Comfortably Foreign: a series of thoughts on the New World

Normally when I see the 4th of July drawing close I avoid it like the plague but this year I've decided to take a different approach and explain why I find the whole thing odd. So I present to you Comfortably Foreign, which is a small series of 'essays' on my thoughts about the Anglophone nations of the world (USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa in my opinion) and where we fit in, though with special emphasis on the US because of the upcoming 'holiday.' I hope it leads to fruitful discussion rather than a shouting match.

Regards,

The Vedic Underdog

Comfortably foreign: Why we’re all British

First a present an anecdote that got me thinking. If you don’t want to read it skip this paragraph where I explain why you, Anglophone, are a Brit. For the rest of you here it is:

I often go to international student nights and revel in the cosmopolitanism. Somehow I feel more at home in such surroundings than more homogenous social events. Anyways I was sat with an American friend and was chatting away to a Japanese student, and during this conversation I told her I was British. After a short while I turned to talk to my American counterpart (in English of course). The Japanese girl, not having a good ear for different accents in English asked my friend if he was British too. ‘No, I’m American’, he said. At which stage I jokingly added ‘Well, it’s the same thing!’ At this stage my friend, slightly offended turned to me and said ‘actually, I’m Polish-Ukranian!’ I found myself highly bemused by such a comment and retorted ‘Mate, I don’t have a single drop of English blood in my body, that doesn’t mean I don’t belong to this realm!’ At that stage he went to get a drink but how I wish he would have stayed so that I could have interrogated him about the ‘roots’ he was so quick to bring up.

I find it out and out daft when Canadians and Americans think that just by having surnames which are not common in Britain they are in no way connected to Britain. Almost always the name stretches back far too many generations or there are too many nationalities for the person to have any connection to. Most of the time they can’t speak a word of the language and I remember meeting a ‘Greek’ that could not name a city beyond Athens. Was hilarious and poignant at the same time. Some of you at this stage may argue that ‘fair enough we’re not necessarily the ethnicities we claim we are, but we are 100% American. Why the emphasis on Britain?’ Well dear reader that thinks like that, I’m glad you ask.

If your legacy is America, think of where that legacy itself comes from: the coloniser. The language, the attitude (see the next post), the culture. Yes, different cuisines came across from wonderous Europa but it’s no secret that when they were ‘Americanised’ they lost a lot of flavour and were filled full of sugar and fat. What cuisine does that remind me of? Yes, British food (which to be honest I don’t really like, I prefer the food of the motherland hands down)! Blues music is heavily based on English folk, and if you don’t believe there’s reams and reams of work done by music professors on the subject. And attitudes? Well just read the next article to understand how the British and American psyche are more alike than you may like to admit. And yet people over there hesitate to call themselves British, even if they do genuinely have British blood in them. ‘Anglo-Saxon’ was the word used by one counterpart. My friend, the settlement my town was built on was ‘Anglo-Saxon’, but that was more than a thousand years ago. We’ve been British since then!

Does it make that bitter pill ‘colonisation’ easier to swallow? It’s nice to say it was ‘the British’ that brought over the smallpox blankets, that had nothing to do with you I suppose. Well everyone was involved so I’m afraid that you don’t get off so easily. That goes for any Australians and Kiwis too: being part of the settlements means you were involved with the Empire, live with it, don’t finger the blame on people who live thousands of miles away and claim you’re bereft of sin. If you take my roots (which I am very close to might I add!) into account, you’re in the same bracket. Sorry, it’s just something you’ll have to live with. Condemning is one thing, to say that it was ‘them not us’ is another. Stop it!

In essence, enjoy your roots, nothing wrong with that. Just don’t disown the one nation that, more than any other makes up the culture of yours. It’s just silly. We’ve been allies for so long that it shouldn’t even matter. Here’s to continued cultural nourishment on a more equal plane.
Regards,

The Vedic Underdog

Comfortably foreign: Thoughts on the Anglosphere with focus on Anglo-American relations

Before it sails over anyone’s head let me just point out that the title is a play on words based on the name of a Pink Floyd song.

