Saturday, February 02, 2008

[allegiances] regions within regions


How careful do you have to be when referring to nationality? I wrote this:
If you were to walk out of my front door onto the corridor, there are two Muslim families on the left, two Russian on the right, then another Russian [Orthodox] and Muslim. Lots of children, one old couple and then us in here.

When we speak, it's in Russian [language] and the couple on the left is the closest thing we have to yuppy [anyone unhappy over this term?]. No one feels any significant ethnic difference - our biggest issue is the rubbish disposal service and don't even start me on this outrageous backsliding into greed.

They've stopped the decades old automatic removal system and now you have to phone some number and pay for them to come and get your rubbish. Haven't had time to get into this yet but will do so tomorrow. Meanwhile, the bags of rubbish accumulate.

So the type of ethnic tension in Kosovo and Israel does not see the light of day. Why? The answer's pretty obvious - everyone is into domestic issues, making ends meet, improving our lot and so on.
Ian P immediately and quite rightly took issue with the word Muslim placed alongside Russian. So let's get right down to this ethnic issue, starting with the Britain/UK/England/EU Region question.

Of course, the tension over Rutland is part of folklore and the fact that "Rutland is the county in England with the highest Total Fertility Rate at 2.81" leads one to question what residents do at night.

The question of Taunton being historically part of Minehead already, is discussed in the video below. The ancient struggle for old Williton, torn between Taunton and Minehead, has blighted this area for generations. It might still blow up into open war and illustrates the problem of historicity and ethnic groupings.

Cut to Toque, who wants England to stand according to the "traditional" boundaries, as distinct from the EU monster imposed ones and I couldn't agree more. So, no Northumberland, only the once and future Northanhymbre, taking in Yorkshire and the North-East, as in my sidebar.

Who'd agree with this these days?

I don't speak "Northanhymbrean", just English and the Yorkshire accent is virtually non-existent although I can mimic my father. So when home, I'm seen as foreign or worse, a Southerner. The Southerners say, 'Touch of the antipodaean in there, I think" but the Australians used to call me "that Pom with the la-di-da accent". Where does that leave the Higham, as he's half Oirish on his mother's side, the family split between counties Cork and Antrim?

I'd like to ask Guthrum where he's from - from Wessex or is he a Brit or an Englishman? What of Kernow? I'd like to ask Colin Campbell if he's a Crow-eater, a Scot or an Australian. Whom does he support in the Test?

Are your allegiances to your town, region, county, state or nation? Prodicus noted:
A town is too small. A continent is too big and lacks tribal or quasi-familial bonds strong enough to hold it together - an empire likewise.
Where do we stop with this thing? The Mappa Mundi concedes Cornwall as separate and Dave Cole refers to the Stannaries or do you perhaps pay tribute to Gododdin or the Kingdom of Strathclyde? Perhaps you're a West-sider or a Northerner?

And what of Berwick, the Scottish town or is that English? What of Monmouthshire, the English county or is that Welsh?

Where's the U.S. Canadian border? What of the Ontario flare-up? Will there be open war?

Where are you from?

Have I asked too many questions?



25 comments:

  1. If you were to walk out of my front door onto the corridor, there are two Muslim families on the left, two Russian on the right, then another Russian and Muslim.

    I think that you make the mistake that many others do and give Muslims nation status.

    Where those Muslims Russian, or foreigners.? If so, then a better description would have been that there were Russian Orthodox Christians on one side, and Russian Muslims on the other.

    Islam is a religion, not a state.

    It is the same mistake that many make when they call all Jew's Israelis, when that is clearly not the case.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Actually, Ian, I was just not mentioning the republic.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Well this nationality/ allegiance thing is a problem as I know only too well.

    Then I have the granddaughter who is born in the States but also has Canadian and Italian citizenship and just missed out on Australian citizenship by a technicality and that could change some day.

    Let's not get into the regional issues as well.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Well James far too many questions but an interseting read.
    I too am half irish on my fathers side. He was from Armagh in the north.
    The whole division thing happens everywhere and i dont think people are ever going to be happy with how places are divided or labled but sometimesit just not that important. To me anyway.

    ReplyDelete
  5. The allegiances questions is an interesting one. Someone was asking me about it at work the other day.

    I myself, am Scottish, there are Irish roots in my family but that was so long ago, I'd way I was Scottish.

    To narrow it down further, I'd also say I Dundonian. We might have the highest teen pregnancy rate in Europe and we might be one of the most obese countries but I am still proud to have been born here.

    Scotland, as some people identify it, is not a region of England.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I was wondering if The Rutles came from Rutland... I usd to know the Duke of Rutland, I imagine you must know him as well... nice old boy.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I live in Berwickshire, which is in Scotland. Berwick as we all know is in England, despite their footie team propping up Scottish League 2.

    On the new BBC Beta web site you can put in your postcode to get local news. Mine begins with TD (standing for Tweed I'm told). Instead of getting local BBC Scotland news I get BBC Radio Newcastle. I'm bloody fed up of King Kev!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Amartya Sen has this interesting idea that you can't really talk about anyone having an identity or a nationality: we all have overlapping identities and nationalities. I think that makes more sense than just one nationality or identity.

    ReplyDelete
  9. "A town is too small. A continent is too big and lacks tribal or quasi-familial bonds strong enough to hold it together - an empire likewise."
    What about the Kalifate?

