Tuesday, 8th September 2009
NOT A RACIST
I'm surprised that Mr Maurice Mizzi, writing in The Times on Tuesday from his estate in Bidnija, didn't start his letter with the time-honoured disclaimer "I'm not a racist but...". His use, throughout his letter, of charged and emotive language, to say nothing of the sentiments expressed, should have prompted him to make it clear that he is not a racist, lest anyone forms an opposite impression.
I bow to no man in my admiration for Mr Mizzi as a horticulturalist and an entrepreneur. In both these activities, he is a man of substance, one who should be listened to and given credence. That, however, is as far as it goes and his views on "the immigration situation" should not, to my mind, take on aspects of validity by association with the validity of his business and gardening acumen.
Mr Mizzi writes that he thinks there are people "who think that we have the immigrant situation under control", betraying immediately a susceptibility to demarcating the matter into an "us" (presumably native Maltese) and "them" (presumably dark-skinned immigrants, since no-one has ever whined about the light skinned or blonde variants) He then tacks on the emotive phrase "under control", showing a perhaps sub-conscious desire to ensure that immigrants are properly penned, corralled and controlled.
He goes on, becoming more overt, consciously or not, giving expression to the disappointment of those who have "long ago given up hope of ever seeing the back of these 9,000 illegal immigrants", fretting that these human beings (I'm just reminding everyone, incidentally, that these are human beings we're talking about) will become "a large-enough force to obtain more and more rights for their community to the detriment of us Maltese".
This latter sentence is demonstrative of Mr Mizzi, and those of his ilk's, inherent ghetto mentality. Leaving aside the basic ludicrousness of the concept that just because there are or might eventually be a relatively large number of former immigrants forming part of Maltese society, they will "bully the government", what detriment to "us Maltese" will there be if they are given basic rights?
Does Mr Mizzi imagine, say, that an Eritrean or a Somali woman who is given - for instance - the "right" to decent medical treatment, will deprive a Maltese woman of the same thing?
Would, according to Mr Mizzi, the grant of human rights to former immigrants result in a direct diminution of the same rights in favour of "us Maltese"?
What, pray, is he talking about? He fails to make it clear, unsurprisingly, because he proceeds from an unacceptable premise: that there is a finite pool of rights and giving some to one group of people diminishes the availability of such rights to other groups. Pogroms have been started for similar reasons, forgive me for pointing out.
Mr Mizzi goes on to pronounce himself on the matter of the religion to which, according to him, "most of these immigrants" belong, characterising it as "aggressive religion". He doesn't mention Islam by name, but the code -words are there, and he goes on to tell us that while he "personally [does] not have a problem living with people of a different religion to [his]" he confesses to "a slight aversion to eventually being told what to do by people who were not born in our islands".
Do you spot the flaws in the gentleman's logic? He doesn't like being told what to do by people of a different religion because the people who espouse it were not born in Malta. My apologies if this sounds like nonsense, but I didn't write it, he did.
Incidentally, I don't like being told what to do by anyone either, of whatever religion, if they try to impose their views on me without objective, democratic justification, and I'm sure that like me, Mr Mizzi is perfectly capable of ignoring the strictures of inconvenient moralities that emanate from fundamentalism, be it Christian or Muslim or Jedi or whatever.
So what is he worrying about?
Mr Mizzi goes on to propose a solution to "solve this problem" and, in the manner of entrepreneurs everywhere, he reduces it to cash. He proposes paying immigrants to return to their country, where "these people could start a small business".
I wonder, to be honest, what country Mr Mizzi thinks these people, to use his own divisive phrase, come from. Many of them have spent significant sums of money to cross deserts and seas, in conditions that are unfit for animals, let alone pregnant women and infants.
Does Mr Mizzi think that with a few thousand euro in clutched in their hands, "these people" are going to catch the next flight to Somalia or wherever and open a corner grocer shop or set up a branch of Kentucky Fried Chicken or something? If he does, then he really should try to learn something about the real world.
Mr Mizzi closes his expose' of the solution to the immigrant question with an appeal to the wallet, invoking the "fact" that 50,000 Maltese live below the poverty line. He neglects to tell us out of which work of fiction he plucked this figure of fifty thousand Maltese living below the poverty line: does Mr Mizzi even know where the poverty line starts?
In contrapuntal synchrony with this, Mr Mizzi cites "these illegal immigrants" receiving social benefits, including weekly cheques from our Government.
Where would we be without people like Mr Mizzi reminding us that caring for people costs money?
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Comments
"President Obama just said he will not sign a health bill if it includes giving free health care to illegals. Is President Obama racists?" Your quote.
