Such a long journey

Son

Indians are frequently called as a model minority. Here is one example of how Indians fared in Trinidad. 

Fascinating story. I wonder what you will tell your daughter about how your father immigrated from India to the uk? Dadu immigrated from Bangladesh. You don't hear much from me on that but one day we will go there :)

Love 

Baba

Such a long journey
http://www.himalmag.com/component/content/article/4670-such-a-long-journey.html

---

Cover

By Namit Arora

How and why 145,000 people migrated to a small Caribbean island.

Image: Carey L Biron

I recently visited the Indian Caribbean Museum near the town of Chaguanas in Trinidad. Set in a large hall, the museum did not have other visitors at the time. Its friendly curator, 69-year-old Saisbhan Jokhan, came out to greet me and quickly proved to be a trove of information. The museum commemorates the history of a million Indo-Caribbeans, whose ancestors came as indentured labourers from the Subcontinent between 1838 and 1917. Graphic panels at the museum include details on immigrant ships, copies of girmits (indenture agreements) and rare archival photos of life on Caribbean sugarcane plantations. Evocative objects abound: an improvised sarangi, a pair of wood slippers, a rotary sugarcane press like the ones still used in mofussil India, even a life-size model of an indentured worker’s hut. Other displays show milestones in the life of the community, such as a 1970 photo of the first ‘Indo-Trini’ policewoman; a panel on Alice Jan, the first lady of Indo-Trini culture; and Indo-Trinis winning the right to build their own schools in 1952, allowing them to replace Christian with Hindu teaching.

Benefit Conditionality

A good article on why tying welfare benefits to conditionality is good. But the argument that this cannot be done in a recession is wrong. The basic concept is that if you are offered a job, then you need to take it up or lose benefits. Fair point. But what’s that got to do with the recession? If and only if a job is offered, then you get into this issue. Even if ONE person out of the millions out of work gets work over benefits, then that is a good step, no? I understand the argument that the job has to pay more than the benefits otherwise this argument falls down but overall I dont understand why there is an issue? I quote:

"A lost generation”; “a wasted generation”; “a generation on the scrap heap” – those are some of the reactions to the news that youth unemployment has risen to nearly one million. And it is not hard to understand why. Unemployment at any time of life can be a disaster, but it can have particularly pernicious effects on the young, whose habits of work have not yet been formed: if a youngster spends a long time out of work and on benefits, he or she may never develop the discipline and determination necessary to seek and hold down a job.

Christine Snell runs Windmill Hill Fruit Growers, a soft fruit farm in Herefordshire. She has more than 300 people working on her farm in the summer, and she needs to employ at least 30 even during the winter months. The work is ideal for youngsters because experience is not necessary: all you need is a degree of physical fitness and the ability to turn up on time.

How many of her workers are English? Just one. She recruits almost the whole of her workforce abroad, mostly from Bulgaria and Romania.

“I desperately want to recruit locally,” she explains. “Every few months, I place ads in an attempt to attract local workers. The response to my most recent ad was typical. I got 17 replies. When I explained what was required – five days a week, eight hours a day, with wages of £6.50 an hour – only two of them were willing to work for me. The others dropped out either because they didn’t like the look of the work, or because I explained that I needed their National Insurance number in order to pay them. They wanted cash – they said if they weren’t paid in cash, they would lose their benefits, which they were eager to keep.” Mrs Snell told them she would not be complicit in an attempt to defraud taxpayers. That was enough to put those potential employees off.

“Of the two that agreed to start work,” she continues, “one didn’t turn up, and the other gave up after a week. The unemployment rate around here is high, and there are a lot of youngsters at the local job centre. But the truth is that none of them seem interested in taking the jobs that are on offer. I absolutely don’t like recruiting abroad, not least because it increases my costs: I have to get all the contracts and health and safety documents translated, and I have to find accommodation for all the foreign workers. But what else can I do? Believe me, if there were English youngsters around here willing to do the work, I would hire them like a shot!”

this was sad

But the one nationality you almost never find waiting on your table or tending the bar is someone from Britain. Owners of bars and restaurants say that the reason they don’t employ young Brits is straightforward: too many of them are unreliable, unwilling to work hard and to accept that you can’t be rude to customers.

And then this warning:

Whether it would actually ensure that they created more jobs is, of course, another matter. But even economists are agreed that when the job market picks up, the first section of the British population to benefit will be the young, because they are first in the queue for new jobs.

