So where do you live and how well have you assimilated with the local community?

He lives on Craggy Island with Father Ted and Father Dougal.

Edited by DanH (07 Oct 2021 9.51pm)

There a lot going on here so I shall go through it in order. I also started supporting CPFC when I moved locally in my teens.

If I were to go to Afganistan I very much doubt that I would start smoking heroin. For a couple of reasons, firstly heroin is not as easily obtainable in Afganistan as it is elsewhere, the majority of the opium is exported before processing and the heroin that is produced inside Afganistan is all for export. Opium the raw material from which heroin is made is widely available but I would decline to partake as I am reliably informed that it’s bad for you.

There are around forty to sixty languages spoken in Afghanistan. Dari and Pashto are the two official languages. Farsi is also widely spoken. As you say it would be both necessary and polite to learn at least one. Afghan cuisine is great, there are a few good restaurants in London. Namak Mandi in Tooting is good.

Milan Kundera in his book Ihe Unbearable Lightness of Being wrote, “being in a foreign country means walking a tightrope high above the ground without the net afforded a person by the country where he has his family, colleagues, and friends, and where he can easily say what he has to say in a language he has known from childhood”. It is, as I am sure you will know difficult to be foreign.

I am very happy, thanks for asking.

I presume that you are asking where I live or have lived? I am originally from Wales. I presently live in England and I have previously lived in Japan. I speak fluent English, pretty good French and passable Japanese. I did study Welsh at school, however, I have forgotten most of it.

I am not sure that it is a good idea to dwell too much on how much you are liked by others.

“Il n’y a qu’un bonheur dans la vie, c’est d’aimer et d’être aimé”. George Sand

Didn't he say that he would, 'try to respect their culture, learn their language'?

In his and my view multiculturalism doesn't work in terms of high social cohesion, never has and probably never will. It's independent of the English/British aboard or foreigners here...Now that doesn't mean that anyone's hating anybody or that for a minority of any group that assimilation can be a success....I can think of wonderful people I taught who any nation would be proud to have....but at the same time their own nation was being deprived of them.

It's a very nuanced picture, which isn't really suitable for forum soundbites in truth. If people choose to criticise the forced integration of multiple cultures then they themselves get criticised by those still living the integrationist dream.....it's all very tribal and binary.

Edited by Stirlingsays (07 Oct 2021 11.22pm)

'Who are you and how did you get in here? I'm a locksmith. And, I'm a locksmith.' (Leslie Nielsen)

His comment you referred was a non reply as it purposefully dodged any comment on where he is and how he interacts (which likely tells us much of what we need to know) to make a joke about how he'd smoke heroin in Afghanistan.

I just found it amusing to so harshly attack immigrants moving here as those sitting around watching TV broadcast from the country they left behind, while going on to effectively say that he's proud of doing precisely that himself as an immigrant. The totality of what he said just speaks to a visceral sweeping dislike of certain types of people that he feels should adhere to a standard that he himself has a much more relaxed view of with his own behaviour.

I would agree that the above is entirely detached though on whether it's a 'good idea' for masses of people to move from one country to another in a short period and all live in communities together with as little change to their lives as possible. I certainly don't think that's a great way to assimilate or fit in and there are better approaches (much smaller numbers, spread out locations and so on). Change is inevitable, but how the government approach that and what the population would like has often been out of sync.

Edited by BlueJay (07 Oct 2021 11.38pm)

Some interesting thoughts there certainly. As for tribalism and tribalism, I don't really think societies work in the absence of either, and so it comes down to a matter of degrees this way or that. And even at face value they're both open to such interpretation and multi factored they are as much flawed ideas than easily applicable realities. As in, construct your perfect reality - your perfect tribe or your just society - and it will soon become apparent why so many aspects of it are far from either. Set the dial too far one way or the other and all it results in is politically entrenched attitudes that stops an individual being able to relate to the average person.

As for hypocrisy you're bang on, we're all hypocrites to varying extents so can't help but point it out in others too. Being such a universal quality that too is often something of a waste of time to highlight (but we continue to do so). That said, living as closely to integrity and fairness (treating others as we would like to be treated) as possible is a laudable and attractive quality, and so that might factor into where people 'set their dials'. The more tribal the less we do that I feel, both left and right. It becomes all too easy to mentally count others out.

Comedian Norm MacDonald died the other day and he had a joke about hypocrisy.

Somebody said to him that the worst thing about Bill Cosby was the hypocrisy.. Macdonald said he disagreed.. and 'thought it was the raping'.

Edited by BlueJay (08 Oct 2021 1.16am)