No, President Obama is not a racist - he can hardly be one! However you seem to forget that by stating that the 'illegal immigrants' should be put on the path to citizenship, the 'illegal immigrants' could soon qualify for health benefits under his new health bill. Then he will become a hero to those who thus far had to go bankrupt or mortgage their homes to the hilt in order to pay for a simple operation for the removal of an appendix.
The United States has granted no fewer than seven amnesties since 1965 to no less than 7 million aliens who then became legal immigrants.
I suppose there is more than one way to skin a cat!
You should pay more careful attention to your adoptive country's own news:
"It is true that both the House and Senate health care bills as they are now drafted would make illegal aliens ineligible for federally funded health care. But President Obama has stated as recently as last month at a press conference in Mexico that he will seek 'comprehensive immigration reform' legislation that will put illegal aliens on a 'pathway to citizenship'."
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/53814
So to answer your question, no, Barack Obama is not a racist.
May I ask in what manner did you gain access to Canada? Did you force your entry into the country illegally or was there a Legal filtration system in action? This applies to other countries such as Australia and USA.
Can you really compare the size of Canada with that of Malta? Is it asking too much if a proper filtration system is set up in Libya, for instance, to verify who the real persons in need are rather than having a chaotic, illegal system which serves only to enrich human traffickers!! Did you have to pay anyone, apart from government entities, in order to get in Canada when your time was due?
This is the difference my friend but it seems too hard for you to understand so you just label my comments as ‘message of hate’ in order to justify your ignorance.
The figure of 9000 is not mine; it is Mr. Mizzi's creation. I referred to it to indicate how ridiculous it is to build an argument based on such an insignificant number.
Sadly, you are not alone in viewing a grain of sand as a molehill, and the more imaginative among you to see it as a mountain.
But it seems that, your message of hate has become mainstream. Just today, the editor of the venerable old lady of the Fourth Estate (Malta branch), better known as "The Times", echoed your sentiments thus:
"[needed] coordinated initiatives across the EU to return illegally-staying migrants to their countries of origin."
@All
During the 50-year period between 1946 and 1996, over 115,000 Maltese migrated to distant lands seeking a better tomorrow.
In Canada, where I landed in 1954, no one knew what Malta was, much less where it was. They still don't.
We were considered Italians, or WOPs or DPs. And because we were short, we were deemed to be stupid. Such was the general belief. Plus, worst of all, we were "stealing" their jobs at a time of economic hardship.
Some things never change.Facts are no match against a diseased imagination. (With thanks to Mark Twain.)
'What seems to escape these defenders of Malta's and EU's integrity is the fact that, if all 9000 migrants were allowed to seek a better life within the EU, they would not even make up for the deaths-by-road-accidents that happen each year: about 50,000'............ at present we have 9000 (what you stated) in Malta and they don't have freedom of movement, imagine what would be the number had the Maltese Government accept or implement such proposals.
And remember that the 9000 you mention are just the Maltese contribution, other countries have our same problem which would therefore increase the figure you stated.
I repeat, these figures are the result of a system whereby the illegal immigrants already know they won't be given freedom of movement. I let you imagine the figures if they are promised a passport once they arrive in Malta, Italy, Greece, Spain, etc
A snowflake has a better chance of making it through hell than you have of changing the mindset of Mr. Mizzi's ilk.
You might have missed this gem (in his letter):
"who soon might be integrated into our society, with the probability of eventually being supplied with Maltese passports." Horror of horrors! Imagine ... they'll be able to travel freely, just like most Maltese like to do.
Mr. Mizzi is not the only one to espouse such fears. A prominent Maltese columnist had this to say:
"imagine a passports-for-sale scenario - you come to Malta, you get a Maltese passport, and then the whole of the EU is your oyster." Mr. Mizzi is in good company.
What seems to escape these defenders of Malta's and EU's integrity is the fact that, if all 9000 migrants were allowed to seek a better life within the EU, they would not even make up for the deaths-by-road-accidents that happen each year: about 50,000.
Further, their impact would be the same as if one person were to 'invade' a city of 54,620. That is to say, a burst of flatulence in a crowded room is more noticeable.
Trappers cage songbirds; governments entrap migrants.
@ Charles:
I weary of this and leave you with the last word
Never mind the double talk. Sarcasm is also a form of irony, there is an element of ridicule and contempt in what I write. Just tell me whether you agree with me that what sometimes sounds like irony is actually literally true. It is an ironical use of irony, double irony if you like.
I need no welcome to London Joe Xuereb for I used to live on the Bounday Estate of Bethnal Green better-known as The Jago.
@ Charles; sorry mate but I am lost in what appears to be heavy irony and irony is just the same as brassy or coppery but made of iron.
Barnsley, where I now live, is bereft of dark skins but is very violent. Bradford just up the motorway is a very different kettle of fish.
