It is St George’s Day this week. Our celebration of a (possibly) Turkish-born Roman soldier (or maybe a Palestinian) – who may have been black, who never fought a dragon, had nothing to do with the Crusades (churches to him pre-date them) and died for his faith (possibly) – coupled with a couple of stories prompted some thoughts on the political mood that currently exists in this country.
The train of thought was kicked off by a story in this week’s paper on Bespak, Holmes Chapel, and its work on environmentally friendly inhalers. As we note, the revolutionary Spinhaler was invented in Holmes Chapel by a man who was part Syrian and part Armenian (and also the hero of a much-loved staple of English literature, buy the newspaper to find out!)
Doubtless under any anti-immigration policy currently espoused by the right wing, Roger Altounyan would’ve been sent back to Syria or Armenia; the UK would not have developed a whole line of asthma-easing drugs and the Spinhaler.
In our Biddulph edition, we also report on accusations of racism over the flags placed in the roads into the town. We could discuss all day whether the hanging of flags is racist. The fact that the people behind the campaign seem to be racist and some flag-mounters will have been should not detract from the fact that many people are simply patriotic, and may have perfectly innocent reasons for flying flags. I added a Union Jack to the “Chronicle” masthead – you should not have to be racist to want to fly the flag, and flying the flag should not be hijacked by racists.
However, the fundamental problem in Biddulph is that an actual immigrant, a Biddulph councillor, and a Methodist minister to boot, has said the flags made her feel unwelcome.
Whether or not the flags were flown for reasons innocent of racism, the moment an upstanding member of the community says they make her feel uncomfortable is possibly the time to take a second look and wonder if it was a good idea to tie in your town into a campaign organised by racists.
As someone who has been a journalist for most of my working life and was taught that newspapers should not show bias (while admitting national ones always have), it is also slightly concerning how the media has become so biased, the underlying narrative being the problems caused by migrants, rather than the benefits they bring, such as Spinhalers.
If, God forbid, a refugee from Foreignlandia kills someone tomorrow, that will be all over the headlines and some people will be calling for the deporting of all Foreignlandians, with calls for all people from that nation to be banned from entering the country.
But no one will look at the Foreignlandian doctors undoubtedly working for the NHS, saving lives every day, or even Foreignlandians working hard to deliver your food via Uber. All communities have bad apples.
Irish state broadcaster RTÉ has recently released an excellent documentary podcast (in the Doc on One series, which I can’t recommend highly enough) called “First Conviction”. It looked at the story behind the first conviction for female genital mutilation in Ireland (spoiler, it never happened).
The podcast follows the conviction of a couple after their 21-month-old daughter fell on a toy and cut herself. After a series of legal failings they were sent to prison. They appealed and they, and the Irish authorities brought in new experts, who both – defence and prosecution – said no crime had been committed.
It’s a moving story of human resilience, a couple who carried on fighting and remained positive throughout, but also revealed, if not racism, at least an agenda in the media.
The initial arrest and conviction attracted massive publicity, with some newspapers even talking of a witchdoctor, despite the fact that nobody else was ever accused, let alone a witchdoctor (and obviously nothing had happened in the first place).
A subsequent retrial attracted no publicity; even RTÉ’s journalists admitted that that was very little in their archives.
It suggested a media happy reporting Foreignlandians disfiguring a child because it fitted a preconceived view, but not so happy when it turned out to be cobblers.
Obviously, selective reporting occurs in this country, too – someone will one day (or has already) carry out a survey into the reporting of grooming gangs, and ask why white gangs received much less publicity than Asian ones.
And of course grooming gangs – dreadful as they are – make up only 5% of all recorded child sexual exploitation, with Asian gangs a percentage of this. The fact that 95% of all abuse is not grooming gangs but mostly white men barely gets a mention.
Similarly when migrants are heroes, such as the member of rail staff who disarmed a knifeman on a train last year – he did get some publicity, but imagine if he’d been the knifeman.
Then there was the recent alleged rape in Epsom. The police never said it was migrants – and now say there is no evidence of a crime – but that didn’t stop people demonstrating about a non-existent criminal and a crime that apparently had not been committed.
Perhaps today we should consider that St George is a holy man revered in a number of countries and all religions except Buddhism for his goodness (and in Brazil is said to have married Joan of Arc) yet only in this country does he have this uneasy attachment of nationalism. And Jesus, whose name features regularly on our letters pages, who was a Middle Eastern refugee whose family fled their home to escape persecution.
All hail St George, but remember that he died for a faith that calls for loving one’s neighbours and welcoming foreigners.