Providing, that is, that better qualified and more enthusiastic immigrants do not take them first.

Shocking waste. We don't have the gumption to deal with these things although after the economic disaster of the Labour government, I have slightly higher hopes for the coalition. And all this while, immigration grows to cater for this gap, thereby pissing off just this group of feckless feral youth who flock to the EDL and BNP. And the governments don't do anything about it.

update: Here is an updated article from the same newspaper.

Amnesty for Illegal immigrants. This is why Nick Clegg will lose

Whoever thought up the idea of giving amnesties to British Illegal immigrants to the LibDems should be shot. And then pulped. And then sent to the USA to be used to plug the leaking pipeline. It has given a huge boost to the BNP and shows that the LibDems are completely out of touch with the common man. I simply cannot understand what they were thinking.

This is an email which I got and its highly simplistic relating to the USA but illustrates what Joe Public in England has such a huge issue with immigration.

You have two families: "Joe Legal" and "Jose Illegal".

Both families have two parents, two children, and live in California .
Joe Legal works in construction, has a Social Security Number and makes
$25.00 per hour with taxes deducted.
Jose Illegal also works in construction, has NO Social Security Number,
and gets paid $15.00 cash "under the table".

Ready? Now pay attention...

Joe Legal: $25.00 per hour x 40 hours = $1000.00 per week, or $52,000.00
per year. Now take 30% away for state and federal tax;
Joe Legal now has $31,231.00.
Jose Illegal: $15.00 per hour x 40 hours = $600.00 per week, or
$31,200.00 per year. Jose Illegal pays no taxes.
Jose Illegal now has $31,200.00.

Joe Legal pays medical and dental insurance with limited coverage for
his family at $600.00 per month, or $7,200.00 per year.
Joe Legal now has $24,031.00.
Jose Illegal has full medical and dental coverage through the state and
local clinics at a cost of $0.00 per year.
Jose Illegal still has $31,200.00.

Joe Legal makes too much money and is not eligible for food stamps or
welfare.
Joe Legal pays $500.00 per month for food, or $6,000.00 per year.
Joe Legal now has $18,031.00.
Jose Illegal has no documented income and is eligible for food stamps
and welfare.
Jose Illegal still has $31,200.00.

Joe Legal pays rent of $1,200.00 per month, or $14,400.00 per year. Joe
Legal now has $9,631.00.
Jose Illegal receives a $500.00 per month federal rent subsidy. Jose
Illegal pays out that $500.00 per month, or $6,000.00 per year.
Jose Illegal still has $31,200.00.

Joe Legal pays $200.00 per month, or $2,400.00 for insurance.
Joe Legal now has $7,231.00.
Jose Illegal says, "We don't need no stinkin' insurance!" and still has
$31,200.00.

Joe Legal has to make his $7,231.00 stretch to pay utilities, gasoline, etc.
Jose Illegal has to make his $31,200.00 stretch to pay utilities,
gasoline, and what he sends out of the country every month.

Joe Legal now works overtime on Saturdays or gets a part time job after
work.
Jose Illegal has nights and weekends off to enjoy with his family.

Joe Legal's and Jose Illegal's children both attend the same school. Joe
Legal pays for his children's lunches while Jose Illegal's children get
a government sponsored lunch. Jose Illegal's children have an after
school ESL program.

Joe Legal's children go home.
Joe Legal and Jose Illegal both enjoy the same police and fire services,
but Joe paid for them and Jose did not pay.

Do you get it, now?

Indians in the USA – their racial perspectives

The fact that Indians (and yes, pretty much broad based definition of Indians) are racist is not open to debate. The national obsession towards whiter skin and the pretty much well known behaviour towards Blacks (of whatever nationality) is evident across the country. Ask any black chap to go to any place in the country and try to get rented accommodation or even walk around without being stared at. Do not get me wrong, I was four square in this category as well. Anyway, that’s not the point. An interesting question comes up, what happens when you take them out of India say to USA. If you do that, do their attitudes change? So what are the attitudes of Indian Americans or Indian immigrants towards African Americans?

