Ethiopia By Design

Unity Park, Addis Ababa

Genius of Design: Love is part of Ethiopia.

Update: Kidist Foods - Some Background on Implementation

Presentation at the United Nations
NGO Committee on the Status of Women Conference 61, New York, 2017
Kidist Foods Cookbook Presentation for
Economic Self-Sufficiency of Young Ethiopian Women

I presented a paper at the 2017 UN Commission on the Status of Women workshop: "Empowering African Women to Lead with Renewable Energy: Training for Homes and Community-Based Enterprises."

My topic was under the general heading: "Key Terms in the Human Effects of Changing Environments: Fostering Greater Economic Empowerment for Women and Girls." and a sub-theme - "Women's Economic Empowerment in the Changing World of Work."

My presentation centered around Ethiopian urban women. I discussed the potential of these urban, poor, women to engage in cooking enterprises. And I also discussed a small Ethiopian cookbook as part of a means to fund these enterprises.

This all eventually became the Kidist Foods project, which includes the book and other proceed-generating items (an apron, for example).

My presentation simply recounted a "story" of a poor, Ethiopian woman from Addis Ababa, and how through her skills, she could start to become economically self-sufficient for herself and her family. I also presented my ideas on the cookbook project.

As a side note, the workshop was almost cancelled because of an unexpected snow storm, which left many "international" travelers stranded, and the workshop room empty. The audience that grouped together was from the rounds the programmer made to the various rooms, and those waiting for their event to start. We had Afghani and Indian women in our "African" event.

I braved the elements, and didn't cancel my trip from Toronto.

It was interesting that a few young women (one Indian, another if I remember correctly, from Kenya) came up to me after the workshop to ask me some questions.

The room was receptive to my presentation.

Synergy Schools

PM Abiy, with his wife First Lady Zinash, holds a check of over 110 million Ethiopian Birr, which he is donating to build schools.

PM Abiy obtained over 110 million Ethiopian Birr from the sales of his book Medemer (Synergy).

In Medemer

...the prime minister advocates for a fresh, Ethiopian-centric approach to the country's politics, citing the past

From PM Abiy's Facebook page:

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed handed over a cheque in the amount of one hundred and ten million, six hundred and seventy-one thousand, twenty-five Ethiopian Birr to First Lady Zinash Tayachew, who received the money on behalf of her office for the construction of schools in parts of the country where communities are experiencing a challenge in access to education.

The money is a a first installment amount collected from the book sale of the Amharic and Afaan Oromo versions of Medemer.

Making remarks during the handover ceremony, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed shared, “we not only make promises but we also execute accordingly and thus feel extremely happy."

Green Legacy Poetry

Saint George SA Soccer Players for #greenlegacy: St. George Sport Club Facebook

#AddisAbabans came out today from all parts to meet the #GreenLegacy challenge. We’re halfway through the planting season and I commend you for rising to what the next generation demands of you. I encourage all throughout the country to exceed the goal set. We can do it together!

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From PM Abiy's August 2, 2020 tweet:

#AddisAbabans came out today from all parts to meet the #GreenLegacy challenge. We’re halfway through the planting season and I commend you for rising to what the next generation demands of you. I encourage all throughout the country to exceed the goal set. We can do it together! pic.twitter.com/L3iCKl6cDz

— Abiy Ahmed Ali 🇪🇹 (@AbiyAhmedAli) August 2, 2020

"Fellow Feeling": Another Mercer Alliteration

This is hilarious!

Here is my recent post by the indomitable, youthful looking, Ms. Mercer.

"These countries are also not multicultural and quite homogeneous. There is a thing called fellow feeling among people who share A LOT." - Mercer- tweet on May 19. (Below is the tweeter posts).

