alternative full-time positions that presented themselves didn't set the heart racing.

'One may have no other choice but to rejoin the dreaded rat race, sooner rather than later.'

Nonetheless, rather than hold tight, I simply said I had to get my own "Brexit" done, that being Brendan's leaving of the marketing agency DDB.

Perhaps akin to the UK's Brexit, my thinking was — and remains (no, not that "remain") — that things will work out. 'Our fundamentals are solid, we'll find a way.'

However, as the former United States Secretary of State, Dean Acheson, once said of Great Britain, that it 'has lost an empire and not yet found a role', this could apply in my case here. Not, I hasten to add, that my professional career can in any way be equated to the power of the British Empire at its height.

There is no shortage of jobs. They're just not the right ones ...

Resigned to the rat race

The idea, however, of the world being my oyster as one might think it should be for a Western-born, single, childless individual, is certainly weaker today than it was ten years ago.

There are reasons somewhat outside of my control for that, chief amongst them these new normals, particularly the illogical, punitive measures against unvaccinated folk.

Then there's the fact that after a decade of having Colombia as my base and earning the weakening local currency, my global purchasing power is less today than it was in 2011.

Yet, putting a more positive spin on it, the post-pandemic world should present as many opportunities as it does challenges.

That's the hope in any case. (I can't say, though, and shocking as this may be to regular readers, that I'm entirely optimistic about the short- to medium-term future).

In line with the spirit of the Great Resignation — or at least my interpretation of it, sticking to the reasons why I resigned ahead of the pack, so to put it — my ideal is to work with people, not for them.

The "fiscal space", however, in which the Republic of Wrong Way has to realise those ambitions is disappearing rather rapidly. One may have no other choice but to rejoin the dreaded rat race, sooner rather than later. 'Back into line, you rascal of a rodent.'

That may actually be the true essence of the Great Resignation: resigned to one's insipid fate.
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Location, location, location

In a recent episode of The Colombia Cast podcast, the eminent economist and political scientist James Robinson, co-author of the influential Why Nations Fail, restated his view that geography plays no part in the economic development of countries.

Location matters. (Image from Wikipedia.)

Looking at it from an Americas perspective from the time Europeans arrived on these shores, that Canada and the US are more advanced than their counterparts further south has a lot to do with pure chance initially, later followed by the systems of governance introduced.

Easy pickings

Basically, the Spanish found fairly advanced civilisations settled in areas rich in natural resources that could be relatively easily exploited for the homeland. The British, in contrast, had to deal with largely nomadic tribes inhabiting rather harsh conditions. 

One, oversimplified way to put it is that the Spanish found streets paved with gold to loot while the concept of a street didn't even exist where the British settlers landed.

'Climate certainly played a part.'

Had the roles been reversed would the state of what we now call Latin America be much better today? Would the US be the power it is? The answer to the latter question is probably not, based on how the Spanish Empire ran its affairs. 

As for the Brits in Latin America, well their own record in lands where a quick buck could be made is far from exemplary. Jamaica's not exactly a powerhouse now, is it?

In this regard, while geography per se wasn't the factor, one could say climate played an important part.

In terms of Jamaica and other Caribbean islands, it was their ability to produce an abundance of cheap sugar for the European market that made them ripe (pun intended) for exploitation. Thus, their location in the tropics was critical.

We must also consider the idea that the need to plan and prepare according to the seasons in regions where a harsh winter would see off those found wanting played some role in ingraining a more organised disposition in those living further north.

Speaking of those northern reaches, had Ireland not been located next to the greatest old-school empire the world has ever known (today's big boys, the US and China, are perhaps best measured in different terms) there's little doubt it would look much different today.

Nothing without EU

Of course, there are many interconnected factors that shape countries and regions. In Ireland's case, had it converted to Protestantism — or had Britain remained Catholic — the last few centuries would surely have been far less troublesome than they were.

'Ireland was a pedagogical powerhouse.'

While British interference in Irish affairs was a fact before the religious divide, it became fundamental for security for the emerging empire to control — at pretty much whatever cost — the untrustworthy neighbour to the west. (Do note that in the early days of Christianity in Europe, Ireland was known as the island of saints and scholars, a sort of godly, pedagogical powerhouse we could say. Subjugation by the British changed all that.)

