General Chat

I live in a "New Town" which has grown considerably since I was young.


In the last 15yrs, the local hospital has been demolished and rebuilt on the same ground.
Some land was sold for housing, which is where I now live

The upshot is, that many of my neighbours are from overseas, medics or staff connected to the hospital.
We currently have Kenyan, Somali, Canadian, Pakistani, Irish, Chinese, Arabic and Eastern European neighbours.

When we first moved in, all the young boys in the area played together.
It was like United Nations

Hardly any of them spoke the same language but, it made no difference to them because, they all knew how to play ......football !

That's brilliant, GlasgowLass! :-D

Sharron, if your OH grew up in Tottenham, and didn't notice the diversity/immigration in the area, all I can say is, more power to his elbow!!! :-D
Seeing people as people rather than people as colour or religion is an amazing thing!! :-D :-D :-D :-D

it is indeed brilliant!

My daughter went to a private school here that had both Junior and Senior schools.

Her class in the first year had only 16 students .............. and I think there were only about 3 Canadian born, although all had been here long enough to speak English.

The proportions changed as she moved up through the school, but I think it was never more than 50% Canadian born ............. and even some of those were born of foreign-born parents, as she was.

As a result, she had this incredible range of friends from all over the world, and she and her class mates have turned out to be completely colour-, religion- and sexual orientation-blind.

Her very best friend arrived at the school in Grade 8 (2nd year of Senior school), and was born on a Caribbean island of a mixed Ismaili Muslim / Hindu marriage, apparently not uncommon down there. She and my daughter are as close as they ever were even though they now live in different countries ........... 30+ years after they first met.

We were lucky enough to be invited to S's marriage, which involved 2 ceremonies ......... one under Ismaili Muslim rites and then next day under Hindu rites.

I was not really talking about the people who do the religion. It was more about the people who have never really noticed how, why, where or if they do it.

It is like there is our religion and all those other people do something else. They won't be doing it in my front room so I really don't care what they do.

Actually, I am as bad. There was a man who ran a sub-post office and he wore a tiny skull cap. It was not that long ago and I can remember discussing it with somebody who lived near the post office.

We concluded that he was hiding some sort of wound like a burn or something.

Of course he was Jewish but we assumed he would be wearing a great big skull cap, pr, more likely a hat with a dirty gurt brim and some ringlets.

well, the conversation has gone every which way :-D

Just before he died, my dad said, what he really wanted for his children was that they should talk to a beggar and a king alike.
(ie don't judge a book by his cover - which included religion, colour, politics etc)

He said we had all 'passed the test', but I could have been a little more deferential to the Saudi Prince I was talking to, when we had to take dad's Saluki back to the pound to service the bitches!!
The dog had been bred by the prince, who had a stud.
After weaning, all the puppies were put together in a 'nursery'.
Dad had chosen his puppy - which, while in the 'nursery' killed all the other male dogs :-(
Dad was given his dog but was asked not to get him neutered for a couple of years, until he had serviced the bitches, as he was an amazing dog.
We took him to do his duty - which was when I (aged 17) was left with this bloke. I'm not too good with 'small talk', and was chatting about feminism, misogyny, puppy farms etc.
I wasn't aware that he was a prince! :-S

:-D :-D :-D

I was raised not to make any decisions about liking or not liking anyone based on race religion or creed, but to get to know them first.

It has served me well


For some reason, my brother, who was 10½ years older than me, had VERY different ideas.

It got to be that there were quite a few topics that we never discussed between us.

I still say more power to you and your OH's elbow, Sharron :-D

I became very aware of colour very young. As a child I had jet black hair and was 3 shades darker than I am now. I suffered racial abuse for being ......English!! Dad was Cornish. Both he and his mum were 'swarthy', with bright blue eyes and jet black hair. I had the skin and hair but brown eyes (from mum), and looked very Jewish.
Dad converted to Islam when I was 11/12, so I sort of knew about that, but as far as dad was concerned, it was his religion, what I (or my mum and siblings) did was our affair.
So, as an ageing, paling, English atheist, interested in genealogy who (just or the heck of it) studied religion at uni in my 40's, I find myself asking fascists and BNP members to explain the origin of their surname, and why they think they should be here and refugees from modern war-torn countries shouldn't - and why they think they should have more say than me!!

Sylvia, that was my dad's view too.
I was very happy at his view that I wasn't quite a deferential to the prince as perhaps I should have been. He was a puppy farmer - why should I be deferential?
When my daughters were 'discussing' (arguing about) the racial abuse suffered, at school, by a friend of my younger daughter - she couldn't understand why, elder daughter was 'explaining' that he was black - younger daughter arguing he wasn't (he was), I was thrilled :-D

Likewise, when she was at University, on a field trip, and her friend Jack was allocated a top bunk. Everyone forgot/no-one realised, he had a prosthetic leg :-D

My maternal grandparents were Brethren..... until my grandfather told them they were a load of hypocrites & he & grandmother joined the Presbyterians.

My paternal grandparents went to church when they had to (weddings, funerals).

My father joined the B'Hai

My mother was a Seventh Day Adventist

I don't have much time for organised religion, mainly because of all the "teachings" forced on me as a child.

I guess I got very few genes from my 14xgreat-grandfather, who was a BISHOP!

:-(

btw...... nothing to do with religion at all........ my Scottish mother was an excellent cook!

Last time I went I was carried in and the next time will be the same.

'May I draw your attention to two public consultations running at present which afford the opportunity to appeal for more & better religious broadcasting?

In recent years, ITV & Channel 4 have virtually withdrawn from the genre. BBC television produces significantly less than even in the recent past & precious little these days is broadcast during peak time viewing. BBC radio, curiously, offers much better coverage than BBC television.

In these days when a grasp of religion is ever more important in understanding the state of our world, the case for religious broadcasting seems particularly strong. The BBC Royal Charter ends next year. Please take the trouble to use these two consultations to support religious broadcasting.

The Department for Culture, Media & Sport is at – www.gov.uk/government/consultations/bbc-charter-review-public-consultation.

The BBC Trust is at – www.bbc.co.uk/tomorrowsbbc'.

*(Copied from this week's edition of 'The Tablet'.)

Although I have no religious belief, I love old country churches. I will sometimes sit quietly in a pew for a bit of contemplation.