Having been invited to teach a Tai Chi master class workshop in Newcastle, England this last weekend, I had the opportunity to spend five days in the country in which I lived for 20 years until 1981.  The overall impression was very positive and strangely refreshing, reminding me that my travel in the last decade has been limited to North America.

The first thing that struck me about Newcastle was that it seemed prosperous and the people seemed relatively cosmopolitan and cheery.  I later had the same impression of Glasgow whence my plane departed.  Newcastle and especially Glasgow in the 1970s and 1980s were depressed areas because their traditional industries - coal, steel, shipbuilding etc. – were dying or dead. Glasgow used to look like a World War 2 bombsite with many buildings in central Glasgow crumbled in decay or bulldozed.  The people were rather insular and suspicious of strangers.  I know this first hand because I am Chinese and have traveled throughout the UK.

It seems to me that two main factors have contributed to this turnaround - firstly, acceptance of the need for change; secondly, money and people from the EU (European Union).  Both of these hold valuable lessons for us in North America, presently clinging on to fading industries like cars and oil and fighting each other for local scraps rather than agreeing to pool our resources and share.  The latter is likely to be demonized in America (and increasingly so in Canada under Harper’s Tories) as “socialism and communism” and the interference of “big government” in our individual freedoms and rights.  In all the hysterical talk about individual rights, no one seems to talk of individual responsibilities.

In Newcastle, service industries, especially IT, have sprung up; there are now two new universities in the city. “Foreigners” abound, not only from the former colonies of the British Empire but from various parts of Europe.  EU money has been used to revive the old quayside area in the middle of the city, bringing restaurants, shops, arts and crafts, an impressive, modernistic concert hall and an elegant bridge that tilts to let ships by. 

In public projects, there seems to be a conscious effort to keep some continuity with the past and to use local skills.  The most impressive example of this is The Angel of the North, a massive public art work mounted on a hill overlooking an old coal mine.  It is 66 ft tall with a wingspan of 178 ft and can be seen from miles away.  Its steel construction made use of local steel making skills.

Life is nothing if not change, yet we so commonly and vehemently resist it.  The Past and the Future never really exist, only the Now, which deserves much more of our attention…both individually and collectively.