Julian always marvelled at the way the local displaced African diaspora needed very little excuse to break out the colour and bring some much needed cheer to the neighbourhood. Much in the same way some of his fellow countrymen only needed to hear about the potential promise of some sunshine to break out the shorts and expose their lily white legs to the elements. Or the West Indians who'd put on their Sunday best, every inch as sharp as razor blades upon receipt of an invitation some weeks off just to get reacquainted with their uniform of choice. London had been a melting pot of cultures for as long as he'd been alive and personally he revelled in all the unfamiliar sights, sounds and smells like he'd been gifted a magical Encyclopedia Britannica until the point they all seemed perfectly familiar and he couldn't remember a time without them all. Julian had often wondered as a child when he saw flags from countries such as Kenya exactly why you'd leave your home where you could see real life lions and days of sunshine then trade it for one full of mangy flea bitten cats and grey skies? Maybe if ever afforded the chance to swap places he'd have found the reason why and he'd certainly been too shy to ever ask the question. In later years he imagined it was simply on the promise of a better life only to find the one they'd left behind maybe wasn't so bad after all. Yes the grass is probably greener here but only in the sense that there's actually an abundance of grass and not in the metaphorical sense, especially if you've left a land composed mostly of sand or dried muds. Everyone has a desire to fit in and belong, sadly not everyone's face fits and the welcome mat is nowhere to be seen.
If forced to choose sides he would never fall on the side of a racist rhetoric that declared some people should go home to their own country. This is their home, home is where the heart is, home is where you lay your hat. It shouldn't matter if you were born elsewhere. For the next generation home is the country of their birth and if that's England then that makes you equal partners. Never forget that countries are just lines on a piece of paper that have been redrawn a thousand times or more worldwide over the centuries. Stand someone in a field where two countries meet and ask them which country they're in and they can't tell you. If there was an actual war from which their land was under threat of invasion, how many would vote for diplomacy over the potential of cutting their lives short? Dinosaurs were free to roam the earth. No one has ever dug up a dinosaur in Egypt wearing a large fez or one in France wearing a gigantic beret at a jaunty angle with a piece of knotted string where the onions would have hung. Millions of birds migrate every year and no one batters an eyelid or stops to think about it. How many hundreds of ex-pats have made their home in sunnier climates?
Julian always liked the quote from someone far more intelligent than himself whose name he embarrassingly could never remember, who had said ‘we’re only here, because you were there,’ which for him was the best short form response since ‘I told you so,’ when someone doesn't heed your warnings. It applied as much to the Irish as well who looked every inch the same as those stupid enough to spout such nonsense. He found it highly hypocritical that you could still control territories such as Northern Ireland and have your little Englanders suggesting that certain groups should fuck off home. Well why not set an example then and fuck off out of Northern Ireland for a start? He once made the mistake of thinking aloud and asking why groups such as Hamas or the IRA were labelled as terrorists for protecting their homeland and fighting back against an illegal invasion they hadn't asked for in the same way England hadn't asked for Danes and Saxons to invade their lands. Could anyone disagree with him that if the roles were reversed that the call to arms would have been self defence and the use of any tactics such as bombings to regain their land wouldn't be seen as terrorist acts if they were committing them? Here he learned with regret to choose his audience more carefully in future. No, the brainwashed didn't agree, far from it in fact. The point that really sent everyone over the edge was when he'd reasoned that if we were to send everyone home we'd all better practice our Danish, French and German. The German part seemed to stick in people's teeth the most. Ah yes, jolly little Englanders and their two world wars and one world cup. England, part of the British empire that had terrorised two thirds of the world into its control at its height. A British Empire that wiped its hands of lands and said we've had our fill, you knock yourselves out and any issues with our going please don't call us, it's now all on you. The partition of India which had to be done like the bailiffs were giving advance warning they were coming next Tuesday and the millions of lives lost. Let's not forget their holocaust guilt. No one ever claims they were fighting the second world war to stop the holocaust because the fact is they simply weren't, so for once they've never tried to lie and claim otherwise. Did you know France had agreed in principle to become a part of Britain when the second world war broke out? Imagine how that would have gone down? Definitely not a French idea. Did you know that Britain had refused entry for Jewish people soon after the war started? That pogroms had been happening on these shores for centuries and the British had long pointed their finger at the Jews before that little Austrian twerp in the 1930s. Why did the Jewish supposedly control all the money and lending? Could it be because that's the only business they were allowed to conduct? Pot, kettle, black? Dear old England with its German Royal Family, a nation built on the blood, sweat and tears of immigrants. Maybe DNA tests should be made compulsory at birth and that way people would feel less disinclined to adopt such appalling hypocritical rhetorics. Ask the average person on the street how much land in the UK is built on and I'd guess you'd spend a long time before you found someone who correctly answers - approximately 10%. So don't claim we're full. This country needs migrant workers now just as much as any time in its history.
