From: WORD_CHEMIST@HOTMAIL.COM   
      
   X-No-Archive: yes   
      
   In message <1149973429.673390.323870@m38g2000cwc.googlegroups.com>,   
   Noble  writes   
      
   >Even your retreat from the South Asian sub-continent was quite bloody.   
   >When you partitioned the sub-continent, you parcelled out a number of   
   >Muslim majority areas to India   
      
   I feel a repost coming on:   
      
   A Life of Brianiy   
      
      
   The scene is a rowdy meeting of the Popular Indian Liberation   
   Front. Delhi. 1945.   
      
   REBEL:         What have the British ever done for us?   
      
   (Chorus of shouts of agreement. The mood of the crowd is ugly.   
   They're baying for English blood. But a lone, doubting voice   
   pipes up:)   
      
   1ST DOUBTER:   We've got fresh, running water in most cities...   
      
   REBEL:         Yeah -- okay... Okay. But apart from fresh,   
                   running water, what have the British ever done   
                   for us?   
      
   2ND DOUBTER:   And they built the railway network.   
      
   REBEL:         But apart from fresh water, a railway network,   
                   what have the British ever done for us?   
      
   3RD DOUBTER:   Good roads.   
      
   REBEL:         (getting exasperated) Yes! But apart from fresh   
                   water--   
      
   4TH DOUBTER:   Sewage treatment plants...   
      
   REBEL:         But apart from fresh water, the railway network,   
                   good roads, sewage treatment plants, what have   
                   the British ever done for us?   
      
   The scene continues in this vein for several minutes until the   
   REBEL is almost exploding in anger:   
      
   REBEL:         Yes! But apart from fresh water; the railway   
                   network; sewage treatment plants; breaking the   
                   power of the maharajahs thus ending centuries of   
                   civil war that caused the deaths of untold   
                   millions of Indians; apart from a common   
                   language; a workable system of law; good   
                   policing; the provision of primary education; the   
                   building of universities, hospitals and child   
                   welfare clinics; the introduction of modern   
                   farming practices and real progress towards the   
                   ending of famine; the establishment of a civil   
                   service; building the telephone network, WHAT   
                   HAVE THE BRITISH EVER DONE FOR US?   
      
      
   --   
   James Follett. Novelist. (G1LXP) http://www.jamesfollett.dswilliams.co.uk   
   "Return of the Eagles", the last book in James Follett's 'Eagles' trilogy   
   published by Severn House, London & New York, Dec 2004 and 2006.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)