The Spanish Economy:
If you can read Spanish or can tolerate Google Translate's efforts,
this is a coruscating article on just how bad things are below the
surface. HT to my friend Dwight for this.
Cataluña: The
'independence vote' looms. If you're seriously interested in this
issue, this FT article (particularly the detailed comments)
are essential reading. Assuming you can access the site. You might,
like me, have to complete a short survey to achieve this.
The British Labour
Party: Clearly, this is undergoing change and the main question
arising is exactly where on the left-of-centre spectrum it will
eventually settle. Meanwhile, I've been reminded of the old phrase
that 'There's always someone worse off than you." It comes from
the vainglorious leader of the 1980s miners' strike in the UK -
Arthur Scargill. Jeremy Corby, he says, is not left-wing enough. And
the Labour Party is in difficulties because it employs not socialist
policies but 'socialist democratic' policies. Whatever they are. Oh,
how we miss his nonsense.
British Humour:
Did you know that it is "A central aspect of English life - the
dominant role that humour plays in all social interaction and
cultural affairs generally." If not, this blog post will interest
and enlighten you. And there's a longish quote from it at the end of
this post which might both interest and even amuse you.
The Far East:
Anyone who's lived there will sympathise with the coach of the
Japanese rugby team which achieved a stunning victory over the South
Africans on Saturday and promptly all dissolved into tears on the
pitch. They're strange people, he said. "They cry when they're
happy and laugh when they're nervous". Or embarrassed, I'd add.
Finally . . . Costa
Coffee: As you know, I believe there are a number of reasons
for avoiding this company. I'm not sure these should include the fact
it shares a name with a Chelsea football player, Diego Costa, who's
got himself into hot water over his endlessly provocative behaviour on the pitch.
Nonetheless, some folk are boycotting them for this reason and this
has to a good thing.
ENGLISH HUMOUR
AND ITS IMPORTANCE
The English do not
have any sort of global monopoly on humour, but what is distinctive
is the sheer pervasiveness and supreme importance of humour in
English everyday life and culture.
In other cultures,
there is ‘a time and a place’ for humour: among the English it is
a constant, a given - there is always an undercurrent of humour.
Virtually all English conversations and social interactions involve
at least some degree of banter, teasing, irony, wit, mockery,
wordplay, satire, understatement, humorous self-deprecation, sarcasm,
pomposity-pricking or just silliness.
Humour is not a
special, separate kind of talk: it is our ‘default mode’; it is
like breathing; we cannot function without it. English humour is a
reflex, a knee-jerk response, particularly when we are feeling
uncomfortable or awkward: when in doubt, joke. The taboo on
earnestness is deeply embedded in the English psyche. Our response to
earnestness is a distinctively English blend of armchair cynicism,
ironic detachment, a squeamish distaste for sentimentality, a
stubborn refusal to be duped or taken in by fine rhetoric, and a
mischievous delight in pricking the balloons of pomposity and
self-importance. (English humour is not to be confused with ‘good
humour’ or cheerfulness - it is often quite the opposite; we have
satire instead of revolutions and uprisings.) Key phrases include:
‘Oh, come off it!’ (Our national catchphrase, along with
‘Typical!’) Others impossible to list - English humour is all in
the context, e.g. understatement: ‘Not bad’ (meaning
outstandingly brilliant); ‘A bit of a nuisance’ (meaning
disastrous, traumatic, horrible); ‘Not very friendly’ (meaning
abominably cruel); ‘I may be some time’ (meaning ‘I’m going
to die’ - although, come to think of it, that one was possibly not
intended to be funny).
Need I add that I don't
suffer from the English dis-ease myself? Or not a lot, anyway. Which
is why, I guess, people are always telling me I'm not very British.
One of life's small consolations.
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