[0762]

The issue is still one of the most intractable problems in Scotland to be frank about it Ritchie and it is also one of the most complex ones. I must confess that I'd "eat humble pie" re some of my previous comments/rant re this subject and perhaps in thread #1037 I should've added the words "tempted to" before ..GET RID.... as I would be appalled to be associated with any form of ethnic cleansing in the real sense of the words esp after being old enough to have seen the terrible consequences of this practise in the likes of the Balkans, Rwanda, Syria and other affected countries in Africa plus the more recent Uighur revelations from China that are absolutely unforgiveable. On reflection, I wouldn't be party to this despicable type of inhuman way of treating fellow human beings TBH. In this particular case of fanatical unionism in Scotland, I will not apologise for despising the poisonous behaviour of these bullish people who really present a nasty and horrible part of the pluralist society that I previously described even though they are a very small element of it. IMO the pragmatic solution is to allow them to "spout off" their shit, something they've been doing with impunity for generations - most people just take note and ignore them as long as they do not violate our laws that are in place to deal with any criminal activity associated with these people. Plus the natural recourse is to marginalise them but the better long-term solution is to re-educate and gradually eradicate most of this backward mentality through time - all part of evolving a far more caring and compassionate society that tries to embrace well-being and positivity in the modern Scotland of the future which I can visualise with much of this type of negativity eventually diluted for the better good of the country. It was also quite interesting listening on the radio this morning to a bbc presenter talking about some of the racist problems that regularly arise (relative to the temp closure of Twitter accounts by footie players as a protest) but acknowledging the fact that we live in a country that has its own problems with racism together with sectarianism which is rife in various institutions, communities and even within govt circles - no denying it and accepting the fact that perhaps we should "put our own house in order" before "throwing stones" at other offenders elsewhere - a very good point re such an intractable issue that never goes away, such is the complexity of it. One must beg the question, "Will it ever disappear"? I think it will take years to finally eradicate this problem but, as said previously, IMO we are dealing with a minority of people and thank god for that!!!