Oceans apart

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All of our political podcasting industry and journalists from the majority of our mainstream media were all in the States this week for some democratic exercise the country decided it wanted every four years. 

I mean, I’m all for democracy, but this year has been quite intense in terms of elections, so much so that I’d rather we calmed down a bit in 2025. 

I think I’ve used the term ‘over the pond’ more than ever this week too. 

And when I say ‘pond’, of course I mean the Atlantic Ocean - that vast array of water that separates us and the US. 

The Atlantic Ocean is around 3,000 miles between New York and England, so we’d hardly call it a ‘pond’. 

But that begs the question why it’s called an ‘Ocean’.

I also wanted to find out where the word originated.

It comes from the Greek word Ōkeanós, which referred to the large body of water surrounding the world and to the God Oceanus in Greek mythology, who was believed to be the divine-personification of the water that was believed to circle the earth. 

This evolved into the Latin ‘oceanus’, with a similar meaning, to the Old French word ‘occean’ before arriving in the English Language in around the 1300s. 

It’s been quite fascinating to watch the reaction to the result.

At the end of the day, respect for democracy, even when it doesn’t go our way, is paramount.

I know the winner of the election is a controversial figure, and I don’t need to go into why here.

But from a country that has recently had a decisive election and a very smooth handover a few months ago, I want to tell my friends over the pond, that the country spoke in the way it did for a reason.

And it’s important to understand why something was lost, perhaps more than why the winner succeeded.