The former British prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, declared some years ago that the English (or was it the British?) were all “homogenous Anglo-Saxons”. Really? Marika Sherwood
UK immigrants are ancient?
Some headline.
Pardon me? Two thousand years ago London was diverse? Yup, some had African roots. Some had had Chinese roots. Never mind from all-over the empire roots.
For your average blame-the-immigrants or send-the-bast**ds-home people, it may rock the boat. There are Chinese and Arab blood-lines in my family now, through marriage. What richness we benefit from.
- new ways of looking/thinking about things
- approaches to family
- great food ideas
Two thousand years?
Imagine, people of African and Chinese origin living in our green and pleasant land twenty centuries ago. Not to mention the likely origins of the Picts, Celts and others.
OMG what about the poor racist yobs who hate immigrants and foreigners? Are their beliefs based on a fantasy race of Anglo-Saxons? A Germanic people who arrived 500 years later?
Late arrivals
Goodness, did the Anglo-Saxons arrive later than some of our other forbears? Historians appears to suggest around 450 CE (AD) doing the usual plundering, looting and land-grabbing.
Do the racist and misogynist groups in the UK actually, by their own definition, claim decent from late arrivals to the UK gene-pool?
There’s only one thing to say to that … so what! As those in the north say: We’re a’ Jock Thomson’s bairns.
Misogyny … oops
The idea that Celtic women could also be queens and leaders of war bands, might not come as a surprise to modern historians, but to the Greek and Roman men who witnessed and recorded the exploits of these women it was considered abnormal for them to act publically and autonomously. Becki VandenBoom
Then, of course, there’s Boudicca and her ilk. The way Celtic (original British) men and women lived together. Not like the Romans, of course, they absolutely knew a woman’s place.
So did the Celts for that matter, they just had a different take on equality.
So, big man, what are you trying to say?
Love, care, accept, help, forgive, hug and generally appreciate one another.
It seems only a few greedy, inflated and narcissistic egos keep our war-economies going at the expense of food, clothing and education for all peoples. Learning and respect is what’ll save us.
Imagine it was your kids or grandkids dying in Aleppo.
How can any of our politicians and business leaders of the Global Economy look us in the eye?
© Mac Logan