ORIGINS e-Newsletter edition – Number 2 - 2006
In this Issue: The Minuteman News and Reviews; Kipling and Burns; Saxon Invasion – book review; Heston
Minuteman News and Reviews
NEW ZEALAND’S CELTIC ROOTS EXPLORED
We’re all familiar with jokes that portray the Irish as dim-witted and the Scots as notoriously canny.
Such representations are now being investigated as part of a new research project being undertaken by Dr Angela McCarthy, Victoria University’s JD Stout Research Fellow in New Zealand Studies.
Dr McCarthy says Irish and Scottish migrants supplied approximately 40 percent of New Zealand’s foreign-born population in the later nineteenth century and 20 to 30 percent throughout much of the twentieth century, yet little research has been undertaken to ascertain how they, and wider society, perceived their national and cultural identities.
“Too frequently scholars seek the existence and continuity of visible signs of ethnic affiliation,” Dr McCarthy says.
“They focus predominantly on formal associations with fellow expatriates and group affiliations in the new homeland. In the Irish context, this includes a concentration on such associations as the Orange Order and Hibernians, while for Scots there is a tendency to narrow in on St Andrews Societies and Burns Clubs.”
While these aspects are important, McCarthy plans to approach the topic through an alternative methodology.
“Approaches based on visible, cultural, and group identities frequently neglect the thoughts and feelings of the individuals participating in the process of migration. I will therefore incorporate analysis of such personal testimonies as letters, shipboard journals, and diaries. This sense of self-identification will then be compared with official and public sources including asylum registers, nominated migration files, and cartoons.”
The research links into the Irish-Scottish Studies Programme’s major project on Scottish migration and its many contributions to New Zealand’s society, which was awarded a $510,000 grant from the Marsden Fund earlier this year. Overall findings will be reported in a substantial multi-authored book. Several conferences and scholarly articles are also planned.
Dr McCarthy plans to explore not only the broad sense of Irishness and Scottishness that existed in New Zealand but also the local and regional affiliations at both origin and destination. The ways in which such identities were constructed along gendered, religious, and class lines is also a major component of her research.
As well as its comparative approach, the project will also represent a major departure in studies of migration for its analysis of the descent group as well as the migrant-born generation.
Dr McCarthy is appealing to members of the public with Irish and/or Scottish connections who may have personal testimonies from their ancestors to contact her at the Stout Research Centre, Victoria University, P O Box 600, Wellington, phone 04 463 5620 or email: angela.mccarthy@vuw.ac.nz.
PS: It is interesting to note that New Zealand has more Pipe Bands per head of population that any other country in the world (the same goes for golf courses - a game that was invented by Scots).
I recently attended the annual NZ Pipe Band Championships and witnessed the following:
Picture in your mind 53 Pipe Bands all lined up with 53 Drum Majors in front of them holding their maces, and in front of them the Head Drum Major (RSM) with his mace. Imagine the colour of their kilts and trews in the different tartans, with their bonnets and glengarries and different coloured tunics and shirts. Then at the command of the Head Drum Major they all as one person start playing and march forward. It was a grand sight to see - aye. (Ed).
IF - by Rudyard Kipling
1 - If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;
2 - If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;
3 - If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on !";
4 - If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!
RUDYARD KIPLING
1865-1936 was born in Bombay, India on December 30th 1865, son of John Lockwood Kipling, an artist and teacher of architectural sculpture, and his wife Alice. His mother was one of the talented and beautiful Macdonald sisters, four of whom married remarkable men, Sir Edward Burne-Jones, Sir Edward Poynter, Alfred Baldwin, and John Lockwood Kipling himself.
Many of Rudyard Kipling's older books have a swastika printed on their covers, which has led to many claiming that he is racist. The truth is that the swastika is an Indian sign of good luck, often used by Hindu traders on their account books; when the Nazis started to gain recognition he commanded the engraver to remove it from the printing block. (Note that the arms of the Nazi swastika bend to the right, not to the left as in Kipling's which is more typical of the swastika used by Buddhists on their flag.).
It is also interesting to see the similar philosophy that is presented in the poem by the Scot Robbie Burns “A Man’s A Man For A’ That”. It makes you wonder that Kipling being of Scots ancestry would have been exposed to Burns and would have had an influence on him.
A Man's A Man For A' That
1795 - Robbie Burns
Is there for honest Poverty
That hings his head, an' a' that;
The coward slave-we pass him by,
We dare be poor for a' that!
For a' that, an' a' that.
Our toils obscure an' a' that,
The rank is but the guinea's stamp,
The Man's the gowd for a' that.
What though on hamely fare we dine,
Wear hoddin grey, an' a that;
Gie fools their silks, and knaves their wine;
A Man's a Man for a' that:
For a' that, and a' that,
Their tinsel show, an' a' that;
The honest man, tho' e'er sae poor,
Is king o' men for a' that.
Ye see yon birkie, ca'd a lord,
Wha struts, an' stares, an' a' that;
Tho' hundreds worship at his word,
He's but a coof for a' that:
For a' that, an' a' that,
His ribband, star, an' a' that:
The man o' independent mind
He looks an' laughs at a' that.
