---Adolf Hitler
In the last few weeks plane loads of Nigerians (and other non-EU nationals) have arrived here to begin their education programmes at the UK's much vaunted universities. This is a journey that I took two years ago. Like I did, many of those people intend to return to their countries of origin as soon as their programmes are over. Like me, many will end up staying in the UK when they realise that they stand a better chance of i) improving themselves here; and ii) contributing more to their countries from here. I clearly remember the day my mindset changed about running back home as soon as my programme finished...
In the case of a lot of the Nigerians who have arrived here, two things have necessitated their movement, first the lack of opportunities in Nigeria, then the apparently sad mentality possessed by employers back home which automatically gives the plum jobs to people coming back from foreign institutions of higher education, especially people returning from either the United Kingdom or the United States. A few days ago Jeremy linked to an article about Nigeria's 'brain gain'. Personally, and having spoken at length with a lot of my contemporaries who have been attending the various career fairs organised by Nigerian firms in these parts, my opinion (sad as it may be) is that the vast majority of the people moving back home are not moving back for the altruistic reason of national development. Rather they are moving back simply because back home they would attain a level of 'comfort' that they can never attain in the West. It is all about the cheddar, but then that is a discussion for another day...
For those of us who have chosen to remain stuck here for the time being (I would be suicidal if I'm still stuck here in another decade), it is becoming even clearer that we are either not wanted, or are in the firing line for any lunatic who happens to occupy public office.
Eighty years ago in Germany the country was hit by a major depression, one that made the depression in the United States look like a holiday. Part of the causes of this depression were the murderous penalties imposed by the 'victorious' allies at the end of the Great War. In Germany of the time, saving for the future was an exercise in stupidity as the price of bread for example topped a million marks in an show of inflation never before or never since seen. People needed someone to turn to, and only one person appeared to make sense of all the rubbish that was happening. He said, "Blame the Jews, blame the foreign powers, blame everyone else but us," and the people listened. In 1933 the man swept to power, and by the time he was bundled out by a combined effort of world powers twelve years later, close to 60 million souls had been shuffled screaming and kicking off the mortal coil.
For all the fact that a lot of people would not want to listen to what that man said, he did say a lot of truths such as the one I quoted at the beginning of this piece. I would recommend that the more adventurous amongst you read his one and only piece of literature. Mein Kampf is a very interesting book however way you look at it. It is all too easy for political correctness to demand that we consign that piece of literature to the dustbin of history, but I have unashamedly read it, and the link I provided above is there for the bold amongst you to do the same. I do not however recommend that you believe what the man had to say especially in the second volume. One of the first things he did was to begin to target Jews in Germany. They were identified by a 'Star of David' armband which they were all forced to wear. It made targeting them extremely easy for any would be killers on the prowl, and the Nazi regime encouraged such would be killers. Profiling people is not a new thing...
Throughout history, leaders have conveniently used the scapegoat of the foreigner to explain away their failings. The Russian Tsars did it, Napoleon did it, American leaders were fond of doing it (1891 comes to mind), Nigerians have done it (within our little ethnic enclaves, and then who can forget the Ghana-must-go fiasco?), and now the Brits are toeing the same line.
A few days ago, Home Secretary Jacqui Smith unveiled an ID card that would be made compulsory for all foreign workers in the UK (people like myself) from November. Kinda like the visas on our passports are not enough you see...
There is an argument that the British government is targeting those of us who are 'strangers in their country' first as part of a grand scheme to eventually get everyone living on the island to carry a card. That may well be the case, but given this government's track record on loosing important details, I am extremely uncomfortable with this hare brained idea. We all know that it would stop at foreigners as lawsuits will prevent the scheme from going any further.
Points that must be noted:
-It wont stop illegal working: Anyone who is supposed to have such a card but doesn't can just pretend to be on of the 99.9% of the population that is not required to have the card yet.
-What is the point of the fingerprint?
-Lastly but most importantly -- there is no "problem". Various candidates for the problem to which the new ID cards are supposed to solve have been proposed and they have all been found wanting; first it was terrorism -- but it was pointed out that all known serious terrorist attacks in the UK were carried out by terrorists using their real names, and, that at no point in the lead up to any attack were they required to identify themselves. Spain requires people to carry ID cards, yet the Madrid bombings still happened; next it was illegal immigration -- but some 350 million EU citizens have the right to work in the UK already, and the much vilified asylum seekers are attempting to immigrate legally. Besides, nobody is going to check the documents of their Russian nanny or Moroccan cleaner... ; then it was "identity theft" -- but if the banks give money/credit to unverified strangers it is their problem.
Again we have to note that:
The UK has perhaps the most duplicitous set of politicians in Europe. These guys will say one thing one day, a different thing the next day and yet a third thing the following day. The top politicians have few boundaries and will make and pass laws not on the merits of the law but for reasons like "to get more votes" or "to project an image of being a strong Prime-Minister". This is how, for example, the 30 days detention without trial law was extended to 45 days (the PM needed to look strong and shore up votes).