The modern day terror in Palestine was something Julian knew much more about with his sympathetic nature than most who skirted around the facts and counter arguments and wouldn't budge from the narrative that Israel were the victims ever since the creation of Israel in 1948 and Palestinians were the aggressors. Ignore the fact it was the like the British empire all over again at its height of powers with their weapons against what might as well have been the bows and arrows that had been found in the Africa’s. The Israelis funded by the US to the tune of $7 million per day when $7 million was a lot of money to be had and a figure that now runs into billions annually. Adjusting for inflation, the US has provided foreign aid to Israel to the tune of over $300 billion since 1946. Now all their aid goes on military support, all $3.8 billion annually including $500M for missile defence. Now we're constantly told of Israeli capabilities to hack into systems worldwide, to pinpoint with precise accuracy the location of so-called terrorist leaders that they take out on foreign soil. So with all that high tech surveillance and defence capabilities, the Palestinians just walked up one October morning and moseyed on over into Israel whilst they slept? This wasn't Pearl Harbour we're talking about here by the way and bear in mind a conspiracy cannot exist alone. It's where two individuals agree to a common plan. Think about it. But back to the question of aid, what did the Palestinians have by way of comparison and who was funding them? Well nothing and no one. That's why we grew up watching them burn tyres and using slingshots like David against Goliath whilst soldiers armed to the teeth with large automatic rifles were stood on the opposing side. Now, we're in an age where most people have the capability of filming using the phones in our pocket yet we're not permitted to see images from inside Gaza. Instead we're treated to the propaganda that people in the 1930s fell for. Benjamin Netanyahu had been claiming Iran was developing nuclear weapons since at least 1992. At some point as he repeated it every few years logic would decree he could have been right. I mean he wasn't but still if he lived to the age of 193 he might have been. Sure, you had to bomb all the hospitals because they were holding prisoners there in tunnels and I'm guessing you turned off the water supply because they weren't adhering to the hosepipe ban in the middle of a hot summer?
To those he did trust Julian would find that he wasn't alone with his feelings on Holocaust Guilt. They all found it beggared belief that Britain could just hand over the land to form Israel without any consultation whatsoever with the Palestinians. The same Palestinians who had absolutely nothing to do with the holocaust and yet it was they that the new state of Israel took their revenge out on and haven't stopped since. Britain in the kitchen playing Mummy, shutting the door and pretending there's no fighting going on. Then fast forward to today, to avoid the complicity that the genocide can all be traced to your governments decision in the late 1940s. Far better to not attract attention to your role in the entire shit show. Balfour agreement? Not sure that was anything to do with us, oh look there's some people on a boat, let's point our fingers at them and blame them for something even though they've not set a toe on dry land. Or maybe if we as the government have to talk about it, we use the favourite western term of terrorism and start pointing fingers at those really responsible. No, not the British arms manufacturers. You forget terrorists live on every street. They're the vicars, the blind elderly man, the pensioners with their little placards and we must send in the police at once to stop this civil disobedience and terrorist action. Well that blew up in their faces. I believe they call that the Barbara Streisand effect and now all eyes are on you.
Still it could be worse he reasoned, he could be living in America. Again someone far brighter than he had told him that President Xi had been playing 3D chess for the past few years whilst America and Trump in particular had been playing Hungry Hippos. “tell me more he said,” and the kindly gentlemen imparted his wisdom and pointed out that whilst America was funding Israeli defence, China was financially supporting African countries rich in resources that were needed for everything in modern appliances and had basically cornered the market in metals and magnetics. China had done it with financial assistance under the noses of the worlds leaders whilst Trump's ploy was to take Greenland. Trump the financial genius who adds trade tariffs everytime someone points out he's an idiot which have to be paid by American Citizens on the imported goods they buy. The US has a population of 343 million which leaves at least 7.57 billion other people you can market your goods to. Julian had nodded along at the imparted knowledge and grateful as ever for those who saw the bigger picture were willing to impart their wisdom on ears happy to listen.
How do you make people understand that the two sides don't have to be mutually exclusive? That if you held the centre ground you could be equally appalled by the October attacks and the ongoing genocide against the Palestinians. Israel claiming anyone who criticised them was antisemitic when they'd happily be labelled as antizionist. You could sell bullshit way up to the 1950s quite freely. Then a number of decades where people went - actually I'm not buying it anymore. Then Trump stands gaslighting the world and all the other leaders stay quiet. Not because of trade tariffs, because the guy's a 6ft plus baby with the nuclear codes. He sees Xi and Putin and thinks - I'll change the rulebook just like they did and stay in power forever. The world whispers that if a President is given the title of leader of the free world then maybe they should get a say on the matter at election time because clearly too many American voters can't be trusted.
Why do so many in the west think the east have to adopt their way of life when the east are thinking - why don't you just leave us be? We had the world's greatest mathematicians whilst you were still using your fingers to count and still holding up the wrong answer. We were building giant pyramids whilst you were building mud huts. Our culture respects our elders, you put them in nursing homes. Our Muslim laws forbid us from profiting from lending money, you're selling a dream that leaves your people living a life up to your eyes balls in debt. Then the banks all crash and you're the one living the consequences whilst those who caused the mess escape jail time? How does that one work?
You could choose to look down your nose at people like Julian. You could dismiss him, call him all the names under the sun and he wouldn't care. He's shared the embrace of beautiful women from all over the world, some of them planting a kiss on his cheek, some even on the lips. He's even had aunties pull him head first into their massive bosoms which as he'll tell you can leave you blushing in a way quite like any other. He's shared in their highs and in their lows as they paid homage to the lands of their forefathers. Marvelled in the way that the sons of immigrants grew up wanting to play with the three lions on their chest like their idols. Most of all he truly believes their homes are always going to be one and the same place.
One day you might be looking at photos online and see a white man's face who looks out of place and yet looks every inch at home. That'll most likely be our Julian, never one to miss out when there's a good time to be had by all and everyone he meets loves him all the more for it as well.
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