Who am I?
I have travelled to over 23 countries in my life and noted little tangible evidence to qualify myself as superior or different to a Tahitian or a Cook Islander. Everybody ate, slept, drank, sought pleasure, laughed, cried. So why do some people exert their dominance over another, I wondered? Why do some walk barefoot so others can drive in a luxury car? Why should some people live for 35 years so others can live for 75 years? Why do some people live in miserable poverty so others can live in disgusting opulence? In Britain I was often asked in by patriotic zealots (of which there are many) the cliché “are you proud to be British?” Is there a need to be I would think? If being proud of a rock or a tree in Britain is what you mean then of course not. I am no less proud of the achievements of the Afghani people who are bravely resisting the invasion of their lands, or the beleaguered natives of the Americas who resisted the pogrom and genocide committed by white aggressors against them, nor the brave Canadian solders who shed their blood in order to visit the mother of defeats on Hitler fascism in WWII. Likewise French, Spanish, Iraqi, Palestinian, Japanese, Chinese, Korean and Argentinean (etc) people have achieved great things equal to that of British people. My confused reply to myself is simple: “be proud of people and defend their right to their own distinct polities” it was once said that “patriotism was the last refuge of the scoundrel” I would agree with this statement. The British flag for me is the equivalent to a butcher’s apron, smeared with the blood of unfathomable numbers of indigenous peoples from the four corners of the globe. When my history teacher told me as a young man that “the British Empire was so vast that upon it the sun never set” I fired back “that’s because nobody would trust the British in the dark”. Proud of people also from my islands? some of course yes and others undoubtedly no. Proud to be British?……no need. I am Josh living on Blackfoot land a place my friends tend to call Lethbridge.
