British Phlegm
Published by Yazad Jal July 8th, 2005 in Culture and SocietyTunku Vardarajan has a pithy piece on British phlegmatism in the face of the bomb blasts yesterday.
The secret of British composure is that Britons really do feel proud of their civilization. On the whole, they apologize for very little, which is as it should be. Their message to terrorists is always likely to be straight and robust: “How dare you! I’m British!”
Very true. My uncle runs a fine restaurant very close to Aldgate Station, the scene of the first blast. On the phone this morning, he was cool as if it was just a minor irritant.
I noticed that your uncle’s last name was Todiwala. Don’t advertise that fact. You may find the hooch inspector on his tail.
Isn’t it funny how everyone seems to have forgotten that London is no stranger to bombs? Even when the IRA was not active, the right wingers have had no problems taking the law into their own hands. While I was there, I remember atleast three bombs clearly (the IRA one outside the BBC, the nailbomb in the gay club in Soho and the one in Brick Lane).
And this is nothing compared to what went on in the 80s.
The Brits are known for their stoic and stiff-upper lip kinda behaviour. The 7/7 blasts did hurt the “How dare you! I’m British!” attitude. And although there is not much noise, there does exist an uneasy calm. The Brits actually seemed rattled.
Note how the British media has not mentioned a word about this being retaliatory against Britains involvement in Iraq. Compare that to our braindead media that justifies bombings as retaliatory. But we are soooooo secular. Interestingly there is an essay competition on Secularism. Wonder if Teesta Setalvad will be one of the judges. I think the results are a foregone conclusion.
Regards
Niketan
Hmm. When there were those bomb blasts in Mumbai a few years ago - people were queuing up to get on to the next possible train/ bus.
The attitude was not “I’m British” though. It was more like “Que sera sera - I cant afford another Casual leave - got to get to the office!!”. :)