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A question – please answer, if you can!
September 15, 2015 — xanthippaYes, I usually post my never-humble-opinions.
But this time, I know I would be out of my depth had I offered one….
Still, the question itself has kept me up on more than one night.
Granted, my early schooling came behind the Iron Curtain – so, perhaps the very premises of my question are flawed. Yet, I have read enough (among the little bits of ‘H’istory that I have indulged myself in) here, in The West, that suggests to me that this question may, indeed, be more valid today than it has been in, well, almost a century.
Therefore, my dear reader, I beg you to indulge me in asking my question and, if you can, in enlightening me with the answer.
Thank you!
Now, for my long-winded question:
Before World War 1, the movement of peoples between nations was not regulated.
At least, it was not regulated in the manner in which it became regulated later on in the 20th century.
Yes, of course, there were border controls: but these were meant mostly for economic purposes (import/export taxes) and to apprehend criminals.
After all, it was not so long ago that mainland Europe was still using the Feudal System of governance, where the freedom of movement of country folk was under complete control of their landlords.
And the aristocracy was not limited by borders: crossing them freely and unencumbered to pursue political marriages. The land they held was their only anchor to the kingdom in which they held it.
The craftsmen were also not anchored in place by ‘kingdom-governance’ (I cannot think of a proper term for this), but by the self-regulated guilds of their region, under which they were permitted to practice their craft: guilds were built upon the apprentice-based artificially created scarcity of their products within various regions, calculated to ensure higher-than-market value of their work and thus inflating guild-members standard of living and social standing.
Similarly, scholars and artists moved freely between kingdoms, based on where they could find private patrons willing to fund them and their works. (Note: painters may be regarded as ‘artists’ today, but, prior to accessible photography, they were considered craftsmen and thus subject to the guild system.) For example, consider the alchemical court of Rudolph the Second.
After centuries of feudalism, it took a bit from when the shackles were shattered to when people gathered the courage to reach for freedom and travel to far-away lands – not just to learn, or as a right of passage, but to settle for good.
At the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century, the human migrations truly became unfettered and populations began to migrate.
From my own cultural background – this is where the huge exodus of Czechs into Texas began: so great was this migration that it was not until the 1970’s that Spanish overtook Czech as the second language of Texas. The University of Austin still has the largest Czech Studies department outside of the Czech Republic… And don’t even get me started on ‘Miss Czech Texas’..
Yes, I realize that I am providing just one example here, but, I am no historian: which is why I hope to get responses which will enlighten me.
Now that I have set the stage…
It has been suggested that one of the most important ‘behind-the-scenes’ reasons for the First World War was the absence of proper regulation on
the migration of populations across political borders.
Yes, of course – there were the ‘obvious’ reasons: but I have heard the claim that these ‘obvious’ reasons were, in fact, brought about because of the cultural instability and tensions brought about by, in practical terms, unregulated migration of populations across culturo-political borders.
It would be difficult to argue that what we are seeing now, in the EU in particular and in all of Europe in general is exactly the same type of unregulated migration of populations across cutluro-political borders!
But, it is even more pointed now than what it had been prior to WW1: at least back then, the migrations did not tend to cross religio-cultural borders – something that is most definitely happening now. The new migrants flooding Europe, without any true governance, are not just politically and culturally different, they are also religiously different: subscribing to an intolerant, supremacist religion that permits exploitation and violence against non-members of said religion and refuses to recognize any culture other than its own…
Finally, the question:
Are the current, practically unregulated migration conditions into Europe as dangerous, if not more, than the ones that sparked World War 1?
Photos of dead toddler, Aylan Kurdi, were staged (updated with retraction)
September 8, 2015 — xanthippaUPDATE: The AG News report I had relied on for the report of the staging of little Aylan’s body has now retracted the story. It is most important to keep the truth up front – I’d rather learn the truth before winning an argument any time. The rest of my rant seems, at least for now, to be factually correct.
* * *
By now, everyone in the world (with internet access or not) has seen the heart-tugging pictures of poor little Aylan Kurdi’s drowned body on the sandy beach, demonstrating the human tragedy that results from this mass migration into Europe.
