…at the Empire
Ahh…we’ve come a long way, haven’t we?? From the days when Britain would send out their flotsam and jetsam to rule over natives like us in their Empire!! What does it mean that, right now, the Prime Ministers of Britain and Ireland (Rishi Sunak and Leo Eric Varadkar) – as well as the First Minister of Scotland (Humza Yousaf) – are all of Indian/Pakistani origin?? Will curry now be served at all official functions?? Being all second generationers, will their common experience of being hassled as “outsiders” trigger inclusivity programmes??
Does this willingness (?) to be governed by spawns of formerly despised natives mean that Britain have now moved beyond the racism they did so much to inflict on the rest of the world?? At a certain level, we gotta concede that this elevation of “wogs” means some things have changed positively. But your Eyewitness still believes we’ve got an even longer way to go before we can start singing kumbaya!! Incidentally, did you realise that “kumbaya” is of creole origin – “come by ya” or “come near me”??
While each of them will take – and have taken – progressive views on minorities (Varadkar’s also gay), they’re still representing the views of populations that feel strongly about those matters. So, they’ve all had to bow to the harder line on immigration, for instance. It’s all about the votes they’ll need to garner if they hope to return to the office. On Brexit, Ireland’s Varadkar is opposed, since it’s made relations with the North more problematical. Sunak stoutly harks to the Brexit line, but, on Northern Ireland, has struck a deal with the EU that the tough-as-nails N Irish DUP haven’t approved.
Meanwhile, Scotland’s Yousaf might have to sit across from Sunak to negotiate his country’s demand that they rejoin the EU, for starters – and secede, for enders!! Will they see this as a recapitulation of the “two nations theory” that split Pakistan from India – and then Bangladesh from Pakistan?? Ahh…what sweet irony!! The Brits split India to keep the latter distracted and amenable to western manipulations. Will the three upstarts be motivated to repeat history as farce??
For us in the Caribbean, it’s interesting that Sunak and Yousaf have a nexus with Africa. The former’s grandfathers on both branches of their family tree are Indian – through many generational sojourns in Kenya and Uganda. Similarly, Yousaf’s mom is through Kenya. Even anecdotally, they’d have been told of anti-Indian racism from Africans – so they’ll appreciate many folks have to take some planks from their eyes before moving towards racial rapprochement.
Interestingly, Yousaf has identified strongly with Scotland’s Muslim community, and Sunak with England’s Hindu community.
Will they import the India-Pakistan divide when they sit across from each other??
…at machines??
Ahh…what a complication it is, trying to carve out a decent life as humans!! Sometimes your Eyewitness thinks it would’ve been so much simpler if we were still hanging out in caves –hunting and gathering!! Look at what a hard time we’ve had every time we try to make “progress”. Was it better settling down and planting crops rather than eating off the land?? If yes, why are we spending so much on “paleo diets”??
Then we created machines like steam engines “to make life easier”. But ended up with an “Industrial Revolution” that made life more nasty, brutish and shorter than the jungle!! No wonder some folks – called “Luddites” – took to breaking up machines and factories because they were doing work folks did using their hands!
But it looks like we’re in for another confrontation between man and machine – with this Artificial Intelligence (AI) stuff that’ll make a whole lotta people redundant!!
Maybe Putin will bomb us back into the Stone Age to “save us”??
…at Opposition propaganda
Basically, what the PPP GS is saying is that, with smart phones, everybody can offer their views over social media. On the Opposition claiming discrimination and racism etc, he’s suggesting PPP supporters speak their truth to the Opposition’s propaganda!!
People’s powah!!
