Today my subject of choice is:
English and proud of it!
So, the other day I was filling in a form for a non-specific piece of software I wanted to trial. I filled in all the usual information; Name, Date of Birth, Email etc. and then I came to a box that we all encounter at many points within our lifetime: Country. Upon roaming up and down this box's options, I saw all the usual things ranging from 'A' (Albania), to Z (Zimbabwe), seeing the usual common answers in the section at the top of the box; United States, United Kingdom, and two other countries I cannot remember. I decided to scroll down to 'E' to put in my appropriate country while I was thinking;
"Let me see... Egypt, nope. Estonia, nope. Ethiopia, nope. Where on earth is England? I know it's a country because last I checked I lived there. No... Definitely not there... Since when did England lose its "Country" status?"
This ladies and gentleman is the point of today's rant. I am sick to death of not being able to put my own country down as my place of birth, or my current country of habitation. I live in England, I was raised in England, I was born in England and my family have been here for hundreds of years, if not more. Of course, at times within my ancestry (as this is something that I have looked into) there have been places in which I have 'non-English' heritage, but lets be honest, I have all the makings of a true Englander. Anglo-Saxon blood through and through. Now some could dispute the actual heritage of the natives of this land, I'm sure way back this land was owned by someone else. Its common knowledge now that this is generally an Anglo-Saxon country and has been for generations, so surely I am English.
Don't get me wrong, this is not an argument of the colour of ones skin or their heritage as their legitimacy and right to inhabit this "plot" of land. I was merely providing an example that if I don't have the right to call myself what I am then who does?
You will find this, if you haven't already, almost every place you have to fill in a form containing this field. Even for forms based purely around the UK, they still generally do not have 'England' as a choice.
Okay, so people can say; "Yeah, but were British". We have British citizenships now, and I consider myself a citizen of Britain, but unfortunately no more than I consider myself a European and part of the EU.
For those who are not aware, Great Britain, as it is commonly known, is the collection of England, Scotland and Wales as a combination, generally the big land mass combining the three. The UK is the inclusion of Northern Ireland, a common misconception in most peoples eyes. Britain should not refer to Ireland.
Great Britain was born out of an empire we once had, as most people know and has roots going all the way back to the Greeks 320 years before Christ was "born" (not a religious point). Britannia was a Roman name for the land mass south of Hadrian's wall. Britain is not a country. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state, not a country. I am English. I try to be proud of being English, but how can one be proud of England when it is not proud of itself?
To conclude this rant I'd just like to finish with a question. Every other country, for the most part, is considered an individual one, and people from that country are known as such. Why should we not be considered English by our own country or the world when everyone else is an individual country?
Thanks for listening, feel free to post comments or email me at Eastinawesternworld@gmail.com!
"Let me see... Egypt, nope. Estonia, nope. Ethiopia, nope. Where on earth is England? I know it's a country because last I checked I lived there. No... Definitely not there... Since when did England lose its "Country" status?"
This ladies and gentleman is the point of today's rant. I am sick to death of not being able to put my own country down as my place of birth, or my current country of habitation. I live in England, I was raised in England, I was born in England and my family have been here for hundreds of years, if not more. Of course, at times within my ancestry (as this is something that I have looked into) there have been places in which I have 'non-English' heritage, but lets be honest, I have all the makings of a true Englander. Anglo-Saxon blood through and through. Now some could dispute the actual heritage of the natives of this land, I'm sure way back this land was owned by someone else. Its common knowledge now that this is generally an Anglo-Saxon country and has been for generations, so surely I am English.
Don't get me wrong, this is not an argument of the colour of ones skin or their heritage as their legitimacy and right to inhabit this "plot" of land. I was merely providing an example that if I don't have the right to call myself what I am then who does?
You will find this, if you haven't already, almost every place you have to fill in a form containing this field. Even for forms based purely around the UK, they still generally do not have 'England' as a choice.
Okay, so people can say; "Yeah, but were British". We have British citizenships now, and I consider myself a citizen of Britain, but unfortunately no more than I consider myself a European and part of the EU.
For those who are not aware, Great Britain, as it is commonly known, is the collection of England, Scotland and Wales as a combination, generally the big land mass combining the three. The UK is the inclusion of Northern Ireland, a common misconception in most peoples eyes. Britain should not refer to Ireland.
Great Britain was born out of an empire we once had, as most people know and has roots going all the way back to the Greeks 320 years before Christ was "born" (not a religious point). Britannia was a Roman name for the land mass south of Hadrian's wall. Britain is not a country. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state, not a country. I am English. I try to be proud of being English, but how can one be proud of England when it is not proud of itself?
To conclude this rant I'd just like to finish with a question. Every other country, for the most part, is considered an individual one, and people from that country are known as such. Why should we not be considered English by our own country or the world when everyone else is an individual country?
Thanks for listening, feel free to post comments or email me at Eastinawesternworld@gmail.com!
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