Here’s a little gem of multi-culti lunacy from the newspaper you have never, ever seen anyone reading:
In Ohio, officials designing a seat-belt campaign aimed at the state’s large Somali refugee population wanted to adapt the popular “Click it or ticket” slogan but found that “ticket” doesn’t translate.
“They don’t have a government in Somalia, so ‘ticket’ doesn’t mean anything to them,” says Tina O’Grady, administrator of the state’s Traffic Safety Office. “We ended up translating it as ‘Strap it, or lose your livestock,’ which also means your money or income or livelihood.”
[Me] I can’t see what would have been wrong with: “Strap it, or we’ll send the militia round to massacre everyone in your village and feed their corpses to wild dogs.” But hey.
[Insensitive? Moi?]
Threatening the Somalis in their own language to obey nanny state directives is about as multiculti as the Borg telling alien species in their own language that they will be assimilated and resistance is futile.
Perhaps I’m missing something, but if the Somalis are operating motor vehicles, surely they must already have some dim awareness of what tickets are. Even of they don’t have licenses and are driving unregistered cars.
Here here!
Well, let’s posit, just for a moment, something ludicrously improbable: that all these Somali drivers acquired, legitimately, learner’s permits, then took a driver ed course, then passed the road test, and then received licenses from the DMV. Should they not, somewhere during the process, have gained some knowledge of what a violation is, and what the consequently issued ticket is? And shouldn’t they have learned the seat belt law?
Assuming that none of the above is true, shouldn’t they still have figured out what a ticket is?
Now I’m wondering what the Somali translation of “boot” is. Perhaps: “We relieve you of your genitalia, cut off your wife’s head, and rape all your goats.”
Susan – Judging by the article and the accompanying picture (which shows a sign that reads “xidho ama xoola waa”), the problem is with the Somali language and what words it does or does not contain, not with the Somali immigrants and what English words they do or do not know.
“Should they not, somewhere during the process, have gained some knowledge of what a violation is, and what the consequently issued ticket is? And shouldn’t they have learned the seat belt law?”
Ohio’s seat belt law applies to every passenger in the car, who may be individually cited and fined. Somalis are certainly auto passengers from the first day they arrive here and have no notions whatever about our traffic laws until their English improves.
I can assure you that it improves far faster than our Somali would, if the roles were reversed.
“something ludicrously improbable: that all these Somali drivers acquired, legitimately, learner’s permits”
In my town fully one third of the taxi drivers are Somali. It is certainly not “ludicrously improbable” that these fellows have taxi driving licenses. You have to have them on display in the taxi. On the average Somalis are far, far better independent entrepreneurs than we are, because they have real learning and survival skills, and because they actually help one another to thrive and prosper.
And I’m perfectly certain that the Somalis I know are far more capable of prospering here, than the commentors on this thread [including myself] would be capable of surviving over there. There is very little here to sharpen our wits, our survival skills, or our attentiveness, so we largely don’t have any. Somalis come from a place where, if you don’t learn to pay attention, you end up dead. Here, hardly anybody can pay attention to anything except their own private prejudices and opinions.
But apparently their command of English was sufficient to enable them to acquire licenses legitimately.
I am so glad Mr. Marshall joined our comment list. Until reading his posts, I had not realized how shamefully inferior we Americans are to these bright, warm-hearted, industrious, entrepreneurial, and … what’s the word? oh yes — vibrant! — Somalis.
Surely it would be better if we wretched, slovenly Americans, loaded down as we are with historical guilt, were to decamp to reservations somewhere in the far north, and leave the main part of our so-called “nation” to these incomers. We are, after all, little better than garbage.
Gotta go — I haven’t flagellated myself yet today.
And I’m perfectly certain that the Somalis I know are far more capable of prospering here, than the commentors on this thread [including myself] would be capable of surviving over there.
You got us. We wouldn’t do well in an area where you kill someone for looking at you wrong, failing to pay up, and you cut up your girls’ genitalia and marry them off as children.
Now why do we want to import that mindset here? Why should we want to inflict this sort of savagery on our kids?
