On April 20, 1968, British MP Enoch Powell made his infamous “rivers of blood” speech. To an audience of his own Conservative political party, he recounted the story of a woman who said she was the only white resident on her street due to "white flight". He told the tale of a middle-aged working man, who said that “in 15 to 20 years time, the black man would have the whip hand over the white man”.
Five decades on from that day in 1968, it sometimes feels like Britain has stood still in time. The same words, the same rhetoric, the same anti-immigrant propaganda is rife. While the world has moved forward, Britain has remained stuck in the past and is struggling to define its place and identity in the modern world.
This week the government found itself in a storm of its own making, where this mix of racism and denial of reality came to the fore in the legacy of the Windrush generation.
After the end of the Second World War, Britain invited workers from the Caribbean to come and help make up for labour shortages. The first wave came in 1948 on board the Empire Windrush.
It carried 492 passengers, among them many children. The Windrush generation, as they came to be known, signified all those who arrived between 1948 and 1971, when the Immigration Act gave indefinite leave to remain to all Commonwealth citizens.
But under recent Conservative government policies called "hostile environment", some of the Windrush generation have been deported to countries they left as small children, places where they have no connections, having been forced to leave Britain where they have worked, raised families and paid taxes.
There is a habit that the right wing press in the UK have of dictating to people of colour that they should be grateful for living in Britain. The Windrush generation, who came at the behest of Britain to do all the jobs that weren't being done and that people couldn't or wouldn't do, to build the country back up after the war, show how ludicrous that habit is.
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Shelina Janmohamed is a weekly columnist for The National:
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It was a cold, miserable, difficult existence, where they faced abuse and poverty. Their labour had already been instrumental in generating the wealth of the British empire and of course, as long as they were "over there" doing the grind for the British empire it was fine.
But over here in the UK? That wasn't liked. It still isn’t. In the aftermath of empire, Britain has failed to understand that "over there" and "over here" are not two different things. It explains why on the one hand, it feels it can treat the Windrush generation this way while at the same time hosting the Commonwealth Heads of Government summit and cosying up to the very same countries, hoping to generate trade.
Witness Powell's own dissonance: he invited the workers from 1960 to 1963 to build the NHS and the economy and five years later, he made the rivers of blood speech.
Earlier this year, the UK’s Treasury gushed on Twitter that the debt the government accrued in order to pay slave owners of Britain to release their slaves and thereby end slavery – in law if not in practice – had finally been paid off.
That in itself is shocking but doubly so if you consider that it might well have been the taxpayers among the Windrush generation and their children who were paying off the loans to those who kept their forefathers as slaves and were now being expelled a second time.
And yet, seemingly without any sense of irony of its own role in bleeding the colonies and the legacy of chaos and instability it has left behind, the British government has re-branded itself "Global Britain" and feels it can waltz back into the lives of the Commonwealth nations and become the leader of the gang, as though it continues to run an empire and that its clients will fall prostrate at its feet in delight at trading with Britain again.
The Commonwealth countries are less than impressed. Even The Economist called the concept "Globaloney".
As someone who was born and brought up in Britain, the child of immigrants who arrived in the 1960s and contributed to the nation, as I continue to do, I shake my head at a country that seems to struggle to realise that the world has changed and so has Britain's place within it. There is a certain myopia about what happened in the past, which is the root of our failure in the present.
As the debacle of Windrush shows, without understanding its past and the role it played, Britain's aspirations of being truly global once again are hollow dreams. If it doesn't quickly reassess its real standing in the world, they will soon turn to nightmares.
Shelina Janmohamed is the author of Love in a Headscarf and Generation M: Young Muslims Changing the World
Electric scooters: some rules to remember
- Riders must be 14-years-old or over
- Wear a protective helmet
- Park the electric scooter in designated parking lots (if any)
- Do not leave electric scooter in locations that obstruct traffic or pedestrians
- Solo riders only, no passengers allowed
- Do not drive outside designated lanes
If you go
Where to stay: Courtyard by Marriott Titusville Kennedy Space Centre has unparalleled views of the Indian River. Alligators can be spotted from hotel room balconies, as can several rocket launch sites. The hotel also boasts cool space-themed decor.
When to go: Florida is best experienced during the winter months, from November to May, before the humidity kicks in.
How to get there: Emirates currently flies from Dubai to Orlando five times a week.
Citadel: Honey Bunny first episode
Directors: Raj & DK
Stars: Varun Dhawan, Samantha Ruth Prabhu, Kashvi Majmundar, Kay Kay Menon
Rating: 4/5
Kanguva
Director: Siva
Stars: Suriya, Bobby Deol, Disha Patani, Yogi Babu, Redin Kingsley
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
MATCH INFO
Championship play-offs, second legs:
Aston Villa 0
Middlesbrough 0
(Aston Villa advance 1-0 on aggregate)
Fulham 2
Sessegnon (47'), Odoi (66')
Derby County 0
(Fulham advance 2-1 on aggregate)
Final
Saturday, May 26, Wembley. Kick off 8pm (UAE)
PSG's line up
GK: Alphonse Areola (youth academy)
Defence - RB: Dani Alves (free transfer); CB: Marquinhos (€31.4 million); CB: Thiago Silva (€42m); LB: Layvin Kurzawa (€23m)
Midfield - Angel di Maria (€47m); Adrien Rabiot (youth academy); Marco Verratti (€12m)
Forwards - Neymar (€222m); Edinson Cavani (€63m); Kylian Mbappe (initial: loan; to buy: €180m)
Total cost: €440.4m (€620.4m if Mbappe makes permanent move)
THE SPECS
Engine: 6.75-litre twin-turbocharged V12 petrol engine
Power: 420kW
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Transmission: 8-speed automatic
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COMPANY PROFILE
Founders: Alhaan Ahmed, Alyina Ahmed and Maximo Tettamanzi
Total funding: Self funded
Wicked
Director: Jon M Chu
Stars: Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande, Jonathan Bailey
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