11 Feb 2020

Sorry, out of service!

Sorry to everyone who was actually following this blog! Brexit has mixed up the life of many people including the blog writer one's. This means I am not involved locally in activities in Winchester any more as I have moved away to another country.

Why did you move I hear you say. Nobody made you or wanted you to leave!

Yes, that might be true, but I also didn't really see many rallying for the rights of EU citizens in the UK apart from mainly the EU citizens themselves. (I also didn't see too many rallying for the rights of the Brits in the EU - sorry, but the country is so complacent in the face of its own government taking rights away from its citizens, it's unfathomable...) Instead I heard and read more and more stories about migrants in the UK being attacked in various ways and also about how our rights of residing in the UK would change. In addition to that, I had a couple of not so very nice encounters myself.

Since I couldn't go for dual nationality due to an unfortunate mix of the UK's and my birth country's laws, I didn't want to become a second class not-citizen with fewer rights, and also under all circumstances I wanted to avoid for my son to be bullied about being a foreigner (despite being born in the UK). We all know this would have happened at some point, even with him actually having dual nationality. So the logical choice was to go to a place where we could live in peace with all of our citizens' rights intact. As the whole family has the same birth nationality, this mission was relatively easy to accomplish. However, it wasn't done with a happy heart.

So, the UK has permanently lost all of this:
  • [As this is apparently so important to everyone that immigrants are good immigrants and earning their keep:] taxes on a good income and also a whole job, as it moved with us and is now located outside of the UK. 
  • A volunteer for a Winchester Scouts group. 
  • An activist happy to help out on many technical things that other people don't like or find difficult.
  • A leader for Winchester's multinational walking group.
  • Most importantly, a local friend to many.

Some of these were obviously also hard for me. But after 18 months in our new home things have settled, we have forged new friendships and feel at home. The stress caused by our uncertain situation in the UK and the depression due to that have gone. There are even quite a few upsides of being where we are now, one of them being my son learning to speak and write his mother tongue properly. But don't get me wrong, I would lie if I wouldn't admit that I will forever bear a grudge that we had to go through all of this heartbreak.

I am happy to see that there are still pro-EU campaigns being run in Winchester and many other parts of the UK. I am hoping very much, that the UK will one day rejoin the EU.

As for you, the readers, please take time out of your busy lives to help campaign to make the UK a better place for everyone, especially the poor and weak, in whichever way you can! Without that participation nothing will happen. And speak to other people about your convictions. Talking politics might not be seen as polite by some but it certainly is important as it has an effect on all of our lives!

Take care of yourselves,
Sylke

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Battle treasure