In her speech to the Tory Conference 2016 Theresa May upset
a lot of people by declaring that those of us who think of ourselves as global
citizens are in fact citizens of nowhere. How to react? Perhaps by doing what I
do best – write about it ….
At Bridge
House Publishing my business partner, Debz Hobbs-Wyatt
and I commissioned stories by people we knew would feel the same way and a few
fell into our laps while we were compiling other collections. We have each even
included one of our own stories.
Many, myself included, found May's statement disturbing. I'm
British. There is much about being British and the British that I love but not
quite everything and not at the cost of appreciating aspects of other cultures.
I can't help it. I've lived abroad. I've taught modern languages for twenty-six
years and in doing so used international friendship and communication as a
motivator. I'm married to the son of a World War II / Holocaust refugee. He brings
a lot of German qualities and a few Jewish ones to our everyday lives. Many of
my teen years were spent with Elaine, Ingrid, Monica, Theo and Rene – all born
in Jamaica and I never noticed the colour of their skin. Eating sweet-potatoes
at a 4.00 p.m. dinner felt normal. Elaine and Ingrid's mum was a great cook and
kept to her Jamaican domestic clock.
We have a delightful mixture of interpretations of this
theme.
Our collection is framed by two stories that make similar
points: Alan Gibbons' From Our Own Correspondent
and Jennifer Palmer's The Visitors.
Ea Anderson brings us a story of the global citizen always
on the move in Slowly Things Appear.
By contrast, Neil Campbell's These Boots Were made for Walking is firmly set in a Manchester
that many of us know so well. It is a multi-cultural Manchester that worries
about Brexit. My own story The Wedding
Next Door shows how cultures can rub along together thought it's not always
easy. Matevž Hönn juxtaposes for us in Perfect
Day events across the globe which seem curiously connected. Debz
Hobbs-Wyatt's Boarding House is
indeed about a boarding house but one where all sorts of people from all sorts
of situations have to get along and in doing this they get to know themselves
better.
Vanessa Gebbie kindly gifted us a recycled story: her The Kettle on the Boat. This is
beautifully told in a child's voice. The story gives us a great insight into
another culture. The child moves into another as yet to her unknown culture. We
feel her fear. No, being a global citizen is not easy.
Karen Kendrick's The
Road to Nowhere presents a modern day problem: political refugees. Her
story shows both sides of this problem in very human terms. A similar theme is
explored in Vanessa Harbour's Home, but
this time we have a child's point of view.
Shqiperia by
Jennifer Burkinshaw shows us two people struggling with two cultures. More challenges for the global citizen.
Sarah Dobbs tackles another form of Otherness in her story Something like Mohammed. Discrimination
isn't just about race. Neither is diversity.
Global citizens face many difficulties and in many cases in
the stories here they grow because they overcome huge obstacles. Should we not
therefore welcome them and perhaps rename them citizens of everywhere?
So Madam May' outrageous statement also brought us a fabulous
title and concept for a book.
Now I just need your advice. How best to ensure that Madam
May gets this very important Christmas present in time for Christmas? And while
we're talking about Christmas what do we think Jesus Christ would have made of
her statement?
