Isn’t it interesting how, listening to the news, we tend to think of the events recounted there as invariably taking place far away? They might be of interest, but never seem to have much to do with us. Then, all of a sudden, those events taking place at the other side of the globe arrive on our doorstep.
As usual on a Friday morning I went to Leeds for the Italian language class I attend. A fellow-student who has been absent for a while was back in class today. The reason for her absence? She has been in quarantine after possibly coming into contact with a carrier of the corona virus during a visit to Singapore.* In a moment, a news event that had been of global interest, but of peripheral relevance to me, arrived in the classroom, and affected somebody I knew.
The relationship between the global and the local came even closer this evening while I was cooking the dinner. As usual I put on a CD, and on this occasion it was the music of Edward Elgar. Suddenly I noticed that the piece being played was his “Land of Hope and Glory”. I have come to hate that. I know that it is sung with enthusiasm every year at the end of the “Last Night of the Proms.”** Even so, I find it hard to understand how it might be possible to sing with any conviction a piece that has come to carry such crudely nationalistic associations. It expresses a shameless confidence in not only the continuation of the British Empire, but the further expansion of British power. I actually find it embarrassing.
I guess that this year it will be sung with even more gusto in the Albert Hall, in the wake of British withdrawal from the European Union. Advocates of leaving the EU often express the belief that this will result in a “return” to the global importance of the country. This is, of course, a fantasy.
The ironic context of this experience was that the meal I was preparing consisted not only of Mediterranean dishes, but was composed of vegetables almost all of which had been imported from the EU. Were it not for Spain, the Netherlands and Italy the British would survive the winter on cabbage. Suddenly the entire contradiction of the future of Britain’s position on the world was crystallised in my kitchen, which is about a local as it is possible to get.
*I seem to get quite a few visitors from Singapore. You’re welcome. I hope you are all OK, especially if you are reading this in quarantine!
**This is the final concert in an annual series that takes place in London at the Albert Hall. It attracts an enormous radio and TV audience.