I can assure you that it improves far faster than our Somali would, if the roles were reversed.
If you can provide us with your assurance, that’s good enough for me! No need to waste time with empirical evidence, double blind studies, peer review, etc. etc.!
On the average Somalis are far, far better independent entrepreneurs than we are, because they have real learning and survival skills
Indeed! Why should anyone in the Western world waste their time with fake learning such as quantum mechanics, mathematics, finance, mechanical engineering, chemistry, business administration, electrical engineering, and all those other pseudo intellectual fields!
because they actually help one another to thrive and prosper.
Yes, Somalia is quite thriving and prosperous! That explains why there are 36,000 Somalis in the United States, and now that Eric Cartman, Ike, Butters, Kevin, and Clyde have come back from Somalia, there are maybe 2 Americans left in Somalia!
There is very little here to sharpen our wits, our survival skills, or our attentiveness, so we largely don’t have any.
So that explains why us dull Americans landed men on the moon, and send space probes to explore the solar system!
Somalis come from a place where, if you don’t learn to pay attention, you end up dead.
At least in the United States, if you’re dull and don’t pay attention, you can always set up a web site that provides links to secondary news sources and provide inane commentary.
Here, hardly anybody can pay attention to anything except their own private prejudices and opinions.
But Joey Marshall is different! He’s sharp and astute, pays attention to everyone else’s prejudices and opinions, and speaks “truth to power”, much like Martin Luther and his 95 theses!
@Bradlaugh
He’s referring to Somalis who have successfully emigrated from their home country. The Somali who seeks his fortune in the new world might have very different characteristics than the average Somali.
Ah, but the pull of the old country is still strong!
Dear me. I seem to have touched quite a nerve. Amazing what actual observation of human facts can do. It’s much less fun than sniggering at people who look different than you do, trading breezy remarks about how “ludicrously improbable” their legally learning to drive is, or sneering at the transliteration of their language. But it has its own rewards even when it makes you unwelcome in places that preen themselves on their “reality” and their “reason”.
For example, it allows you to see human evolution in action. The horror which we largely insulate ourselves from in this fine country is the primary means of evolutionary selection pressure in our species. When you look at a refugee, any refugee, you are looking at a survivor. You are also quite probably looking at the future of our gene pool over the long term.
Only a very select few of we Americans have truly “survived” anything. Most of us have merely “hung around”. And our world is safe enough and secure enough that most of us will merely continue to hang around all the way to our final dementia in the nursing home.
But put survivors in a place of relative safety and they prosper. The same skills that kept them alive motivate them to work long and hard, apply practical reason clearly, and to be responsible to themselves and their families about their own actions. And, as well, to reap the very real rewards that these values bring you in a land of general safety and true personal freedom. The Somalis in my town have unquestionably done this. And I make no apology to anyone for applauding them for it. Nor do I make any apology for my country for accepting them nor for my typically generous and good-hearted Midwestern city for assimilating them with hardly a thought.
Survival makes refugees, in fact, the sort of people conservative thinkers are always fawning over in the abstract as an ideal, at least for the ordinary many, if not for the intellectual few. It doesn’t surprise me, but it does sadden me that conservatives are so often put off by the very people who embody the values they preach, particularly when they embody these values in a different culture, language, costume, or color.
The values are genuine values, and conservatives are right to preach them, even if they cannot open their eyes to watch these values in action, and reaping success, without experiencing cognitive dissonance and personal distress.
For Americans xenophobia is a fool’s game. We are what we are because of who we are, and what we are, at least up to now, has been something that has unquestionably made the world a better place. Who we are is a crazy quilt of peoples, almost all of us immigrants from somewhere else, settled in a bare 20-25 generations at the absolute longest.
We are free enough and safe enough to play all sorts of fool’s games here, if we choose. It won’t kill us, by and large, but because it won’t kill us, it will make more of us mere fools with the passage of time. It already has.
If there is one thing I can say about the Somalis I’ve encountered is that none of them have been fools. That’s a real accomplishment.
