Outsider


I grew up in Northern Ireland and have been a teacher and lived in England, Ghana, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Malawi, Mexico, Colombia, The United Arab Emirates, Australia, Brunei Darussalam and Malaysia.

These are my memoirs which are arranged chronologically by year. Much is social commentary.

Aside from narrative recount, the style is often anecdotal, aphoristic and ironical. I try to soften the heavy social commentary with humour. Some friends have said I tend to 'rant' at times. I don't deny it! Perhaps it is the Irish in me. I apologise in advance then, if that is your impression too.

I do not intend to stereotype various nationalities but inevitably I will generalise for dramatic effect.

In a globalised multicultural world there is an urgent need to identify and face up to our national idiosyncracies and shortcomings. Nationalism has always seemed to me to be a bogus substitute for a genuine sense of connectedness and community. It is a highly dangerous concept when manipulated by politicians to get citizens to do things that are unpalatable to them-like going to war for instance.

If we don't begin to see ourselves as others perceive us - and not as we would like to see ourselves, then catastrophe looms.

I contend we can be comfortable with our heritage and still be able to criticize and even laugh at ourselves at the same time.


The two are not mutually exclusive.

Outsiders are in a unique position to show us our shortcomings because we simply cannot see them ourselves.

I believe that no culture has found the ideal 'solutions' to the challenges of life. Every culture I have lived in has both positive and disturbing characteristics.

In which cultures do people appear happiest? (notwithstanding natural and man-made disasters such as war and famine)

What question can be more profound than that?

The results may be surprising. In my experience, the happiest cultures were Ghana, Malawi, Mexico and Colombia. At the bottom of the list would be England, Ireland and Australia.

I think we need to learn from each other-not try to 'teach' each other...there is a big difference.

Please send me an E-mail if you would like to comment on anything.


Outsider


Outsider1952@gmail.com









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Saturday, August 29, 2009

2009 Being Irish in Australia

An Aussie friend suggested to me recently that my identity crisis might be solved by my trying to be more Irish. She says the Aussies will accept me more if I do that.

Does that mean that instead of saying 'G'day' in the mornings I should say "'Bout Ye?" (Belfast colloquial for G'day) wear green and whistle (I can't sing) 'Roddy McCorley' as I enter the staffroom every day?

I don't think that would really work.

The problem is that I'm not really Irish.

I'm not "The Real McCoy" in the eyes of the Catholic, nationalist homelanders in that foggy and windy outpost on the eastern edge of the Atlantic ocean called 'Northern Ireland' (If you're a prod or "The North" if you dig with the other foot).


You see, being from Northern Ireland I therefore don't really know what it is to be Irish either. I can't sing or dance, except when I'm drunk and I haven't got any friends who are leprechauns. The rainbow with it's pot of gold always seems to end somewhere out in the windy Atlantic ocean. (Although the the Catholics say they have seen the the rainbow ending under a Presbyterian church in Ballymena)

To me it's all just wind and fog.
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