Proceedings of the Castle Aching Parish Council, 1905

[Nearholmer]

If you are in an English-speaking country, there is no “outside”, because all the varieties of bonkers-ness leak out of the US via the internet, or are deliberately exported by evangelising nuisances, and come to pollute thinking in your country. It is an absolute curse to speak roughly the same language as people in the US at the moment, because it makes you extra-susceptible to pollution.

 

Have a read about the guy who shot five people in Plymouth (the original Plymouth, in Devon) last week, who seems to have drawn succour from some dangerously insane blokes who call themselves “incels”.

 

Even the perfectly sane and very necessary pursuit of racial equality gets diverted/confused by US imports IMO, in that much of it is now ‘informed’ by ideas that might (or might not) help in the context of race history in the US, but I honestly think are at risk of causing polarisation, and thereby setting back equality in the U.K.. Again IMO, the US fundamentally does not ‘get’ equality, because it’s ‘frontiersman’ mindset forces equality into a series of reductionist, single-issue, slices (race, gender etc), which distracts from something that the U.K., at good moments, does ‘get’: that we all come into the world naked and go out of it as dust - the religiously informed idea that we are all equal in the eyes of God.

 

Vast numbers of good ideas and good people come from the US to the U.K., but far too many deeply unhelpful ideas and people too. How that plays in countries where the language and culture are a bit more Yank-proof, I don’t know.

 

 

[Edwardian]

I used to be an ex pat. The place was a former Imperial possession and the population were of black African extraction.

 

They were where they were because they were the descendants of a slave population imported to the place.  I don't really know what effect that knowledge has on people. You and I might well have been descended from a slave or serf long ago, but we don't know about that and Europeans engaging in the chattel slavery of black Africans must surely feel like one type of person doing something very specific to people like you. I imagine that might still be an issue for many.  For those who oppose sensible decolonisation of history, it seems to me that the offense caused by an historic injustice is felt because it is coupled with continuing disadvantage and prejudice suffered as a result of their race.

 

That said, the host population where I lived could not sensibly be described as suffering disadvantage and prejudice.  Their enslaved ancestors had been owned in the main by Quakers. Nothing against Quakers, lovely people, not doubt, but Eighteenth Century Friends had no problem owning other human beings as chattels and employing them on their plantations. However, because of their high principles, what they wouldn't do is help their countrymen defend those plantation colonies against the French. Like the Founding Fathers up in the far less valuable northern 13 colonies of the day, they had blind spots.  

 

When Emancipation came, the Quakers gifted their former slaves the land and departed.  This was not a usual outcome, In most of the plantation colonies, former slaves had little choice but to continue working on a white-owned plantation.

 

Then, in the 1980s, some white guys came and showed the islanders how to set up an offshore finance sector. 

 

Suddenly, everything was going their way.  They went from subsistence farming to the highest GDP per head of population in the world within a single generation.  That's bound to play with your head, and it has.  They weaponised citizenship and instituted a sort of apartheid between the 'Belonger' families and everyone else.  Ex pats, white and black, in the professional sectors led a precarious, but still privileged life.  The majority of ex pats were poor unskilled black workers from neighbouring islands, the conditions of many of whom would meet the definition of modern slavery. The government employed its new found wealth to ensure full employment for Belongers, regardless of ability.

 

But, they feel oppressed. Culturally they naturally tap into the wider African diaspora, dominant within which is black American culture, which speaks of the profound racial injustice that still obtains in the US.  Fiery pastors do their bit to maintain that sense of racial injustice among the islanders. And, yes, there is historic injustice, the tang of which never goes away, and, yes, they are part of a wider diaspora that in large part still suffers racial injustice. Yet, like their white Quaker predecessors, there are ironies. This is a rich society that has reserved itself all the rights, power, land and access to wealth and that exploits fellow black temporary foreign workers from economies more typical of the region. Like so many of us, they have blind spots.      

 

 

 

Edited August 20, 2021 by Edwardian
spelling

[Regularity]

40 minutes ago, Edwardian said:

it seems to me that the offense caused by an historic injustice is felt because it is coupled with continuing disadvantage and prejudice suffered as a result of their race.

Now that, if you don’t mind me so saying, is a very shrewd and potent observation.

[Regularity]

3 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

some dangerously insane blokes who call themselves “incels”

Must admit, when I heard that that stands for “INvoluntary CELibates”, my only thought was, “Maybe if you stopped being so weird and treated women as human beings rather than as sex objects and slaves, you might actually get laid”.

Still, he managed to tell the world that at the age of 22, he died a virgin: not because of any deeply held religious beliefs, not because of something in his past, but just because no one liked him. What an epitaph!