Fast forward a few hundred years and, as I've written about before, a partially independent Ireland's proximity to mainland Europe, not to mention membership of the European Union, has been crucial in its economic development.

Imagine if Ireland, everything else being equal, had been an island just off Africa. How would it look economically and politically today? One just needs to take a glance at the countries in the Dark Continent post-colonisation to get an idea.

Weighing all this up, while there are many reasons why nations 'fail', your neighbours can play a significant part. Location does matter, at least in those vital formative years.
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Ireland's (bitter)sweet '16

We are, as it's said, shaped by our history; and certain past experiences define us more than others. This year, Ireland is gearing up to commemorate the centenaries of a couple of such game-changing events. In general, they are viewed as symbolising two distinct Irelands.

The 1916 Proclamation of the Irish Republic (from Facebook).

One, the more localised 1916 Easter Rising, a rather small, violent occurrence organised by a group of Irishmen trying to forcibly remove the island from the British Empire, shaking off the shackles of colonial oppression. 

The other, World War One's Battle of the Somme, a more international event obviously enough, where thousands of Irishmen lost their lives fighting for that same British Empire, one that many of those slain soldiers felt was worth fighting for and not against.

As contemporary discourse continues to highlight, arguments can be made for and against both outlooks. And as the make-up of today's Ireland shows, the two 'factions' still exist, with pretty strong support, too.

Both events will be remembered with perhaps not so much pomp but a good dollop of ceremony on the whole island; a noble act honouring the sacrifices made and risks taken by these people in that tumultuous year you might say.

Yet, as is often the case, the aspired outcomes that made these people do what they did at that time were not realised. 

What's more, especially in the case of the Somme and World War One, we saw it all over again and on a greater scale just a couple of decades later.

For the leaders of the 1916 Rising, an all-island Irish republic hasn't been achieved. In fact, an upshot of their actions was to further deepen the divide and suspicion between the predominantly British nationalist/Protestant north-east and the Irish nationalist/Catholic leaning rest. 

While the dream of a united, independent Ireland outside of the British Empire, won by peaceful, political means, wasn't really a runner at that time, the military/guerrilla approach did much to seal the two-state solution.

Indeed, Irish nationalists in Ireland's north-east surely find it difficult to see the rising as the catalyst event that eventually led to an improvement in all-round conditions, an old proud race regaining control of their own destiny. No, their time was to come much later in the century.

Also, those thousands of Irish nationalists from Catholic strongholds who fought at the Somme, for the lucky ones who returned, they came back to a country that largely ignored their sacrifices. 

New Irish heroes had been made, or were in the process of being made — the Easter Rising saw to that. To have shown loyalty to and solidarity with the British cause in the hope of future political concessions found very little credence in post-1916 Ireland.

Remembering the 36th (Ulster) Division (from bnp.org.uk).

On the contrary, the island colleagues of those Irish nationalists who fought at the Somme, the 36th (Ulster) Division, did see some initial reward, indirectly as it may have been, for their blood sacrifice in the proceeding years. 

The creation of the official territory of Northern Ireland, very much part of the union with Great Britain and the Empire, allowed, more or less, for the establishment of, in the words of its first Prime Minister Lord Craigavon, 'a Protestant parliament and a Protestant state', a counterpoint to what was happening in the south.

Yet, on a greater scale, the end of World War One could be seen as marking the beginning of the end of the British Empire and a once 'great' Britain. Nothing would ever be the same again, the world had entered a new phase.

As we look back now, 100 years on from these era-defining moments, as the commemorations planned show, they still very much resonate on the island of Ireland. And its political shape, you could argue, whichever side you come from, resembles what the men and women of 1916 would have imagined it to be in years to come.

Two fairly distinct states exist. Northern Ireland remains a part of the United Kingdom — albeit and thankfully much less sectarian and more democratic than it was in its early years. What is now officially Éire (Ireland), a republic, is pretty much as good as it could have been, territorially speaking if nothing else, for those who fought and died for it.

Yet the divisions among Irish people that the Battle of the Somme and the Easter Rising represent are, on a day-to-day basis anyway, much weaker now than at any other time since. 

Whatever about the past and its significance today, it's a case of finding that mutual respect and understanding in the present.
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