"I'm an American" => something I never hear in this country.
I get asked:
AMERICAN:: hey what's that accent, are you Irish?
ME: Yes. Born and bred.
AMERICAN: I'm Irish too! (In an American accent).... well I'm half Irish half Polish..
(substitute Irish or Polish with German, Mexican, Swedish, British, in fact any other country other then USA. )
ME: Hold on a second, you sound American to me, so where were you born and raised.
AMERICAN: Well here but my grandfather was actually Irish. born in... ummm I don't remember the town. But I'd love to go!
ME: Ok so your grandfather is Irish and you're American...
AMERICAN: No its my heritage, I consider myself a bit of everything.
ME: And since you were born here I'd consider you American, be proud of it.
I can't tell you how many times i've had this conversation... over.... and over...
and hey I think its great people wanting to multi-cultural. Then you start finding out other things about these folk. Like these same people also being right wing... mmm ok we have a center right government in Ireland, our grandparents and parents may be a lil old fashioned and have catholic views on abortion etc.. but its not how our generation think.
I've no problem with republicans.. or democrats or independents.. (which correct me if I'm wrong, you have to register with one party and then vote within that party) democracy? haha... polyarchy, most definitely and the majority of people couldnt care less as they pretty much are the same once in power.
Then I turn on the tv. Commercial after commercial from so called politicians, which in this world tend to be ex movie stars or CEOs with money to burn. Commercials not saying what policies they believe in and will try and implrement, mostly commercials dissing the opposition and accusing them of being liberal ('god' forbid!) or saying how their opponent candidate did XYZ. Very strange form of political advertising but its how it works in the States..
" What's the secret of America?
Money!
Everything is money, Charlie.
Don't ever forget it.
"
Who wins the elections? simple.. whoever raises the most money. And what policies get implemented when government gets into power? simple... whichever industry gave the most monetary support during these pseudo-democratic elections.
One of the most striking points being made in the current governor commercials is this issue of illegal immigration, supporting Arizona and their new law. Is it racist? well in its implementation it comes down to racial profiling.
Do Mexicans have a right to be angry about the new law? Of course they do! Aside from the fact it was once part of Mexico. What if the hundreds of thousands of Mexicans there just up and left? I can't imagine you'd have the non-immigrants wanting to fill half the jobs the immigrant workforce fills. What would happen the Arizona economy? With 31.8% of their exports going to Mexico, amounting to $4,757,000,000.00 , what would happen if Mexico boycotted Arizona?
My point here is that USA is a country built on immigrants. Its only 250 years old! people don't even call themselves just plain old 'Americans'... yet they're quick enough to get patriotic about their foreign policy and military when they're pushing their false democracy on other nations around the world.
40 million Irish-Americans.. The irish were treated just the same, did the same shitty jobs.. were discriminated against, but then after a generation, the Irish being white.. blend in nicely.. have American accents and suddenly its justified and now its even cool to be Irish. Mexicans though will look mexican, even a generation or 2 later.. still look Mexican.. Is this a problem? well it shouldnt be.
These 2nd or 3rd generation Mexicans were born in America, just like our buddies who say their grandparents are irish. Should the Irish Americans be allowed ship in Granny O'Grimm from County Kerry because she's old and needs lookin after and all her grandchildren are USA passport holders?
Or more often then not, those born in the USA aren't even passport holders. They say 75% of people resident in the USA are not passport holders.. Ok so wait.. if they're stopped in Arizona should they be kicked out? Well no they'll have drivers license or birth certs surely. Not always.
So what should they do? sure be tough on the borders but not to the extent of criminalizing those who don't have all the relevant papers. Then they'd have to kick out 3/4 of the country. This country was built on illegal immigrants. And this law just means those that look different will be the ones that get checked.. legal racial profiling. The bigger problem I believe is the fact that crime will most definitely be a lot harder to police and investigate. Is anyone going to want to call the police about a crime, be it domestic violence, rape, assault, robbery or even as a witness to any crime if they're not sure they will questioned about their residency and possibly sent 'home'. And they can be given all the reassurances unofficially as they like but they're not going to risk it.
It's only going to do damage to the economy and the quality of life in general. But hey.. it won't stop the hypocritical folk tell you how Arizona was right to bring in this law, then talk about how they're 'Irish' to the next person.
I speak for Ireland when I say this, you are NOT Irish. We are a nation of travelers, a nation who has fled poverty and oppression to find a better life. And we are very grateful that eventually most countries have embraced us even if it took decades for it to happen. The poor folk who can't afford private health or have to resort to illegal work to have a life, that was us back in the day, even up until as recently as 20 years ago.
You can have pride in your country without resorting to draconian laws that inhibit others from having a chance at the life your ancestors had. I'm proud to be Irish, I'm proud to be a London Irish. I'm proud to be an immigrant to the UK.
Apartheid is live and well in the U.S of A and they heavily back the Israeli led Apartheid in Palestine and the Occupied territories which I'll get into another day.
When you're willing to clean up your own shit and do the jobs immigrants are either more qualified for or happier to do, then I'll listen to your moans.. until then to you anti-immigrant right wing-nuts, shut up and be proud to be an American and what it actually entails instead of being hypocritical bigots.
Disclaimer: read this properly before mistakenly thinking I'm calling ALL Americans bigots, also look up the meaning of bigot as i don't think many know exactly what it means. And yes I know there is racial, social and religious bigotry in Ireland too, that's for another day.
Peace!
Additional articles of interest:
Arizona Export stats
http://www.trade.gov/td/industry/otea/state_reports/arizona.html#Markets
Its better to be Irish
http://www.latimes.com/new
US funding Israeli Apartheid
http://www.counterpunch.org/cook05182010.html
No comments:
Post a Comment