Thankfully, we now have a research paper which sheds some light on this rather interesting sociological behaviour. The research picked 161 Indian immigrant and Indian American Students at a large mid western university in the USA. They were paid $10 for filling out a questionnaire which took about an hour to fill out. This sample ended with 63 Indian immigrants of an average age of 25 years and 81 Indian Americans whose average age was 20 years. Indian Immigrants were defined as people who spent their first 18 years in India. Indian Americans are those whose parents emigrated to USA and thus were born and brought up in USA. 51% male. ~$80k median parental income for Indian Americans and ~$30k for Indian immigrants. I am not going to go deeper into the methodology, that is guaranteed to send you to sleep.

So what did they find out?

1. Indian immigrants reported stronger racist attitudes towards African Americans than did Indian Americans.
2. Stronger the identification with other oppressed minorities, the more positive they felt towards African Americans
3. The beliefs about social status, social hierarchy like caste which are inculcated by Indians growing up in India is a factor in the behaviour of Indian immigrants towards African Americans
4. More contact with African Americans helped in reducing the level of racism
5. Indian immigrants do not identify with African Americans in terms of being a minority, they identify themselves more with the White majority.
6. Holding more positive attitudes toward being Indian was associated with higher levels of modern racism for Indian immigrants, but no relationship was found for Indian Americans.

Quite an interesting set of results there, Sir. Obviously the limitations of the study are pretty obvious. Small sample size in a hothouse university environment, one of the first studies, sample population not representative of overall population, inherent problems with trying to draw conclusions from such a small sample, difficulty in comparing world views of two totally different populations such as Indian immigrants and Indian Americans etc. etc.

But overall, looks like more contact with African Americans helps in reducing racism although India has a very long way to go before it can truly call itself as colour blind and non discriminatory. When people say that you can taken an Indian out of India but you cannot take India out of an Indian, looks like its true, but some of the worse elements you can take out.

Rise in first-cousin marriages 'is putting children's health at risk'

This is deeply worrisome. I have researched in Bradford and the levels of illiteracy in that place is diabolical. But the article is well argued and the lady’s arguments against banning are also very good. I quote:

 

Baroness Deech, a family law professor and crossbencher, will call next week for a “vigorous” public campaign to deter the practice, which is prevalent in Muslim and immigrant communities and on the rise. She will reignite a debate started five years ago when Ann Cryer, MP for Keighley, drew attention to the number of disabled babies being born in the town and called for cousin marriage to be stopped.

Fifty-five per cent of British Pakistanis are married to first cousins and in Bradford the figure is 75 per cent. British Pakistanis represent 3 per cent of all births in Britain but one third of children with recessive disorders.

Lady Deech will also warn that marriage between first cousins can be a barrier to the integration of minority communities. In a lecture she will call for testing for genetic defects where such marriages are arranged and the keeping of a register of people who carry genetic diseases, so that two carriers are not introduced. “Some variant of this could be possible in cities such as Bradford with a high density of immigrant population,” she will say.

“The local estimate was that 75 per cent of Bradford disabled children had cousin parents and the rate of cousin marriage in the UK Pakistani community is increasing,” Lady Deech will say.

In Birmingham, another city with a substantial immigrant community, Lady Deech notes that 10 per cent of the children of first cousins die in infancy or have a disability.

But how much do you want to bet that the BNP picks this up?

Netherlands and its minorities

Came across two articles on how Netherlands are dealing with their minority issue. If you recall, this is the land where Theo van Gogh was killed by a rather lunatic idiot and since then, minorities, specially Muslim, have had issues.

First article related to how Dutch Egyptians have problems with their children’s education. This made me seriously wonder how on earth are we going to improve if male patriarchies are going to be simultaneously try to control their daughters, give them crap education and then at the same time, steal from the benefits system. What on earth is going on with these chaps? For them to say that an Egyptian State school education is better than a Dutch state school education is frankly ludicrous. They are suffering from delusion. I quote:

The ministry's investigation revealed several reasons why parents in Amsterdam are sending their children to Egypt. "It appears that the parents feel the quality of education in Egypt is higher than in the Netherlands," Dijkstra wrote to parliament in April. "A number of them feel the culture and the education package in Egypt is more appropriate." Other parents cited conflicts between ethnic groups at school, or personal reasons like divorce or illness.

A more varied picture emerges from a dozen interviews with the parents of Egyptian-Dutch children conducted by NRC Handelsblad in Egypt. None of the parents wanted to see their full name in print, mostly because they were afraid to lose child support or other benefits.

