Thursday 29 September 2011

Timendi causa est nescire.

I watched the rugby this morning. The 5:30 am start was needed to erase the memory of our 'team' yesterday. I say 'team' but that is the least applicable description for them. I saw two matches this morning and the team work there was so clearly visible. The teams from South Africa, Australia and from New Zealand contained a range of skin pigmentation and my mind went back to Capetown in 1956. Our troopship sailed in on Christmas Eve; we were the first troopship to go round the Cape since the war time convoys. The dockside was awash with the good burgers who hoovered up the soldiers and whisked them away. I was ship's policeman so it was duty for me. I commented on the hospitality to a local police officer who informed me it was not all it seemed. Apartheid was still in force and the greeting crowd would only have taken those who matched their ethnicity. Integration seemed to have worked well for the three teams and I thought about the problems we have with mixing immigrants with home-born. It seems that there is racism in Australia as well as New Zealand and South Africa.When I looked further I found that all three countries had formal rules regarding who was allowed into the country
I wonder if our chaotic immigration 'controls' would benefit from such formal procedures.
OK - light relief now. I said I would seek out some blogs that might be included in mine. I suspect that poetry does not get casually Googled by those seeking to pass idle time. I have an interest in words and hunt about in poetry. So, http://newpoetries.blogspot.com/" try this. Last bit to tidy up. The title of the blog? Translates as "The cause of fear is ignorance"

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