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January 26, 2004

Burns' Night

I could hardly not acknowledge the celebrations of Burns' Night that have been taking place this weekend. I cannot, however, quote the poetry of Burns' as Ozguru can so I shall merely suggest that you pay his site a visit to see the wee beastie!

It has often struck me, somewhat irreverently, that we really do not seem to have lost our tribal instincts. I have met people who have lived for more than eight or nine generations in countries far removed from these shores who still regard themselves as "English", "Irish", "Scottish" or even "German", "Polish" and now "African" or something else. While keeping contact with our roots is important, I sometimes wonder if this isn't what holds us back more than any other single thing. Especially since most of us are very rarely "pure" anything anymore. Hundreds of years of migration and movement have ensured the gene pool has been well and truly stirred!

Don't get me wrong, I am very proud of my own roots, but there is sometimes an element of "victim culture" to this clinging to roots and it is not healthy.

I have said before on this site that I am proud to be able to say that I am a very mixed breed. I have Scottish, Irish, English and Welsh blood to be proud of. But, I can also identify German, Danish, Norman-French and possibly Spanish blood as well. I can celebrate all year round if necessary, but I worry that many who do cling to one particular part of their roots , do so out of a misplaced belief that life would have been better if history had not been as it is.

This tends to mask the fact that many of the mass migrations in history have been triggered not by any one nations war on another, but by internal factors which have triggered catastrophy. The Irish Potato blight was not an "English" weapon, but a result of over planting and poor land management, the Highland clearances were triggered by a desire by the Scottish landowning classes to adopt modern farming techniques and compete with their English neighbours.

Even in South Africa, the mass migration of the Boer "Trekkers" North was primarily triggered by their desire to find a place where they could continue to practice their rather looser form of agriculture as "Trek Boers" - literally "Wandering Farmers" which the English, with, no doubt, good intentions, had sought to restrict. The introduction of a legal system which the Boers saw as restricting their right to visit reprisals on the raiding African tribes was another factor - and probably the insensitivity of the English in dealing with them was another. But, in the end, they have proved to be the architects of their own misfortunes.

This wanders a bit away from my original point, which was not to wax phiosophical, but to raise a glass to a poet who has, perhaps more than most, exemplified the Scottish character. Rough, resilient, passionate and oft-times generous to a fault.

A toast to Rabbie.

Posted by The Gray Monk at January 26, 2004 08:59 AM