Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Number 19 - They spread the plague with their bad hygiene

There are so many inaccuracies in this section I barely know where to start.


Firstly the “Black Death” most probably began in Central Asia (where it still exists to this day)

Secondly the plague was caused by a the bobac variety of mormot, which passed it onto the fleas of the brown rat.

Thirdly between 75 and 100 million people died because of the plague not 35 million as stated by Mr Grasse.

Fourthly hygiene cannot, did not and will not spread the plague, if it did why did so many people die in areas where there were (comparatively) few rats, this was because the fleas travelled in cloth that was transported to these areas.

Lastly “lathering up with soap and water” as Mr Grasse condescendingly puts it would not stop the disease, the only way people can survive the plague (or more correctly the bubonic plague) is by targeting the infection with antibiotics (aminoglycosides streptomycin and gentamicin, the tetracyclines and doxycycline and the fluoroquinolone ciprofloxacin) and as antibiotics weren't available until at the 1890's, that's 540 years too late for the poor unfortunate people that died.

Number 18 - They dawdle the hours away with cricket, among other foolish games

Don't make me laugh Mr Grasse, the "foolish games" you list are card games like bridge and whist, backgammon, darts and other "pub games", what about poker? Is that a foolish game as well?
As for cricket, without it you wouldn't have baseball, which, by the way was an English invention (it was first mentioned in an English book from 1744 called "A little pretty pocket-book".

Number 17 - They enslaved the globe to get their tea fix

It's true that the British East India Company made a lot of money from tea but also from cotton, silk, indigo dye, saltpetre, and opium. It's also true that they were responsible for some horrific acts, however lets not forget what America's favourite drink was before the British put tax on it, that's right, tea, the only reason coffee is as popular today in America is because tea was so expensive.

To say that we "enslaved the globe" is a rather large exaggeration, but the British East India Tea Company, as I said earlier, did indeed do some terrible things, almost as bad as the white folks of America did when it came to cotton, almost a hundred years after us with the tea industry, you really should have learnt from our mistakes America.

Number 16 - They demean "primitive" culture in the Americas

For this part of the book after the heading I could see no evidence that the British actually do demean "primative" culture, all Mr Grasse says is that as a stoneage people we were not as sophisticated as some other cultures across the globe, this is true, we weren't, but to say that Stonehenge or the Cerne Abbas giant were "shamefully useless projects" is complete rubbish, and to claim that it was only the British that did such things is a also a lie. There are over a thousand examples of stone circles In Western Europe (including the British Isles) and some as far afield as Hong Kong.


The date Mr Grasse gives at the start of this particular diatribe (200 BC) is also incorrect as nobody knows exactly when these structures were built however there are no examples dating after 1500 BC, so, I'm sorry Mr Grasse but you are at least 1300 years out. Do your research, I have.