Edited August 20, 2021 by Regularity
Typo

[Edwardian]

13 minutes ago, Regularity said:

at the age of 22, he died a virgin: not because of any deeply held religious beliefs, not because of something in his paste, but just because no one liked him. What an epitaph!

 

The definition of failure to make a virtue out of a necessity!

[Regularity]

4 hours ago, Malcolm 0-6-0 said:

Whatever they call themselves America First are just populists playing of white fear and the usual Evangelical fundamentalism. The problem is that they attract a hell of a lot of people which probably tells us more than we ever wanted to know about the average education of the American public.

Populists always work this way. As a Polish guy I once worked used to say, “Blame me - blame the immigrant. It’s what everyone does for a quick win with no serious questions asked.” He then recounted now this was happening in Poland, and I was immediately put in mind of Serbia, where it was within their gift to create a tolerate country showing the world that Roman Catholic, Orthodox Catholic and Muslims could live happily side by side, and thereby increase their appeal to neighbouring parts of the former Yugoslavia and create what they really wanted: control of as much of the old republic as possible. But with a majority of (Russian) Orthodox (I.e. Serbo-Croats who used the Cyrillic rather than Latin alphabet*) they instead chose to follow the racist, populist path to ensure victory. I don’t think we should underestimate the influence of Moscow in this, either.

 

* Two friends, one with a Serbian father and the other a Montenegrin (RO, but married to an Irish woman!), have independently told me that the differences between a Serb, a Croat and a Bosnian are (1) religious affiliation and (2) alphabet used. Point 2 is usually connected to point 1. When I asked what else was involved, I was told nothing really. I jokingly commented that it seemed that 2 faiths, one of which had two creeds, clashed at the battle of Kosavar field and the locals simply adopted the belief system of whoever ended up controlling them, only to be told, “Yes, pretty much that - and there have been centuries of enmity ever since.”

 

Thus are people falsely divided and conquered.

[Caley Jim]

10 hours ago, Annie said:

22 confirmed cases here so far and genome testing has shown the infection was carried by an arrival from Australia.

That'll be Australia's name aff the gang hut, then! 

 

Jim 

[monkeysarefun]

1 hour ago, Caley Jim said:

That'll be Australia's name aff the gang hut, then! 

 

Jim 

I think he was a returning NZer. We do have an outbreak now but  its 16,000 current active cases spread among  the 5 million of us in Sydney and we've all been stuck at home for 8 weeks  so he did  have to try pretty hard to get it, pretty unlucky for NZ.

Edited August 20, 2021 by monkeysarefun

[Malcolm 0-6-0]

2 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

I think he was a returning NZer. We do have an outbreak now but  its 16,000 current active cases spread among  the 5 million of us in Sydney and we've all been stuck at home for 8 weeks  so he did  have to try pretty hard to get it, pretty unlucky for NZ.

 

We had 3 months last year. You get used to it, and the next suburb up the line seems to acquire a sense of being an exotic far away place  

[Malcolm 0-6-0]

Something really funny happened on Twitter tonight. Some American anti-mask anti-vax employee of a American Republican congressman created the hash tag #AustraliaHasFallen to use the current lockdowns here to show what happens when people surrender their freedoms in the name of staying healthy. There's some planned demos apparently tomorrow in Sydney and Melbourne by the anti-mask dimwits. 

 

However, instead of stirring up the crazies, what happened was there was massive response from people posting the hashtag followed by a pic of their cat, dog or whatever animal looking cute.

 

The end  result derailed the attempt because there's now dozens of tweets along the line of #AustraliaHasFallen for my cat fluffy etc. etc. This has made whoever the stirrer was very upset and I think they've taken their nasty little plot to cause trouble and gone away.   

[Hroth]

Dunno what all the fuss is about.

 

Currently the UK government seems happy with 30,000+ new cases/100+ deaths PER DAY without a hint of a lockdown.  Most (all?) of these will be Delta and the number of people going maskless in enclosed places is terrifying.  I was on a train today, and over 50% of the adult passengers weren't wearing masks.

 

I suppose the government is working on the premis that 87% of people aged 16 and over in the UK have now had their first dose of a coronavirus vaccine and more than 75% have had their second*. so by having a laissez-faire approach they'll just weed out the idiots.  Herd immunity by any other way...

 

* As reported on the BBC website

[Nearholmer]

IMO, we are walking a tightrope, and could easily fall-off as vaccine protection progressively wears-off, first among the oldest or otherwise most vulnerable.

 

Im not too stressed about the general absence of precautions, but I do get pretty annoyed about the fact that mask-wearing laws were done away with - it’s such a low-cost measure, yet so helpful, that it seems negligent to leave it to the caprice of every individual.

