Have come back to this after a couple of days of thinking about a really great pharmacist we have in our town. We have been going to this particular chemist for 25 years or more. He started off with one shop and doubled the size over the years, he really is the only chemist to go to in our high street, simply because the of the care and service he gives his customers. His name is Saleem, possibly that's not the right spelling. He's a real gent and like most of his regulars we are on first name terms with him. Frankly he's better than the doctor, he's given our whole family loads of advice over the years with all manner of medical matters, yes we do go to the doctor as well, but he is sometimes our first port of call. He has been very good at spontaneously taking blood pressure on one or two occasions. If we ever moved he would be sorely missed by us, we both say we would never find another pharmacist quite like Saleem. I think he may be a Muslim, his name suggests he would be, I also think he may be one of the many Asians who were expelled from Uganda and came here and made such a success of their businesses. Similarly, our favourite cafe is run by two girls who come from I think Latvia, possibly Lithuania. The coffee is the best I have tasted outside of Italy and the girls serve it swiftly, clear the tables effortlessly and always with a smile, a good morning and how are you today? I think it's absolutely possible to come to this country, assimilate, ingratiate yourself and become, in a very short space of time a completely invaluable member of the community. Nevertheless, this is not always the case and like the writer mentioned in her article I too have also experienced the "Asian male shopkeepers" who are permanently muttering down their mobile phones without ever coming off it whilst they are serving you at the same time. That's not to say I haven't also experience that indifferent sort of service from English born and bred shop owners as well. Unfortunately increasingly we seem to live in a climate where we simply cannot criticise negative cultural differences that impact on our society in a bad way because it is inferred by some that by doing so we are trying to demonise a whole race. No one particular nationality have the monopoly on being all good or all bad, but sometimes attitudes and behaviour have flourished in different cultures that are totally at odds with our own and somehow we have gone down this road of turning a blind eye. We just shouldn't, the outcomes can be horrific like the young white girls being groomed by Asian men, how long did all that go on in the name of political correctness. I have read a lot about horrific gang related killings in Mexico of late where numerous headless corpses are dumped at the sides of road. That does not make me conclude that all Mexicans are psychotic murderers, however it does make me think that Mexico has no control over it's drug cartels and it's proximity to the US could mean that it could also become a problem for America too. Because of tools like the internet and Twitter etc. it enables foreign nationals to in some ways stay rooted to the mother country whilst never really having to change and adapt and they also have the means to export unacceptable practices to their newly adopted homes. We are a year away from Romania and Bulgaria being granted access to our country. Much has been written about the organised crime and people trafficking that have already hit our shores some time ago Clearly there are some nasty practices that emanate from some of the repressive regimes in the part of Europe that was under Soviet control. I know some will say oooooh you can't say that but do we have to continue to ignore things that could possibly impact very negatively on our own country. As far as Bulgaria, Romania and some other parts of Eastern Europe are concerned I would question why they have not been able to assimilate their Roma population who have been with them for around 1,000 years and who they continue to treat them as a sub human species, not to mention their very questionable attitudes towards both black and gay people. Although England is not a utopia, most of us try to not endorse racism, sexism or homaphobia. However, as the writer has indicated in the article sometimes when you feel the parent culture of our own country is disappearing then it causes some of us to feel alarmed, particularly at the speed these changes are taking place it doesn't make us all "Little Englanders", how I hate that expression, particularly when I have a fair amount of foreign blood. I don't think it's wrong for anyone to feel that they don't recognise their own country anymore.
Is Mumsnet down today (13th May)
