Love Thy Neighbour

There has been so much in the news recently about racism. 

The news from the Middle East where Israel pounds the very life out of Gaza and surrounding Hamas-occupied areas is indeed dreadful.  It is hard to think what those poor Palestinian people must be suffering at the hands of the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) who are intent on an eye for an eye. However, let it not be said that just because people are Jewish, it means they support the IDF or Israeli government. Even Jews within Israel have made it known that they do not support Benjamin Netanyahu and certainly most Jews here in the UK have spoken out in horror about the Israeli answer to the Palestinian situation. It therefore should not mean that Jews living in this country should be afraid for themselves or their children living here in the UK, when emotions against Israel run so high.

Similarly, the atrocious and mindless behaviour of some rent-a-mob louts over the last ten days in the UK have been directed shamefully against Muslims, who had nothing to do with the killing of those three little girls in Stockport. Misinformation or disinformation had incensed them to act appallingly against fellow human beings, just because of their race and religion. It got me thinking about a post I had written back in August 2016 and I decided to repost it here.

Love Thy Neighbour

A lot has been reported lately about cases of xenophobia and racist attacks that have been occurring in various parts of the country since the referendum result to leave the EU. I cannot condone that in any shape of form, especially as my father was himself a victim of racism in 1930s Nazi Germany and had to flee for his life to Britain in 1939. He married an English Land Girl and later was naturalised months before I was born, so strictly speaking, although I was born and bred here and consider myself to be nothing other than white Caucasian British, you could also say I am a second-generation immigrant.

I have mentioned before that I live in a small private cul-de-sac of 32 town houses in a suburb of London.  All the houses are the same and are grouped round a large communal field which is shared by all the residents for relaxation, large marquee parties, children to play etc. We have a residents' association which manages all communal aspects like gardening of the field, external painting of the houses at set intervals, repaving and lighting of the street to name a few things. I would say I know more than half of my neighbours personally. I don't know how many of you can say you know 16 sets of neighbours well and particularly in a big city like London. About half are British, the rest are a right old mix of nationalities. Off the top of my head I can count families from Ghana, Nigeria, Malawi, Croatia, Norway, India, Austria, Australia to name those I personally know. We all co-exist without any problems and invite one another's children to knock on our doors at Halloween or invite the grown ups too to attend birthday parties or other functions held on the communal area. In recent years we communally celebrated in the new Millennium and VE day. One of my neighbours once held her wedding reception in a marquee on the lawn and we were all invited. There are frequent kiddies' parties with bouncy castles or entertainers. Last week one of our neighbours, who has a had a lot of modernisation done on her house over the last 4 months), invited us all to a house-warming party as a thanks for our understanding about the noise, endless  skips and upheaval caused during that time. Again nationalities of all kinds mixed in to enjoy a lovely summer day together.

P.S. (August 2024). Maybe I am naive, but we are all human beings, whatever our colour, race or religion and should try to live harmoniously alongside one another, share our planet and leave it a better place to live. It starts with our neighbours and then with our street, our town, our country and finally our world. It is such a shame that some people are intent on spoiling it.

Mad World

I think I'm getting old. The kind of old where you yearn for how things used to be. The kind of old where you find yourself saying, "In my day, we used to.......".

It seems we live in a funny old world now. The days of relative peace and harmony since the last major world war seem to have gotten more risky, worrying and crazy.  I know the world has seen sporadic outbreaks of trouble over that period, but none so risky as now with the internet and other technology to aid faster communication.

The shenanigans of American politics, the Russian attack on Ukraine, the brewing tension in the Middle East and the mindless thuggery over the last few days in the UK since the brutal stabbings in Stockport alone have made the world seem an even more dangerous place to be. In addition, social media and drones are the two things that make information and disinformation readily available at our fingertips. It makes our enemy abroad and the mindless thugs at home ready to assemble at a moment's notice and know where to attack. Unlike our parents' generation where snail mail, telegrams and months of intelligence-building took an age to prepare.

I have to say that the mindless thuggery seen on our streets this week are reminiscent of Nazi Germany where a politician of a small party in the 1920s sowed seeds into the minds of a racist few and conjured up in 1933 twelve years of racist hatred that led to the extermination of six million Jews. Many years ago that would have seemed unlikely to happen here. But now? Imagine a right-wing minority party here with an MP in Parliament and the scenes unfolding this week in a town near you. It's ironic that the thugs seem to carry flags of St George - a saint who originates from the area of Turkey. If only they could appreciate the irony.

I'm also getting fed-up of being made to feel guilty that I should be supporting people who  choose to have large families, because of the two-child benefit cap. I have no objection to people having large families if they so wish. But I don't see why I should have to subsidise them with my hard-earned money. I find that at the foodbank at which I volunteer, the regular group of mums with six kids have amazing manicured fingernails which can only have been painted at nail bars. I know for a fact that these nail bars cost a bomb and I often wonder as I hand out bags groaning with free food to them, that they could have afforded the food themselves, if they had gone without having their nails done. I often see them get into their big cars and drive off, again making me wonder where their priorities lie. Call me old-fashioned, but my parents survived a world war on very little and with no hand-outs at all. They couldn't afford a car in their entire lifetime and my father had two jobs to save up for a mortgage on a very modest house. People's expectations have grown to expect things such as a TV, washing machine, car and painted nails - to name a few - as given these days and, I'm not saying they should not be,  but to expect things handed on a plate at someone else's expense seems unrealistic. I'm sure many of you will disagree, but then that's why I say, I think I must be getting old...... and probably very grumpy, like Victor Meldrew.