From a nest of terrorists

High Wycombe is no different now that it has been exposed as the home of several “monsters of evil”, who wanted to “commit mass murder on an unimaginable scale”. It’s still a place where races and religions work seamlessly together. Good neighbourliness is the norm. This morning my car’s battery ran down again. So I asked my neighbour to help, and borrowed some jump leads from the Pakistani-run car hire place on the corner. I like the way the Pakistanis do business. They help their brothers and they trust, and they interact person-to-person. Compare this with some of the whites who would hide behind their roles and rules, which they rate higher than helping other people. Perhaps it’s because they are unable to judge human nature, or cannot see that we are all brothers and sisters and interdependent.

(Ha ha! I suddenly remember what happened when I first moved into this flat. Karleen had not yet arrived in England, but I told my Pakistani landlord that I was expecting my fiancée from Jamaica. He’d heard such tales before from tenants, and jumped to the conclusion that I was her pimp. It’s fun to tease him, so I continued to let him wonder about my mysterious livelihood. He was only reassured when he stumbled on a book I’d written about a Jamaican former mayor of High Wycombe. He’s not particularly literate, but his uncle runs the newsagent’s where the former mayor buys The Weekly Gleaner. He seems to think authors make good money (more than pimps?) and threatens to put up the rent.)

Foolish Mr Bush declared a war against terror, so he cannot complain when individuals choose which side they want to fight on. Instead of labelling his enemies as “evil”, he’d have been wise to act against crimes (on any side of the political divide including his own), rather than bombing and invading the countries where he presumed they were hiding. It’s possible to be an enemy of America without being evil, and of course it is not practicable for any group or state to declare war on America in the regular manner. It would help so much if America, Britain and Israel would just behave like decent neighbours to the rest of the world. Then they would live in peace.

I’m glad to report that Wye Vale is not in fear of bombardment from crazed “friends of freedom” and we are not choking in a cloud of fear and suspicion. Everything continues as normal. Neighbours behave decently to one another.

In these parts, the reality we observe speaks louder than the propaganda forced upon us.