And a human tragedy it is.
But, as so often happens with emotionally charged stories, the first victim becomes the truth: especially if the narrative can manipulate the audience into somehow feeling good about themselves.
How can a child’s tragic death be used to make millions of Westerners feel good about themselves?
I will get to it.
First, please indulge me in reporting some of the truths of this incident.
The little boy’s name is not, in fact, Aylan Kurdi. His name is Aylan Shenu. ‘Kurdi’ is a reference to the fact that he is of Kurdish background and would perhaps be best translated as ‘Aylan, the Kurd’.
But, since the ‘Kurdish cause’ is currently in vogue in The West, the ‘Kurdi’ nomiker evokes the proper emotions in the Western audience and therefore, even in death, the little boy is stripped of his individuality, his own identity, in favour of playing up group politics.
Please, do not mistake my identification of the Kurdish cause as being in vogue in The West as any comment as to its rightness or wrongness: not in the least. In this particular article, I refuse to examine the source of the conflict and my opinions about it because this post is not about that!
It is about how a young child death was unnecessary, preventable and senseless – and how even in death he is stripped of his dignity by being used as a theatrical prop on the world stage!!!
Ok, now that we have his correct name, let’s stick to it: Aylan Shenu.
Wikipedia claims his first name is ‘Alan’, not ‘Aylan’, but they also claim his last name is ‘Kurdi’ and a lot of other factual errors can be found in their article, so I’m just noting this for completeness, not because I’m buying their version.
The next lie is that the family had tried to come to Canada and been turned down – and that is why they had to resort to this desperate boat ride. The family had never applied for entry to Canada.
As per the family itself – not just some lame bureaucrat’s claim.
But the family was fleeing war, right?
Wrong! The family had received free housing in Turkey of 3 years – the length of little Aylan Shenu’s life – and not been in any warn-torn, or even violence-threatened area.
Still, the conditions were so bad, they were escaping to save their lives, yes?
No! The family was hoping to go to Finland because they wanted to get dental care paid for by the Finish State rather than using the $5,000 their aunt had sent them from Canada to get their teeth fixed up. It was his parents’ greed – not war – that had caused the death of little Aylan Shenu!!!
And, to make sure his family had cut to the front of the line in the refugee application system, Abdullah, Aylan’s father, had sent his wife and children in first, alone, so that a lone mother and children would get help first. Then, under ‘family reunification’ program, he’d join them…
That manipulative greedy pig of a father was never even on the boat!!!
But, ‘greedy father wants free dental care and sends wife and babies on risky journey to cut in the refugee cue’ is nowhere near as pretty a narrative as ‘babies drown trying to escape war’…
More importantly, even though the true account of the event might evoke anger towards that {insert expletives of choice here} father, it would have no way of making the Western audience feel good about themselves. So, it would not sell nearly as many papers…and that’s before we get into the geo-political usefulness of the narrative over the truth.
Yet, if the media could spin this as a tragedy of those fleeing The Horrors of War – Westerners COULD be made feel better about themselves!
Just urge them to accept more migrants into their countries, welcome them, open their hearts and homes to them – then THEY will be DOING something ‘GOOD’. And thus feel good about themselves!!!
So, this narrative sells!
Of course, the fact that the UN openly states that it wants to undermine national homogeneity of EU member states – they’ve been saying this for a while now.
Which is exactly what this massive invasion is doing: who hasn’t seen the videos of migrants in Hungary chanting ‘Allahu Akhbar’ and ‘fuck you’ at the Hungarians as they destroy the food and water being distributed to them has not only failed to do their due diligence, they are guilty of wilful ignorance!
And Hungary is not the only place where the migrants are refusing donated food – videos from Germany where angry, young, able-bodied migrant are throwing it into garbage bins or pouring it on the ground in front of the very people who worked tirelessly to gather these donations for them abound!
Now, I speak as an immigrant: I went through the UN refugee camp in Traiskirchen and it was a tough place, to say the least. 35 years later, I still get ‘immigrant dreams’ now and then and, to be honest, even my family has still not heard about all that I had experienced on my journey from my birthplace to my home in Canada. So, I understand what immigrants go through, how dehumanizing the process can be.
