17 March 2009
Durban II: The Reckoning
It is ironic that an international conference on racism and xenophobia can’t succeed because the participants are too racist and xenophobic. Instead of coming into it with an open mind to discuss these problems, too many of them have an agenda of hate against some other country or ethnic group. If they are only looking to criticise one group or another while considering themselves sacrosanct then what is the point?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
7 comments:
the downside is that some people will remain voiceless until death. grandpolitics has little meaning when you are being tortured because of your colour, religion, sex. If not Durban then I hope that some other venue can be found for something that can be made to work.
About your comment on 112. I would not bet on your certainty! The pipes are being played in the photo for a muslim Canadian....
It's always like that. It's just like that Geneva Convention. What's the point to have it if countries like USA can violate it and nobody (UN) makes anything about it?
These meetings would work better if the people who went didn't have to pander to their constituencies back hom.
The Geneva Conventions are a good idea. Some of us just need to follow them a little more.
I enjoy political debate in the realm of rights. Must be my legal side. At any rate, I believe that I might have infuriated the Norwegians since I was not fully aware of their dislike of the name Quisling. Oh well, we in Switzerland have bunkers in our houses you know.
Here is the letter that started it all..... My response to an issue I read in a Norwegian Paper. Where is norway by the way?
"Yes Lex, I understand the point.
What I do not understand however, is why certain people, citizens of your country, are not allowed to represent their country in your country which happens to be the same country. They are not different, they are simply norwegian. A requirement that your police forces probably insist on.
It is a fact that some Norwegians wear Hijabs. Some people think Hijab represents the subjegation of women for example, but a beard might represent different things in different countries as well. A hijab is also cultural and is a cultural element of Norwegian society. It is not a relic. A hijab to a norwegian might mean something fundamental and might reflect that persons heart. A Norwegian heart.
I believe that one would get much better policing with a force that represents its citizens and not simply its citizens plus. Either Norway is a pluralistic open society or it is not. If it is not, then so be it. Let all police officers wear jackboots, mustaches and enforce crimes such as non-norwegian behavior.
If it were not for the hijab dressers, the turban wearers, the braided lot, Norway would be such a country right now under some foreign leader.
Norway lost WW2. The British Army, one of the armies that liberated Europe, had more Indians and Africans in its forces than all of the scot irish combined.. Muslims fought and died in Italy, North Africa, Europe and even in Germany in various units. There were no muslim SS Units although there was a Norwegian Unit. These people that Norwegians seem to hate are the very people that let you be free.
But that in the end is not the point. You do not owe anything. The people that liberated you do not feel owed. I think though that there are Norwegians who want to serve their country as best they could and to do so, they may have to be free norwegians and behave as their conscience tells them. This is the great thing about liberty. And from the many norwegians I have known, a great point of their character, Quisling be damned.
I am a north american Indian living in Europe. I have felt the pain of exclusing from Canada but that has changed a great deal and Canada is better for it. Canada, because of its resources and its rich mix of human resources is in the G7 and remains a world player. Hijab’s are wonderful things because when you see these on canadian streets you can say, now this is a free country. and a great country.
COmmon sense of course says some things cannot be even in Canada. Such as Hindu cremations or Tibetan burials high in the mountains and accessible to birds.
A hijab is fabric. It is not the beginning of the end of your world. The wearers on your police force are Norwegians. They would be silly to wreck their country.
I suppose what I am saying is that bans such as this not only insult the beauty of your wonderful country, but distort history itself."
I think you're probably safe from a great war between Norway and Switzerland.
Imagine there's no countries/I wonder if you can/no need for greed or hunger/a brotherhood of man./Imagine all the people sharing all the world.
Post a Comment