Philip Hosking (Cornwall, The Cornish Democrat): In light of the heated debate around multiculturalism and following recent racist incidents in our Cornish duchy the letter extract below from the Cornish branch of the Celtic League
- An Kesunyans Keltek Kernow - concurs with a number of contributors to
OK who like myself have called for intercultural dialogue between
regional/national cultures and new minority groups.
The Cornish, Scottish, Englishness, Welsh and perhaps English
regional identities do not have to be exclusive, let there be a
thousand Cornwall's and a thousand ways of being Cornish. In the same
manner as Britishness they could be valued and used as the back bones
to civic and inclusive societal projects, with the added bonus of
course of having no imperial connotations and a lot more historical
precedent than the UK, a Kingdom rather than nation.
The
healthy rivalry between the home nations binds their communities
together. Could a nest of competing and cooperating civic national
projects within these isles integrate new peoples in a more effective
manner? Worries that this would make Britain redundant are largely
unfounded; we are an archipelago after all which necessitates
cooperation and perhaps also a shared insular identity of a love / hate
nature.
The extract:
The Celtic League out rightly condemns any racist attack
against members of other ethnic communities in Cornwall and elsewhere,
even if they are only, for the moment, in the form of graffiti. Even
though it was probably only a small number of people who were
responsible for dubbing the graffiti and that the vast majority of
people in Cornwall would equally condemn the attacks, it may
nevertheless be prudent for Cornwall Council, along with members of the
Devon and Cornwall Police Constabulary and other public bodies, to
begin a campaign or series of events to encourage members of Cornwall's
public to engage in intercultural dialogue.
As you may be
aware, 2008 is the European Year for Intercultural Dialogue and is also
an area that the European Union has been promoting for many years
within Europe and beyond. The aim of the project is to forge and
develop good relations between members of different cultural groups.
(More information, including some ideas, can be found at the link
below). Relating to the Year for Intercultural Dialogue events could be
organised between members of different ethnic groups throughout
Cornwall, in an attempt to promote cultural dialogue and understanding.
In the other Celtic countries, where such programs have been
implemented, the results have been very encouraging.
We
are aware of some small scale programs in Cornwall that aim to promote
intercultural understanding e.g. Redruth Polish Society, but the Celtic
League believes that a Cornwall wide approach is needed to overcome the
bigotry and prejudice among some people that has manifested itself in
the graffiti at Quenchwell.
The Celtic League is committed to
combating racism and in 2001 at its AGM in Cymru endorsed the aims and
objectives of the (United Nations) 'World Conference against Racism'.
Rhisiart Tal-e-bot
General Secretary
Googler (not verified) said:
Sun, 2008-11-16 01:00There's a discussion ongoing about Cornish self-rule in a website dedicated to European politics. Perhaps someone here might be interested to see how it follows.
http://forum.stirpes.net/baile-na-ceilteach/20877-self-rule-cornwall.html
Good day everyone.