My favourite part of the report was that almost everybody polled thought freedom of speech was essential and applies to everybody equally but “harsh criticism” against Israel should be prohibited. There goes my Russian Israeli readership.
9 comments:
Anonymous
said...
I wanted to be an artist too. In fact, my first degree was in literature. I wrote in the end-legal briefs. I am a coward tried and true. I just could not imagine myself in some garret trying to write with mittens on or baking under some south afrikan sun in some wadikop or whatever they are called existing on flyspecked biltong and trying to write while shaking with ague and malaria and being swarmed by tse tse flies while being harassed by British cannibals. So I went to law school and have not suffered a single tse tse fly bite although I have been bitten once or twice by a brit (during the time I was a cop).
I remember reading or hearing Spike Milligan talking about why his father decided to emigrate from England. After seeing a black bus conductor, he decided it was time to move to "white man's country." Curiously enough, this meant Australia.
My point in recalling that is that not everyone migrates for the same reason. Some migrate with the assumption that they will be in the majority when they arrive - and Israel is unique among nations for the reasons that people migrate there. Ironic though though the Russians' attitude may be it's not really suprising. They want to be in the majority and behave like it. Those who have been abused themselves, often go on to abuse others.
I agree with your take on the Russians Bill. I had not known that about Spike Milligan. I read some of his books and in fact have one around here somewhere. I do believe that I am going to dispose of the thing. Either by placing it for use in birdcages or as a firestarter.
I am an immigrant myself having migrated from canada. I am a dreadful minority here- North American Indian. I was told that there had once been an Indian in Fribourg who played hockey for their professional team. This is the closest I have come thus far to finding a fellow Injun migrator. I imagine an Australian Aborigine would encounter the same drought of contacts as well and feel the same sense of relief as I continue to feel in being away from a country that had a visceral hatred of him and his existence even though every fiber in his body tells him that this was my true homeland that I left and what happened to me there was simply injust. Many North American Indians identify at once with the Israeli's but at the same time see some affinity with the Palestinians. We understand this overwhelming drive identified as zionism. It is perfectly reasonable to us, and probably to a lot of other people as well that someone could have a strong spiritual right to someplace. We also know about settlers and being overwhelmed by Europeans.
Opps. Wrote right off the top of my head and not some errors in the middle in the long sentence ending with the word "injust". I meant unjust and I did not wish to shift from him to I. anyhoo......
"I do believe that I am going to dispose of the thing. Either by placing it for use in birdcages or as a firestarter."
Don't do that! Spike Milligan is a beautiful man who holds no responsibility for his father's attitudes. That kind of projection can be part of the problem.
Oops. Not projecting, just reading too fast. I did not see the qualification that the bit referred to Spike Milligan's dad. I of course take it all back because I like the bit about his contribution to the end of Hitler and his role in the artillery. He was great with Peter Sellers although this might have been before your time laddy.
The Russians who abandoned their homeland are not true Russians. If they feel they are not true Israelis then I feel sorry for them. Now they have no home.
9 comments:
I wanted to be an artist too. In fact, my first degree was in literature. I wrote in the end-legal briefs. I am a coward tried and true. I just could not imagine myself in some garret trying to write with mittens on or baking under some south afrikan sun in some wadikop or whatever they are called existing on flyspecked biltong and trying to write while shaking with ague and malaria and being swarmed by tse tse flies while being harassed by British cannibals. So I went to law school and have not suffered a single tse tse fly bite although I have been bitten once or twice by a brit (during the time I was a cop).
I remember reading or hearing Spike Milligan talking about why his father decided to emigrate from England. After seeing a black bus conductor, he decided it was time to move to "white man's country." Curiously enough, this meant Australia.
My point in recalling that is that not everyone migrates for the same reason. Some migrate with the assumption that they will be in the majority when they arrive - and Israel is unique among nations for the reasons that people migrate there. Ironic though though the Russians' attitude may be it's not really suprising. They want to be in the majority and behave like it. Those who have been abused themselves, often go on to abuse others.
I agree with your take on the Russians Bill. I had not known that about Spike Milligan. I read some of his books and in fact have one around here somewhere. I do believe that I am going to dispose of the thing. Either by placing it for use in birdcages or as a firestarter.
I am an immigrant myself having migrated from canada. I am a dreadful minority here- North American Indian. I was told that there had once been an Indian in Fribourg who played hockey for their professional team. This is the closest I have come thus far to finding a fellow Injun migrator. I imagine an Australian Aborigine would encounter the same drought of contacts as well and feel the same sense of relief as I continue to feel in being away from a country that had a visceral hatred of him and his existence even though every fiber in his body tells him that this was my true homeland that I left and what happened to me there was simply injust. Many North American Indians identify at once with the Israeli's but at the same time see some affinity with the Palestinians. We understand this overwhelming drive identified as zionism. It is perfectly reasonable to us, and probably to a lot of other people as well that someone could have a strong spiritual right to someplace. We also know about settlers and being overwhelmed by Europeans.
Opps. Wrote right off the top of my head and not some errors in the middle in the long sentence ending with the word "injust". I meant unjust and I did not wish to shift from him to I. anyhoo......
"I do believe that I am going to dispose of the thing. Either by placing it for use in birdcages or as a firestarter."
Don't do that! Spike Milligan is a beautiful man who holds no responsibility for his father's attitudes. That kind of projection can be part of the problem.
Oops. Not projecting, just reading too fast. I did not see the qualification that the bit referred to Spike Milligan's dad. I of course take it all back because I like the bit about his contribution to the end of Hitler and his role in the artillery. He was great with Peter Sellers although this might have been before your time laddy.
My apologies.
The Goons, like the Beatles, are timeless. I grew up one them - or perhaps failed to grow up on them.
Sorry for the tangent, Mia.
Harry Secombe was always my favourite.
The Russians who abandoned their homeland are not true Russians. If they feel they are not true Israelis then I feel sorry for them. Now they have no home.
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