Now down to the nitty gritty of it all. The English speaking nations of the world (and I mean the proper ones, UK, US, Canada, Australia and NZ, possibly South Africa too. NOT INDIA) have, in my opinion, a very odd relationship. I would not be the first to draw this comparison. Scores of people that study English literature will learn of Oscar Wilde and Robert Louis Stevenson’s experiences in dealing with people and customs from different sides of the Atlantic. Oscar even summed up the ‘special relationship’ best with his quote that the US and UK were “divided by a common language.” Now this is something that has been a cause of much bafflement to me for a very very long time. It just doesn’t add up in my book. The primary reason for this is perhaps down to my own life; until recently I felt a strong kinship with Indians (and in some senses one could argue I still do) and this has been hugely influenced by my ability to speak their language. I, for many years, felt more at home in India than other cousins raised outside the motherland because of this. From this I always felt that culture and by some extension kinship was inexplicably linked to language. After all if I can express my thoughts and feelings in a coherent manner in someone’s language, a bond is formed, isn’t it?

And yet somehow Brits and Americans, whilst having admiration for one another, do feel they are different sides of the coin at the very least and as such see each other as foreign. My American relatives argue time and distance count for something. Whilst that may be so it can not fully explain the barriers that exist, because this is not the case everywhere. I will of course dip back into Hindi because, after all, that is a language I know well. Through colonisation etc various Indian diasporas have come into existence, two famous examples being Fiji and Surinam. In both nations there have been at least 5 or 6 generations of separation with India, and as such the Bihari dialect of Hindi, Bhojpuri, has been spoken amongst these communities and changed a little. And yet it is still intelligible for a speaker of a more mainstream more Indian form of Hindi. What’s more the nuances are accepted for what they are, nuances, and then the bonds form. They still feel a part of India, or at the very least that Indian culture is not something separate and distinct from them. Heck, even the Guyanese, who now speak English, still feel India is the motherland!

This led me to think that perhaps it’s a European thing. The reason I say this is because there is a significant difference between European and Brazilian Portuguese, not enough for them not to be mutually comprehendible but enough for my language partner from Rio to realise I’d been learning what they speak in Portugal and informing me what words were used in South America instead. That said from speaking to him it appeared that when he got over this hurdle with the Europeans they just chat and don’t make a (massive) deal out of it. It’s only natural to talk about differences, but I could easily talk about the differences between Scotland and England with someone, couldn’t I?

There just has to be a British element. Or at the very least a north-western Europe element because the French are well known for mocking the ‘ridiculousness’ of the way the ‘colonies’ speak their language. I’d argue that maybe (just maybe) the Francosphere are more divided than we Anglos are.

But wait they have that ‘Francophonie council’ (google it if you don’t believe me) where they meet up and, regardless of what they officially say, fight the onslaught of English in the international arena. I can’t think of anything like that for English, well at the very least it’s not as prominent, and in any case there isn’t much of a need for it, is there?

So wait, is this a British thing? And before any Americans get up in arms, that is the correct adjective because, whatever happens English came from England. And YOU CAME FROM ENGLAND. And if you disagree with that I explained this above. Have a read again about 'Why we're all British' if you haven't.

The ‘British’ argument is one that I’ve leaned towards for a long time since there is an ‘us against the world’ mentality in these isles coupled with a sense of righteous snobbery from having shaped so much of the world in the image it is in today. And the Americans have definitely got this too. I’ve lost count of the number of Americans who feel that their government is a ‘do-good’ police force for the world and that they really are bringing ‘democracy’ to world, only the world isn’t too grateful. Argue the political ramifications elsewhere, this is most definitely in the psyche of many Americans, much as Victorian England thought that they were doing a great service to the world with all its ‘expansions.’ If you’re anti-war you may argue about how your nation is a ‘great beacon of civilisation’ and how the world can learn much from following your examples. That, again, was something the Victorians thought when they pushed through all the labour reforms and cleaned up the Thames with the largest sewage system then known to man. I see a lot of similarities in mindset even if many Americans feel that England is some weird foreign country that couldn’t be more different. I’m sorry I still don’t buy it, why are Brits and Americans so adamant about considering each other different?

Well, the best answer I can come up with is that it’s comforting. We’re familiar to the Americans and they’re familiar to us. In this mad crazy world where national identities are often blurred and manipulated and changed Britain (or the US) is a wall to lean on and give and take culture from, and then pretend as though it never happened. It’s better than having a rapport with say, the French or Russians, with their weird languages and bizarre rituals, call the English foreign because they speak our language so we can talk the night away about how different we are when secretly, deep down, we know we have more in common than we may admit to. One thing I found particularly weird when I travelled to the New World (I love calling it that and sounding like some big shot explorer!) is that I felt far more at home in the US than I did Canada. That was down to one thing; a cynical attitude. As strange as it may sound, the cheerful attitude of Canadians, whilst lovely (and I’m not knocking it I swear) did create some distance. Weird. Not enough for me to think of them as foreign before anyone points the finger, but the distance was there. Just like there is a bit of distance between me and many people from London proper, but it’s not huge.

