My piece today will be heavily influenced by my
presence for some weeks in Charlotte, North Carolina, a booming transport,
banking, technology and healthcare hub in South East USA. This is a prosperous
city with a population of about 880,000, ignoring its large, well-settled
suburban hinterland. The population is 40% White, 32% Black, 16% Latino, 5%
Asian and 7% Other. A typical melting-pot.
One of the first things to catch the eye here are the trees. This is my second visit and in summer the area looks densely wooded, the dominant species being the long-leaf pine. The long leaf is a very tall, thin tree creating its green canopy at about 30 feet. It is to a degree wild-fire-resistant, thanks to its thick bark. It is less commercially useful than say, the iconic and massive Californian Sequoia or Redwood as the wood cannot be easily fashioned and is more suitable for wood-pulp. But in the sub-tropical summer the shade it provides is blissfull
The Long-Leaf Pine The Sequoia/Redwood
Do landscapes heavily influence their inhabitants? You bet they do!
The Scottish Rowan
Tree
The English Oak
…………………………
Sometimes I feel that we in the West are
swimming through a pool of glutinous liquid, occasionally sweetened with a
coating of caramel, but certainly bearing a huge burden. We are assailed by
Wokery, we fight culture wars but also hot shooting wars, and our hands are
tied behind our back. We need to break free, tell our people the straight truth
and scatter our enemies to outer darkness.
Wokery comes in all shapes and sizes. Suddenly,
it is deemed insulting to ask someone about their ethnic origins. 83-year-old
Lady Susan Hussey and an unpaid former lady-in-waiting to the late Queen was
vilified for asking, at a charity reception hosted by Queen Camilla, Ngozi Fulani,
leader of charity Sistah Space, where she came from? When she said “from
Hackney”, Lady Hussey persisted and unwisely asked “where are you really from?”
A media storm broke, Fulani claimed to be insulted, the race relations industry
got into top gear, Lady Hussey was criticized by the Palace and she resigned
her honorary position. Hussey and Fulani have since made up, but the whole
incident reeks of wokery. Née Marlene Headley, Ngozi Fulani is an adopted
name – she is British-born of Barbadian parents – with a strong interest in
West African history. Frankly Lady Hussey’s “interrogation” was very mild – for
a stranger operating under a false name, I would have required a mug-shot and
finger-prints too if she were entering my palace! Lady Hussey has been treated
abominably.
Ngozi Fulani and Queen Camilla
I will not expatiate upon Wokery in the Civil
service or in business – compulsory attendance at “workshops” on Inclusion and
Diversity, refusal to use the word “Christmas” when exchanging seasonal
greetings, TV adverts giving a totally false view of normal life in the UK and
its racial balance, history being rewritten always to emphasise the evils of
slavery and fine authors “cancelled”. Our intellectual elite is terrified of
the woke gang.
The monarchy is not much help. Prince Harry and
Meghan Markle are doing all they can to pose as victims of institutional racism
and neglect. Both whining complainants have breath-taking arrogance and an
overdeveloped sense of entitlement. Meghan is a consummate actress and can
“emote” convincingly if her masters at Netflix so require. The couple are being
invited to the Coronation but are said to be demanding an apology first. I do
hope the King and Prince William tell them where to stick it, and this greedy
duo disappear from all our lives.
Washed-up Royals
Our admirably inclusive government including
Rishi Sunak, James Cleverly, Dominic Raab and Suella Braverman are well
equipped to break the spell of inaction and assert our independence.
………………………….
Let us turn away from the difficult present and
remember happier times this Christmas. Hollywood produced excellent shows in
the 1940s and 1950s and I celebrate with two examples. The first features Bob
Hope (as Eddy Foy) dancing with James Cagney (as George M Cohan) in The Seven
Little Foys of 1955. Bob Hope’s tap-dancing was a revelation, while Cagney
was a famous hoofer since his hit film Yankee Doodle Dandy. What fun,
what exuberant talent!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZP0KD82t8WA&ab_channel=Dr.LanceBoyle
A little earlier in 1948, we were treated to
the film of Irving Berlin’s Easter Parade. It featured Fred Astaire and
Judy Garland and its most memorable song, to a 7-year-old me at least, was A
Couple of Swells. What memories, what a nostalgic wallow!
https://www.tcm.com/video/307925/easter-parade-1948-movie-clip-a-couple-of-swells
How I hope we can recover some of the colour,
the laughter and the optimism of those joyous days!
SMD
18.12.22
Text copyright © Sidney Donald 2022