Small powers are constantly abused around here. City councils using anti-terrorist laws to spy on people suspected of letting their dogs foul the pavement, people are forced to pay on the spot fines for "dirtying the street" when their little child let a piece of cake fall to the pavement, Health and Safety rules used to stop perfectly legit gatherings 'cause "there is a danger that people might hurt themselves", traffic cameras and paid parking are set-up all over the place purely (often openly admitted) for the purposed of making money from the fines. I've talked about this one before...
For crying out loud, these guys can't even keep the details of the military safe, and they expect me to hand over all my personal details to them, and pay for the privilege of doing so!
Let it not surprise anyone when the following happens: those of us labelled as asylum seekers would be forced to get new ID cards, then Labour would be kicked out of office, then the new government would suspend the scheme (we would already have the cards), then someone would someday use such cards to profile us. Who knows, if the world's economy continues to go from bad to worse because of the gross stupidity of these fellows, one day y'all would see an image of Chxta standing behind the barbed wire of a concentration camp in Salisbury...
In the case of a lot of the Nigerians who have arrived here, two things have necessitated their movement, first the lack of opportunities in Nigeria, then the apparently sad mentality possessed by employers back home which automatically gives the plum jobs to people coming back from foreign institutions of higher education, especially people returning from either the United Kingdom or the United States. A few days ago Jeremy linked to an article about Nigeria's 'brain gain'. Personally, and having spoken at length with a lot of my contemporaries who have been attending the various career fairs organised by Nigerian firms in these parts, my opinion (sad as it may be) is that the vast majority of the people moving back home are not moving back for the altruistic reason of national development. Rather they are moving back simply because back home they would attain a level of 'comfort' that they can never attain in the West. It is all about the cheddar, but then that is a discussion for another day...
For those of us who have chosen to remain stuck here for the time being (I would be suicidal if I'm still stuck here in another decade), it is becoming even clearer that we are either not wanted, or are in the firing line for any lunatic who happens to occupy public office.
Eighty years ago in Germany the country was hit by a major depression, one that made the depression in the United States look like a holiday. Part of the causes of this depression were the murderous penalties imposed by the 'victorious' allies at the end of the Great War. In Germany of the time, saving for the future was an exercise in stupidity as the price of bread for example topped a million marks in an show of inflation never before or never since seen. People needed someone to turn to, and only one person appeared to make sense of all the rubbish that was happening. He said, "Blame the Jews, blame the foreign powers, blame everyone else but us," and the people listened. In 1933 the man swept to power, and by the time he was bundled out by a combined effort of world powers twelve years later, close to 60 million souls had been shuffled screaming and kicking off the mortal coil.
For all the fact that a lot of people would not want to listen to what that man said, he did say a lot of truths such as the one I quoted at the beginning of this piece. I would recommend that the more adventurous amongst you read his one and only piece of literature. Mein Kampf is a very interesting book however way you look at it. It is all too easy for political correctness to demand that we consign that piece of literature to the dustbin of history, but I have unashamedly read it, and the link I provided above is there for the bold amongst you to do the same. I do not however recommend that you believe what the man had to say especially in the second volume. One of the first things he did was to begin to target Jews in Germany. They were identified by a 'Star of David' armband which they were all forced to wear. It made targeting them extremely easy for any would be killers on the prowl, and the Nazi regime encouraged such would be killers. Profiling people is not a new thing...
Throughout history, leaders have conveniently used the scapegoat of the foreigner to explain away their failings. The Russian Tsars did it, Napoleon did it, American leaders were fond of doing it (1891 comes to mind), Nigerians have done it (within our little ethnic enclaves, and then who can forget the Ghana-must-go fiasco?), and now the Brits are toeing the same line.
A few days ago, Home Secretary Jacqui Smith unveiled an ID card that would be made compulsory for all foreign workers in the UK (people like myself) from November. Kinda like the visas on our passports are not enough you see...
There is an argument that the British government is targeting those of us who are 'strangers in their country' first as part of a grand scheme to eventually get everyone living on the island to carry a card. That may well be the case, but given this government's track record on loosing important details, I am extremely uncomfortable with this hare brained idea. We all know that it would stop at foreigners as lawsuits will prevent the scheme from going any further.
Points that must be noted:
-It wont stop illegal working: Anyone who is supposed to have such a card but doesn't can just pretend to be on of the 99.9% of the population that is not required to have the card yet.
-What is the point of the fingerprint?
-Lastly but most importantly -- there is no "problem". Various candidates for the problem to which the new ID cards are supposed to solve have been proposed and they have all been found wanting; first it was terrorism -- but it was pointed out that all known serious terrorist attacks in the UK were carried out by terrorists using their real names, and, that at no point in the lead up to any attack were they required to identify themselves. Spain requires people to carry ID cards, yet the Madrid bombings still happened; next it was illegal immigration -- but some 350 million EU citizens have the right to work in the UK already, and the much vilified asylum seekers are attempting to immigrate legally. Besides, nobody is going to check the documents of their Russian nanny or Moroccan cleaner... ; then it was "identity theft" -- but if the banks give money/credit to unverified strangers it is their problem.
