Most mornings I spend some time perusing the items on my Timehop app.
It reveals lots of things I’ve either forgotten about or pushed to the back of mind....
It goes back up to ten years at times and is full of wonderful memories.
Occasionally it makes me weep but mostly I sigh, and talk to the various members of my family who are no longer in my life.
Some of the posts remind me of trips I’ve long forgotten in any detail.
Soon after coming to live in Cornwall I realised that my preferred holiday destination was no longer viable because I was already here....
So I spent some time reading articles and information on holidays abroad.
Eventually I decided on my first major trip.
I booked a wonderful holiday in Sri Lanka.
Flying such a long way was the most daunting part of the trip but I did it and was transported to a wonderful hotel.
It was this hotel that I recognised yesterday on the news. It had been bombed.
It’s huge plate glass walls lay in pieces .
Recovering from the shock I remembered how friendly, how courteous everyone had been.
I had gone to an Anglican Church whilst I was there and this had also been bombed.
My memories of this trip were that we had been welcomed by everyone we met.
On a previous blog I recounted the way we were treated as honoured guests rather than unwanted destructive visitors.
The whole trip was wonderful in memory but now I see that the indigenous members of that community were sidelined by the English churches probably because we had more money to spend.
What is happening now is very sad indeed as I realise that underneath those polite interactions was resentment and distrust.
The Brits had money, we were able to build wonderful monuments and our own churches.
I now wonder if distrust was already simmering then .
If an entire country is taken over by another richer one it is no wonder that eventually resentment would be felt and then acted upon.
I assume that is what has caused this tragic unrest.
There is no way this can be resolved easily but I hope it can happen and soon.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
1 comment:
Our colonial history catching up with us?
I have never been to Ceylon (as it was once called) or to any if that part of Asia, albeit I have been in Malaysia during a Trip to Singapore (very briefly)
The estimate of over 350 dead, has been revised downwards by over 100, today. it is understandable in the confusion following such major catastraphic events that some figures might be wrong, but the margin of error revealed here is a poor reflection on the information sharing in that country.
But the people there are probably as friendly and communicative as those who now live here in the UK. A few years ago, I was privileged to attend the Passing Out Parade as a guest of a young Officer from Siri Lanka who had joined the British Army as a soldier and had been quickly selected as having Officer Potential and been sent for training to Sandhurst. He and his family were wonderful people and I had a great experience with them, back at base following the parade as they celebrated something special for them.
They had left the Island as refugees from the Civil War that took place and lasted over 25 years. In the days, when genuine asylum seekers were welcomed they came to the UK, quickly settled in, and later their son, now naturalised British made a commitment to defend the new country.
I believe that as former Colonial powers now Commonwealth friends, we should stand in solidarity with the people there, not through the old, master - servant relationship of power and weakness, but as equals, and support them in their trails as they struggle to retain balance and the hard won peace of the past 10 years.
Post a Comment