In the US the difference between some one from Pakistan or Afghanistan is not obvious, probably because we don't have a homogeneous concentrated population of either. This is just another of the long line of unfortunate legacies Great Britain saddled the globe with due to their imperialistic history.
Pretty much the state of the modern world. Remember,"The sun never sets on England". There is no denying that the genesis of many of the rifts that exist today among nations,regions,and tribes and religions are the fruit of domination,colonization,exploitation, practiced by Great Britain thru the 19th and early 20th century. Not being judgmental as expansion and domination was the goal of the day and England was just better at it than the other European nations. So what we now have are cultures torn apart by artificial borders,loyalties divided,etc. It is what it is.
Apart from the I think he means that if Britain hadn't colonised so much of the world, we would not now have all these people coming into Britain, resulting in our so-called muti-culture.
@Holly Saunders Because you regard yourself as representative of Britain, his reference affects you negatively. You of course had nothing whatever to do with the events which shaped the 1800s, but there can be no denying that many bloody and needless battles were fought between colonizing British and the indigenous peoples already present. For reasons I care not to discuss, save to say the British were there, in India, for example, running the country in ways it saw fit to do, mainly contrary to the desires of the folks already there. The result is lasting, some of it good, some of it bad. Frank
Did you read it properly..?... quote ''' n the US the difference between some one from Pakistan or Afghanistan is not obvious, probably because we don't have a homogeneous concentrated population of either. This is just another of the long line of unfortunate legacies Great Britain saddled the globe with due to their imperialistic history. Don't preach to me Frank, I know British history more than you will ever know ...and there's no question we ruled much of the world back in the day but ..''a long line of unfortunate legacies''?... get over yourself!! I'm done with you and your ridiculous comments...
@Holly Saunders "but ..''a long line of unfortunate legacies''?... get over yourself!! I'm done with you and your ridiculous comments..." That statement is not MINE. I never said it, or anything even close to it. Your anger blinds you to to the facts, apparently. Too bad. You are pretty when not ruffled and non-cohesive. Frank
Small point, but the expression is "the sun never sets on the British Empire." England has plenty of sunsets.
Yep - but of course I had nothing to do with it. My country did a lot of things that disgust me, but then the same goes for most countries, if not all
I was referring to your comments with regard to Peter Renfro's statement!!...''explaining'' what he means... ?.....and getting it wrong as usual!!
And that makes it a different meaning that was a massive miss quote . Sun never sets on England to my knowledge has never been said before except to sneer
People tend to forget that the British empire was the last of many. The difference with ours is that it was not a military one. We did not invade and destroy as previous 'conquerors' have done. Our initial intend was to explore the world, and yes we did exploit the natives of the countries we discovered. However, you cannot say that those countries did not benefit from our influence. Look at Rhodesia/Zimbabwe. While it was governed by the British, it was a prosperous, thriving country. Look at it now. Mugabe was so intent on kicking out the white man, he didn't consider the consequences. Now people are starving because the land is no longer being farmed properly.
Holy shit! No way did I expect what I understood to be common knowledge would start such a crap storm! My comment was not meant to upset or blame any one for any ills. But I do stand by it 100%. Yes I did misquote the expression, I was tossing around the word Britannia,Great Britain, and England. Being as this is an internet discussion and the exact phrasing does not change the gist of the post. Now if I was working on a British History Thesis, I would have hit the books and made sure it was correct. And we Americans are always accused of being thin skinned and having a chip on our shoulder! According to the web site "rolls of your tongue" Thin skinned has its origins in 17th century British English Anyhow, My apologies all around, I diD not intend for anyone to get so cranked