Again we have to note that:
The UK has perhaps the most duplicitous set of politicians in Europe. These guys will say one thing one day, a different thing the next day and yet a third thing the following day. The top politicians have few boundaries and will make and pass laws not on the merits of the law but for reasons like "to get more votes" or "to project an image of being a strong Prime-Minister". This is how, for example, the 30 days detention without trial law was extended to 45 days (the PM needed to look strong and shore up votes).
Small powers are constantly abused around here. City councils using anti-terrorist laws to spy on people suspected of letting their dogs foul the pavement, people are forced to pay on the spot fines for "dirtying the street" when their little child let a piece of cake fall to the pavement, Health and Safety rules used to stop perfectly legit gatherings 'cause "there is a danger that people might hurt themselves", traffic cameras and paid parking are set-up all over the place purely (often openly admitted) for the purposed of making money from the fines. I've talked about this one before...
For crying out loud, these guys can't even keep the details of the military safe, and they expect me to hand over all my personal details to them, and pay for the privilege of doing so!
Let it not surprise anyone when the following happens: those of us labelled as asylum seekers would be forced to get new ID cards, then Labour would be kicked out of office, then the new government would suspend the scheme (we would already have the cards), then someone would someday use such cards to profile us. Who knows, if the world's economy continues to go from bad to worse because of the gross stupidity of these fellows, one day y'all would see an image of Chxta standing behind the barbed wire of a concentration camp in Salisbury...
4 comments:
Salisbury?
I'm sure the camp will be in Wolverhampton, I don't know why...lol.
The whole ID card thing is just a mess. It's just for political reasons, and the sad thing is that they've targeted people who can't say no for this 'first wave', like foreign students, and people with 'sensitive jobs' in the second wave knowing that the public might warm up to the idea.
And if (God forbid) the Tories come in, I'm guessing they'll leave things as they are, so foreign students will be stuck with them.
I hate to say it, but there are very scary times ahead for foreigners in this town.
A other crazy post from the house of Chxta, but really i feel that alot of us are missing the facts here... a foreign degree dont make the holder smarter. My coy (P&G) has learnt it the hard way as they had to fire 60% of the peeps from the u.k that they hired and put paid to the total program.
Alot of smaller coys in Nigeria especially the banks are yet to know this and are still investing alot in foreign universities recruitting. We discussed this earlier this week and it was even suprising that some managers of coys encourage it as its a good chance to travel on company estacodes - imagine the famed Bunmi Oni attending a Career fair at Delmonfort University to woo students to Cadbury.
My stand is clear on this..... i will hire an experienced hand before a harvard green horn
I have never commented on your site but i have enjoyed your writing for a while now.
I really agree with this post, in fact the targeting of foreigners was one thing that i found extremely irritating in the time i lived in England. If it wasn't foreign prisoners being 'lost' one day, it was immigrants (read brown people and those Eastern Europeans) who were being blamed for everything from crime to rising house prices the next.
It was bad enough being the bogeyman for everything wrong with Britain but the worst part in my view was the govt's irresponsible attitude. I'm sure you'll have realised by now that as a non -EU immigrant, your position is never secure. You are basically at the mercy of the Home Office as the rules change dramatically, especially when there's an election around the corner. Suffice it to say that my experience with the Home Office was not very encouraging.
Anyway, i wish you all the best with this ID card thing seeing as Labour has finally succeeded in pushing it. It might be a good idea to start working on your patience as you'll probably be needing it.
D
Very entertaining piece here! I don't live in the UK myself but it is pretty much same where I live. The problem is this, the way I see it, 3/4 of those Europeans who vote are pretty stupid, arrogant, etc,. the politicians know this, which is the reason why xenophobia will continue to play an important part in elections in the Western world. Even the western media is not spared from this crass stupidity. They publish any news article be it wrong or right, most especially if it has to do with reporting on the 'demerits' of the immigrant. Where I live a lot of Nigerians contribute contribute positively to the society but you will never hear about them in the news, even if you hear, it will be just a line or two and that is it. Let any black person steal the next day or do something wrong, then you will hear about it in the news repeatedly for about 3 weeks! Stupid! Let me further illustrate this stupidity. In 2005, in a small town here, 2 immigrant women from the Congo or some other African country were caught stealing in a local supermarket. They were arraigned before a judge and during proceedings, despite the fact that the women's nationalities were probably already mentioned, he still went on to say and quote 'You Nigerians are fond of stealing. After this is over, I am going to recommend to the Immigration service to deport you people back to Nigeria'. Now how's that for stupidity! This is a judge speaking! So you see the mindset is already there and will remain for a very long time. God help us!
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