...not that I am rooting for Australia in the Ashes. Just that I may not be as British as I thought I was. Went to Proms in the Park - that plebeian adjunct to the institution that is the Last Night of the Proms - with an old school friend. We stopped to pick up ice-cream cones and union jacks - the latter essential for audience participation when the old Elgar came on. Funny how one never notices the words of anthems until one comes to sing them. I know from my time in Edinburgh that the unoffical national anthem of Scotland (Flower of Scotland) is all about giving the English a good kicking; and I guess that is what national identities are about - Us against Them. The words to Rule Britannia I found quite disturbing; ironic that when it was written the British were busy enslaving other peoples halfway around the world. Harmless (and half-drunken) flag-waving fun? Or something akin to Japanese people gathering in a park to sing Kimigayo and wave the Hinomaru?
Sunday, September 11, 2005
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