6 November 2004
Ship me somewhere east of Suez, where the best is like the worst,
Where there ar’n’t no Ten Commandments an’ a man can raise a thirst.
Mandalay. Rudyard Kipling
In days of ‘yore’ when the Brits had an empire they used to justify their colonial ‘adventures’ with talk of a ‘civilising mission’ with of course, the missionaries bringing up the rear guard armed to their dog-collared teeth with barrels of bibles with which to enlighten the ‘heathen’ or the ‘pagan’, or whatever suitable term justified the enterprise to their alleged Christian values.
