Patrick Seery: "I've never read such a denigrating opinion"
Christine Wilson: "This is a very excellent and entertaining site!"

 

February 23, 1999

"Being of Irish descent (i.e. my parents) and living in London, I'm bemused by your forthright opinions, with the caveat: that you're aware that you may be prejudiced. As this somehow excuses your view.

"I've never read such a denigrating opinion based on the most superficial observations. Nostril hair, out of date suits, 'woman who looks like a builder', ugliest people...etc... the list does go on, but doesn't vary.

"My father and his family don't hold a grudge against other races of people, as 99% of others from the Republic do not. They would rather put the past to rest and move forward and they certainly do not need other nationalities, 'popping over' for a few weeks, absorbing snippets of history and 'fighting for a cause'.

"Britain like most western countries had an empire - and the 'puffery' which accompanies such a past, but as a nation, it has a self-mocking regard which you obviously missed on your visit.

"Irish and English as people have always got on well, but they're political systems have not. Eire and the UK are the only two countries in Europe that you can travel between without a passport and Dublin is the most common destination for short flights from the UK.

"I don't believe a nation should make apologies for events which happened hundreds of years before, they should make resolutions that such atrocities should not happen again and that is all. Anymore than I expect Americans to explain the sorry tale of what happened to the indigenous population in their own country.

"You can hold inflammatory prejudiced views in the comfort of your own home, but put them on public view and you can expect some criticism. I'm concerned that you absorb this culture, take it back to the US and process it under a web-site bearing the legend "Broaden your mind". Incredible.

"Next time, visit Archway on the Northern Line where the Irish community in London lives. Speak to some people before you decide."

-PATRICK SEERY

 

[It is in response to Patrick Seery's well worded comments, that I have decided to remove the Europe pages from the Cultural Bridge Productions website for the indefinite future though they remain intact on the internet.

I agreed with the tenor of Patrick's comments, and yet I disagree. Just as two can observe the same event completely differently, he and I observe his home completely differently. I have considered taking the Europe pages off the Cultural Bridge site on more than one occasion because they are different from the other pages, In my thinking, and I have received rebukes from more than one visitor for what I have written there. What may seem to be superficial observations by a shortterm visitor I think are often the most honest response to a change in environments. As such they reflect a pulse of the zeitgeist or a snapshot in time viewed through the biases of the observer. As long as these biases are mentioned, the snapshot has validity. Photographers exploit a certain perspective of a subject, but that does not mean the subject is being portrayed falsely, just not with all the depth that a subject may be portrayed with. As human beings, we constantly separate in our minds and in our discussions between the incidental and the substantive. My goal in writing about England, was to capture the feeling of the place that I portrayed from a vantage point of someone who saw it as a society well on the decline and something of the distant future that America appears to be on the inevitable slide towards. In contrast to other pages on the Cultural Bridge site, which focus more on cultural contrasts from a Western, and more particularly, American perspective, I could not help but focus on the sociology of Europe as I viewed it. America is, afterall, the offspring of Europe though it is constantly changing.

In the end, I do not know if I will return the pages back to the Cultural Bridge site because they were never intended to provide a "cultural bridge" to Europe. Although I must say that offering a "bridge" does require one to be completely disspassionate as a writer and present only agreeable observations.]

 

October, 3, 1996

"This is a very excellent and entertaining site! My own travels have taken me through Europe, but not Asia, Africa or S. America (yet). My one complaint (if it can be considered that) is, why didn't you go to Venice? I lived there for more than one year as an English teacher and have travelled there four times in as many years, all told. In my view, it also shares the honor (along with Munich, which wasn't mentioned either!!!), of being the most pedestrian-friendly city in the world."

-CHRISTINE WILSON, Hawaii Business College