Adel may say his main motive was economic, but he complained most about the freedom and rights granted to children in the Netherlands. He is afraid to lose custody if he spanks his children. His brother's conviction for child kidnapping scared him. After divorcing his Dutch wife, Adel's brother had taken their two children to Egypt in violation of the custody agreement. When he returned to the Netherlands for work he was arrested and sent to prison for three years.

This is seriously stupid, the reason why these immigrants went to the Netherlands was to participate and earn from Dutch culture. Do they think that the economy, culture and earnings in Netherlands came from a culture, educational system which was akin to Egypt? if so, why leave in the first place? Its again these men being stupid. And nobody seems to think of the children’s rights either.

Second article related to rates of intermarriage. Now intermarriage is usually taken as a very good indicator of improving race relations. According to this note, and I quote:

Over 90 percent of Turkish and Moroccan immigrants in the Netherlands who got married in 2008 did so with someone out of their own ethnic group. Less than 10 percent married a white Dutch person, according to the Central Bureau for Statistics (CBS).

Last year, 28,000 people of non-Dutch origin got married. Over half were non-Western immigrants (the rest being Western immigrants), of whom about half were Turkish and Moroccan, most of them born in the Netherlands or having come there shortly after they were born abroad.

Seven in 10 Western brides and bridegrooms married a white Dutch partner. Among the non-Western immigrants, this was less than 25 percent. Among Turks alone, the figure was just 8 percent, and among Moroccans, only 7 percent. Surinamese and Antilleans (about 30 percent) boosted the figure for the whole non-Western group.

Around 15 percent of the non-Western immigrants and almost none of their Western counterparts that got married did so with a partner coming over from the country of origin. Among Turks and Moroccans, this figure was 20 and 14 percent respectively.

Sixty-three percent of the Dutch Turks who married, married another Turk already living in the Netherlands. For Moroccans, this domestic 'own group' figure was as much as 70 percent.

For years, over 80 percent of non-Westerners have got married to a partner of the same origin. Since 2004, when the rules for migration marriages were tightened up, 'import' marriages have become less frequent but not domestic 'own group' marriages.

Looks like there is a fair way to go still.

KOSOVO:YOUNG; 73% UNEMPLOYED, ONE THIRD PREPARED TO EMIGRATE

Now here’s a bit of an issue for Europe. On the doorstep of Europe, in a place which saw vicious civil war, thousands dead and billions of Euro’s spent on trying to improve the economy, we end up with a situation that 3 our of 4 young Kosovars are unemployed and 1/3 are looking to immigrate.

This is a double whammy, you get the picture that the original investment in Kosovo has not worked and on the other hand, as usual, the immigration problem is going to increase in western Europe. The far right has already picked up this story and is running with it on the blogs and mailing lists. I quote:

In Kosovo, 73% of young people are unemployed, and a survey has shown that a third of them are prepared to leave the country in search of fortune elsewhere. According to daily newspaper Koha Ditore, there is an increasing trend amongst young people to emigrate. The paper believes that this shows the authorities' inability to respond to the requests and needs of young Kosovars.

Not sure this has reached the upper reaches of the European political scene, who are busy being undemocratic over the Irish constitutional vote. That’s another interesting exercise. We, the political heads of Europe, are fully democratic, you will keep on voting till you vote the way we want you to vote. Like Henry Ford, eh? you can have any colour you want as long as its black. Bah!

Why are migrants better than British workers?

Not only are foreign born workers getting more jobs than British born workers but they are better able to hold on to the jobs that they have in the first place.

Can you see the difference of UK born versus people from outside? I quote some worrying figures from here.

An analysis of official statistics shows that the number of British-born workers in employment fell by 451,000, or 1.8 per cent, in the first quarter of this year compared with a year ago.

Over the same period, the number of foreign-born workers with jobs rose by 129,000, or 3.5 per cent. In the first quarter of this year, British-born workers left employment at roughly four times the rate of foreign-born workers.

what do you do? what do people say?

Roughly the same proportion of British nationals and foreigners are unemployed – one in 12 – but joblessness among Britons rose by 600,000, or 43 per cent, in the past year compared with a rise of 16,000, or 15 per cent, among foreign workers. Part of the divergence may be explained by non-Britons leaving the country as jobs became harder to find.

Sir Andrew Green, the chairman of campaign group Migrationwatch UK, said: “It is increasingly clear that foreign-born workers are faring better than British-born ones as the recession bites. We must face up to this and take serious measures to tighten the points-based [immigration] system for the benefit of British workers.”