Yet, never ever, in my wildest dreams, would we have behaved as these thugs do!
Yes, the food was not always the tastiest or according to what we were used to, but it was given to us out of the goodness of the heart of the givers – we were grateful for it! Beggars cannot be choosers…but these beggars are turning into bullies!
But, I digress. This is not my story – this is the story of little Aylan Kurdi Shenu.
So, the UN wants to erase the very thing that drove Europe into its technological and scientific progress: the competition between its nation states, driven by the rivalry between the various nationalities.
The media, who buy in to the UN’s politics, can not only advance its ideological aim, they can also financially benefit from twisting the true facts of the death of poor little Aylan Shenu.
And if there ever was a doubt about this being anything else, please, consider this, most telling fact: before the most heart-wrenching photos of little Aylan were taken, his body was specifically and intentionally posed!
And it worked…
That truly is a human tragedy!
Toronto Mosque was collecting clothes, raising money for ISIS
September 4, 2015 — xanthippaThe mosque in question is the Madinah Masjid, 1015 Danforth Avenue, Toronto.
What more needs to be said…
Edit: video courtesy of Eric Brazau
Welcome to Sweden – by Angry Foreigner
July 28, 2015 — xanthippaThis immigrant to Sweden sees what is happening there just as I, an immigrant to Canada, see what is happening here:
‘Drawing Muhammed’ acknowledges acceptance of Islam into Western culture
June 10, 2015 — xanthippaThis post is dedicated to all those who say:
“I believe in freedom of speech, but drawing Muhammed is a provocation, Islamophobia and hate speech!”
Or something along those lines.
And I answer you that nothing could be further from the truth!!!
When the original Danish Cartoon controversy erupted into worldwide violence, my son had a classmate, Abdulahee, whom he was very good friends with. Abdi’s dad used to be a Math teacher before immigrating to Canada from Africa and their mutual love of Math led them into a great friendship.
As parents dropping off and picking up kids in the lower grades of school often get to know each other and chat together, I got to know Abdi’s parents: his mom was shy, and would only return greetings and a smile, but his dad was more open and the two of us would often chat about the weather and such.
As an immigrant myself a few decades earlier, I was curious how the ‘new immigrant’ experience had changed since my days and so I would ask him and our conversation taught me some interesting things. At times, we even discussed politics…
It was at the time that the violent reaction against the cartoons was at its highest that, while offering Abdi’s dad a ride home after we had dropped off our little ones at school, I asked him what he thought…
Yes, my dear readers, many have pointed out to me that asking a newly arrived Muslim immigrant his opinion on the cartoons and the violent reaction to them in the Muslim world was not politically correct and that I might have been ‘putting him on the spot’, so to speak. Rest assured, I asked as politely as my little Aspie self was capable of and assured him he did not have to comment if he were uncomfortable.
Which he was not.
He thought the cartoons were totally horrible and should not have been published and that death was an appropriate punishment for the cartoonists and the publishers.
OK, I asked – and was told.
By this point, we had arrived near his house, but he seemed very reluctant to leave the conversation at this. So, we sat in a parked car in front of his house and, for the next half-hour to an hour, we talked. And talked. And talked…about the cartoons, the reaction, and all that…
Because I knew this was an intelligent and educated man and I was truly interested in learning why he thought political cartoons were sufficient justification for killing someone, and he was open to explaining his reasoning to me, I sat, and listened, learned and, at times, asked questions.
This issue was front and centre in the Muslim community he was a part of and they discussed it a lot among themselves. And the anger and bitterness were not faked: they were truly felt.
Why?
Because their religious leaders explained to them that this action was a direct attack on the Muslim family, an act of intolerance and racism. Islamophobia!
“You guys would not do this with an image of Jesus, so why do you think that you can do it to our prophet and get away with it? If they did this about the Christian God, they’d be in jail or dead!” he explained animatedly to me…
Well, you can see where this is heading, my dear readers. With a smile of surprise on my face I asked why ever would he think this?
