Huguenot

Sometimes I can't work you out AfN. Is it the BBC that get's your beef, or the state? If it's the latter, why are so many of your posts about Auntie?

I share the mental block differentiating Tessa Jowell and Harriet Harman. Do the council paint houses now? Gosh.

I hate texting. Big fat fingers and an alcoholic's shake. Don't send text if you don't want to talk to me. Don't use technology if you're too skint to pay for it, knock on the door instead. On that note, don't cultivate friendships in far away places if you don't have the bus fare.

Smilestar, I'm sure you intended your response to Andy to be both modest and flirty. The problem is that it came across as nutcase.

With sheer deductive reasoning, Penguin68 has the day. The road was built after the transfer of the CP building to Sydenham, but smack bang in the middle of the hype. It was built as part of a 30 year housing boom to provide aspirational housing to upwardly mobile working classes. It could never have been a thoroughfare, but undoubtedly would have provided a fair view in the right direction. Feckin' Estate Agents. Is there a section on this forum called 'Dull', I thought I might join?

Yes daizie it could.

;-)

However brutal the debate, I'm proud of our forum that we'll respect the rights of our members to express themselves. I appreciate my underperformance,;-)

Re. the European wars.... Ha ha! :)) '99% of the people who died in the last wars were white British fighting for the white British people'? I'm pleased to note that most of the guys on our side who went to war had far more integrity than to fight for racial purity. I think you'll find it was the other side that did that ;-) I can understand your confusion, the French even refused to allow non-caucasians to march in the victory parades. Two wrongs etc.

And here you go, one final piece of data for Singapore: Research* shows that when the concentration of Chinese in a district of Singapore exceeds 43%, the average Chinese citizen would rather than a member of another non-Chinese ethnic group as a new neighbour rather that a Chinese neighbour!! Blow me down TLS! It seems that despite their cultural dominance these guys actually crave more diversity!!! * Maisy Wong, Massachuestts Institute of Technology, November 2007

Actually, I stand corrected, the Chinese have drawn a line in the sand.... It turns out that ethnic minorities are exempt from the one-child policy! Howzabout that - the Chinese actually encouraging diversity!

The only rational answer to your question is that the original population of Singapore was Malay, and they are now only 20%, and they all see quite happy. I'd have to say that the principle reason for that is that they don't dwell on ethnicity when forming social bonds or business propositions. TLS, other people just aren't as obsessed with you are that their nation is destroyed by ethnic division, and they have no desire to create strife across ethnic boundaries. They simply don't draw the lines that you do - the 'chinese' aren't worried about being overcome by another race, because the 'chinese' aren't one homogenous mass - there's 56 'official' ethnic groups in China. It's only bigots that heap them all into one group. They don't start drawing lines in the sand because they realise it's dishonest, irrational, pointless and destructive. They don't bleat on about lost culture because they realise it's up to them to sustain and celebrate their traditions where appropriate, and not to try and create division with their fellow travellers.

Sorry, TLS, just looking for clarification - you're looking for cultural breakdown by ethnicity? You'd like me to talk about the benefits or otherwise of dividing society along ethnic lines? You'd then like to me to agree that dividing people according to their ethnic background keeps people happier? There is of course a grand history of tub-thumping rabble-raising based on a 'better world' of ethnic purity. Off the top of my head I can think of Rwanda, Yugoslavia, Armenia, The Final Solution - the list is endless. I can't agree with you that people were happier in those situations, than they are we all rub along together. If I were to use some arcane and bestial classification of the residents of Singapore, and it soils me to do it, Singapore's around 70% Chinese, 20% Malay, 8% Indian and 2% other. The riots following the formation of Singapore formed along ethnic lines, but it was undoubtedly the inspirational leadership of Lee Kwan Yew who stopped the bloodbath threatened by sick and twisted ethnic purists, and generated the successful nation we see today. It is to the eternal credit of this society that they managed to find other ways to judge people than the shape of their nose or eyes, their religion, or the music they listen to. Singapore celebrates diversity in the main because of the huge social benefits it confers. The irony of the ethnic cleansers in the UK is that they are outcasts in their own society.

