Final day of Spanish Lessons.

Finally, I've finished the Spanish tuition I started over two weeks ago. I don't feel like I can converse though I do recognise about 50% of what I hear. It's really been an ordeal being sat and taught in quite a traditional method though apparently my accent is quite good. Not really any compensation when your vocabulary is about ten words. Tomorrow, off to Quetzaltenango or something like that at least.

Something crossed my mind when I was about to leave India when I was reading Madness and Civilisation by Foucault and it crossed my mind earlier today again. It related to the fact that there was a 'cure' for leprosy in the 1960s-80s that appeared to have finally assisted with the irradication of the disease. This appeared to happen shortly after the publishing of Madness and Civilisation and for me personally it did spawn a conspiracy theory. Personally, I think certain families are subject to more covert regime action than others, most of which would not be of a criminal nature, and thus not be investigated, and to a degree I think that the concepts of mental illness are in place largely to discredit the sufferer from stating what may or may not have happened to them. I think the issues of citizenship are dealt with using bolder lip-service than most and there are significant improvements to be made in the developed world. The reason I state that in relation to leprosy is that Foucault states that the asylum was to a degree born from the forms of segregation that were used for lepers and even the same buildings then were used to house the mentally ill. What struck me as a possibility was that there could have just been a programme of genetic cleansing in Europe, a realisation that disease was a good form of regime management, so why not continue to use the asylum.

I didn't do any research of any note into the possibilities that I was considering and while I would state that facilitated leprosy or mental illness for the purposes of regime management could be a possibility, apparently leprosy only affects about 5% of the population which makes the chance of there having been one of Europe's first genocides - could this have taken place? If the 5% statistic from the unreliable wikipedia are correct then perhaps this could be a real possibility. May be if I was Israeli I would have learnt pretty much everything there is to know about genocide, I can't say. It is pretty much a twentieth century term for extermination of a religious or ethnic group although the longer history of mass extermination may reveal more telling aspects of humanity.

For some time this struck me as being rather unusual in relation to Foucault and I don't imagine that the paranoid thought of leprosy being used for regime management purposes is ever going to gain any credibility - it's most likely the 5% with the susceptible genes sunk towards the bottom of the caste system and in some respects may have remained there. May be the Christian action in South India to release those who still experience the problems related to caste is under-rated in terms of it's importance - could there be more? Perhaps there could be greater appreciation of Indian culture for not irradicating leprosy as it was in Europe - through extermination?

I guess this genocide may have permeated the culture having been seen as a 'popular move' and led to other programmes of genetic cleansing across Europe which let me sadly say, may have had quite a significant level of support. Perhaps this should be one of the issues that is raised within Yad Vashem, Israel's holocaust museum of what may have been the most unjust interpretation of evidence that has taken place in the history of humanity - that genetic cleansing was a positive process. It is perhaps a failing of contemporary journalism that programmes of genetic cleansing may be in place, however, we tend not to state that this may also have taken place in the UK and been a significant part of our history. If monuments to the dead are so important in our culture should we have some monuments to those who were possibly killed for the health of present populations? I guess this is some form of conspiracy that will not gain any support and while I think there could be some form of nominal process and perhaps I should only dedicate the two oak trees near the centre of Sarehole Mill Recreation ground in Hall Green Birmingham - because to be quite honest journalists don't seem to give a f**k about informing the public adequately and politicians seem content to leave us disconnected from our history and culture. I can't imagine anyone would care.....

On the subject of leprosy-like activity being used to manage regimes, I've found some classic 80s fashion on youtube - Did Daryl Hall and John Oates look good to you at the time? Oh, you wish not to be a leper too, eh?

Language, slavery and nationalism: can we get insights from etymology?

Some references to the differences in Basque language to that spoken elsewhere in Spain may indicate a potentially interesting set of issues(see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basque_language). It is assumed by linguists that variations in language can be linked to issues of migration of social groups and that trends in the form of language will be linked in a systematic manner to a defined space according to the population within that space and their heritage, which is interlinked to other populations from linked geographical areas, that language is spatially influenced if not defined.

There are deemed to be such strong trends in language use geographically, that it is possible to infer population movement according to the variation in language use and conversely, it is possible to identify what is termed a ‘language isolate’ may exist.(see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_isolate). The general term of ‘migration’ may be of interest in this case, there is an assumption that there is free movement of people across Europe, and for this to have taken place for some significant time – if any beginning point could be meaningfully established.

What does the term ‘language isolate’ actually mask other forms of social activity – perhaps as there are the groups who have an almost Russian language in the north of Spain because they were uprooted and sold to the Spanish business elite in a white-on-white slave trade. We as a nation tend not to have a great awareness of slavery outside of that which took place involving the indigenous African population. There may have been a great many ‘migrations’ which were not carried out through personal choice and perhaps there are equally as strong divisions in the white population as there are between some black white groups. Perhaps there could be other explanations of why Basque culture is different to that elsewhere in Northern Spain as well but this may provide a point of reference.

To an extent it could be argued that there may have been the birth of the slave industry as a result of stability of sea travel which led to a different form of slavery to that which was employed when road travel was the main form of slave trading. Perhaps there were a number of synonymous incidents of slave uprisings which led to the decline of interest in white-white slave trading and the spin doctors of the 15th century managed to convince us that we were all being well managed.

This may seem a little ironic bearing in mind Bernie Grant’s comment to Tony Blair regarding his mothers maiden name – Blair. Were Mr Blair’s forefathers the owners of Mr Grant’s? The contemporary master of spin may have had a long family history of being involved in spin related activities. This may still need to be challenged. I personally feel there is some significant bias in the methods used by the media in highlighting the nature of the problems of slavery – there were injustices connected to it but there should always be a responsible comparison made to the living conditions of the time for the white British population to indicate exactly how poor living conditions were for all at the time. Also, a great many forms of slavery may be overlooked to a point where they may as well be written out of history. Descendants of Indian slaves reside in Fiji and were deported from Uganda in the 1970's – yet the main image of slave in contemporary society is black, of African origin.

The coverage of the Beckford family, a south-west family of slave traders, in the relatively recent documentaries on the BBC may also reflect a bias. There were actions sanctioned by the British government when most of the white population were not treated much better than slaves themselves which involved the initiation of the international slave trade. While I may fear great many of the people who run Britain today, who largely control the media, are descendents of slave-master families who shape our history and want to spread the guilt of their forefathers families across the whole nation themselves rather than organisations still in existence take responsibility for what took place. Lloyds Insurance (Lloyds of London), Lloyds TSB and Barclays have all strong enough links to establishing themselves through slavery to be more directly held responsible for any reparation if this does get strong public backing.

Perhaps the concept of nation was developed to legitimate slave trading to a rather ill-equipped population who would not have the education to challenge this type of notion. Have we all been misled regarding ‘nationalism’ being the most important part of our identities, as British subjects, when this could be more readily be linked to masking foreign policy malpractice? Nationalism in this sense makes us relatively easy to govern rather than aware. If this is the case perhaps we should be engaged in a process of developing a post-colonial national identity based upon racial, cultural and social harmonies linked to British heritage, rather than cultural pride in our history per se. If it was a means of controlling the British population and making an unmanageable situation manageable, this should be acknowledged.

I assume that there are a number of reasons why reparation movements don’t get off the ground in the UK and one of these may be diverse – if any do I hope they are balanced and minimise negative impacts. In answer to the question posed I guess I would gravitate towards the opinion that there is little chance of insight from etymology because it is shaped by a strongly manipulated version of social history which will continue to affect us.