I've been thinking and reading a lot lately, hence the lack of blogging, since I can't really do too much at once. I suppose since the current trend of world and domestic news is all about Ireland's relations with Europe; and American diplomatic ties with the world, I have been thinking about history, as I suppose I do quite a lot. It has become a source of some contention for me the way our 'modern' 'Western' civilization, is so Anglophile, and at least in Ireland, has become Euro-centric. history at least gives us reason as to the rise of English as an international language, but it is a cause of embarrassment to me when travelling, that I can barely speak another language (apart from Irish of course, which is close to pointless anywhere other than the west of Ireland).
my second point is the one which I have long held to be a cause of worry in our country. despite my last few posts, in which I lauded certain aspects of European influence on our society, I have always had a healthy mistrust for the overt political power that the EU exerts on us, and most especially, the common currency. I was very young when the Euro was introduced, and while I saw its benefits, I also bemoaned a certain loss of identity, even then. my scepticism of the EU has recently been proved to be fairly well-founded, although I cannot place all the blame, since the corruption in power has also sprung from the narrow-minded government policies that are all too Irish.
my current reading is based on the conflict between Islam and Christianity in medieval times, ( http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sea-Faith-Christianity-Medieval-Mediterranean/dp/0802715176/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1291737789&sr=1-5 if anybody's interested..) which doesn't solely deal with the Crusades, but gives them a fair mention. this invasion of a relatively peaceful country by the barbarian hordes of Franks was no better than the incursions of the Vikings on Christian sites in Europe, which is much deplored in many popular histories. the uniting of Europe as 'Christendom' under Pope Gregory VII and Urban II is often seen as the foundation of modern Europe.
Islamic Spain in this period was under attack from the Christian north, barbarians in their own right, and this is now known as the 'reconquista' in Spanish history, rather than as a war of conquest over others who had just as much a right to be on the Iberian peninsula.
Contemporaneously, Mali and Ghana in West Africa had flourishing empires which were hugely successful culturally, under both pagan and Islamic rule.
I have also been reading sources ( http://www.amazon.co.uk/Gateway-Atlantis-Search-Source-Civilisation/dp/0747261377/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1291738484&sr=1-1) which prove, to me at least, that there was much pre-historic contact between the Mediterranean seafaring cultures and the cultures of today's Latin America.
Overall, most of these thoughts are just snippets of interesting facts that have been circling in my mind and come up in conversation since I last blogged, and I think that, rather than being the most important cultural/religious affiliation in the world, Europe is historically a backwater, peopled with bullies and closed-minded conquerors. It sometimes makes me embarrassed to think this about my own people, but I will finish with this thought:
If you can see the stain on your cheek, would you not do your best to wash it off before going out to make new friends?
peace and love.
Dermo
No comments:
Post a Comment