Babel, Kosovo, Orwell and Kadare

On This Day

• 1389: Ottoman sultan Murad I defeats the Serbs at the Battle of Kosovo, a key event in Serbian national history.

The BBC.

Strange the banging together of ideas and thoughts - and lessons.

I was doing a 'conversation' session on Wednesday - based (at the request of one of the participants) on a set of programmes from the BBC Learning English programme, Talk about English.

The series (excellent) is called, 'Who on Earth are we?' - and has a basis in the idea of culture and how it affects communication.

We started to examine the idea of stereotypes and got on to the question of what stereotypes people thought there were about Romanians. Our discussion moved into the topic of religion, never very safe at the best of times.


Life got a little warm, but not too heated - the biggest issue being over the peaceful nature of the Orthodox religion in Romania.

I decline, at this point, to address that.

After the discussion, I thought about posting a few comments on the effects of religion on the 'cultural identity' of people.

However, seeing as I regard statements in the English classroom as more confessional than those delivered to your average psychiatrist (at least you are concious of what you are saying on the couch, and in some control of the language you are using) I decided against it - and preserved the integrity of Babel, once again.

However, the issue has been simmering - and when, today, the Beeb pop up with the Kosovo Battle - it spills over.

Take a look at this choice piece of writing:

On June 28, 1389, a mighty battle was fought at Kosovo Polje. It pitted the Serbian defenders of Christ's holy cross against the invading Ottoman Empire (Turkey) adherents of the Muslim crescent moon.

This is from a piece from 'Truthmedia' - welcome to 1984 'newspeak' in reality.

I think the idea of combining crude nationalism and divisive religious views can find no better expression (I also guess the writers of this 'truth' wouldn't even notice they'd done it).

I've blogged before on nationalism and patriotism - on the difference between loving the state and loving the land.

Unfortunately, religion has been dragged in on the side of the state - and that leads to an intensification of conflict.

It doesn't have to be - the English (after beating each other to death and burning a few people) finally settled to a religion which, at its best, fitted the land: Anglicanism is a now dated celebration of getting on with the farming and not messing around with the harvest.

It's whole principle is the reduction of religion to being servant of the people, not the other way round - and if the sate is going to be involved (and, boy, is it involved in the Anglican Church!) it is only to make sure the religion stays firmly in it's place - Sunday morning, and a couple of rites of passage.

God and you are friends on personal terms - you don't need a man in silly clothes to interfere between you - and the buildings are nice too.

Not so I'm afraid with other nations - they take their gods far too seriously - look at the state America gets in!

And don't forget, that is a place which believes in the separation of religion from the state!

Newspeak!

If there was to be a 'new-speak' in Orwell's totalitarian world, there must have been an 'Oldspeak'.

Fortunately, Kosovo has managed to produce an adherant to Oldspeak as well as countless adherents to the destruction of words.

Ismail Kadare

You may, or may not have heard of the Albanian author - he has something of a reputation.

For the purposes of this little excursion, he wrote perhaps the sanest book on the events in Kosovo over 600 years ago:

Three Elegies for Kosovo.

(Amazon uk)


Technorati Tags: BBC, Kosovo, religion, Timisoara, Romania, Babel, USA

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Basic Instinct

An inevitable consequence of exile, self-imposed or otherwise, is the occasional twitch of what I think is best to describe as 'pro-patria-ism'.

In my case it manifests as, 'it's nice, but it's better in England.'

Which is odd - because there isn't an ounce of serious nationalism in my bones (maybe it's hidden in the blood?).

But then - musing further, I am aware of a distinction between patriotism and Nationalism ... but, until today, I wouldn't like to distinguish between the two - even though I knew the difference - one I had, one I didn't.

Today I have had a gleam.

I was sat by the Bega (doing a lot of that recently) sunning myself and listening to a string quartet - by Bliss. It was English. I could never in a month of Sundays tell you why - but that piece of music could not be anything other than the product of someone breed in England (birth is not a pre-requisite). Around the same time, a bird 'gave-it-gip' - and that was English too.

