Chapter 6: Skilled BB
"Tao you haven't come to class for 4 days in a row! It looks like you want to drop out of class!" The teacher wagged a finger at me menacingly.
Arguing head on in this kind of situation would only screw me over further...
Calm down Tao...You know what to do...
"I am really sorry Ms. Wang. I was sick for 4 days straight, well that is my own fault to." I said truthfully with a polite voice.
"Do you know the consequences of missing class?" Her tone softened.
"Yes, I understand."
"I seen your doctor's notes now. At most you can only be excused for a day."
"Yes, yes." I said earnestly.
"Do you know that during the exam period, many master degree students who have 40 degree fevers still force themselves to write their papers in the library. Your cold is nothing to theirs."
"Yes, yes." I nodded.
"Good. Now don't pull an absence like this again. If you miss 1/3 of your classes, even if you have a doctor's note, you will not be legible for final exam. Do you understand?"
"I understand." I said sincerely.
"Do you have any classes this afternoon?"
"Yes. Its my elective class, international relations."
"Go." Ms. Wang waved me off. "Learn to take care of yourself more and drink more hot water."
"Thank you." I nodded, bowed slightly and left.
Close one...
***
It was a regular size classroom, but if felt extra spacious as there was less then 20 people in the room.
The teacher's voice sounded like a monk chanting, and pretty much no one is paying attention to class and had their heads buried in their phones.
"...An example will be BREXIT..."
I admit I didn't really listen to the first part of the class, but as soon as I heard the word BREXIT, I can only say: 'you just activated my trap card'.
"Did you just say BREXIT?" I accidentally raised my voice to high.
"Yes?..." the teacher looked to me and everyone else did too.
"Well, if we are talking about wether or not BREXIT is a good or bad thing, it's not that simple now." I raised a finger and continued.
"On the pro side, the UK citizens have been living under 2 sets of laws instead of 1. One is their own UK law and the other the EU law."
"For instance there is an EU law that restricts UK to only fish 20% of their fish within their territorial waters. Another upside is that the Brits get to negotiate their own trade deal without being held back by the EU." I went on.
"Then there is the down side, the pound had fallen by 12% against the USD since the 2016 referendum. And since the UK has left the EU free trade agreement as part of Brexit, which will make the UK fall back on WTO (World trade organization) rules. There are 164 members within the WTO. If they don't have free trade agreements with each other, they trade under WTO rules. Every WTO member has a list of tariffs and quotas that they apply to other countries. The average EU tariff is pretty low, about 2.8% for non-agricultural products. And that tariff has risen to about 35% after Brexit. Some of the soft liners Brexit politicians wanted a 'soft Brexit' meaning, they wanted to strike a trade deal with the EU that allows them to get away from EU law while still retaining EU free trade benefits. This kind of responsibility dodging and benefit reaping just didn't sit well with the other EU member countries. The Brexit negotiation started in 2016 June all the way till 2019 March, and so far no deal has been reached, making it a no deal Brexit, which is what hard liner Brexit politicians want to see. The UK which is already part of the WTO, can conduct trade with other major countries in the world, but shipping oversees will raise the cost drastically. Although the EU market is not allowed to discriminate any countries, it will have to treat the UK just like any other countries, but that does not mean the UK can expect to be treated the same way as it was before as an EU country. Leaving the EU does come with certain benefits such as, UK able to control its borders again and make its own trade deals without EU's approval. After the UK has left the single market of EU, they can strike a new deal with UK one that may involve no to very little tariffs. But in doing so that will make British business weaker against its competitor, and raising tariffs will increase the price of products, and the EU side will most likely raise the tariffs against British goods on their end as well."
"The Irish border problem is one of the main issues with Brexit. During the referendum, 55% of the people in Northern Ireland voted to remain in the EU. This opened up several problems, since the UK is no longer part of the EU customs union after Brexit, a border will have to be established between Northern Ireland and Ireland. But building a border its self has problems. Back in 1919-1921, the British fought against Ireland as it declared its independence. In the end Ireland was split up, and the main part of Ireland which is the Republic of Ireland gained its independence, with the majority of them being Catholic and proclaiming themselves 'Republicans', and Northern Ireland which is predominantly protestant branded themselves as 'Royalist'. Around the late 60s violence erupted as Republicans and Royalist paramilitary fought one another, and British solider stationed in Northern Ireland clashed with the Republicans. The conflict last for 30 years and costed over 3600 lives and finally ended in 1998 with the 'Good Friday agreement'. This series of conflict was known as 'The troubles'. Since then check points were drastically reduced and borders were almost invisible, as one may drive by may notice the speed limit sign change from Mph to Km. Bringing back the border will only bring back the hostilities and neither side wants that to happen. The 1st proposed solution to the Irish border problem is to use high tech surveillance cameras to screen the goods as they pass the border. But the technology for this solution is still a work in progress and hasn't been worked out even past the 2019 March 29th deadline. The 2nd solution proposed is to set the border to the Irish Sea, but that solution is impossible as well, as the Royalist see it as a betrayal will most certainly veto the decision within the British parliament. The 3rd solution is the 'Good Friday agreement'. Previous to Brexit, it was shown in a poll only 30% of Northern Ireland citizens wanted to be reunified with Ireland. But after Brexit, that number has increased to 58%. The 'Good Friday agreement' allows reunification when both countries hold a referendum and agree to reunite. In my personal opinion it is quite likely Ireland will be reunified in the future thus bring an end to the Irish border crisis."
"Future trade partnerships has also been a major post Brexit problem. With the current ongoing trade war between US and China, almost every country in the world is picking side, even if they don't want to. Historically the EU has always been USA's allies, but the saying goes: 'There is no such thing as eternal friends, only eternal interest'. USA has called for a global Huawei technology ban, as Trump deemed it a 'security' risk. The countries that were most hardline against the Huawei technology ban are USA themselves, Australia and Japan. As for EU, the Trump administration conducted a series of threats and favors to those EU countries to abandon their previous Huawei equipment and switch to US products instead. Even if EU really did want to switch, the technology swap would cost over 550 billion USD which US seems to have no interest in helping to pay, while alternatively if they wanted to upgrade their Huawei 4G equipment to 5G, the cost would be much lower and much more efficient, as China is the current leading country in 5G technology and US only at 3rd behind South Korea. Spain is the first EU country to openly defy the US Huawei ban and announced that they will be using Huawei technology in the near future, making them the 2nd country to openly defy the US Huawei ban, the first being Philippines. Germany has discussing with China about using 5G technology in private meetings, and it seems that the balance of power in the world is shifting. UK will most likely follow suit after other EU countries on using Huawei 5G technology. As it was seen in a photo recently, the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) was using Huawei 5G equipment..."
RINGGGG!!!
"Class is over now, you can wait to talk next time." The teacher said politely.
Oh well...
Q: What do you think about Tao's rant?
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