When I was honoured with the task of writing this conclusion I was doubly pleased by the fact that I was to write about my home city of Manchester. Manchester is not a showy or a flashy place. If you want skyscrapers go to New York, if ancient monuments are your thing, visit Rome, Egypt or Istanbul. Manchester's greatest treasure is its people.
From its earliest days it has been a cosmopolitan city, the legionnaires who manned its Roman battlements came from modern Portugal and Spain, stayed and settled with Celtic women of the Brigante tribe. A template was created. It is a place where if you walk down its streets you will hear a multitude of different languages being spoken and a hundred different fashion statements being made. Individuality is encouraged, indeed celebrated.
It is a city of rich diversity, a cultural heritage and a long tradition of opening its arms to those seeking help and protection. It does not need a Statue of Liberty to proclaim its goodness, that would be far too showy. In typical Mancunian fashion this generosity is understated and given freely as a matter of course.
Manchester has provided something more profound and priceless than riches, it has become for the diverse people of the world a "home".
It is a generous, warm city with a heart as large as the Barton Bridge.
Mancunians are aware that they too were the sons and daughters of immigrants and that new people only add to its prosperity. They are its lifeblood, bringing their talents, energy and enthusiasm to build a new and better life for themselves; enriching the civic life of our city.
The Flemish refugees escaping religious persecution came here as did the people from modern day Germany, Austria and middle Europe fleeing the terrors of political repression. Jewish and Irish, West Indian and Chilean. The Asian communities of Uganda. Czech and Ukrainian, Polish and Somali have come here seeking a better life, a home. Areas called "Little Italy" and "China Town" speak volumes for the multiethnic mixture. We are the greater sum of its parts and all the richer because of this.
Manchester is more than bricks and mortar. It is a state of mind. As they say here, “It's not where you're from but where you're coming from” that matters. We judge people by their actions not by their words, names, money and titles.
Mancunians fought and died for their freedoms at the "Peterloo Massacre" an event sadly repeated in other places, other times...
I could write at length of it being the birthplace of the Industrial revolution, the starting place of the atomic age (the atom was first split here) and the origins of modern computers (Alan Turing developed them here). But I wont. If one fact sums up the people of Manchester it is this our city is not built by the sea but in true Mancunian style and endeavour we brought the sea to Manchester! We built the Manchester Ship Canal to ensure we were never landlocked. Everything is possible here.
We brought the sea to us. And that same tide of humanity that we have welcomed century after century long may it continue as we take our first tentative steps into this millennium. To all our friends now in China and all our Chinese friends to be, we build our bridge of friendship in these words I write. Cross them in a spirit of friendship, peace and happiness and let the thousands of miles that divide us be but short footsteps until we meet once more again. To all our Chinese friends; greetings from Manchester! By Stephen Even
