How to survive stormy weather 🌪️

This morning, the Long View is tucked up warm on the sofa, enjoying the first quiet coffee of the day and anxiously awaiting the arrival of Storm Éowyn.

This feels a little bit like a metaphor for how it feels, at the end of January 2025, to be an observer of global politics if you live in the Western world (by which I mean, the global north).

There’s a storm a’coming 🌧️☔

In late 2024, we saw the rise of far-right parties across Europe and also the re-election of Donald Trump as President of the United States.

Although the UK July 2024 elections ended 14 years of Conservative Party rule, returning the Labour Party to power, it is clear that people living in Britain are politically and socially connected to global movements – and we can expect to see right and far-right parties gain political power here, too.

🤔 What does that mean for people who still care about things like: ending poverty and war, halting the destruction of our planet, and making the world a more equal place for everyone?

Like, shouldn’t those things be priority for all of us?

And why isn’t it?

So why can’t we see it clearly? 🗞️

I can skim most major media outlets and tell you that the leading stories are rarely about the important things. My social media feeds offer me updates that sit a bit closer to what I believe to be important, but these are self-curated experiences and therefore limited – literally – by who and what I already know.

I sometimes wish that there were media platforms out there that could just consistently prioritise making the important things visible, accessible and exciting to learn about.

(Hats off to investigative journalists like the good folks at The Ferret and Peter Geoghegan‘s Democracy for Sale newsletter who do just that… but they are the few and the brave, and we need many, many more people supported to do this kind of hard and illuminating work.)

In the absence of a world, where objective, thoughtful investigative journalism is a mainstream thing, I would recommend challenging yourself to find and learn about diverse and critical perspectives on, well, everything – especially the stuff you’re certain that you’re right about. You won’t regret it, I promise.

And who is going to build our shelters? ⛺

By which I mean, this storm is destructive. As my partner reminded me last night, “people all around the world voted for change, and that’s what those parties must deliver“.

Far right ideology is about promoting the idea that a small group of people, tightly defined by a very specific set of racial, gender, religious and socio-economic criteria, deserve more rights, resources and freedoms than everybody else.

If you disagree with what I wrote, I’m really, really happy to have that conversation. Like, please, prove me wrong.

But if I’m right … delivering for change on this platform is going to be destructive, and dangerous for people whose race, gender or gender identity, or religious or cultural identity or something else – puts them on the wrong side of this tiny circle of people who right-led governments believe deserve protection.

So we need to build shelters for the people we love, who are facing fear and harm – and who cannot turn to the state to keep them safe ⛺

We need women’s refuges, for all women

We need sanctuary movements for migrants

We need safe spaces for LGBT+ people

People are already hard at work, building these places. They have, in fact, always been here. You will find them in the community – handing out cups of tea, helping people make phone calls and fill in forms and driving all across the city to pick up and deliver things because someone, somewhere, needed something.

Please help those people. Help them build the shelters that we’re all going to need, eventually, to wait out this storm.

And finally, …

Who is going to rebuild our world, when the storm passes? 🌎

Destruction is also opportunity for creation.

I won’t push this point too hard, because I’ve already written about the power of dreaming and why we should all read banned books – but we must keep working on compelling alternative visions of how the world could be.

One day, someone is going to turn to you and ask you what you would have done, if you had the power to make a change. It would be good if you had an answer ready for that day

Find your rainbow (and your sense of humour) 🌈

I’ve always loved rainbows. Who doesn’t?

Aside from the fact that they are clearly a sign that magic exists all around us, they remind us that the storm always ends.

Whilst you’re waiting for that to happen, remember to breathe.. and to keep laughing, even if it’s at yourself.

Here’s a throwback from the Covid years that I found today:

So, to recap: how to survive stormy weather 🌪️

🗞️ support independent journalism

⛺ build safe spaces for each other

🌎 dream and build visions for a better future

🌈 remember to laugh (at yourself) and find your rainbow

First published on LinkedIn on 24 January 2025:

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-survive-stormy-weather-jen-ang-uaufe/