The Anglophile's Ravings

Hi all!!!

Name's Mary Poppins, from South Africa, though many years back, originally from England, hence my rabid Anglophile tendencies. I am quite laid back adn reasonable, yet straightforward and often tactless. I love my blog, I've been writing it for a year. I'm a secretary by trade, but a freelance writer by inclination, trying to break into the industry. Ask me any questions you like and I will attamt to give meaningful answers though I can't promise to answer any below the belt questions since i am on here at work...

What else? Thanks to PeacePhoenix for inviting me to introduce myself over here. WHile I'm at it, I'd like to thank my agent, my mother, my ever enduring husband, my three children, 27 cousins on my mother's side, now depleted by one and of course my purring cats without whom I would never have got this far...

arty:

 

Describe your pussy.

 

Welcome to the Karma Kafe Mary, have a kup of koffee on the house. First question then: when did you move from England and why? Where did you live in the UK?

 

I think that comes under the category of below the belt!

 

I see my original post was misleading - I haven't lived in England in this incarnation, but in a previous life. I think I was a poor, quite bawdy woman who used to hang around in the theatre....

 

P>S> Definitely below the belt, sorry lithium, cannot answer that now....

 

He's talking about your cats (I hope!)

 

Have you ever visited the UK?

 

Well, why are you an Anglophile? What is it about England or English society/culture that makes you love it so much? Pray tell...

 

Yes, I meant your cats, what did you think I meant? :tongue:

What makes you believe you had a past life?

 

LOl re cats,.... you'll find them in the pussy.. err.. PET section then lithium!!!

PeacePhoenix, I have never lived in the UK in this embodiment. Charise, what I like about England is the essential style and sense of class and tradition the English have. Its a very ephemeral concept I am trying to put across. They are simply decent people, with decent values, in the main. I like the way they look after their buildings; their land and history and their people. The essential Englishness of Englishmen is what I really admire and am drawn to. Quite a dignified and brave race really, and quite defiant in the face of adversity, even if afraid..

 

I'd say nation, not race. We're a very multicultural society. I myself am mixed race.


Are you a religious person?

 

I will say race. I am not into politically correct socio-speak that amounts to avoiding treading on others' toes, PeacePhoenix. The English are a race of peoples!!!

No I am not remotely religious PP, why do you ask.

Here's a quote that sums up what I regard as quintessential Englishness:

An Englishman, even if he is alone, forms an orderly queue of one. - George Mikes

 

I ask because that's the purpose of this thread, to ask you deep and meaningul questions.


I don't talk of nationhood over race to be politically correct. I am not an especially politically correct person myself. I say nation because it is factually more accurate. Regardless of who traces what genetic lineage where (and the English lineage is diverse to begin with!) the socialising effect of a national culture is a much stronger force than one's racial characteristics. Race, scientifically speaking, refers purely to one's physical characteristics. Ethnicity takes in much broader social, cultural and economic factors. One can be of any race, and still be ethnically British and display the same cultural characteristics.

 

While you can use the word race to refer to a nationality of people, that meaning of the term is not the usual one. Common usage dictates that most people will assume you are talking about inherited, genetic characteristics. The characteristics you describe are recognisably British ones, perhaps they result from cultural traditions which affect how we tend to bring children up.

But with massive influxes of immigrants to an increasingly multicultural Britain, I'm not sure how representative these kinds of characteristics are of the increasingly diverse population of Britain as a whole. Since the Second World War and the end of the Empire we have had many successive waves of immigrants, all of whom bring with them their own cultural traditions; the character of Britishness has become more complex and has evolved with the assimilation of different cultures, and the traits you describe are probably on the decline.

How do you feel about this?

And you skipped my earlier question: what makes you believe you had a past life?

Have you visited Britain? Where did you go?

 

I am... and they are.... I'm not much of a fan of the perhaps more 'modern' Britain,

I never saw the previous q, or if I did I missed it. Not sure what makes me think I had a past life... I just feel i know or can realte to Engishness, if that makes sense and understand it on alavel that makes me think I once was one.

Have not visited Britain in this life..

 

Question nr.1
Are Zola budds safe in Jo'burg ??

Question nr.2..
do you believe in trust??
Tiger

 

Zola Budds (mini bus taxis) are HELL on wheels old tiger, you take your life in your hands just driving on the same ROADS as them never mind travelling IN them!!!

I do believe in trust but feel it is one of the mosta bused virtues and that hardly anyone can be said to be trustworthy anymore, sadly......

 

It is widely accepted that character traits such as the ones you described are a result of processes of socialisation and upbringing and are not essential, genetic characteristics. Bring up an Iraqi child in a typically British environment with British parents and British cultural practices and that child is as likely to become "typically British" and to "form an orderly queue of one" as one who is genetically Anglo-Saxon.

Do you plan to visit Britain? How do you think that your ideas about Britain will match the reality?

 

I think my ideas will match in a lot of ways and not in a lot of ways, too, lithium. I have plans to visit, but I don't ever think they'll be realised, not in this life, anyway...