Britannia no longer rules the waves
IT IS true that, in creating the greatest empire by area ever seen in the world, Britannia did literally rule the waves. In so doing, it traded in selling black people as slaves on the western side of the Atlantic Ocean. This was after they had been bought from other black people on its eastern side, who, clearly, did not rule the waves. Mind you, that does not make the black sellers any less culpable than the white buyers.
Moving on to the present, no matter what Boris Johnson utters, Britannia no longer rules the waves as it once did. Accordingly, for that reason alone, it is a lie, and one that, as the song is unilaterally claimed by English sports fans, leaves this Welshman, if only superficially, untarnished by the slave trade Britannia conducted when it did rule the waves.
Moving on from Rule Britannia to the Black Lives Matter movement, of course I agree with its mission. However I would add the following to it if it were mine:
1. No-one should act in such a way as would mistreat their fellow human beings, irrespective of where they live on this planet, their skin colour or any other physical appearance that differs from their own.
2. Regardless of how badly they and their fellow human beings are treated, they should not, in their own interests, resort to the sort of destruction and looting we are currently witnessing in some of the USA’s cities. My reasons for saying so range from inviting further personal harm, through lack of investments in repairing what has been destroyed, that should otherwise be spent in uplifting their economic and social conditions.
As for uplifting the lives of those that need it, the quid pro quo of the USA political system to people desisting from riotous and destructive reactions to their dilemma, should be investments that will lift the economic condition of the American poor, something the US Christian community might see as being the outstanding message of the man upon whom their religion, and, seemingly, their constitution is founded: lip service is not enough. Derek Griffiths Cardiff