Not Racist

I don’t know much about immigration policy, and have no more than vague feelings about numbers of immigrants we should let in.  Personally, I’d feel uncomfortable with a fixed and potentially arbitrary quota.  Surely the focus should just be on what they are here to contribute.  Nonetheless, I approach the issue with an open mind.

One thing, however, David Cameron is certainly right about is that we should feel free to discuss such issues without the threat of being labelled “racist”.  If “cultural sensitivities” prevent discussion in polite society, it leaves it to the extremists to make a meal of what are genuine concerns.

Here is Cameron addressing one such concern:

But as well as abuse of the system, there are other problems with the family route. We know, for instance, that some marriages take place when the spouse is very young, and has little or no grasp of English. Again we cannot allow cultural sensitivity to stop us from acting. That's why last November we introduced a requirement for all those applying for a marriage visa to demonstrate a minimum standard of English

Language is an important enabler for integration into wider society and entry into a culture.  It allows for access to education and the workplace.  Through the media, it allows the free-flow of information, opinion and analysis.  It allows for joint projects and projects and identities amongst different groups of people. 

And yes, dare I say it, it is about being British and feeling a sense of belonging and loyalty to this country.  The country isn’t merely a hotel that provides services.  Rather than residing in self-segregated cultural ghettos, people should contribute to projects wider than their own group.

Obviously, this has nothing specifically to do with Britain or Britishness. Anglos often do the same forming isolated communities in France, Spain or Israel.  It is equally wrong there, and it constitutes a certain arrogance if English speakers refuse to learn the language of their host country. 

Of course, having a national identity doesn’t mean any group turning the back on their own individual identities.  The aim is what the Chief Rabbi calls “integration without assimilation”.  If you disagree, feel free to call me a racist, but perhaps I could just be plain-vanilla wrong.

Jewish Bastard

It seems that anti-Semitism comes in regional varieties.  In Leeds, the favourite was “a-Jew” pretending to sneeze.  In Reading, “Jewish Bastard” seems to be the way to go- we are a more direct bunch down here in the sticks. 

I was called a “Jewish Bastard” about two weeks ago where someone went to the effort to wind down the car window to shout at me.  Today, on the way to synagogue, there was an entire chorus of youths shouting it from the house.  I’ve been called it many times here before.  It makes you wonder where people agree these things.  Maybe, if Jews control the national and international media, the anti-Semites control the Reading Chronicle where they use a secret code.

The worst part was that I was walking with my mum.  It was just plain embarrassing!  I didn’t know where to look.  I didn’t want to look at people doing it and I didn’t want to see my mum’s reaction.  This is especially as my mum was so anti me wearing my kippa in public in the early days for this very reason.  Also, I felt bad for bringing attention onto her which she wouldn’t have otherwise received. 

I settled for a staring straight ahead and trying to pull off a bemused yet slightly amused face, with just a hint of resoluteness.  And no, I didn’t get any information for CST.  Too busy working out which face to pull.

The BNP and that het’rogenous thing

As the poem highlights below, that het’rogenous thing is none other than an Englishman.  Daniel Defoe, as early as 1701, provides a beautiful rebuttal of that most favourite of concepts among BNP supporters- “the indigenous of Britain”.  People of ‘other nationalities’, so they claim, are flooding the country, to the disadvantage of those who are true-born British. 

But who exactly, so the poem asks, is one of those?

Thus from a mixture of all kinds began,
That het’rogenous thing, an Englishman:
In eager rapes, and furious lust begot,
Betwixt a painted Britain and a Scot.
Whose gend’ring off-spring quickly learn’d to bow,
And yoke theirs heifers to the Roman Plough;
From whence a mongrel half-bred race there came,
With neither name, nor nation, speech nor fame.
In whose hot veins new mixtures quickly ran,
Infus’d betwixt a Saxon and a Dane…
A true-born Englishman’s a contradiction,
In speech an irony, in fact a fiction.

“Britain”, so the Chief Rabbi asserts “had been for so long a mix of races and cultural influences that it had never developed a narrow ethnic nationalism”.  The BNP seems to argue in favour of just such an ethnic nationalism. Sure, the rate of immigration is far faster and the ethnic diversity of Britain is far greater than before.  However, there is nothing essentially new about our situation, and there is nothing historically, genetically or socially pure about British people.

If this were all it takes to defeat the BNP- a small history lesson- then we should feel mightily satisfied with ourselves, followed by a quick pat on the back.  But it doesn’t.  I very much doubt anyone is having a narrow argument about genetics or social geography.  A BNP supporter could perfectly well accept that there are many different ingredients makes up the recipe of being British.  Yet, it would not affect one iota their belief that some people do not have those ingredients!  The above arguments alone do not touch on the psychological, philosophical or historical roots of their belief.

Oh well… one step at a time!