I guess I set my values by moderation, inclusivity, open mindedness, constructive teamwork and ambition. Because none of these involve race, religion, food, language, division, supremacy or subordination I tend to share them with most of the world's population. As a result no-one who shares these leanings will ever feel that they're in minority. If I found myself in an environment where I was surrounded by prejudice and destructive, isolationist colonial jingoism then I guess I wouldn't be happy.

I'm not sure what you mean by minority though TLS? Do you mean a minority by skin colour, by religion, by political affiliation, by favourite colour, pop band or football team or what? We're all already in minorities of 'one' by who we are as individuals - everything else is a compromise. We jog along together and try to get along and get things done. The question is how far one wants to compromise, what are the triggers that send one into a genocidal funk, and do they have any basis in rational judgment?

I'm interested TLS, how far should one be allowed to roam from home, before it's considered illegal(in miles)? How much variation in opinion is one allowed before one is considered seditious and imprisoned? How much should I be forced to share your opinion before I too can be considered British? How far can one disagree with one's government before one is considered worthy of deportation? How much of a suntan before one is a traitor to one's race?

So essentially, your view is that England was better before we had anyone come to the country who wasn't born here, and then it all went downhill? Sort of 'Britain for the British pre 1950 and only 1% of the immigrants'? In fact, to quote the BNP, perhaps you'd agree that improvements could be made if one was: "committed to stemming and reversing the tide of non-white immigration and to restoring, by legal changes, negotiation and consent the overwhelmingly white makeup of the British population that existed in Britain prior to 1948".? Just wanted to get that straight. ;-) I'm sad to say that people who hate foreigners just for being foreign exist all over the world Tony. There is a special place for them in hell. I'm glad that there are none to be found on this forum.

I don't think it's unreasonable for Macroban to want to be sure that they are who they say they are.

I wasn't there MacRoban. Was there a Scottish feel as well? A real melting pot it would seem. Is TLS in his sixties? I'm surprised that he would have been too aware of 'culture' from the bottom of a pram, or box, or whatever they kept children in then. Must be something about education eh? Ask a five year old these days about culture and you'd not get much sense. I don't have any quibble about your memories, I'm just seeking clarification by what Tony means by English/British if that group also includes Cypriots? Does it also include Indians or Jamaicans? I understand that there was a government committee in the 50's set up to monitor non-white immigration. Hence if by English/British you simply mean 'white' (and it doesn't matter if you're Scottish or Cypriot), then I have no doubt S London was predominantly white. So if English/British can include Cypriot, then what does it exclude Tony?

Look out for HonaloochieB in particular. I believe he still wears jumpers.

Ah, you old fraud! Trigonometry can only refer to triangles! I guess you could have spherical geometry, but I don't think we could make much use of it unless we first assumed Earth to be a perfect sphere rather than just spheroid. I suppose that the study of the Earth's measurements would be geomatics. However, I don't know that we would measure volume with that. Ah No! Got it! The study of the Earth's existence on four dimensions is called Geodetics. That makes the mathematical interpretation of a perfect Earth a 'Geoid' with an 'ideal' surface calculated at 'mean sea level'.

What's a Wah? Welcome to the forum smilesmart! Do be careful, although the forum is both genteel and embracing, it is a public forum and we don't know who's watching ;-) Where are you from?

Shu, are you actually Japanese or are you a cultural fan? What do you teach?

Now you've got me laughing again... :)) "there is little demand for traditionally English "Fruit 'n Veg" in that area now" ho ho I mean, when did he say that, 1932? guffaw Did all the respectable little immigrant cultures in 1950 come in and speak proper like with bowler hats and tweed jackets? Meat and two veg back then? It's only their kids who are disrespectin'? Splutter, hoot....

Well yes Tony, but then Atila did point out this is Dad didn't veer towards mixers - so could hardly be described 'as one'. Quite specifically Atila did not note a very English/British feel to the place in the 60s, but (and I quote) 'The market is not as it used to be as the mix of races, cultures, since that time has changed' So that'll be a mix of races and cultures. Geddit? A mix of races and cultures So that'll also be not quite an English/British feel in the 60s then? As for the Brixtonians, in the 70s (forty years ago) it was no more British than it is now. So if you're harking back to 100 years ago I take it you're skipping the post war period and actually getting all Jeeves and Wooster on us? The affection seems to be as emphatic as the fabrication here?