A bloggee has asked for the full text of the letter from A Mr Inglis referred to previously in the rant. Huttonian is glad to oblige as the Berwickshire has just put it up on its website- a week late-perhaps by popular demand. In today's paper there is a very strong rebuttal by a fellow from Gavinton under the headline
'Offensive' letter does great disservice to the community' The writer, a recent 'migrant' he describes himself, a Scot, finds the anti-English comments -racist undertones-particularily unhelpful and there are some trenchant comments about welcoming new ideas and initiatves into local communities rather than having people 'thirled' to the 'Aye been'* philosophy of the past. I hope to put up the full text of this response when the Berwickshire catches up with itself.
In the meanwhile here is the test of the originalletter in question:
SIR, - I came across this quote from a University of Aberdeen Publication recently and, while I'd be the first to admit there are some dissimilarities between Orkney Island communities and those in rural Berwickshire, I do think the gist of the piece has a lot of relevance for many of us as we welcome so many new residents who are quite inexperienced in the niceties of living in fragile, small communities.The paper is Urban Incomers and Rural Change: the Impact of Migrants from the City on Life in an Orkney Community, by Diana Forsythe, Sociologica Ruralis 1980, p. 287.."The majority (68%) of the urban migrants are English in background.....Most moved directly from urban centres. They invariably explain their move by asserting the superiority of rural over urban life [and] have no ties of kinship or marriage with any member of the community....""Orcadians share a distinctive style of public behaviour. Socialisation is in effect socialisation for independent but non-leadership behaviour. Islanders take pains not to draw attention to themselves, not to exert authority over other people in public, and not to overtly express conflict. Even when disagreeing with each other their speech is quiet.... The urban migrants on the other hand are used to a more assertive, explicit style of communication and to more formal methods of decision-making. Many of them react to the Orcadians' indirect style as inarticulate or even backward, and in response become even more directive themselves. The islanders respond to their directiveness with silent non-cooperation. Despite the incomers' desire to fit into the community, leadership qualities which may have stood them in good stead in an urban setting impede communication with the islanders. Since the incomers are insensitive to the islanders' indirect methods of social control, and the islanders resist the more direct methods of control practised by the urban migrants, a self-perpetuating gulf in communication divides the two groups, causing frustration and irritation on both sides....""One result of this struggle has been the replacement of consensus decision-making .....at general meetings.....""This conflict represents a direct confrontation between two ways of life;the personal orientation, informal control, and reliance on local standards [and family ties] characteristic of a small, face to face community, and the impersonal orientation, formal control, and standardised rules characteristic of urban life..."IRVINE INGLIS* Rough translation : 'It has always been like that' Blog-ed
