(no subject)

[tinyjo]

Have I just got on a list or something? Am I suddenly listed on some directory or past a certain technorati threshold? Free mobile phones for a month, yes, that we like but today I got an email from a website called Family Security Matters linking me to an article about how multiculturalism is destroying Britain saying my readers might be interested in it.

I only read the synopsis and the info I could find out from Google about these people but I think I can pretty safely say that the only interest my readers would have in this is to mock it. This is, apparently, a site which called on Bush to become president for life. Personally, I like multicultural Britain. I can get a wide variety of food, ingredients, music and opinion and so on partially due to it. I am mystified by the people who seem to feel that unless everyone is taking part in their traditions they are suddenly under threat somehow (c.f. nativity plays, etc). I'm just not buying it. Frankly, I suspect that the reason quite few schools give up on nativities is that teachers get bored with them after a while and want a change - thats certainly what my unscientific survey of teachers I know suggests.

Comments

[cleanskies.livejournal.com]

I saw carol singers last night on church hill so bah! to people who say old traditions are dying. Personally, I think Beowulf, with its themes of responsibility, the destructive nature of cycles of vengeance and a bloody great dragon at the end would make a great substitution for school nativity plays.

[tinyjo.livejournal.com]

Yay carol singing! I am going to see some on Saturday, a fact which makes me very cheerful indeed :)

Eurabia

[smallbeasts.livejournal.com]

It seems to be just more Americans obsessing over the nutty Eurabia scenario. They do worry so, the poor dears.

Re: Eurabia

[tinyjo.livejournal.com]

Yeah, pretty much. I guess it's just spam really - they can't actually be expecting me to by sympathetic, I don't think - but spam specifically sent to bloggers.

[vinaigrettegirl.livejournal.com]

Soon you'll find that you're becoming comfortable and familiar with ideas that were once foreign or too complex.

That's a relief, then. I was also relieved to see that the original Greek/Latin mashup which was the word encyclopedia has been made less "foreign" and more "comfortable and familiar" through the neologism of "enfactlopedia".

Apparently, this article was supposed to have been pulled some months ago; I'd love to run your e-mail with its full source code through SpamCop to see who is actually peddling this appalling nonsense in the UK. [shudders]

[(Anonymous)]

multiculturalism the treasure that rocks - andyluke

Off topic.

[brixtonbrood.livejournal.com]

Umm, surely doing the same bloody thing over and over again every single year is kind of the point of teaching? Sad but true.
That said, there are loads of ways to ring the changes with a nativity play and as I recall the Shock Horror "no schools are doing nativity plays because they are scared of Muslims" headlines were mostly because the schools were doing very slightly different nativity plays with scripts not identical to the one in A Charlie Brown Christmas (or whatever it's called). Small's very Christian school is doing an off the peg production with lots of actions for the choir and songs about camels and stable animals. Last year she was a pig, which I'm pretty sure is not canonical.