Making the news today....

[Khriss]

17 minutes ago, sime42 said:

25 minutes ago, Khriss said:

Sweet chestnut. 
Baths. 
Sewerage systems. 
Chariots. 
Literary concepts. 
Legal precepts. 
Sculpture. 
Marcus Aurelius. 
Under floor heating. 
 
K
 

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We're on the same page mate, I was being ironic!

I know 😉 plus modern cavalry tactics, and larks tongues. K

[the village idiot]

The Arab world used to be the epicenter of progress in mathematics and scientific inquiry until some 'enlightened' and influential cleric decided that it would displease Allah to continue down this path.

 

Science became a sin.

 

The whole region has been set back centuries because it's population has been ordered to stay on the right side of a non-existent entity.

 

Tragic really.

[Stubby]

8 hours ago, Khriss said:

Sweet chestnut. 

Baths. 

Sewerage systems. 

Chariots. 

Literary concepts. 

Legal precepts. 

Sculpture. 

Marcus Aurelius. 

Under floor heating. 

 

K

 

Yea , all right but,  apart from that what have the Romans actually done for us ?😁

[donnk]

As the learned Mr Ricky Gervais said,

 

burn all books everywhere and then come back in 1000 years and science books would be still be the same.

 

Works off fiction, bible, quaran, torah etc etc would be a distant memory.

 

Planet be a much better place for it.

[sime42]

Where do we draw the line?
 
What point in history do we go back to? What if the artefacts we took were built using materials mined by slaves? What if the people were sacrificing people to their gods?
What about Israel, what gave us the right to take that land of the people who had lived there for generations and give it to those who claimed their ancestors lived there first, but had not lived there for generations?
 
People talk like this is all very simple it's "white SUCCESSFUL" people bad, brown or black people good. Who sold the slaves?
 
I don't know the answers, but do know its very complex and possible there is no fair way to sort it out.

I know what you mean; of course this is a hugely complex subject, it's not just an easy black and white issue. The ridiculously arrogant and ill informed, (not to mention partially illiterate), post precipitated a strong response.

Lots of very nasty things happened in every civilisation throughout history, I'm not claiming it was just within the British Empire. All the other European Colonial Powers were doing similar things at the time.

I just don't think that Colonialism, of any nationality, should be glorified, and to claim that the world would be a better place if the British Empire still existed is just nonsense. (As is the assertion that British culture is in some way superior to all others.) Of course plenty of positives came out of it, but I can't believe that any fair and open minded person could argue that it was a good thing on balance for all those countries/peoples/cultures that we subjugated or even obliterated.

Just look at all those straight lines on maps of Africa and the Middle East, they can't be a good thing. Those borders were obviously drawn up with scant regard to the native people actually living on tbe ground. We're still paying the price for those arbitrary divisions now, especially in the Middle East.

On the other hand I'm not one of those people demanding apologies and pulling down statues all over the place, that's just pointless BS. What happened happened, it was of its time, we can't change that.

Creating the country of Israel where it is was patently a big mistake with hindsight.

I dont know the answers either. All we can do is approach these very complicated issues in an intelligent, diplomatic and if possible empathetic way. I do know for certain that sentiments like those expressed below will not resolve anything, and serve only to inflame the situation further.

it all comes down to culture. English culture (pre-Blair) is superior to anything else on he planet. Certainly any of the shit hole African/Pakistan/middle East/Communist Countries.
 
The rule of law and trade, English abolishing and enforcing the abolition of Slavery on the high seas on her own, medicine, science, industrial etc etc 
 
At every measure English culture is vastly superior and its a great pity it wasn't enforced more to civilise the affirmationed countries they would be much better off for it now.

[Khriss]

3 hours ago, Stubby said:

Yea , all right but,  apart from that what have the Romans actually done for us ?😁

Pizza. K

 

( bit late getting in out but has been successful ) 

[kevinjohnsonmbe]

Wardrobes on “special” 

 

Editor sense of humour or just not entirely focussed?

[Khriss]

12 hours ago, the village idiot said:

The Arab world used to be the epicenter of progress in mathematics and scientific inquiry until some 'enlightened' and influential cleric decided that it would displease Allah to continue down this path.

 

Science became a sin.

 

The whole region has been set back centuries because it's population has been ordered to stay on the right side of a non-existent entity.

 

Tragic really.

Aaaaaaand yet !  My interactions with Arab families saw more girls wanting ( and becoming) lawyers engineers and drs.  Oddly. Education is very highly thought of. K

[the village idiot]

55 minutes ago, Khriss said:

Aaaaaaand yet !  My interactions with Arab families saw more girls wanting ( and becoming) lawyers engineers and drs.  Oddly. Education is very highly thought of. K

Yes, things are moving on. 

 

As people manage to detach themselves from some of the more ridiculous religious diktats the world starts to open up for them.

[Khriss]

1 hour ago, the village idiot said:

Yes, things are moving on. 

 

As people manage to detach themselves from some of the more ridiculous religious diktats the world starts to open up for them.

I lived with Arab families over many years and the discipline over schooling is immense in working class and middle class families, oddly not too religious but observant. Shames our efforts in UK.  K