Wednesday, 1st April 2009
Waltzing Matilda and other shenanigans….part 2
It is sickeningly against my nature to make half a point and then let others shoot it up or down as they please; so it took every iota of self control not to respond to some of the comments left on part one of this blog.
Whilst I was expecting the staple arguments of sustainability, racial hatred, identity and legality, some other comments had no other purpose than to give me some great material for my next stand up comedy script.
Arguments varied from unfounded claims that historically all Maltese immigrants entered their host country legally, to sweeping statements claiming that our xenophobia is a normal reaction to an alien invasion. Someone went as far as (irony apart) asking me whether I hold a grudge against people whose names are Katarin and Grezju. Someone even tried to discredit the existence of racism in Malta based simply on the fact that I happen not to know the exact historical facts surrounding Ellis island. And just when St. Paul’s and Jesus’s teachings were brought up, they were immediately shot down as irrelevant because allegedly some immigrants said that we might want to keep the boats that they came in on for when we (the Maltese) will have to leave the island. After all this, I feel safe to predict that if St. Paul had to be shipwrecked on our island today, he’d be stuck in a detention centre with the rest of them!
Perhaps best of the lot was the comment accusing me of mixing cabbages with carrots. Since when is this combination a bad thing? The last time I checked mixing all sorts of vegetables makes a great healthy concoction - as would mixing some of our genes with the rest of the world’s!
Despite it being public knowledge that I am not a politician, nor a diplomat or an activist, one of my readers still hoped that in the second part of my blog I would come up with a definite answer/ solution to this problem. Now that I have stopped laughing at the mere presumptuousness of the suggestion, I am at peace knowing that the purpose of my role has been achieved - people are talking, they are reading different point of views and hopefully opening up to the remote idea that two different ideas and a host of different cultures can co-exist.
I do understand how tricky it is to come up with the right balance. Clearly there’s no way of pleasing everyone. Giving the illegal immigrants more rights angers the conservatives whilst the liberals will never think that anyone is doing enough to protect the poor immigrants. Additionally it seems that we have to do this all alone because Europe is giving us the cold shoulder and if we invite the presidents of these third world countries to discuss the situation they could quite easily get lost in the system, start living off our taxes, or even worse offer to do our president’s job for €3 an hour.
Perhaps I’m being too one-sided here because in reality our illegal immigrants are far better off than we think. Just pop over to any detention centre or even to Tent City, and you will see that they offer amazing benefits – from free housing with ample ventilation in summer and the freezing winters, to free bicycles with complimentary deflated tiers and one year’s free fuel. I also heard through the grape vine that they get a lifetime supply of Chateau De Chablis. Admittedly the clothing arrangements could use some improvements because at the moment the choice is limited to Pierre Cardin’s and Armani’s collections. Playstations and Nintendos are also in abundance so the children are kept adequately entertained. The only shame is that because of the cities’ secluded locations, the latest computer games arrive to them two whole days after release.
Let’s face it, the least these ‘boat people’ can do is to learn how to adapt to our culture. To start off with they should adopt our queuing system by appropriately forming a mosh pit at every shop counter, they should adopt our traditional pick up line of ‘Aw Sex’, or ‘Aw Gobon’, and they should also keep their houses pristine clean by throwing all the dirt outside. They should learn how to neatly double-park their bicycles on double yellow lines and parking spots for the disabled, they should learn how to treat zebra crossings as road decorations, and if they really want to fit in they should stick raunchy bumper stickers that say ‘your eyes in my.....’ on their bicycles.
We’re ok with losing the Maltese language to the American accent of movies, and our Maltese ‘hajt tas-sejjieh’ for big concrete buildings inspired by European cities. We’re also ok with having the English language as our second official language, because this allows us to ‘teach’ it to thousands of foreign students and make money. We’re ok with losing the ‘minestra’ and the ‘bragioli’ for hot dogs and burgers, but just because we’re ready to accept all this, does not mean that we’re ready to merge our culture with that of the ‘boat people maaa’, until of course we figure how to make money off it!
As I said, I’m not one to judge, but these ‘boat people’ seem to be getting everything handed to them. Maybe we really should put them on the next cruise-liner, just like the one they arrived on, and shove them off to some other nice place. But wait, that’s not an option anymore, because with more Katarins and Grezjus around the world than there are Maltese in Malta, they will probably find themselves in the same predicament wherever they go.
