There is a lot of frustration and anger in the world. This has led to the election of Donald Trump, to the Brexit vote in the UK and to the Catalan independence movement here in Barcelona.
On the declaration of independence here in Catalunya, I made this video reflecting on the last 18 months of politics. I believe that there is anger and frustration… some is just rebellion… but there is a lot of understandable frustration with a growing inequality in our societies that we must deal with.
My worry is that the current politics are polarising the different views… Trump causes extreme emotional reaction, Brexit causes emotional reactions… and Catalan independence causes emotional reaction. It is not an environment where we can work together to create a better structure for living together. What can we do?
I think we can each make an effort to engage openly in understanding the lives, hopes, dreams and frustrations of others, particularly those who are different from ourselves.