"Welcome back to Hyde Park" and other short stories

Well... not stories as such. Or really at all. It's all about carrots and sticks. Get sucked in by the (in inverted commas) 'intriguing' title and then whipped by my harsh words.
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A few weeks ago I moved into my new house in Hyde Park (Leeds) having lived in Woodhouse for a year. I was immediately struck by a sense of a familiarity. Nay... sentimentality. This wasn't just the overpriced vegtables at Sainsburys/ Jacksons nor the tourist attraction that is the boarded up Royal Park Primary School. No... I (and my housemate on a seperate occassion) heard a (again in inverted commas) 'sneeze'. But not any old sneeze. Not the 'I've just dusted after a whole year of not doing so, and it has got up my nose' sneeze. Not the 'damn the pollen count, even though its raining' sneeze. Not even the commoner-garden 'morning sneezing fit' sneeze. The 'I have a cold' sneeze? NO

It was a 'directed at me' sneeze' It was the 'A-Jew' sneeze. Sounds a bit like 'A-Choo' but 'Jew' instead. Which is quite funny. Because I am one. A Jew that is. Or so my skullcap would suggest to the modern Hyde Park youth. They don't know me and I doubt it was to exercise my world-renowned sense of humour. Even if it was, it wouldn't be very funny... I've heard it before. Many times. It gets less amusing each time. They always look like they want to confront me but I don't oblige with anything more than an evil stare.

It seems to be quite a uniform Hyde Park thing. I wonder where they teach it. At home? At the mosque? At the Young Marrieds group? At the 'bring your child to work' day? I don't know and probably never will.

Never mind... it could always be worse.
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On reading Simon Schama's 'A History of Britain: Volume one' I discovered something I didn't know before. Well... many things. Otherwise why read the book? But just one which sticks out this particular moment and not the one about when and why the 'Prince of Wales' title first came about. Instead... it is the one about the 'yellow stars' that Edward ('Longshanks') I of England (and feudal overlord of Wales and for a short time Scotland) forced the Jews to wear to identify themselves. I'd never heard of yellow-star-wearing apart from in connection to the NAZIs and the Nurembeurg Laws.

I mean- I shouldn't have been surprised. The NAZIs were the first to release the 'Greatest Hits' album of anti-semitic symbols. Most of the NAZI leaders were educated and cultured men. They knew their history and they knew their style (those black unifroms will never go out of style). They didn't make much up themselves but they arranged past ideas in the most effective manner possible (one might argue that arranging other people's ideas is the very mark of 'orginality')

But.. I'd never thought about it. But it originated in Britain! Edward didn't learn his trade at the mosque. No... his 'pious' mother Eleanor was a keen believer on the 'blood libels' The Jews killed Christian children to use their blood in their Passover matzot (unleavened bread). I've never done it myself. And on Passover... all the Rakusen matzo box says under ingredients is 'flour and water' (hence bread). I'm sure the trading standards agency would have something to say about this mislabelling of products.

In this very same era, England has the dubious honour of being the first to expel its Jews 'as if they were some contagious disease' (as said by Schama)
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But then again... Schama is Jewish and part of the world Jewish conspiracy. Last week I watched 'The War on Britain's Jews?' on Channel 4 by Richard Littlejohn. The most interesting point to come out of it for me (apart from the desecration of garves, Jewish schools having to have high fences and rabbis being attacked) was the perception that if you believe in anti-semitism 'you must be a Jew'. If you aren't a hysterical Jew, you wouldn't believe the malicious rumours we spread. The presenter has been called a Jew and sent anti-semitic emails, as has Nick Cohen (who is not a Jew but has criticised by the current state of the 'left'), as has the author of the all-parliamentary report into anti-semitism.

So the moral is.. don't listen to me! I think this is sound advice at the best of times. But I am complaining about anti-semitism... so even more reason
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As much as Christian Europe were the progenitors of such virulent anti-semitims the arab world has done a valiant job at taking it up. Just looking that latest blood libels coming from the Middle East, I was 'amused' to learn that we are now using the blood of Palestinian (oh how fickle us Jews are not to be using Christian babies anymore) children for our Purim cakes. We've branched out!

There was a very nice interview with Muhammad Al-Buheiri (a researcher given a scholarship by Egyptian government) on 'Nile TV' saying we still do the blood libels today:

Interviewer: "I have another question. Who are the people who prepare these matzos? Are they Jewish extremists or moderates? As a researcher specializing in inter-faith dialogue, do you believe this still occurs in Israel? I'm rephrasing the question."

Muhammad Al-Buheiri: "I believe it does, because these are religious rituals."

Inter-faith worker? Inter-faith work takes tact. Whilst I don't tact this guy surely does:

Muhammad Al-Buheiri: "First of all, we should be aware that the Jews always implement a rule they consider basic: A loud voice is capable of erasing the truth."

Of Course the interviewer helpfully interevenes so as not to upset a sensitive, politically-correct viewing public: Interviewer: "The media are controlled by the Jews."
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Sweet dreams Children