So enjoy thinking of Brits as totally different, Americans. I know it’s not true. I know our secret…

Regards,

The Vedic Underdog

My freedom hurts me (or, the terrible price we pay for free speech)

I haven’t written on here in ages not so much because of laziness (though no doubt that has been a factor) but because I’ve been battling health issues. I still am, but I’m powering through because my restless mind keeps coming with mental vomit that I need to release.

OK, that may sound disgusting but that said there are many things that have disgusted me in recent times and so I shall try and vocalise them clearly. But that got your attention didn’t?

Don’t lie!

Now on to what this post is really about. The diamond jubilee occurred about 2 weeks ago in this country, sprouting mixed feelings. The traditional nationalists have been all over it and then there have been those that have a good old dollop of British cynicism about the whole thing. The monarchist - republicanist debate has been going on for a long time and I shan’t go into it here beyond saying that I find both sides have valid arguments. But there is one façade amongst the republicans that does not sit well with me.

It all started a few days before the actual jubilee bank holiday was upon us and someone decided to post up a meme. The meme had a picture of the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh laughing, over which someone had ‘wittingly’ written ‘Haha, you’re poor.’ I found it a little stupid and offensive.

Not so much because they were mocking the royals (more on that later) but because of their insinuation; that the people who made it and those that share it ARE poor, and that they’re living it up and we have nothing. I’m not buying that! You’re sitting at a comfy desk sending it via your laptop or smartphone, you have plenty of food and free medical care. Yes, things are tight but news flash: YOU’RE NOT POOR! YOU’RE NOT EVEN CLOSE TO BEING POOR! And you can argue about how the upper 1% controls everything and death to capitalism blah blah blah (though when explained coherently I don’t have a problem) but when you’re a bit jealous that they have a big estate but you aren’t going hungry every night I find it hard to believe you. How about trying to help the actual poor rather than taking a pop at people that you’ll never meet and have very little influence on your daily lives??

Next time you’re trying to make a ‘social point’ on facebook or anything else (which for the most part seems like trying to earn brownie points or a badge of honour in front of your friends, looking like you actually give a damn about someone else just by sharing a stupidly made picture on a social network), how about going for something a bit more hard hitting, or at the very least with a little more fact behind it? I find it all rather ridiculous.

Now on to something similar: mocking the royals. This increased a lot in the weeks and days leading up to the jubilee, with Brits and people pretending to be ‘liberal’, ‘revolutionist’ and ‘hip’ getting involved. One friend even posted up an infamous Sex Pistols song. I don’t need to tell you which one. Some of it had a point about how they control land and questioning how much political power the royals actually have, and I have no problem with that.

Sadly not all of it actually had a point. Some of it was rather like the example I discussed above, poking fun at something without actually thinking for a second about its monumental stupidity. From people who are older than me and in most cases should know better before you play the ‘idiots on the web’ card. When you’re making fun of their accents, appearance and what they should and shouldn’t do you’ve gone too far. At some stage you’re just mocking an innocent family or innocent individuals with their flaws as much as the next person. I’m reminded now of a particular joke the comedian Frankie Boyle did that was lauded by ‘liberals’ (and I dispute that tag enormously) as being satirical, hard hitting and modern. IT WAS NONE OF THESE THINGS! It was nothing more than a comedian pretending to have the balls to talk about anything basically trying to get a laugh out of the ageing process. Give yourselves a pat on the back if you thought it was satire. You couldn’t have been further from the truth.

For those of you saying he was exercising his freedom of speech, you’re right he was. But guess what so am I by criticising it. If you don’t like it, go somewhere else. At least I gave reasons!

I just find that people take shots at the royals because, in the words of correspondent Jenny Bond, they’re such an easy target who will never fight back or say anything in retaliation. Congratulations, you’re all big hard hitting satirists, picking on such a soft scapegoat!

It is far too easy to look cool by mocking the Queen, and I for one am tired of it.

In short, if you have something valid to say about whether the royal family should stay or not, I’m ready to listen. If you’re just going to make fun of them, go away. You’re worse than useless because it means absolutely nothing. Now go get something to eat from your fridge and think about how ‘poor’ you really are.

Regards,

The Vedic Underdog