The government isn't doing much to deal with the issues relating to Britons, and this is allowing the BNP to step inside and claim for very emotive and problematical land such as British jobs for British people or go into the racist mode. And nowhere do we see what the Government is doing to help the local chaps out, the investment in the public sector goes into unproductive places such as welfare and other aspects rather than going much more into education, funding, and the like.

Forget about helping the poor working class students get better educated and get better jobs. The proportion of students who go to the top universities in the UK is falling rather than rising. This not only has an impact on the poor and unemployed, but its also causing severe decline in social mobility, a key feature in every good egalitarian society.

Walling off Saudi Arabia

Heh, i dont think anybody will be calling this as wrong, would they? Not when its Saudi Arabia doing it, lol. But look at the map, its surrounded with neighbours who are pretty mean and has issues with quite a lot of them.

 

View Larger Map

Yemen we know, they have had fights, across the water, they had fights with Egypt but now its ok, Iraq is full of messy characters, over on the other side, they have Iran. Bahrain and rest of the tiny UAE and other bits are ok, but its an interesting response indeed. I quote:

Saudi Arabia on Wednesday moved to bolster security along its borders with Iraq and Yemen with the award of a contract to build a 9,000km security system.

The project – awarded to EADS, the European aerospace and defence group – is also intended to stem the flow of illegal immigrants into the country.

In March, EADS and Al-Rasheed Trading Contracting, its Saudi partner, were awarded a contract to construct a fence along Saudi Arabia’s 900km border with Iraq. Wednesday’s announcement adds a further 8,000km of security fence to the project.

Self Explanatory

Technorati Tags: racism,USA,immigration

India receives $27 bn in remittances in 2007

Way to go, do more and more, get rid of this habit of getting monies from government bodies and multi-lateral bodies. Savings, investments and personal funds transfers are far more economic and effective than other flows and do more for the poor than all the gods, religious leaders, NGOs and governments combined. Read and applaud. I quote:

The top five recipients of remittances in 2007 were India ($27 billion), China ($25.7 billion), Mexico ($25 billion), the Philippines ($17 billion), and France ($12.5 billion), according to the report titled 'Migration and Remittances Factbook 2008'.

"In many developing countries, remittances provide a life line for the poor. They are often an essential source of foreign exchange and a stabilising force for the economy in turbulent times," said Dilip Ratha, senior economist with the World Bank, and co-author of the report.

But found that figure for France curious, why are people remitting money into France?

All this to be taken with a grain of piquant salt!!!

Bringing Foreign Experts into the country helps in knowledge transfers!

Sounds like a good thing to me. But this will need to be looked in conjuction with the freedom of labour to move across boundaries. If an expert can move from USA to Bangladesh to talk about food rotation and offer his abilities, then can a farm labourer move from Bangladesh to USA to offer his food rotation abilities?


Gains from productivity and knowledge transmission arising from the presence of foreign firms have received a good deal of empirical attention, but theoretical micro-foundations for this mechanism are limited. Here we develop a model in which foreign experts may train domestic workers who work with them. Hypotheses are generated under the assumptions that workers learn from experts (the effect of using an expert is not strictly temporary) and that this learning is embodied in the workers rather than in the firm. We use fixed effects and nearest neighbour matching estimators on a panel of plant-level data for Colombia that identifies the use of foreign experts, to show that these experts have substantial and persistent positive effects (though not always immediate) on the wages of domestic workers and on the value added per worker.

All this to be taken with a grain of piquant salt!!!

The Swedes should model their immigration policy on Kurdistan!

This is liberalism gone mad! Read and wonder. So this is what the minister is proposing.

Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt and Migration Minister Tobias Billström have proposed that immigrants must demonstrate “appropriate housing” and a “steady means of support” before their relatives would be allowed to migrate to Sweden.

Pretty reasonable, I would have thought.

But no, this is what another newspaper opines:

Meanwhile, the editorial board at GP is more skeptical toward the suggestion, asserting that “the proposal has advantages, but it is far from clear that they outweigh the disadvantages.” GP asks the reader—and the civil servants who will be tasked with flushing out the proposal in detail—to put themselves in the position of being an immigrant in another country.“We can’t place tougher burdens on foreign residents in Sweden than what we would accept for Swedes overseas,” the paper writes. “We all ought to ask ourselves how long we are prepared to live apart from our children if the world was to fall apart and we were forced to seek protection in say, Kurdistan.”