There is a lot more to American values than just physical survival. There is also respect for other people’s property, equal rights for women, the right to free speech and religious expression, entrepreneuial enterprise, and respect for the rule of law. I see very little of those ideas coming from Somalia, and I see little reason to invite more Somalis to live here.
I see very little of those ideas coming from Somalia, and I see little reason to invite more Somalis to live here.
Has it ever occurred to you that the people who come here might just be coming here because of those same ideas and values? Just like they always have.
You people are totally unbelievable. Just about all I’ve read on this thread in response to my comments is simply rank bigotry. Period.
@Wade Nichols
Don’t feed the troll, remember I said it first.
@Bradlaugh
So in other words you have no answer to the argument he made in his comment?
You’re not the only one who’s noticed that. There are probably others as well who didn’t bother pointing it out. I’m as amazed as you are at the lack of thinking among all these freethinkers here.
@Joseph Marshall
I’ll also add that the factual claim you make seems plausible to me. Comfort makes stupid. (Exhibit A: the comments in this thread.) But I’m a lot less certain of your claim than you are.
@Aaron
Nice show of mutual aid between members of the Guild of Trolls but are you sure that your respective agendas really match?
I cast you both as trolls because it is obvious from your arguments that you are knowingly lying thru your teeths for some purpose(s) much more than expressing personal opinions.
More dishonest than the blather of the religious loonies who appear here once in a while.
Has it ever occurred to you that the people who come here might just be coming here because of those same ideas and values?
Given the fact that we now have to worry about this group’s tendency to rent-seek for welfare benefits and engage in female genital mutilation, I’d say it’s rather unlikely. As Derb and others have pointed out, the whole refugee importation business is rife with fraud and abuse.
Your Ellis Island encomium is way, way out of date.
Dear Stupid Person,
Who cares what somebody’s “agenda” is here? This is some silly little blog, it’s not like it’s the UN Security Council.
Sincerely yours,
A. Troll
This is some silly little blog, it’s not like it’s the UN Security Council.
Oh! That’s why you revel in silly comments, the blog owners certainly appreciate…
I won’t engage in name calling though I am quite adept at that but you are not really worth the trouble, “troll” is a good enough definition.
http://library.osu.edu/sites/staff/diversity/SomaliCulture.ppt:
“According to the Somali Community Association of Ohio:
7% of Somali persons speak English well enough to get a job”
Those of you surprised at the bigoted tone of the comments really shouldn’t be. Derbyshire is essentially a white nationalist.
Could you elaborate on this?
Specifically what you find “wrong” and why?
P.S. A white nationalist married to a chinese, makes perfect sense…
P.P.S. Apologies to other blog readers for troll baiting, I just want a little fun.
Sure. White Nationalists present a danger to minorities. Derbyshire being married to an Asian doesn’t really change his views on Hispanics, Blacks, and all other sorts of minorities who would get the short end of the stick were the White Nationalism he sympathizes with gain popularity.
Joseph Marshall:
John lists as American values: “There is also respect for other people’s property, equal rights for women, the right to free speech and religious expression, entrepreneuial enterprise, and respect for the rule of law.”
The Somalis you describe appear to have figured out entrepreneurship, enterprise, and hard work. However, survival in Somalia does not really require respect for other people’s property, equal rights for women, or respect for the rule of law, and one’s chances there may be positively damaged by respecting free speech or religious expression.
Worse yet, in a society where the vast majority generally has respect for other people’s property and the rule of law, it’s easy to get ahead if one holds opposite notions and is appropriately careful about applying those principles. The problem arises when enough of the population notices that people who don’t respect property and the rule of law are doing better than those who do, which corrodes the belief in those two things to the level where society as a whole stops receiving significant benefit from them.
By letting in too many immigrants from countries where survival depends on not respecting the law, and not making sufficient effort to assimilate those immigrants to American norms, we are actively undermining our own prosperity and political stability.
Oh – and adapting the “Click it or ticket” slogan to other languages is stupid. Simpler to say “$90 fine for not wearing seat belt” in whatever languages enough drivers read.
(How many of those Somalis who drive are literate in Somali yet illiterate in English?)