Hello!
I am currently studying abroad in London under LC’s England: Fine Arts program, and I’m so excited to be able to share with all of you the wonderful adventures that I get up to while abroad. Check out some of my other blogs to learn more about the program, the logistics of going abroad, and life as a study abroad student!
Now officially past half-term, I am once again grateful that the British style of education (or at least my professors) don’t include midterm exams. Sending lots of love and sympathy to those going through the midterm season at LC, I know it can be rough.
The weather in London is starting to get nicer! We’re having more sunny days and more days that get above 50 degrees Fahrenheit. Flowers are starting to bloom in the parks, and to be honest it makes all the difference. Living in such an urban environment, it can get really draining to not be able to find peace and quiet. London’s parks are fantastic, but with everyone getting outside to escape the city, they can also be quite crowded. That’s one of the things I miss about Portland, it really is a fantastic place with good access to the outdoors, especially having Tryon Creek State Park so close to campus.
This is going to be a bit of a short update, but I just wanted to speak a little about the response in London to the war in Ukraine. It’s an interesting position that Londoners have, being a very liberal, cosmopolitan, and global city, but also in the aftermath of Brexit. Now that the UK is no longer a part of the European Union, it has more freedom to do what it pleases in response to Russia. This could have meant taking no action, but Boris Johnson, the current Prime Minister, has been quite vocal about economic sanctions.
It feels very odd to be witnessing a city which didn’t want to leave Europe (Londoners overwhelmingly voted to stay in the EU), struggling to show their solidarity. Protests have been occurring in Trafalgar Square, and flags are flying in a lot of places, but for the most part life goes on as normal for Londoners. There is a degree of separation between them and the war, now that they’re not part of the EU anymore. This along with the physical distance between the UK and Ukraine makes a sort of quietness about the situation.
Of course, ask any Londoner about it and they’ll speak about the atrocities Putin has committed and how saddened they are for Ukraine and how they stand in solidarity. I’m not sure if the reaction in the city would be different without Brexit, or how Brexit is actually impacting foreign policy decisions at Number 10. I’m not an expert on the subject. I just have some feelings about it.
I saw a show two nights ago put on by the Belarus Free Theatre, a group of artists who work underground in Belarus to protest the dictatorship. All of them are refugees that fled the regime. The show was about a world in 2050 that had gone through WWIII, and was now separated once again between communist and capitalist lines. There were two main political blocs, the Russian Reich and the League of European States. And when showing a map of the League of European States, the UK was not included as a part of it.
I know this was just one show and one interpretation of a war that hasn’t even happened and political alliances that haven’t been made. But it struck me very deeply to consider the implications of Brexit if Putin’s war turns on the rest of Europe.
Anyway, there isn’t really an answer to my thoughts. In all likelihood, the UK would join forces with the EU and NATO against Russia, and Brexit probably won’t impact too much in terms of geopolitical forces when faced with a new cold war. But it’s something I never would have considered if I didn’t go to that show, if I never spent time in this city, and I’m grateful for being able to expand my perspective on world events from simply an American one.