    ReplyDelete
  10. "A town is too small. A continent is too big and lacks tribal or quasi-familial bonds strong enough to hold it together - an empire likewise."
    What about the Kalifate?

    ReplyDelete
  11. I am actually Mercisc (Mercian) transplanted into Wessex, but a practicising Anglo Saxon, self teaching in Old English. I am not British because that is a meaningless statement. I also have a house in Normandy which I am proud to be an honorary Normand. Currently I am working in the Capetown Sun, so who cares !

    ReplyDelete
  12. I've lived in so many places across Britain during my life that it's impossible to feel connected with any one place. Born in Lancashire but do not feel northern at all. I don't feel southern (where I live at the moment) either.

    An English-Western European I guess I most identify with.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Funny you should ask. I think it depends on many things. I grew up in Scotland just down the road from Dundee in Fife, so I have strong ties there and a strong cultural allegiance. I haven't lived there since 1984.

    I am always sympathetic to the Scottish sports teams. Generally they need it. I think that is where my love of the underdog comes from.

    My first wife was American and I lived there off and on for over ten years so I have a connection there. No emotional involvement however. I never did get organised to be a citizen although I could have.

    My second wife is Australian. We met in Singapore which is where our kids were born. I live here in South Australia and readers of my blog will know that I like it here and am assimilating. I am a Permenant Resident and may take out citizenship someday. My kids are proud and interested in their Scottish heritage, but they are very Australian, like their mum.

    As for Crow Eater, I suppose so since this is all I really know in my Australian personna. Personally I prefer to be a Power Basher (in joke).

    ReplyDelete
  14. Yes, Power Basher Adelaide supporter. Very interesting to come home to this because I've just been doing 5 hours of Australia, complete with slides and money.

    JMB, Kate, Oestre - have to agree.

    Richard - I'll check that out.

    Mutley - yes, we're old drinking pals.

    Tiberius - it's true and then there was that recent survey of Brits on how pure they swere.

    Stephen - yes indeed.

    Guthrum - at least you know.

    Beaman - funny how many bloggers are from the north originally.

    Ian P - where are you from?

    ReplyDelete
  15. Monmouthshire is currently Welsh, though here in Monmouth town many either are or consider themselves to be English. The local Comprehensive school has a large number of pupils (the majority, I believe) bussed in from England, all of whom are compelled by law to learn Welsh.

    ReplyDelete
  16. I see that Julie's answered the Monmouthshire question. It used to be English, being the first Welsh county to be handed over in a plan to hand them all over eventually - but it never happened, I am glad to say. When I was a student in Cardiff we used to drive over to Newport because then it was "English" and the pubs closed at 11pm, not 10.30.
    My parents were Welsh, so I grew up with a Welsh accent and think of myself as Welsh, though I was born in Norwich and was brought up in Bristol and London. But Wales is where my cultural roots are - apart from my adopted Italian ones -and it's where I have lived the longest. My biological father was American but that has nothing to do with anything.
    Sicilians get very upset if anyone suggests they are in any way "separate" from Italy , and rightly so. But don't forget we have the separatist "Lega" in the north of Italy.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Hmm English, born to Irish parents, UK Citizen, Irish citizen (with both passports), Londoner or Essex boy as the mood takes me.. Nothing out of the ordinary, I suppose...

    ReplyDelete
  18. Born in Essex, but lived and worked in many places around the world.

    I dont consider myself an Essex boy, nor am I an Anglian, but am proud to be an Englishman, although now living in Wales. (a marriage move)

    Have various ties to other parts of the UK and other countries through work, family and former partners, Scotland, Russia, Sweden, USA, Germany, France. So very international in my outlook.

    But, no matter where I wander, I always come back to my homeland - England. The country that the EU wants to eradicate by splitting it into 9 regions.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Bretwalda Edwin-Higham said...

    Actually, Ian, I was just not mentioning the republic.


    I know, but the point I was trying to make was that Islam is not a nationality.

    Your opening paragraph gave them that status, in that you saw them as different from all other Russians, whereas I assume they were probably Russian Muslims.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Clearly struck a chord, this identity business and it IS an issue, isn't it, particularly as the old divisions are breaking down and people are asking who they are [in the former UK].

    With me it's a major issue, as I feel myself now in three places - Britain, Australia and Russia but a glance at my stats shows virtually no Russians but a huge U.S. percentage.

    I have many U.S. friends and feel an affinity there - don't know, some sort of same wavelength.

    I'm a bit at a loss with it all, quite frankly but one thing I'm certain of is that divisions between people are total stupidity - that was borne out yesterday in the bumper session with the Russian girls - how could I ever come at them with guns, just because I'm British and the government tells me they're the enemy?

    ReplyDelete
  21. Very interesting to follow this.

    I like best the very last sentence above.

    ReplyDelete
  22. I have long maintained that all countries should be building multi racial societies, not multi cultural ones.

    The Multi Cultural theme is purposefully devisive, and only serves to keep people pre-occupied whilst the slow motion Coup d'etat is under way across Europe.

    After they have ratified the Lisbon Treaty, just wait for the crack down.

    ReplyDelete

Comments need a moniker of your choosing before or after ... no moniker, not posted, sorry.