A prince can mak a belted knight,
A marquis, duke, an' a' that;
But an honest man's abon his might,
Gude faith, he maunna fa' that!
For a' that, an' a' that,
Their dignities an' a' that;
The pith o' sense, an' pride o' worth,
Are higher rank than a' that.
Then let us pray that come it may,
(As come it will for a' that,)
That Sense and Worth, o'er a' the earth,
Shall bear the gree, an' a' that.
For a' that, an' a' that,
It's coming yet for a' that,
That Man to Man, the world o'er,
Shall brothers be for a' that.
THE SAXON INVASION
A book review
Excerpted from: “The Origin and Early History of Christianity in Britain”
By ANDREW GRAY, D.D.
We have seen that the church was rescued from the Pelagian heresy but it had more formidable foes to encounter. No longer protected by the powerful countenance of the Roman Emperors, she was now grievously oppressed by the frequent incursions of those predatory tribes who occupied the Northern frontier of Britain - the Picts (as the Caledonians were then called), and the Scots (a tribe who had migrated from Ireland). In their distress, the people of South Britain sent an appeal to Rome for help, inscribed, "The Groans of the Britons." But there were Northern barbarians at the time threatening Rome itself. The great fabric of the Empire was tottering to its foundation; and Rome, feeling obliged to concentrate around the capitol the scattered forces of the Empire, had withdrawn her legions from Britain in A.D. 410. Attila, surnamed "The Scourge of God," with his conquering hordes had crossed the Alps and was advancing on Rome. The Romans had all they could do to defend themselves, and so the petition from Britain was unheeded.
In this extremity of desertion on one hand and suffering on the other, the Britons persuaded Vortigern Prince of Damnonium, to send deputies to the Saxons requesting their assistance. This was an evil hour for the Britons, for of all the German tribes, the Saxons were the most warlike and savage. Gildas speaks of "the stupidity and infatuation under which the Britons acted, in calling to their help a nation whom they dreaded more than death." The Saxons readily responded to the request, and under Hengist and Horsa, their leaders, they landed in Britain (A.D. 449), and made short work with the Picts and Scots. This first success speedily brought over more of their adventurous countrymen, who became so charmed with the fertility of the soil, and the mildness of the climate, that they soon assumed the attitude of conquerors; and joining the Picts and Scots against the Britons, by force of arms, they maintained their possession of the country. For a time Britain, unaided and alone, successfully withstood them. Indeed under Ambrosius Aurelianus, A.D. 489, they seem to have won an important battle at Bannesdown.
But eventually victory crowned the efforts of the enemy; and never was a victory more complete, or more cruelly misused. Probably all of the hordes that dismembered the Roman Empire, the Saxons were the most barbarous. The Goths and Lombards had been christainized: and the Franks, if not Christians, had at least been softened by Roman civilization. But the Saxons were heathen; they worshipped the sun and moon, and Wodin, or Odin, and Thor, the thunderer, and many other false gods. The greatest virtue with them was courage, and the greatest vice was cowardice. And so Britain, from east to west, became involved in rapine and slaughter. Her cruel masters turned their ruthless hands against every thing and person that had a religious character, destroyed every church they could reach, and slew the Christians at the very altars. The Bishops and clergy were hunted down like wild beast, and they either miserably perished, or else sought refuge in expatriation. And, as if this condition of things was not already bad enough for the despised and down-trodden Faith, Vorigern, the prince already referred to, married the daughter of Hengist, thus forming a royal alliance with paganism.
The plunder that fell into the hands of these Saxon spoilers attracted the cupidity of other piratical tribes. The Jutes and the Angles rushed to the quarry, and with murderous rapidity carried fire and sword to every part of Britain proper. The Britons long maintained the unequal combat, but after a struggle of 150 years, were compelled to receive the yoke of their heartless pagan conquerors.
We can easily understand from the fierce character of the people, how the Teutonic settlement in Britain was quite unlike that of the Goths, the Lombards, or the Franks, in the countries which they conquered. The conquest of Gaul, or of Italy, was little more than a forcible settlement in the conquered country, which was destined in the course of time to absorb the conquerors. French, for instance, is not the language of the Frank, but of the Gaul, whom the Frank conquered. But the German conquest of Britain was a complete dispossession or slaughter of the conquered people. Wherever the conqueror went, the vengeance he took on the Britons was terrible. Whole villages and towns were consigned to the flames, and a promiscuous slaughter of the inhabitants ensued. Everything Celtic was as effectually wiped out of the land as everything Roman was wiped out of Africa by the Saracen conquerors of Carthage. Britain ceased to be Britain, and became England. The religion, the laws, the language were all changed; and, as if to recall to the people the daily remembrance of their slavery, the very days of the week took the names of the deities which had dethroned Christ.