I asked several Swedish colleagues here and none of them would even admit to be Swedish after reading that!

How bizarre, moral relativitism taken to the stupid level! No offence to Kurds who I am sure have a lovely state, but well, I am not sure that their immigration policies are the world standard.

All this to be taken with a grain of piquant salt!!!

More evidence on honour killing in the UK

This is absolutely gruesome and foul. Heinous. There is nothing cultural or religious about this, whether Sikh, Hindu or Islamic. This is pure and simple barbarity. See my previous essay on honour killing. I quote from the news story:

A GIRL of 15 was tricked into a "telephone marriage" ceremony to a Sheffield man with a mental age of five in a ceremony recognised by sharia (Islamic law). The girl's marriage last April was not recognised by the Home Office but was approved by the Islamic Sharia Council in Britain.

Here is the full report. And it is indeed worse. See page 25 for a Sikh Girl's problems, page 29 for a Orthodox Jewish girl's problems. See this on page 32:

Bawjit Singh, an Indian Hindu who works as a social worker in East London whose sister was disowned by her family after marrying a Muslim, says: "In the eyes of my parents marrying a Muslim is marrying the enemy. We are taught that we can be friends with them but we can’t date them and definitely can’t marry them. If I marry one who is Muslim then I am disowned"

But do not over-react and think it is applicable to all ethnic minorities. Also see my previous post about ethnic minorities. See this table on page 19:

The effect of honour on education levels: A 2007 study by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation found that the educational qualifications of women from South Asia varied widely. These variations are largely a result of their widely differing attitudes to honour. Percentage of women aged 25-29 with degree level qualifications:
Women of Indian origin 53.9%
Women of Pakistani origin 25.6
Women of Bangladeshi origin 15.5
UK average: 29.7
Source:

But overall, something needs to be done to these barbarians in our midst who mistreat women in this fashion. I do not give a shit about what justification they use, they need to be put into stocks and rotten tomatoes thrown at them regularly.

Gulf Arabs are lazy and will get drowned in the Asian Tsunami

A great post here. Read it fully. Mind you, something that the author has not considered is the fact that the fertility rates across the Arab lands is dropping dramatically, with certain countries such as Tunisia now approaching European levels. In other words, the fertility is below replacement rate and other things being equal, the Arabs will disappear in due course of time (to be replaced by??). So keep the women in ignorance and have a high birth rate. Educate them and watch the generations squish down.

I quote:

Al-Jamri suggests that foreign labour we customarily have and as their visas suggest, should not be classified as temporary due to their semi-permanence in our communities. He contends that what we really have is full-scale emigration. And this, denotes the possibility of them soon demanding their human and political rights. Whether we like it or not, international conventions give them those rights. After all, quite a lot of them have already surpassed the requirements to gain the citizenship in the country they chose to work in even by using local constitutions and laws. […] As Al-Jamri suggests, it is not too far fetched to have India exerting its major power in our countries by proxy. It will apply inordinate political and cultural influence by virtue of the millions of its citizens gaining citizenships, or even just continuing to live and work in our countries without any measure of control and without investing in the local population’s education and rehabilitation. Al-Jamri suggests that India’s political influence might well develop into making our countries a part of a “Commonwealth of India” soon, as its former citizens will gain positions of responsibility in both private and public sectors, even rising to ministerial positions within the Cabinet.

All this to be taken with a grain of piquant salt!!!

What does it mean to be British?

I was laughing my head off reading this. Why do people want to define what it means to be British, I dont understand. I am quite happy to be just British, thank you very much. I quote:

What does it mean to be British? How do you express it in a country that believes self-promotion to be embarrassing? And how do you deal with a defining trait of the people you are trying to define: their habit of making fun of worthy government proposals?

The readers’ suggestions included “Dipso, Fatso, Bingo, Asbo, Tesco” (Asbo stands for “anti-social behavior order,” a law-enforcement tool, while Tesco is a ubiquitous supermarket chain); “Once Mighty Empire, Slightly Used”; “At Least We’re Not French”; and “We Apologize for the Inconvenience.” The winner, favored by 20.9 percent of the readers, was “No Motto Please, We’re British.”

