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.