As of last week, the Europe we know is no longer. Great Britain had a referendum that allowed its citizenry to decide whether or not they would like to consider themselves members of the European Union, a collection of European countries that support each other financially, as well as in other areas. In a close contest, citizens voted to cast themselves out of the European Union.
I'd heard rumblings of this going on starting in April when I was helping proofread a friend's essay, of which the subject was "Brexit," which is the term used for the UK's decision to ditch the EU. I remember asking him what Brexit was, and he launched into this very detailed explanation.
Right now, I wish I'd paid attention to him (sorry, dude) and that I'd actually taken in his essay, instead of just combing it for punctuation and spelling errors. I spent a good amount of time trying to assimilate knowledge of what the ramifications of the Brexit would be for not only Britain and Europe but for the United States and the rest of the world as well.
Let's start with Britain and the rest of the UK because this is where the mess started. Right after the votes were totaled and announced, the UK went through a massive drop in the value of their currency. The exchange rates between the pound and the rest of the world suffered. Sports will be affected, as well as the British entertainment industry (watch out, "Game of Thrones" fans).
Scotland may have their own referendum on whether or not they want to stick around with the UK as they wanted to stay in EU. Ireland may leave as well.
As for the US and the world, currency devaluation will hurt like hell. As I wrote this, the DOW and NASDAQ dropped in points. Economies around the world were hit as share prices fell.
On our political scale, Donald Trump took this as a huge victory, and he even went to Scotland to celebrate his victory, because of those who voted in favor of leaving fell in line with his xenophobic thought process, which was a hugely divisive issue in Britain. His speech on one of his golf courses praised Britain's decision to leave.
I don't agree with this decision, but I'm at no power to do anything, and neither is anyone else who reads this unless you're from the UK. If you are, I'm sorry about what's happening.
