Watching and listening to the Somali born mayor of Sheffield one was drawn to the conclusion that the representation of a city through the election of a mayor has taken yet another turn to redefine what we understand as being British. His demeanour, his dress, his language was far removed from my image of a sober leader of the society I wish to live in.
The world is changing fast. My ability to go along with these changes, as if change is inevitable and inevitably a good thing is being strained to breaking point.
To some extent our concepts and what we expect from life changes from generation to generation. This has been particularly true over the last 50 years when you add to the learning curve different cultures, introduced artificially by massive inward migration through the black art of political expediency all within a minuscule time frame.
So when I see a black man, dressed in a yellow golf cap (worn back to front) and a bright Miami style shirt representing Sheffield a sober Yorkshire town my mind disengages from the symbol which formed my upbringing. My upbringing was fundamental to my general set of beliefs. What I saw and observed 'back then' were the building blocks for my opinions in later life, opinions which are now being challenged as prejudicial and it seems sad that the current opinions seem hell bent on stigmatising me for not wishing to go along with this modern way of 'melding' whole clearly definable congregations into one.
Diversity seems to be the latest catch word and by diversity they mean something else. Diversity in its modern setting means recognising that we are all one, a sort of oxymoron in that recognising it we immediately banish it since if we follow the recognition of diversity we should applaud it for its acceptance of difference. That doesn't mean we don't respect diversity but we acknowledge it and find ways to live alongside people and cultures who are fundamentally different to ourselves. This of course goes both ways and the older I get one begins to sense that the accommodation is starting to flow one way.
Programs seem designed to reeducate us into culturally blind, traditionally blind people who's past counts for nothing. Who's emotional and empirical knowledge base can be discarded simple because of the new fashion, a fashion I might add that has not yet been tested and who's outcome is unknown.
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