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Comments
I hope that it would be sensible, legitimate and fair with them if the Government will pay them the minimum wage and hire them to uplift neglected areas, clean unkept areas and give a new face to our fortifications etc....
However out of their pay 80% will be deducted to cater for the expenses and logistic charges to provide accomodation, food and security for the well being of the immigrants. After all our elderly who are given attention at our hospitals and homes have to pay 80% off thier pension.
Would the proposed setup provide the best tradeoff and balance between what the society should expect out of immigrants. Is there anything wrong with this proposal that does not confirm with the international law? Do you have an opinion on this.
Whatever !!! Pointless to continue...........
Finally somebody sees a humorous side too!!!
Do you have a solution to this dilemma? You don''t need to be a journalist, a writer or whatever to be able to discuss a way to a solution. What I can see it that Alison is simply pointing our that this is an economical issue and nothing else.
Ms. Bezzina is suggesting the solution that we stop being so pig headed and accept that these people have a culture that can merge into ours without us Maltese loosing our identity. Just like the European and American cultures merged in effortlessly.
As a journalist Ms Bezzina still to keep her perspective as to what subject she wants to blog about...the subject in question is not a debateable one over an artilce just for a job's sake...the dilema is way blown over and should be controlled and ammended as soon as possible...as a journalist she should not only speculate an event for discussion but also should have a least one suggestion for a remedy...which in all honesty is far from being sort...
People need not have any more food for thought...they make their own judgments viewing all the goings on from the detention centres...
I'm sure Alison's main aim was to get people reading and talking.... because that is the job of a blogger, a writer or a journalist..... people who are paid to find a solution to this problem are failing to do so... but you can't expect a blogger to come up with it.... though from what I'm reading many of the people commenting believe that they hold the solution to the world's problems. Thankfully not everyone is of that opinion and simply give people food for thought.
Now that you have stopped laughing (cannot see the humour on such a delicate subject as you've chosen to discuss)...you have still not come up with a concrete solution to the dilemma.
On the contrary you seem content as having people talking about the situation....but that's not good enough... Since you started the debate, you must have had some answers before starting your blog...or was your interest purely to get noticed !!!???
I like the way you put the penultimate paragraph, though disagree with the way you (sort of) put ‘us’ in the same basket, which we are not.
Unfortunately, those opposing the urbanisation of our environment and the making of money from students (which in the end only leave a huge mess behind them and forget all bout us 5 minutes after takeoff) are easily discounted as ‘opposing progress’ and ‘naysayers’.
Anyway, that's out of subject.
What's for sure is that this is human trafficking and condoning it is only making things easier for those criminals behind the scam.
Finally, why do we have to paint ourselves so ugly? Try to speak with Maltse taht settled abroad - life was never made easy to them. Have you ever had to sit at a table while your 'hosts' kept speaking in german, despite knowing full well you cannot understand, only to intimidate you?
Are we forgetting all the Maltese missionaries (lay or not) that constantly risk their lives in African countries, not to mention the funds rised locally to help them?
This fear of the 'unknown' exists everywhere, and is inversely proportional to the size of the country I think.
A.B. – don’t take too personally – you don’t expect everyone to agree with you, do you? :-)
The point of these blogs (I think) is to raise discussions and engender opinions. Thought provoking is the word. You’re succeeding so far.
I wholly disagree with those that alarmingly state that w are being invaded by Muslims – there are Catholics amongst these immigrants, too, though all the ones I’ve met so far were mostly of Muslim belief.
As regards cultures, well, we have to tread carefully. Whether immigrants are legal or illegal, we have our laws which everyone must abide with.
We don’t want anyone to stone his daughter to death because she wore a tight jeans and was dating a Maltese boy.
I’m sure we are strongly against anyone practicing female mutilation – something that people arriving from Africa and think they have some god-given right to do (may I suggest bringing this up with someone from Sudan, Egypt, Somalia, Ethiopia, Mali, etc).
I am also sure that all the contributors have nothing against people coming legally, settling and minding their own business.
I would not mind a couple of restaurants with African food either!