[monkeysarefun]

The pure insanity of the US anti mask wearing and anti vax protesters is surely going to go down in history as a low point in the development of our species. I watched a YouTube clip of Marjorie what's her name, the US congresswoman at a rally in Alabama 2 or 3 weeks ago congratulating the crowd for living in the state with the lowest vaccination rate in the country.

The crowd lapped it up, cheering and so on.

I saw in today's news that Alabama has now  run out of ICU beds. That should really make them proud, job well done you drongoes.

 

 

Edited August 20, 2021 by monkeysarefun

[Regularity]

2 hours ago, Hroth said:

Herd immunity by any other way.

Herd immunity is like public transport: a great idea for everyone else, but when it's your turn, a different kettle of fish...

[Regularity]

31 minutes ago, monkeysarefun said:

I watched a YouTube clip of Marjorie what's her name, the US congresswoman at a rally in Alabama 2 or 3 weeks ago congratulating the crowd for living in the state with the lowest vaccination rate in the country.

Where's that "scared to death*" icon when you need it?

 

* I am aware of the irony here: they aren't scared, but they may soon be dead.

[Annie]

41 minutes ago, monkeysarefun said:

The pure insanity of the US anti mask wearing and anti vax protesters is surely going to go down in history as a low point in the development of our species. I watched a YouTube clip of Marjorie what's her name, the US congresswoman at a rally in Alabama 2 or 3 weeks ago congratulating the crowd for living in the state with the lowest vaccination rate in the country.

The crowd lapped it up, cheering and so on.

I saw in today's news that Alabama has now  run out of ICU beds. That should really make them proud, job well done you drongoes.

 

Soooooo many Americans who must've been dropped on their heads when they were babies.  The whole Freedumb movement and antivaxxer/anti-mask movement in the US is just so unbelievably crazy.  It is utter insanity to hold such beliefs in the face of a dangerous global pandemic.

[Hroth]

2 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

IMO, we are walking a tightrope, and could easily fall-off as vaccine protection progressively wears-off, first among the oldest or otherwise most vulnerable.

 

In some papers this morning, there were noises that the proposed booster-vac due for all over 60s from next month is to be scaled back to the initial "vulnerable groups", with no timetable for the rest of the over-60 cohort, which is not good news.  There is also no mood music getting out about the importance of getting a flu jab from next month either.  It was mentioned a month or so ago, but given the attention span of those keen to get their "holidays", and their cheerleaders in the popular press, its been well forgotten.

 

And apparently we're due an apocalyptic norovirus season too...

 

24 minutes ago, Regularity said:

Herd immunity is like public transport: a great idea for everyone else, but when it's your turn, a different kettle of fish...

 

I've seen the herd this morning, I'm not impressed by their behaviour!  Whatever they've got, I don't want it.

 

10 minutes ago, Annie said:

It is utter insanity to hold such beliefs in the face of a dangerous global pandemic.

 

And we're back to their belief that the Pandemic is all fake news and doesn't affect them.

 

 

[Caley Jim]

2 hours ago, Annie said:

 

Soooooo many Americans who must've been dropped on their heads when they were babies.  The whole Freedumb movement and antivaxxer/anti-mask movement in the US is just so unbelievably crazy.  It is utter insanity to hold such beliefs in the face of a dangerous global pandemic.

'There are none so blind as those who will not see'.  (John Heywood (c. 1497 – c. 1580))

 

Jim

[Edwardian]

3 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

The pure insanity of the US anti mask wearing and anti vax protesters is surely going to go down in history as a low point in the development of our species. I watched a YouTube clip of Marjorie what's her name, the US congresswoman at a rally in Alabama 2 or 3 weeks ago congratulating the crowd for living in the state with the lowest vaccination rate in the country.

The crowd lapped it up, cheering and so on.

I saw in today's news that Alabama has now  run out of ICU beds. That should really make them proud, job well done you drongoes.

 

 

 

That's the trouble with Natural Selection, it takes too long.

[alastairq]

Lemmings, and a  can of Red Bull springs to mind..................

[Malcolm 0-6-0]

5 hours ago, Edwardian said:

 

That's the trouble with Natural Selection, it takes too long.

 

 

[Edwardian]

In the news ..... RIP Peter Corby of the eponymous trouser press. Just about the only gadget wholly made in the UK with UK components (and it works!).  I think we may justly add it to the list of gifts the British have given to western civilisation.  So far I had, the Hugo Drax nominated, habit of afternoon tea, so it's good to have another.