The doves on my window-sill billing and cooing in the morning are nice - but distinctly not (my) English - the bloody blackbird who dawn-choruses at some unearthly hour, is; the sparrows here are not quite urban enough to be English: The Scots pine in the park is - the oak, not quite - it's not English oak, its leaf is not quite right (it is actually a Turkish oak), its acorn perverse in shape.

Around this time it dawned - patriotism is about place - it is the place where you grew, the place which supported; the resources and riches; the shelters and the exposures: Patria is the environment your brain processes and patterns in the same way (and at the same time) as it processes and patterns your home language.

You have as much chance of escaping your patriotism as you have your mother tongue.

Shakespeare tapped in to this in Richard II - The John of Gaunt speech ... he lists the physical. Maybe my performance of this earlier this week at the British Library lay dormant 'til the combined forces of birdsong and music released it; maybe the poem itself has added the glue which cements the connections.

And it's to Shakespeare I first turn for the second half of the 'understanding': Henry V.

As it was St George's Day, and as I was in the mood for fireworks, I included both the 'patriotic' speeches Henry gives - but they are not, I now realise, patriotic - they are Nationalistic.

They are 'band of brother', all together now, we're a special 'breed' speeches - they appeal to the unity of men (and it is a masculine thing). It is an appeal to work together, to hunt, to co-operate; the team spirit. The nation as social unit.

As such, I suspect it has its roots far less deep in our psyche - maybe less deep, but still remarkably powerful.

There is a strong element of attack and challenge in it - of beat down the other. It is an instinct which you find both on the football pitch, and in the crowd watching the game - and in the pubs on the Costa del ... whatever.

It is a transferable instinct though - you can change allegiance: A necessary thing I suspect when groups of hunter-gatherers had to split and separate, to move for mating purposes, to join for the big hunt, but stick to a smaller family group in winter with resources scarce.

I can't avoid my patriotism - the sight of a cloud's shadow passing a patch of green is going to spark memories of the moors of the Peak District - and the chill that goes with it, or the sky lark high above; a sparkle on the Bega will re-awaken smells and sounds of a much dirtier, industrial Manchester ship canal; a glass of cold beer cannot but result in a dull ache - a longing for a firm hand around a cool glass of Boddington's.

I can transfer my football team allegiance - Poli-Timisoara's results are far more important to me than any English team (although 'the blues' do retain an allegiance - but that I suspect is linked to the Manchester-patriotic in me).

Technorati Tags: England, Patriotism, Nationalism, Shakespeare, Timisoara

Un-British

Improve your Britishness by doing something very un-British?

I've lived and worked in several countries where they do this sort of thing - mostly former Eastern-Block and former communist - and can assure you, as a Brit, it really is the last thing to do.

The casual assurance of one's Englishness (in my case) and commitment to 'standards', could never have developed through formal means - you need bread in sausages, Ice Cream made from hydrogenated pig fat and bitter to do that.

(More BBC)

And one they've not published:

What is China's game?

But surely - the Olympics is totally unpolitical which is why the athletes are asked to give up their right to free speech in order to not upset the hosts?

Why does any country participate and spend a lot of money on training competitors etc but for the love of sport and individual triumph?

And surely London bid for the Olympics purely for humanitarian reasons - the chance for those poor athletes to see a free and beautiful city?

China is just participating in the 'norm'..

White and Working Class

Two responses to the BBC:

Has the Sun stopped publication?

Is the media not dominated by sports coverage?

Is the high street emptied of pubs?


Do the conservative party still not promote 'traditional' values?


Goodness - maybe time to come back to a more mature and civilised England!

and:

Born in Wythenshawe - in Deepest White Working Class Manchester - I got an education (state - local comprehensive onto provincial university) so that my voice and opinions were worth listening to: They have been.

So too have the opinions of a lot of school colleagues who followed a less 'exalted' route (eg the girl who worked at two jobs and studied at night school).

Learn to articulate, do something for yourself, get opinions not prejudices and maybe such a silly discussion wouldn't happen.