25 August, 2006
Boons of the Multiculture
Celebrants of the Multiculture are for ever telling us of the wonderful benefits that immigrants have brought to the UK. Chicken tikka masala, they remind us, is now officially Britain's favorite repast. The subtext is that this and similar cultural imports justify the presence of 3 million people of Subcontinental origin in the country. (Are they really all curry chefs and their dependants, then? OK, some drive minicabs. That must account for the numbers.) Indeed, without the beneficence of assorted foreigners we dumb Brits would still be daubing woad on ourselves and subsisting on a diet of turnips, mutton and small beer.
Bollocks.
Spaghetti bolognese is a popular British meal. Does that necessitate the presence of a large Italian minority to service that demand? No, we have learned the recipe from the Italians, to whom we are suitably grateful, and we make it ourselves. Potatoes are an Andean vegetable. Is the English countryside full of Bolivian and Peruvian peasants, cultivating this excellent staple? Not that I've seen.
Like most nations, especially trading nations, we import both goods and ideas from abroad. That does not necessarily mean we have to import the populations of the source countries en masse as well. This facile and dangerous link, much favoured by the diversity celebrators, needs to be challenged whenever it sneaks into the discussion.
Bollocks.
Spaghetti bolognese is a popular British meal. Does that necessitate the presence of a large Italian minority to service that demand? No, we have learned the recipe from the Italians, to whom we are suitably grateful, and we make it ourselves. Potatoes are an Andean vegetable. Is the English countryside full of Bolivian and Peruvian peasants, cultivating this excellent staple? Not that I've seen.
Like most nations, especially trading nations, we import both goods and ideas from abroad. That does not necessarily mean we have to import the populations of the source countries en masse as well. This facile and dangerous link, much favoured by the diversity celebrators, needs to be challenged whenever it sneaks into the discussion.
09 August, 2006
Good old Guardian balance
I came across this story after deciphering a broken and incompetent link from the government-sponsored race-hate site Blink. I make no comment on the substance of the story, which is about the alleged racist handling by police of an assault on a Black woman in North London; I have an open mind on the accuracy of the Guardian's piece, though the palpable liberal outrage in reporter Laura Smith's writing does give me pause.
(Given the remarkable size of the victim's family, I do also find myself idly wondering again whether, like female lemmings, Somali women are actually born pregnant. I saw a Somali woman waiting at a bus stop the other day. Something was wrong, something out of place, something incomplete. I couldn't quite pin it down. Then it struck me: no push chair.)
What is worthy of comment about the Guardian story, however, is the list of other racist "incidents" which Smith appends to the end of her piece. Five recent cases are described, all of them attacks on South Asian men. In the first four cases, the assailants are clearly and explicitly described as White men. But in the final example, the ethnicity of the assailant is omitted. Could it be that it is unknown? Perhaps this BBC news item might shed some light. As well as a description of the firebomber, there is even an e-fit of the suspect. But then we all know how unreliable e-fits are, and Smith is clearly exercising journalistic prudence in her reticence about the suspect's race.
(Given the remarkable size of the victim's family, I do also find myself idly wondering again whether, like female lemmings, Somali women are actually born pregnant. I saw a Somali woman waiting at a bus stop the other day. Something was wrong, something out of place, something incomplete. I couldn't quite pin it down. Then it struck me: no push chair.)
What is worthy of comment about the Guardian story, however, is the list of other racist "incidents" which Smith appends to the end of her piece. Five recent cases are described, all of them attacks on South Asian men. In the first four cases, the assailants are clearly and explicitly described as White men. But in the final example, the ethnicity of the assailant is omitted. Could it be that it is unknown? Perhaps this BBC news item might shed some light. As well as a description of the firebomber, there is even an e-fit of the suspect. But then we all know how unreliable e-fits are, and Smith is clearly exercising journalistic prudence in her reticence about the suspect's race.
