Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Parasites

Today I was watching the news…it showed an Asian boy being rushed to a hospital in London for emergency treatment. The people in the hospital reacted quickly as the people who had ferried him from a country in Asia …all whites, looked on anxiously. It didn’t matter to them that the child was non-white…they did their best to save his life.

Over the years so many people have gone from Asia, Africa and other third world countries of the world and settled in England and US and some other countries of Europe. We have enjoyed their hospitality and made use of the sworn principals that governs these societies i.e …freedom of speech, religion and beliefs. And today, we have like snakes, bitten the very hands that feed us.

No matter where we go, we take our prejudices, fanaticisms and intolerance with us. It seems to be genetically rooted. We carry our personal vendetta with us and incubate it in the fertile climes of the foreign soil where our beliefs and prejudices are respected under free speech and then strike at the country of our origin and at our hosts…like parasites.

We use the freedom of speech the West grants us to stifle the freedom of speech of people who disagree with us. We abuse their hospitality by turning on the very society that gave us shelter, work and a charter to live as human beings.

Today the West is under siege. It’s principals eroded by the very people it gave shelter to. The West is facing its greatest challenge. Will it buckle under like France that banned any form of overt religious symbolism or hold onto the principals of individual freedom which may see a return to intolerance. Only time will tell. I for one am waiting to see the compromises the West will make to deal with this abuse of their trust.

19 comments:

Sarah said...

The other day a friend of mine( white) told me this joke.. Did you hear about the 2 Canadians and the white guy?"..
Canada has accomodated us so much that now there is no Christmas tree..only holiday tree..
There is deep resentment .. the way immigrants are forcing their value system on others here.....

mathew said...

oh..i guess people arent really welcoming immigrants whole-heartedly..They just want someone who can work for less..It hasnt got to do with any deep rooted affection for us..But then should say a few of us do create nuisances here and there that brings bad reputation for the country!!

Jeseem said...

hmm..
instead of coming out of the cocoon as a parasite( in the western land), we could morph and come out as a butterfly.
But that involves us rethinking and questioning our values and believes, not something everyone is ready to do

silverine said...

Sarah: The Khalistan movement was funded from Canada and even the Kanishka bombings. These people live in Canada and think they can do anything from there.

mathew: I am not talking abou the recent immigrants.I am talking about the scores of people who left our shores years ago to these countries. In England a play depicting the life of Sikh women had to be stopped because some Sikhs protested against it...the cartoons that appeared in a Danish paper had to be pulled down...something unheard of in Europe where newspapers are free...the london bombings were carried out by Asians who were born in that country and the list is endless...

jeseem: That is a remote possibility....the West is fertile ground for religious extremists due to the various freedoms that is granted to citizens which these people use for their nefarious purposes.

Anonymous said...

Agree wholeheartedly about being parasites. I especially hate the way Canadian society has had to change and adapt because of religious extremists. Christmas is my favourite season of the year and I will swear that on the Gita. But for the last "X" number of years, we have been told not to greet others with Merry Christmas, and to use seasons greetings. My earliest school memories are learning carols and singing in school choir. Even wonderful christmas movies that I used to wait the whole year to see, have been restricted/reduced during the season. Why should a nation change its core values and beliefs because some 'bodies' from "X" culture/religion don't share its values and culture?

Mathew,
People work cheaper if work was outsourced. Professionals get paid the same, from what I know. But then, the glass-ceiling isn't restricted to immigrants.

Some months back, during the arrest of muslims for the alleged plans to bomb certain parts of Toronto, a muslim woman hid behind a veil and stated strong remarks against other cultures, homosexuals etc. It's very easy for them to assert their voice hear, when they would have been beaten to death in their own country without a person to care.

I hate it when people forget what kind of opportunities Canada has given them.

-Kajan

AK said...

Congratulations A., for writing the most inane, misinformed, hypocritical article you have ever written.

The very premise of your article is so flawed, that it is a shame, to owe its genesis to a Blogger of your repute. The premise as is, implies that we(or other third world brethren) have abused their trust… and now , the ‘innocent’ west is perfectly justified, trying to ‘rein in’ the forces that threaten it.

