Earlier this evening, at the time of writing this entry, a relative fell ill. I will not mention this relatives identity for privacy reasons but suffice to say, s/he was feeling rather poorly and we had to help him/her to the doctors out of hours clinic.
After some waiting, the doctor came out and was immediately concerned about both the condition of the family member and whether or not we could communicate with her, asking "Do any of you speak English?" which was understandable given we all looked like foreigners. Although the situation was pretty serious with said relative unable to walk over to the doctors office easily, I ended up replying, albeit humourously, "Well, I certainly hope so! We have been living in the area for several years!"
To be fair, the poor doctor was rather embarrassed at that faux pas...
I reassured her that no offence was taken and that I do end up receiving far worse abuse as part of my job, so one little mistaken assumption like that was nothing to me.
It does bring about an interesting point. Since when did so-called Political Correctness and concerns about causing offence become such an issue? Granted, I do believe those who say anything deliberately racist and bigoted should have the law come down on them like 100 tons of bricks, but as one person said to me, it's getting to the point where you do need to be careful what you say around people.
Take the Jeremy Clarkson wishing to summarily execute trade unionists debacle, or rather the non-event that was talked up by Trade Unionists and the media into a debacle. Jezza, as he is sometimes known, often does make potentially offensive and derogatory remarks on a regular basis, so I'm not entirely sure why people get so worked up about him. Mr. Clarkson has probably made many offensive remarks about my spiritual motherland, but you don't see me screeching for him to be sacked. I just laugh it off as another Clarkson-ism and get on with my life. And I'm not an all free speech type person either!
I do think the problem lies with perspective and quoting out of context. Sometimes when a public figure makes a statement, it is often too easy to distort things by only quoting a portion of what they said, which on it's own can hugely distort their original point. I hold my hands up and admit to either doing that or believing the hype when things like this are mentioned to the media. But in this instance, is there any point to getting all angry at someone who is known for making none too serious remarks anyway?
Or am I going to have to live in a world where people are too scared to check if I am able to speak in a language they understand?
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