To learn more about this book go to: Artisan Publishers’ website - www.artisanpublishers.com
Cultural Warfare
By Charlton Heston
Actor Charlton Heston, born October 4, 1924, was one of some performing artists who received the Kennedy Center honors on December 6, 1997. Mr. Heston remained in Washington D.C. and addressed the 20th Anniversary of the Free Congress Foundation and the 4th Birthday of the NET TV network. The following are excerpts from his Insightful remarks. Mr. Heston and Mrs. Heston celebrated 50 years of marriage in 1994.
Cultural Warfare
Date: Thu, 26 Apr 2001
Charlton Heston on America
Actor Charlton Heston, born October 4, 1924, was one of some performing artists who received the Kennedy Center honors on December 6, 1997. Mr. Heston remained in Washington D.C. and addressed the 20th Anniversary of the Free Congress Foundation and the 4th Birthday of the NET TV network. The following are excerpts from his Insightful remarks. Mr. Heston and Mrs. Heston celebrated 50 years of marriage in 1994.
A cultural war is raging across our land-storming our values, assaulting our freedoms, killing our self-confidence in who we are and what we believe. (Mr. Heston then asked those present who owned a gun to raise their hand.)
I wonder how many of you own guns but chose not to raise your hand? How many of you considered revealing your conviction about a constitutional right, but then though better of it?
If so, you are a victim of the culture war being waged against traditional American freedom of beliefs and ideas. You have been assaulted and robbed of the courage of your convictions. Your pride in who you are and what you believe in has been ridiculed, ransacked, and plundered! It may be a war without a bullet or bloodshed, but with just as much liberty lost: You and your country are less free!
Because you choose to own guns- affirmed by no less than the Bill of Rights- you embrace a view at odds with the cultural war lords. If that is the outcome of cultural war, and you are the victims, I can only ask the obvious question. What will become of the right itself? Or other rights not deemed acceptable by the thought police? What other truth in your heart will you disavow with your hand?
Rank-and-file Americans wake up every morning, increasingly bewildered and confused at why their views make them lesser citizens. The message gets through; Heaven help the God fearing, law-abiding, Caucasian, middle-class Protestant - or even worse, evangelical Christian, Midwestern or Southern - or even worse, rural, apparently straight - or even worse, admitted heterosexuals, gun-owning or even worse, NRA-card-carrying, average working stiff - or even worse, male working stiff - because, not only don't you count, you are a down-right obstacle to social progress. Your voice deserves a lower decibel level, your opinion is less enlightened, your media access is insignificant, and frankly, mister, you need to wake up, wise up, and learn a little something from your new-America and until you do, would you mind shutting up?
That is why you didn't raise your hand. That's how cultural war works. That's what happens when a generation of media, educators, entertainers, and politicians-led by a willing President-decide the America they were born into isn't good enough anymore. So, they contrive to change it through cultural warfare of class distinction! Ask the Romans if powerful nations have ever fallen as a result of cultural division. There are ruins around the world that were once the smug centers of small-minded, arrogant elitism. It appears that, rather than evaporate in the flash of a split atom, we may succumb to a divided culture!
The Constitution was handed down to guide us by a bunch of wise old dead white guys who invented our country! Now some flinch when I say that. Why! Its true-they were white guys! So were most of the guys that died in Lincoln's name opposing slavery in the 1860's. So why should I be ashamed of white guys? Why is "Hispanic Pride" or "Black Pride" a good thing, while "White Pride" conjures shaven heads and white hoods? Why was the Million Man March on Washington celebrated by many as progress, while the Promise Keepers March on Washington was greeted with suspicion and ridicule? I'll tell you why, Cultural warfare!
You don't see other Hollywood luminaries speaking out on this do you? Its not because there aren't any. Its because they can't afford the heat! They dare not speak for fear of CNN or the IRS or the SAG or NBC! It saps the strength of our country when the personal price is simply too high to stand for what you believe in. Today, speaking with the courage of your convictions can be costly, the price of principal can be so high that legislators won't lead and citizens can't follow, and so there is no arm to fight back. That's cultural warfare!
Mainstream America is counting on you to "draw your sword" and fight for them. These people have precious little time and resources to battle misguided Cinderella attitudes, the fringe propaganda of the homosexual coalition, the feminists who preach that it is a divine duty for woman to hate men, blacks who raise a militant fist with one hand while they seek preference with the other, New Age apologists for juvenile crime who see roving gangs as a means to only the merchandising violence as a form of entertainment for impressionable minds, and gun bans as a means to only the Lord-knows-what. We have reached that point in time when our social policy originates on Oprah.
Its time to pull the plug!
The ORIGINS e-NEWSLETTER is published by the: Historic Research Group which meets every month to discuss a wide range of subjects - as shown on the header. The main feature of research is the historic identity of the ancient Israelite people with the modern Scandinavian / Nordic - Celtic - Germanic and related European peoples also known as Brito-Scandinavians and Caucasians. The HRG is not a church or an ecclesiastical group, nor is it aligned with any religious group, but because it is theistic in its world and life view, it holds as the foundation for its research - THE BIBLE - WHICH IS SELF-CONSCIOUSLY AN HISTORICAL BOOK. It is hoped that you enjoy reading this e-newsletter. Feel free to pass it on.
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