Did you even pass out of high school, or skipped it all together to join a career in communications? If you care to dwell over the last 400 years or so, you will find that ‘west’ has very much exploited the thris world to grow !... Leaving the vast rail roads of south Africa aside, we have been pretty much been enjoying the enslavement in our continent as well…

And then you have the audacity to write, “..We have enjoyed their hospitality and made use of the sworn principals that governs these societies i.e …freedom of speech, religion and beliefs. And today, we have like snakes, bitten the very hands that feed us.”

Look at us, working abroad. Neither we, nor them do a feed each other, we conduct our business together and mutually prosper by it. Fanatics and terrorists are there, but you cant generalize, those of us, making an honest living, overseas, as snakes. It is we, who are more liberal in our attitude…may be we are too busy fighting within our races, but we are definitely, not as racially prejudiced as them.

You wrote, “We use the freedom of speech the West grants us to stifle the freedom of speech of people who disagree with us.”
Who is the west to grant the freedom of speech, to us? Why do we need their approvals, even if we are within their countries….? They need our expertise, in their endeavors, and we need their money for our infrastructure. That’s the way it works… that’s the way it should work.

“We abuse their hospitality by turning on the very society that gave us shelter, work and a charter to live as human beings.”
I don’t stand by terrorism. I respect human life, be it any. But nothing justifies, fanaticism, ours, or in the guise of ‘war on terror’, theirs. There have been cases, where west has bore the brunt, of terrorism, spawned from the third world… but there have been numerous instances of cooperation and mutual development, which easily outweigh them.

God, after an year, of happy reading, I never expected something of this sort to come from your stable.
Maybe you should stick to humor which is your strong forte and leave the politics to others.

Jiby said...

sad but true...immigrant communities in recent years, maybe coz of colour consciousness or the recent sprouting of ethnic culture thru restaurants, movies, larger volumes of ppl coming in, etc tend to stick together as a defence mechanism against a culture they find totally alien to their roots and then they find themselves unable to break free.

i think this will remain a continuous challenge to the West. they cud adopt drastic measures like curbing immigration totally in which case the new generation will slowly assimilate into the mainstream thru education in the host country's schools or they cud follow the dangerous path set by france.

whatever happens, i am sure in todays polarized world no meaningful cultural exchange is possible, the only hope is that new generations will break free from their ancestors closed mould but what is the future if the youth grow up feeling wronged, prejudiced or brainwashed by their elders.

Jiby said...

abhishekh, in my first read of this post, some of ur thoughts crossed my mind too. but then you failed to notice that silverine wrote this putting the past and history aside. there are many ways you can debate this post and that is a job easily done but you havent tried to understand this post from a neutral observer's standpoint, and not even neccessarily from a westerners viewpoint.

she wasnt talking about everyone like u cited abt us and them working together...she was talking about the cases where immigrants acted in a spirit totally contrary to the way of life in those countries. and i object to ur saying the west is more racist than us...they have broken with their past much better than us...i cud pick holes in each and every one of ur arguments but i have realized long back itself that its a meaningful task getting into debates.

Jiby said...

oops i meant meaningless in the last sentence!

silverine said...

abhishek:LOL why are you foaming in the mouth? :)))))

And pray who are you to judge if this article is hypocritical? I am neither angry nor offended by your comment but am taken aback by your knee jerk reaction to this post :) And more intrigued at this personal attack. You seem to have no consideration for the fact that I can have my personal views on different matters and have the right to air them too. Please ignore articles you do not like instead of telling other bloggers what to write and how to think. Besides you have gone totally off tangent and not even understood this post. That's the pity. You should have mulled over what I am trying to say here instead of jumping the gun :)

Did you even pass out of high school, or skipped it all together to join a career in communications?

From your reaction I would say that my professor would have given an me an A!!! :p

If you care to dwell over the last 400 years or so, you will find that ‘west’ has very much exploited the this world to grow !

