Golly, Where's Olde England?

So you asked about how things are in the Empire? I finally have time to give you a little feedback from the industrial center of the world.

 

I imagine my trip is somewhat different from your experience of England. I seem to be lacking the mystique of London, Jolly old London, Swinging London, London populated by Madonna, and Gwyneth! 

Rather, I find myself in a strange situation.. a fantasy experience of extremes.  Yesterday, I went to Birmingham city center.. if I tell you that I felt on as though I had arrived in colonial India you would understand.You might suspect an undercurrent of racism and white privilege at work but that is not the case. Rather, I find myself musing about the ever growing effects of globalism, of which I myself am a product. Even with my old exotic looks, I felt quite the minority. Don't get me wrong, I love the diversity it is just that everything has changed and I am trying to adjust as I revisit the land of my childhood.

    

I feel like some kind of ethnic voyeur on a surreal journey to a past that I once had that has been irrevocably altered. What do I mean? Well, as I drive by fleetingly to neighborhoods that once had Safeways, and The Prancing Pony Pubs (is that gay speak?) I realize Ruganis Supermarkets are there instead.. The Prancing Pony has become Musharrifs..  all the cuddly little corner stores jam packed with the tried and true English goodies we have come to expect and demand, (cadburys, tetley tea, jam) have been hijacked  by Arif  and  Boris and now the stapes are curry sauces along with wonderful, exotic, glitzy, shiny things and Polish sausage.

Strange to think that growing up here in the 70's and 80's I was exotic and unusual.. an outcome and manifestation of East meeting West.. a melding that could not be named.. was I Spanish, Greek or what.. I was a minority in a majority of English people! Now, I find I am both the minority and the majority. I feel like the minority English person, dwarfed and eradicated but I know that most likely now I just seem like the majority. I wonder if this is how it felt for countries the Empire once invaded. Mmmhhh... perhaps the locals felt this same way as their traditions and cultural customs were wiped out.

I had lunch with an old friend the other day, and we talked about this. He referred to the British as the "indigenous people" jeez isn't that what we said when we raped and pillaged other nations and called it colonization. Now, we have become the "indigenous".. woooooooow, fascinating.  

So, back to the city center .. a hot, overwhelming, overstimulating, soup, of signs, people, shapes, and noise. Believe it or not, for the first time, I almost thought pedestrianization was overrated.

In Birmingham there is the contrast of  too shiny, too glitzy, too covered up, too exotic, too working class, wrong accent, too much jewelery, too much henna, no drinking,  too many children, too much religion to

Too many bellies showing, not exotic enough! still working class, too much make up, not enough religion..  too much drinking, too many curries, not enough exercise, too many children...

This is the contrast.. I feel like I am in Brave New Word but ended up on the wrong room.. I am stuck in the beta factory line or whatever. or is it HG Wells underground? 

Honestly, it tests my ideas of tolerance and globalism to the limit and I wonder really how can a world  work like this? What a learning experience to feel my own discomfort and in so doing understand how this must be happening all over the world.

There is a rather frenetic pace here too, as though life has just sped up and one senses the stress within people. Everyone talks of "leaving" and I suspect some would leave the planet if possible to escape from the congestion they feel!

It is ridiculously expensive here, even for the Brits. I don't know how anyone manages, and this is apparently less expensive than London. I think London is probably more "balanced" than Birmingham in that there are many different cultures co-existing and less majority/minority experience.. Nevertheless, word on the street from people in London is that they too feel the crunch, the congestion, the cramming, the lack of space, but I don't know. With population growing so rapidly globally this might just be how it is now and for the future.

Even Janet's  children 25/27 respectively are planning to leave. They believe the country has gone down .. Kevin and his wife plan to move to Melbourne, sight unseen. Most people feel the country is overpopulated and the pressure on the infrastructure has only just started. It is certainly not the nostalgic country of my childhood It has changed immensely. And for me, sadly, gone are the red telephone boxes and mail boxes to be replaced by sterile gray BT booths and the more practical mails slots..

Mmmhh.. makes me think of the demise of the Roman empire and how the Visigoths finally broke it down by incessant battering around the perimeter of the empire.. seems like that here but in a different way...

Hotly discussed places for English ethnic refugees are Malta, Australia, NZ, France, and even parts of Greece. 

Okay, that is the report from here.. the former British empire now an outpost and showcase for the fabulous global village, and I am here in the middle of it all having a wonderful experience.  I suppose if I had to say I would confess to being more British than anything else  but probably more American than British now, and wishing soon to be beyond any of these and just a good citizen of the planet.

Ella Quent 2010