Wake-up Call to Multi-cultural Nations
Ah, yes, the Canadian home-grown terrorists. How the left laments the failure of multi-culturalism, and the right sees this as an opportunity to point out the failures of Canada.
I take issue with the LA Times Ed piece by Jonah Goldberg, link here.
While I think that it raises some good points and questions, such as how far a country should go to accommodate the customs of its immigrants, Jonah really seems to think that Canada is islands of people from a bunch of countries. It's clear that he's never been there.
For one, it is human nature to stick to what you know, and the effect of new immigrants is that they move to a neighborhood, town, or city, with lots of people from the same place. However, after a generation or two, you see the effect lessening. This is akin to a solid dissolving in a liquid: The concentration is highest around the solid piece, which eventually dissolves, and the solid, now in solution, disperses pretty evenly throughout the solvent.
Where I think he does touch on something indirectly is expectations management. For some reason, some places in Ontario delude themselves into thinking that accepting part of Sharia into the civil code will make Canada a more acceptable place to live. This, however, is a strike against Canada's values, not for them, as it says "if you're Muslim, you have an alternate set of civil laws you may use, at your option." As a Christian, you'd be out of luck, so you could not divorce by cell phone SMS. This is different than seeing Chinese on signs in Chinatown.
The result of the Sharia proposal in Ontario is that it empowers radicalization, just as polygamy would, or making a Sabbath day law. Why? For one side, it's a thorn that must be removed. The other side will see it as not getting enough. Either way, the rhetoric can radicalize.
Where the left fails is saying "we must accommodate." Where the right fails is "you must integrate."
I propose the following, yet another compromise to be sure, for all countries and immigrants:
Go ahead, flame me.
I take issue with the LA Times Ed piece by Jonah Goldberg, link here.
While I think that it raises some good points and questions, such as how far a country should go to accommodate the customs of its immigrants, Jonah really seems to think that Canada is islands of people from a bunch of countries. It's clear that he's never been there.
For one, it is human nature to stick to what you know, and the effect of new immigrants is that they move to a neighborhood, town, or city, with lots of people from the same place. However, after a generation or two, you see the effect lessening. This is akin to a solid dissolving in a liquid: The concentration is highest around the solid piece, which eventually dissolves, and the solid, now in solution, disperses pretty evenly throughout the solvent.
Where I think he does touch on something indirectly is expectations management. For some reason, some places in Ontario delude themselves into thinking that accepting part of Sharia into the civil code will make Canada a more acceptable place to live. This, however, is a strike against Canada's values, not for them, as it says "if you're Muslim, you have an alternate set of civil laws you may use, at your option." As a Christian, you'd be out of luck, so you could not divorce by cell phone SMS. This is different than seeing Chinese on signs in Chinatown.
The result of the Sharia proposal in Ontario is that it empowers radicalization, just as polygamy would, or making a Sabbath day law. Why? For one side, it's a thorn that must be removed. The other side will see it as not getting enough. Either way, the rhetoric can radicalize.
Where the left fails is saying "we must accommodate." Where the right fails is "you must integrate."
I propose the following, yet another compromise to be sure, for all countries and immigrants:
- Immigrant, you immigrated here to live a better life. Why bring the things that made your country a place you wanted to leave in the first place with you?
- Immigrant, if there are things in your new home that make it unacceptable to you (gay marriage, taxes, or the fact you can see women's faces), you are free to leave, or work to change them by contributing to society. Realize that some things will alienate others, and this is bad, because you were alienated once, and came here. Remember that.
- Host country, why do you cater to changing the country into something more palatable to an immigrant group? They came here of their own free choice, and for what it is, not what it will become. Further, you're probably going to change something that alienates the other immigrant group, and we all lose.
- Diversity is strength. Anything attacking diversity is an attack on the nation.
Go ahead, flame me.
posted by jaydub at 12:34 PM
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