(no subject)
There is a funfair round the corner, literally, from my house. It smells of burgers and candy floss and all that. It is also full of fluffy haired boarding school kids - with billowing long black coats, and trousers trailing in the puddles.
Yesterday morning on the way to work the silent rides had snow covering them. It was kind of nice.
I remember.....being so sure of my englishness and britishness and secure in it. My heritage, my country.
I believed what I read in the papers and saw on the tv. Within reason. Because you do, within reason. You think the world sees you as you see yourself. I thought that if I read enough, I saw every angle. Good and bad.
Then I went to live abroad for a while, and I was shocked at how the brits are represented in the foreign media. And I refer only to the media of New Zealand, and Australia to a lesser extent.
It made me different, I think.
I am still sure of my englishness and I am proud to be so, but it made me less tolerant, in a way, of people from my country who diss other people just because they are from different countries. It also made me more tolerant of them, because I can think to myself that they don't know or haven't had that.
And also to question why our media shows things in a certain way, not just people but everything.
I am quite sure I am not original in this in any way, but I just thought I would mention it.
I was reminded of this today because I dealt with a french lorry driver today and it was too easy to fal into the antiquated way of thinking about the french, and I don't want to do that. Because it's crap.
Yesterday morning on the way to work the silent rides had snow covering them. It was kind of nice.
I remember.....being so sure of my englishness and britishness and secure in it. My heritage, my country.
I believed what I read in the papers and saw on the tv. Within reason. Because you do, within reason. You think the world sees you as you see yourself. I thought that if I read enough, I saw every angle. Good and bad.
Then I went to live abroad for a while, and I was shocked at how the brits are represented in the foreign media. And I refer only to the media of New Zealand, and Australia to a lesser extent.
It made me different, I think.
I am still sure of my englishness and I am proud to be so, but it made me less tolerant, in a way, of people from my country who diss other people just because they are from different countries. It also made me more tolerant of them, because I can think to myself that they don't know or haven't had that.
And also to question why our media shows things in a certain way, not just people but everything.
I am quite sure I am not original in this in any way, but I just thought I would mention it.
I was reminded of this today because I dealt with a french lorry driver today and it was too easy to fal into the antiquated way of thinking about the french, and I don't want to do that. Because it's crap.