 

In other news, I learn today that, without attracting much publicity, HMG had managed to grant 30,000 temporary seasonal agricultural worker visas so that EU nationals can come over and pick our crops for us.  I consider myself a reasonably well informed citizen, but this had been unknown to me until it was mentioned today on R4 apropos HMG's refusal to countenance something similar to allow EU lorry drivers to be drafted in to end our current food shortages. Like the Fascist governments of the 1930s, HMG is learning that it is impossible to create a functioning autarky. The reality that 'control' is a somewhat empty word should not surprise us.

 

Meanwhile, it is becoming clear that the western governments are struggling to get their own citizens out of Kabul.  Afghans in danger by virtue of helping Western forces, seem to stand little chance of escape. HMG may smugly talk about how generous it is to provide a (totally inadequate) number of places for them in the UK (over a period of years), but living long enough and escaping to take advantage of this bounty is not something we're helping with.

 

Inevitably press references to 'last stand' puts me in mind of the fall of the Kabul Residency in 1879.  It is an event marked by the same sort of treachery that the Taliban is currently engaged in (fair words the West wants to hear coupled with foul deeds that give the lie to them).

 

The event, indeed, has all the hallmarks of the present situation, including western complacency and wishful thinking.

 

Rather like the Taliban, the Afghans had done a deal. A British diplomatic mission was dispatched to Kabul following the Treaty of Gandamak. The British political officer heading the Kabul mission, Sir Pierre Cavagnari, referred to Afghan troop concentrations in Kabul as a dog that would not bite. On 2 September 1879, he set a telegram to his masters stating "All is well in the Kabul Embassy."  On the next day, 3 September, the Residency was stormed and all 72 of the officers and men present were killed.

 

Meet Lieutenant Walter Hamilton VC.  He was the British officer in command of the detachment of the Corps of Guides protecting the residency and, so, led the defence. I saw his memorial statue last year, in the National Army Museum, but it was impossible to get a decent picture, as the statue is placed at the back of a gallery among other clutter where it is presented as a racist imperial symbol to be ashamed of. So, here is an old picture from Wiki.

 

 

Yes, he is trampling his enemy, in the tradition of classical statuary, which we may feel is not quite the thing, especially as the fallen foe is a 'native'.  Yes, he wasn't the last survivor, that honour goes to Jemadar Jewand Singh, who, after the British officers were all  dead, was offered and refused, the chance to surrender by the Afghans.  Yes, native troops were not eligible for the Victoria Cross, so the native unit members received the Indian Order of Merit instead.

 

I'm not sure that any of this persuades me that Hamilton's memorial should be consigned to the NAM's back wall of shame.  Giving the statue context is one thing, giving it pariah status is another. I think that does an injustice to the man who led the defence and gave his life doing his duty. It seems wrong to me to treat his sacrifice as an embarrassment. Better, I suggest, would be to do Hamilton justice, and, crucially, to do his men better justice than they have received. Hamilton's statue does not offend me. What offends me is that Jewand Singh does not have a statue in the former capital of Empire, that there is no memorial to the garrison in the UK.  I would retrospectively re-write the rules and award them all VCs. 

 

The Guides did get a memorial, in 1892, in what is now Pakistan, so at least we have that:

 

 

I'd like to conclude this post with a picture of the men who did their duty.  These are men of the Corps of Guides in Afghanistan in the period, though perhaps not members of the garrison massacred in Kabul in 1879, but the closest I can get.  I'd like to think that we will remember them.

 

 

 

    

 

Edited August 21, 2021 by Edwardian

[CKPR]

16 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

I watched a YouTube clip of Marjorie what's her name, the US congresswoman at a rally in Alabama 2 or 3 weeks ago congratulating the crowd for living in the state with the lowest vaccination rate in the country.

Where are those "Jewish space lasers" when you need them ? Surely Mossad could take her out and make it look like an accident ?

[CKPR]

I would have thought that the brave Jewand Singh would have been a Sikh, so not a co-religionist of the Afghan forces ?

[Edwardian]

1 minute ago, CKPR said:

Where are those "Jewish space lasers" when you need them ? Surely Mossad could take her out and make it look like an accident ?

 

Yes, but one of the, to my mind, odd facet of the US religious right is how supportive it is of the State of Israel, given that Christian bigotry over centuries has maintained a tradition of anti-semetism. 

 

You have to get inside the heads of the nutters to work this one out, but there is this curious strand we've touched on before that seems to go back to the historic curiosity of British Israelism 

 

1 minute ago, CKPR said:

I would have thought that the brave Jewand Singh would have been a Sikh, so not a co-religionist of the Afghan forces ?

 

True, and I will amend.  He was, but I understand that many of his men were Muslim.