Geriatric OE

The weekly musing of a couple of Kiwis on their geriatric OE in The UK






Sunday, 11 November 2012

Remberance Day...



Today is Remembrance Day here in Britain. At home we honour the veterans on Anzac Day in April.
My father and his father served in the Essex Regiment in WWI and   and my maternal grandfather served in the merchant navy in WWII.

There have been poppy sellers on the stations for weeks now. And I read a newspaper article that said in some areas the poppy sellers would need an escort because culturally some were against honouring the occasion.
Hang on a minute there. In the book that The Man is studying to sit the exam about Life in The UK, this day is discussed as being important.
Now that really gets me when incomers to a country, not just this one, don’t approve of the traditions of the new country. Along with the rights of immigrants comes the responsibility to respect the traditions observed in that country.
Here in Britain and in New Zealand too, many different religions and cultures live side by side, and a few diehards think that they can impose the traditions of the incomers over those of the country they have come to. So just who do those people think they are?
There are mosques and synagogues, temples and churches of lots of different religions in this country. Britain doesn’t say they cannot observe your own traditions, so why do those fundamentalists think that they can do just that. 

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