Immigration is a hot topic over at stageleft. I might actually write this blog at about the same time as I actually clean my place – don’t anyone hold their breath. Nevertheless, this is something I wrote some time ago. This is my view.
Welcome to the West Ayaan, Hassan
welcome to the west
weary, o’ opressed
welcome to the west:
mow grass for gold
pick aluminum gems
to trade for keys to the city
for your daughter
welcome to the west
you – you long shot sons of allah
you are welcome here -
if you do not wear it
and piss it away
here you will find irking freedom
her bright vista of struggling Thought
her Danish heroes
her points of light
and dark and naked her grotesque hangers on
come lend modesty, peace, gentle spirit
if you will learn to love your daughters and your brother here
may we listen, I pray.
come to David’s american -
his canadian bastion
And the world will see Ishmeal’s seed live in peace with his brother’s six point star
if you choose to.
Hate not your brother, Ishmeal
Ishmeal, hurt not your sister
Or go
For this is then never your home.
You have freedom here to enrich an old faith.
Draw unharried breath and sound clarion symphony for your patrimony
Kind cohering community among atomized people.
A calmsoul countenance amidst the absorbed hurry.
Or build greater hollow monuments
Clanging decibel dominance
Debase Islam’s sweetest tradition
With tribal hate blinding
Lockstep rage when you man obey
And misogyny’s heresy to humanity
Fitna fought
With struggle’s mindless cries
The telltale dagger
Proof paid in detractors heart
An inheiritance made pariah.
Speak your choice Islam.
Or compatriot cowed silence will take that freedom from you.
Even here.
November 11, 2008 at 5:09 am |
And why should one not a Stageleft be?
Raphael’s attitude is odious. What do you find objectionable about the views expressed by Stageleft?
November 11, 2008 at 9:18 pm |
I think Stageleft’s view is the flipside of the coin. Raphael appears to see Canadians of european descent as a people with a right to maintain this country as their own. Maybe that is an unflattering reading since he argues that it is about values divorced from ethnicity, but I don’t think so given how visceral his attitude is. Stageleft’s criticism of Left Nutter was that “we” have no right to tell other people not to force their values on us because “we” forced our values on the people here before us. I put it this way in my last comment in that thread:
“Yours is that Canadians of european descent are a people and have a right to preserve this country for themselves, to maintain their glory. The other is that Canadians of european descent are a people and by rights must renege this country to forget their shame.”
These are both views with a white Canadian frame of reference. I think Canada would lose it’s character without significant immigration. But it seems like the intent behind the view that we have no right to control immigration is to wash away “our” shame as white Canadians. It’s blind and irresponsible and I wonder how it does anything to make up for past injustices. I draw this from two people in this video from a No One Is Illegal rally in Toronto. (at 3:35 and 8:37) Both of them say essentially that aborigionals probably thought of “us” as illegal as their justification for the view that “we” must by rights have open borders – “we” have no right at all to Canada. This is not a Canadian frame of reference, it is a white Canadian frame of reference. What do aborigionals think of our immigration levels? They dance around the thought. Their motivation is white guilt.
Between white guilt and white pride, I prefer neither – even if white pride is much more viscerally odious to me. And sometimes one leads to the other. The only time I have ever felt pride or even identity as a white guy has been in reaction to people who see whiteness as a tainted heritage. I grew up in a small town where the current of white guilt does not flow. I was taught history as a Canadian, and one of the greatest shocks of my life was having race conciousness battered into me at the “liberal” arts college of the University of Saskatchewan.
November 15, 2008 at 12:08 am |
Good explanation da wolfe.
I came upon the discussion about my blog post late and by that time the barbs were pointed at Raphael and my post was forgotten. I’ve since posted a follow up trying to clarify my position a little more clearly.
I don’t know that “Canadians of European descent are a people and have a right to preserve this country for themselves, to maintain their glory” accurately describes my opinion. My main issue is with the abuse our system gets, which is directly relevant to how loose our system plays with refugees, deportation, issuing of passports, etc. All this shows the world that it’s easy to get into Canada and instead of the people we want showing up on our doorstep, the people who would rather use us show up with their hand out.
I’m fine with anyone from anywhere coming here as long as they respect what a Canadian passport means. Unfortunately what it means is being dissipated everyday.