Broadening the mind?
The cliche goes that travel broadens the mind. I have found it does but in surprising ways. One of the consequences of my 6 week trip to the Far East was my perception of my own country. I was educated to the belief that the British Empire was a civilising force amongst primitive natives, that it introduced Christianity, language and justice to lower educated races. In fact both the Mughal in India and Chinese civilisations were far greater advanced and when it came to counter merchandise on the spice and trade routes there was little we produced of interest to them. This still exists with containers of Chinese steel returning empty from here to their country of origin.
When I returned and listened for the first time in depth to the news I heard stories of the breakdown of the NHS. In India 1% of the GDP is spent on health. That free health care has been delivered for 67 years is not acknowledged nor its future affordability questioned. On the contrary it’s a stick to beat the Tories and more money is channeled in so repeated governments – left or right – can boast they spent the most.
Yesterday there was an interview with an aggrieved lady over the HBOS banking scandal. I counted six references to the joy being taken from her life and a claim for compensation.
A Thai Buddhist would have some difficulty with this notion as for him/her there is no divine right to personal joy, it would not be their starting point that this has been taken away since they do not accept it should be there in the first place.
This might explain – paradoxically it seems- why I found the Thais such a cheerful, laughing race. As to compensation, although the government has taken £32b in banking fines this for some reason is not redistributed to any victims but actually an indirect form of bank tax. There is in short no obligation to compensate victims of banking fraud.
I won’t bore you with my own micro world except to say that on a daily basis I am let down by poor service. I still wait my new glasses ordered nearly 2 months ago – fortunately I have the 2 pairs made up at 2/3rds of the price in Hong Kong in 24 hours.
Yesterday I had to text for the delivery time of 2 services delivered to my home. The cruise company attached a pending payment to my credit card then took the same amount meaning that only after several emails and threats I had the pending payment removed. Much of the Brexiteers’argument is that this ‘Great Country’ can go it alone, entering into trade deals with any country that is bending over backwards to do such deals with us. It’s neither a confidence nor belief I share.
