Who put the "Great" before Britain?
The letter from Rod Livesey (The Jakarta Post, Nov. 14, 2001, On I pledge allegiance) conflicts totally with my experience of growing up in postwar Britain. I don't know where Mr. Livesey went to school but during the 1950's in London where and I went to school, Britain was still head of an "Empire" and huge areas of the world map were still colored pink!
We had "Empire Day" parades when we all waved flags, and geography and history lessons were heavy with patriotic rhetoric. Half of London was still in ruins from the war and there was a widespread belief that our national identity had won through and saved us from tyranny. It's true we didn't swear allegiance to the flag each morning, but even at Saturday morning cinema we kids all stood up straight for the national anthem, it's second nature to a Brit of our generation to be patriotic, the fact is postwar Britain was still a very class ridden society.
To suggest that Indonesia copy England (Mr. Livesey's interpretation of "real" western values) seems arrogant, why can't Indonesia follow it's own values and develop it's own standards and identity based on it's own culture. On Independence day red and white flags abound here, it's a slow and painful process recovering from hundreds of years of Western domination.
I have also lived in the United States and it's true they are a patriotic lot, they have much to be proud of, and many reasons to be humble too, but so has Britain, our colonialist past made us think we were "Great" but now as we see the recent change in the whole world there is a strong case for humility and unity. Sneering at other people cultures is not appropriate now.
Someone has to be number one in the world, it happens to be the U.S., a hundred years ago it was the British Empire, who will it be tomorrow? We just have to help each other to be able to live as free people with a kindness toward each other and learn from our past mistakes and harsh experiences. This last couple of months has been one of the harshest for many people. Everyone is affected, to all nations it has stirred a whole range of emotions. We will never all agree, but one standard I believe we would do well to remember from the American Constitution is that all men are created equal.
MO WOODGATE
Yogyakarta