Americans

I'm not usually a great one for special days to commemorate events or to celebrate specific people.   A case in point is the recent Veterans day in the US.   I found some of the comments made by some of my American friends on a forum rather offensive, when I mentioned this I became subject to a diatribe of invective, most of it inaccurate and extremely insulting to anyone who is not a citizen of the USA.   I am very careful not to refer to them as American as that would be to slight Canadians and Mexicans a simple fact overlooked by the majority of people from the USA.   The USA is not America, America is a continent not a country.

 

Likewise I have upset a few people by wondering about the motivation of our Government here in the UK in arranging lots of events and spending lots of money on commemorating the centenary of the start of the First world War.   I wonder how much of this is about celebrating our armed forces to disguise the fact that we are reducing our expenditure on those self same armed forces.   We are failing to live up to our side of the forces covenant while promoting charities that will fulfil our commitments for us.   It feels cynical to spend millions celebrating the centenary of the start of this war when we are no longer able to engage in even a small war.   It feels wrong to celebrate beating the Germans (because that's what it is really about) when so many (within the government as well as without) are pressing to withdraw from the EU.

 

The EU, the EEC before it and the Common Market before that have been all about co-operation in Europe, if we are commercially interdependent then we will not go to war with each other, and it seems to have worked for the last 60 years so there must be something in it.   Still, whatever I think and what ever the effect it may have on our European partners we will be celebrating 100 years since the start of the first world war, and out of interest to my American readers we will be doing that in 2014 not 2017

 

Anyway some of this is just a preamble to explain a new page I have put up in response to some exchanges on a forum I have been part of.   Over the last week or so I have been checking to see if there had been any apologies made, but no the insults have been left to lie, so I will now be posting a copy of my new page on the forum, and keeping a copy of it here on Paula's Place.   It is a great shame but in the modern parlance "it is what it is"   I am sorry that this little spat has fallen over on to Paula's place, but on the simple basis that I have control here I will be posting it here to make sure that my feelings are clear to anyone who is interested, and cannot be removed or altered without my permission.

 

One day I am happy to celebrate is Fathers day, which is of course today, I am happy because I got a great card and a great present from my daughter.   A pot of Patnum Pepnum "Gentleman's Relish" anchovy paste may not be every one's idea of a great present, but I will enjoy it greatly, and I know my daughter thought about it carefully and realised that this is something I will enjoy, that's what a present should be