“The point I was making is, this idea of a statement of Britishness; I cannot think of anything less British than that,” said 25-year-old David Bishop, author of the winning motto.

I dont think we can define what Britishness is, it will defeat the purpose. Where do you start? the history? the culture? the language? everything is so diffuse but still goes to make up something that is brilliant. Best I can explain is by reference to something.

Define atmosphere. Well, you can define it by the percentage of oxygen, nitrogen, other gases, etc. But the air we breathe is one of the causes of life taking form on earth. And does the definition help? no. Similarly why do you want to define being British? Just say we are and that's it! :)

British Muslims issue guidelines to fight extremism

Very good steps here, something that shows how far we have come and still how far we have to go. In other words, the very fact that these basic common sense modern day and age principles have to be enumerated shows how far we are, and the fact that these basic principles are still facing opposition shows how far we have to go.

Read and worry but hope as well! Some extracts:

Leaders of Britain's two million Muslims unveiled a new set of guidelines Thursday that aim to root out extremism, promote a culture of "civic responsibility" and foster women's rights in the country's mosques, Islamic centers and Muslim schools.

The 10-point "code of conduct" will now go to public discussion among Muslim groups, with the aim of producing a final version by March. The proposals would commit all Muslim organizations accepting it to "actively combat all forms of violent extremism" within the community and to "promote civic responsibility of Muslims in wider society."

The specifics of the charter would commit mosques to stricter vetting of all imams and other religious leaders, including a check for criminal records. In addition, it would require mosques, and other Muslim religious institutions, to commit to "open, democratic, accountable management," including making public the details of the raising and spending of funds.

It would also bind mosques to adopt written policies on equality of opportunity, racial and religious harassment, and child protection. Perhaps most controversially, from the standpoint of conservative Muslims, it would also commit them to establish "women's committees" to encourage the wider participation of women in the life of mosques.

In particular, mosques and other Muslim institutions would be expected to "ensure that forced marriages are understood and publicized as un-Islamic," to condemn "violence in matrimonial or domestic matters," and to "mediate in matrimonial conflict resolution." Mosques would also be expected to have "uniform procedures" for carrying out marriages, and standard documents for certifying them.

The new charter would provide for random spot checks of mosques and other Muslim institutions to verify whether they were conforming to the charter, and commit them to participate in "interfaith activities" with other religious groups.

The Muslim organizations would be required to cooperate with other agencies, including the police and non-Muslim community groups, to bring about what the proposals referred to as a "reconciliation in fractured relationships" between Muslins and non-Muslims.

Technorati Tags: Islam,Muslims,United Kingdom

Are immigrants good for cities?

Are immigrants good for cities? Well yes, broadly speaking is the result. Life is much more complicated than blanket statements such as immigration is bad or good, but this study of the US cities is worth exploring.

Mind you, it wont be as such applicable in a country like UK which is far more densely populated. In this place, the line between the country and urban area is very blurred, specially with huge public transport networks. For example, now with the launch of the high speed Eurostar service, you can live in France and commute into work into UK. So be warned, but still, very interesting short essay on how immigrants impact natives in terms of their incomes and rents.

Why on earth is Britain funding virginity repair operations?

More proof that the UK is moving rapidly into banana republic territory. So now my tax pounds are being used to satisfy a deeply medieval moronic and stupid practise of repairing the virginity of stupid ignorant cows who are going to get married to stupid animals whose brains have migrated to their genitals. I quote:

The trend has been condemned by critics as a sign of social regression driven by Islamic fundamentalists. Some countries have made hymen reconstruction operations illegal.
Dr Magdy Hend, consultant gynaecologist at the Regency Clinic, Harley Street, London, who started hymen reconstruction more than 18 years ago in the Middle East and the Gulf, said: "In some cultures they like to see that the women will bleed on the wedding night. If the wife or bride is not a virgin, it is a big shame on the family."
"They might be British of ethnic background, they might be immigrants, or some people come from abroad, Asia, Middle East, the Gulf, and they don't want to have it done back home," he added.

Barbarians, animals. And how on earth is the NHS funding this?

All this to be taken with a grain of piquant salt!!!

Now that's a good religion which tells you to be good, work hard and be happy!

Now this is good, this is what religion is all about, working hard, being good, be happy. People see far too much into religion, and well, at end of the day, it boils down to this, work hard, be good and be happy. Is it really too much to ask? Apparently so, but not for these very good people!