If you dwell on my post with a cool head you would have realised that I am talking of the people who have been there for generation yet behave like outsiders with loyalties to the country and ideology of their anscestors.

we conduct our business together and mutually prosper by it.

I am not talking about people working offshore.

Fanatics and terrorists are there, but you cant generalize, those of us, making an honest living, overseas, as snakes.
Again you have not read the post properly :)))

You wrote, “We use the freedom of speech the West grants us to stifle the freedom of speech of people who disagree with us.” Who is the west to grant the freedom of speech, to us?

Is freedom of speech restricted to only citizens in the West? You too enjoy it don't you?

Peace, I reeiterate I am not offended by your comment but I wish you would have read it properly before commenting.

AK said...

Dear Silverine,
I apologize for the personal attack… got carried away…
I have always admired what you write. But even if the article expresses what is happening now …, then please do also cite some recent incidents which corroborates it.
Anyway, sorry for the temper…. It was uncalled for on my part.
Happy Diwali.
Regards
Abhishek

silverine said...

Abhishek: No problem, I realised that you may have misinterpreted my post. Please see my reply to Mathew and Sarah for some examples of what I was trying to say. Also the incident mentioned by Kajan :)

Happy Diwali to you too!!!!

Anju

Anonymous said...

POLITICS... another weapon in your armoury... nice attempt i say... if i can call that... the amateur that i am :(

but you dont have to go too far to the west to find such parasites... you'd find them right next to you sucking the same blood and surviving on the same food that feeds every other person in this country... woh kehte hai na hindi mein "jo apna saga na ho saka woh kiska saga hoyega"

(enuff pakaoogiri from my side is what my fingers are typing without any consent of my brain)

Anoop G said...

this scene i saw at night in ananthapuri hospital in trivandrum in january this year.

a WHITE man was taken in taxi by some locals and a small hotel owner in kovalam beach. what happened is the WHITE man came to the hotel in the evening. But he seemed to be a drug addict, so the hotel owner refused admission. But he stayed there and felt unconscious. They took the man to a nearby hospital and from there they referred to Ananthapuri.It was almost 12pm. The person who brought him was praying all the time. All doctors including neuro, cardiolisgist came in the night and they were with him till 5am in the morning, when the condition improved. Embassy was also informed at night itself. The WHITE man was in hospital some more days..the reason for his problem was drugs.

so indians also behave well, even to drug taking whites wandering in beaches.

i really dislike ur example in first para of the "parasite post"..

Anyway thanks to the WHITE doctors who looked after the Asian boy without looking at his colour of the skin. God bless them.

Alex said...

Havent experinced what you post about.

But it sure made me think as to what immigrants do.

It is rooted in the concept of 'property rights' i think.

abhishek said...

@silverine

nice to see another post of yours.

you have brought up a touchy subject...how should minorities fit in open societies?

i also put up a post regarding this on my personal blog just today...great minds think alike :)

i highly recommend a reading of

Why Tony Blair is Right About the Veil by AZADEH MOAVENI/TEHRAN

I found it very enlightening.

silverine said...

Iyer Education: I am not a political blogger, these are just thoughts of a lay observer :) I totally agree with latter half of your comment!

poonaji: hmm I don't think you understood the post. Please read Jiby's comment to understand.

Alex: You don't need to experience, it is in the news :) Can anyone even in the free world today dare make any observations about minority religions without the threat of violence? Freedom of speech is dead R.I.P


Abhishek: Read your post and as usual it is par excellance!! And the link your provided was a really good read, though I hoped the writer would be male...for obvious reasons :)

Anoop G said...

May be i was biased on the first reading of this sentence itself "It didn’t matter to them that the child was non-white…they did their best to save his life"

i was replying to that sentence or para only.

silverine said...

Jiby: oops sorry didn't realise I missed you out while replying!!!
You make a lot of sense. But there are so many other communities who live peacefully as productive memebers of the society. Why can't these people too!

poonaji: This is a one off instance, most of the time we do not help people.