Now why is Paceville so violent? Surely not the peaceful mostly elderly folk who live there.
Why do the Maltese have such a hangover about the last occupiers of the island?
We left a long time ago but still get blamed for the shortcomings of the indigent populace.
As demonstrated, some words are "loaded" in Malta.
At least we are not being hammered a bout Maltese political parties.
A year or two back someone wrote a letter to this paper claiming to have seen a black man driving a delivery wagon but subsequent correspondence elicited the fact that the man was indeed Maltese.
Buttigieg, some people have no problem with humanity but prefer to stay indoors because it is safer. I live in Central London. Safe? Unsafe? I just mind my own business. But I am not going to lock myself in. The latest scam is (happened to me scores of times) is young women, quite bedraggled, approaching me (and other guys within sight) asking me for a fiver 'becasue I need petrol for my car, to get home'. What, you drive a car? Dressed like that? Welcome to humans in London Mr. Prictoe.
I will not go into other eyesores. I would be here forever and it would serve no purpose.
Stop the world. I wanna gedoff. I did not work solidly for forty years for this thrash.
If I had a daughter with my two sons I would have probably spoiled her rotten more so if she had green eyes, a fair complexion, black hair together with other refined Mediterranean features to compliment her beauty. I would have spent my bottom Euro to educate her in the best University and sent her to finishing school in Switzerland. My daughter would have also made us very proud grand parents had she married a non Christian, uneducated road sweeper from Eritrea and given birth to six children with different physical features and raised them up in a non Christian environment.
That would have given me no grief because there is but one race-the human race.The hypocritical race.
@ Charles: I am obliged to agree with you.
@John Borg: It is not for me to say that Malta should be multi-racial and multi coloured but the UK is and it gives me no grief.
I have not been to Malta for a couple of years but it did not strike me as being racially mixed though of course there were a number of dark skins about. The great majority of Maltese have a certain cast of features that gives an identity much more than say the UK where we come in all shapes and sizes.
I live in South Yorkshire that has relatively few immigrants apart from Sheffild that is not actually in South Yorkshire. We are a stronghold of the BNP and a low standard of social behaviour. Town centres are no-go areas at a week end of a night. I felt safer wandering around Paceville. Shops cannot get insurance unless they have shutters so it looks awful after nightfall.
My feeling is that anyone should be able to go anywhere and a hundred years ago before World War One no one bothered about passports except for Tsarist Russia and the Ottoman Empire.
There is but one race-the human one.
@ABC stereotyping that Africans and or Somali's open a branch of Kentucky Fried Chickens is a racist as one can get. Shame on you.
And while we are about it, the Maternity Ward at Mother of God would more than recoup its cost in the time it takes to say, 'water please, nurse'. Heavy traffic there Matron (or is she called Sister now?).
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia (Verbatim incidentally)
The term "native" can have many different social and political connotations, in different contexts. In some cases it is a neutral, descriptive term - as in stating that one is a native of a particular city or that a certain language is one's native language. However, in the context of colonialism - in particular, British colonialism - the term "natives", as applied to the inhabitants of colonies, assumed a disparaging and patronising sense, implying that the people concerned were incapable of taking care of themselves and in need of Europeans to administer their lives; therefore, these people resent the use of the term and consider it insulting, and at present Europeans usually avoid using it. Conversely, the original inhabitants of America - who during the process of being conquered and dispossessed were usually not called "natives" but "Indians" or "Red Indians" - have adopted at their own initiative the appellation "Native Americans", and bear it with pride. And in the context of Nativism, in some periods a potent political force, "natives" are defined as a (predominantly white) group deserving of a special privileged position in comparison to immigrants.
I don't mean to belittle your point because I understand what you are saying and I agree with you, but Malta has long been multi-racial and multi-coloured.
@ nig-nog; The subject is extremely complicated for whilst Charles is correct in what he writes (lifted more or less verbatim from Google incientally) tthe expression does now have racial connotations.
An established northern comedian (Jim Bowen) was obliged to resign over using the word and more recently Carol Thatcher (daughter of a famous politician) was also obliged to step down for using"golliwog"off air.
Talk of Malts and Brits could raise eyebrows and in Malta the word native is dubious though I proclaim to be a native of Cornwall.
We do tend to veer.
Nig nog is also the name of a drink similar to egg nog very popular in Africa at Christmas time by different races.
I think that she does that in order to use it as a joker, putting pressure on the receiving country. I guess you also know that most of these persons spend an average of 2 to 3 years in Libya (stable country) working before crossing to Europe. I know what I’m saying since I see these things when I travel to Libya, we also had an Iraqi working with my previous employer who used to tell us the story of his ordeal.
You always shout racist at persons expressing their emotions, I repeat, emotions but why don’t you criticise the Government on the issue for its actions?