Read and be motivated!

Fake Prada fuels Senegal's Muslim brotherhood
Sun Nov 11, 2007 9:23pm EST

By Nick Tattersall
TOUBA, Senegal (Reuters) - For Senegalese street sellers from Manhattan to the Vatican, selling fake Prada purses and Chinese-made Gucci sunglasses is as much a question of religious devotion as of making a quick buck.
Many traders are members of the Mouride brotherhood, a branch of African Sufi Islam which has become Senegal's most influential religious, political and economic force.
A unique mix of militant capitalism and moderate Islam, its central doctrine of hard work as a means to paradise has led thousands to leave Senegal's sunny shores with one goal -- to earn money and send it back to the holy city of Touba.
"Work and don't complain much. That's the only doctrine they have," said Moustapha Diao, 53, a Mouride born in Touba who now lives in Harlem, the heart of New York's Senegalese community.
Diao used to peddle goods on Manhattan streets at a mark-up after buying them cheaply in Chinatown.
"The only network they have is workaholic," he said.
Remittances from Mourides abroad have helped the brotherhood grow exponentially since it was founded in the 1880s by Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba, a Muslim mystic, poet and pacifist sent into exile by French colonial authorities who feared his influence.
Known as "little Mecca", the holy city of Touba has grown from a tiny village into the hub of a global network of small businessmen whose trading acumen means the latest gadgets are available in Senegal as quickly as anywhere in the world.
"My conviction is that if it weren't for Ahmadou Bamba, I wouldn't have all this," said Djily Diop, 22, among fridges, televisions and satellite receivers in his shop in Touba.
SCHOOL OF HARD KNOCKS
Diop had wanted to finish school and maybe go to university. But in a country with tens of thousands of graduates unable to find work, his parents encouraged him to go to a Daara, a Koranic school run by a Marabout or religious teacher.
Unemployment is so high that many young Senegalese have risked their lives taking unseaworthy, overcrowded fishing boats to Spain's Canary Islands in the hope of finding work in Europe.
"My classmates went to university for three years and now they are unemployed. My parents knew (a Daara) was the best route," Diop said, dressed in gold-coloured robes.
His access to the Mouride network has enabled him to set up a business and will support him wherever he travels.
"If I go to New York, even if it is someone who does not know me, when I say I am a Mouride he will take me as his brother and share with me," he said.
"What we have in common -- the Marabout -- is more important than family ties, community ties, even the fact we are from the same country."
Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba's teachings -- notably "pray as if you will die tomorrow and work as if you will live forever" -- are learned from an early age by many of his followers.
In the peanut fields around Touba, given by the state to the brotherhood's current caliph Serigne Saliou Mbacke, children as young as 10 tend the crops, part of a Daara education based on hard physical labour as well as religious texts.
"I learned never to get angry. There were people who beat me but it taught me to be strong," said Cheikh Beye, a Daara-educated trader who sells goods sent by his brother from Dubai and China. "Mourides want to succeed whatever the cost."
POWERFUL BUT TOLERANT
The brotherhood dominates life in much of Senegal.
Homages like "Djeuredjef Serigne Saliou" -- thank you Serigne Saliou -- are painted all over brightly coloured buses and taxis. Bedroom walls and pendants carry images of the movement's Marabouts.
Some critics argue the Mourides' reverence for Bamba and the Marabouts eclipses their respect for the Prophet Mohammad, one of the pillars of Islam, and say the brotherhood has become too powerful a political force in Senegal.
Bamba's followers emphasize the tolerant nature of his teachings. They say support from Mouride leaders helped keep independence president Leopold Sedar Senghor, a Christian in a predominantly Muslim country, in power.
They regard their readiness to engage other cultures as central to the brotherhood's global success.
"Here, we do not know this fierce form of Islam in which you have to kill others because they do not believe the same as you, because they are Christian or Jew," said Cheikh Bethio, one of the most influential of the movement's living Marabouts.
"That is why it hurts us when the West confuses Islam and terrorism," he told Reuters as his followers knelt around him in a courtyard near Touba, his brand new Hummer off-roader parked in the shade of a tamarind tree.
(Additional reporting by Edith Honan in New York and Silvia Aloisi in Rome; Editing by Pascal Fletcher and Sara Ledwith)


All this to be taken with a grain of piquant salt!!!