It seems that he was assured by his religious and community leaders that this is absolutely so!
At this point, I took the opportunity to tell Abdi’s dad about ‘Piss Christ’ and ‘Elephant Dung Madonna’.
He was incredulous.
So, I walked him through (in my limited manner) some of the reasons behind the reformation and enlightenment and how criticizing -nay, ridiculing, parodizing and blaspheming – political and religious figures in our society is the cornerstone of our culture and the root of our tolerance.
Yes, tolerance.
Because if nothing is so sacred that it cannot be lampooned and parodied, then nothing can be so powerful enough in our society as to force everyone to officially respect it, even if it is contrary to their own belief system.
If everyone can make fun of Christ, then nobody can force a non-Christian to bow to him as a God.
If everyone can make fun of a Guru, then nobody but his followers need to act as if he’s more than any other man and bow to him in respect.
If everyone can make fun of our politicians and famous people, then nobody gets pun in jail for telling political jokes – but, more importantly, nobody gets put in jail for pointing out when said politician brakes the laws. It keeps them ‘human’ and not above the rest of us.
It is not a perfect mechanism, but it is the best one we have!
After his first incredulity, Abdi’s father started thinking.
And then he asked: “So, when they make fun of Muhammed, it means he has become an important figure in your culture?”
EXACTLY!!!
It is precisely because Islam has become a part of our cultural tapestry that Muhammed has become an influential political figure in our culture, along side of Jesus and others.
And yes – apart from being a religious figure, Jesus Christ is also a political figure. And now, since Islam has become a part of our cultural tapestry, so is Muhammed!
In a very real sense, criticism of Islam in general and Muhammed in particular, and drawing cartoons/caricatures of him, is far from ‘rejection of Islam’ or ‘Islamophobia’: rather, it is the tacit acknowledgement that Islam is now part of our culture and that its leading figures – religious, political or cultural – are being treated equally to leading religious, political and cultural figures in the rest of our society.
Even at the height of the violent times, a reasonable Muslim grasped that drawing Muhammed was a symbol of acceptance, not rejection, of Muslims into our midst. I just hope others can be as open minded!
How Roman rule expanded through the lands
January 15, 2015 — xanthippaDid you ever learn how the Romans were able to spread their empire so far and wide…and so quickly? Yes, they had a strong army and were not afraid to use it but the army was there to back up their primary method of colonization.
Romans would send some citizens to live in far away cities to facilitate trade with Rome. Makes sense, right?
These citizens brought their families with them and would build their houses close to each other for mutual support and entertainment. As the trade grew, so would these self-segregated Roman neighbourhoods. Eventually, once these neighbourhoods got large enough, Rome would offer trade incentives to the rulers of the city to permit the Romans within their enclave to be ruled by Roman laws and be subject to Roman authority directly.
It was that subtle ‘carrot and stick’ routine: the carrot of reduced trade tariffs and the stick of the not-so-proverbial sabre-rattling of the Roman army. Most city states thought that this was a beneficial arrangement and agreed.
After a while, the members of the Roman enclave would ask that the Roman law should apply not only within their little enclave but when they traded with the locals: after all, Rome got rich from trading and they all wanted to benefit, no?
Slowly and in very small increments, the Roman enclave would grow – and the demand for more and more Roman laws and norms within the host city would keep pace with this growth.
No matter how hard the host city would try to appease their Roman enclave, they could never satisfy them fully and eventually, Rome would have to point out just how cities that don’t treat their Roman minorities nicely happen to be the next ones to be burned to the ground by Roman armies.
Thus, through self-seggregated and un-integrated immigration, economic pressure and threat of violence, Roman rule spread throughout the lands!
Oh boy, am I glad that we live in enlightened times, when we would never permit members of a supremacist culture to build multiple enclaves throughout our countries and then demand that more and more of our laws conform to theirs, or they will do violence to us!
Who are the Palestinians? History of Palestine, Palestinian history. Historical Zionism
August 29, 2014 — xanthippa
Xanthippa's Chamberpot 