I wrote to Mercer in 2009, and re-posted the interaction with links to Mercer's various "social media" sites (I know they read those links) :

KPA: On a comment about collective feelings of grief, you made that sound like an impossibility, since only "individuals" feel grief. Yes, nations grieve, nations rejoice. This is not a communist thing. Of course it is composed of individuals, and of course each individual grieves idiosyncratically. But, a collective grief does occur. I was struck by your inability to see this.

Mercer: The other laughable issue is the accusation that I lack a healthy nationalism. Again, bloggers proudly display their absolute ignorance--they have no qualms about never studying the object of their expansive, idiot, smug comments.

Below is Mercer's May 19, 2020, twitter post on "fellow feeling":

These countries are also not multicultural and quite homogeneous @heraclitean11. There is a thing called fellow feeling among people who share A LOT. https://t.co/ttKje4Gjyz

— ILANA Mercer (@IlanaMercer) May 19, 2020

The empty libertarian mind is always looking for references. And Mercer found mine just in time. So individuals do grieve collectively after all!

Mercer Correspondence Updated for Content and Information: "Smart" Denegrations, Especially in Emails, Stick Around

Recently, a correspondent emails:

I never read Vdare...Just not interested in it. Are you talking about Ilana Mercer? Oh yeah, she's just a total Jewish shill, like Faith Goldy.

From Wikipedia:

A shill, also called a plant or a stooge, is a person who publicly helps or gives credibility to a person or organization without disclosing that they have a close relationship with the person or organization. Shills can carry out their operations in the areas of media, journalism, marketing, politics, confidence games, or other business areas. A shill may also act to discredit opponents or critics of the person or organization in which they have a vested interest through character assassination or other means.

Here is one of my recent posts on Mercer where I question her alliance with Israel:

Ilana Mercer, in her biography on her website, writes:

Ilana is a fellow at the Jerusalem Institute for Market Studies (an award-winning, independent, non-profit, free-market economic policy think tank).

She is listed at the JIMS website "team" as a "Media Fellow."

The JIMS states its mission as:

...promot[ing] social progress in Israel through economic freedom and individual liberty.

What is Mercer doing writing for an organization with political roots in Israel?

Below is Mercer's attempt to discredit me, albeit through email interaction. I believe she meant to silence me. Below is an excerpt from an email "correspondence" I had with Mercer in 2009, after I questioned her "collective" loyalty to a nation, due to her libertarian "individualism" ideology, regarding her July 4, 2009 article A July 4th Toast to Thomas Jefferson - And the Declaration. She wrote back to me, but with disdain, not acknowledging me, even though she was replying to me!

KPA: On a comment about collective feelings of grief, you made that sound like an impossibility, since only "individuals" feel grief. Yes, nations grieve, nations rejoice. This is not a communist thing. Of course it is composed of individuals, and of course each individual grieves idiosyncratically. But, a collective grief does occur. I was struck by your inability to see this.

Mercer: The other laughable issue is the accusation that I lack a healthy nationalism. Again, bloggers proudly display their absolute ignorance--they have no qualms about never studying the object of their expansive, idiot, smug comments.

This was in 2009. I posted on this on my Camera Lucida blog on July 4, 2009 (her article came a day earlier at World Net Daily). The full interaction is on July 5, 2009, at Camera Lucida.

Well it's now 2020! "Smart" denegrations, especially in emails, stick around.

January Garden

January Garden
[Photo By: KPA]

"The belief in objective truth is the keystone of traditional Western culture, and the explicit basis of the United States of America. For America's founding generation and their posterity, man's inalienable rights to liberty and self-government proceed, not from from the will and desire of man, but from "nature and nature's God." Man's freedom is ordained, and constrained, by a reality higher than man. It was the shared experience of that truth that formed the American nation."

Lawrence Auster
Our Borders, Ourselves: America in the Age of Multiculturalism
Chapter 4: The Spiritual Effects of Multiculturalism
P.58

Ethnicity and Unity

From Lawrence Auster's The View From the Right, a discussion on ethnicity and unity.
Posted on January 8, 2010

More interesting discussion on the topic at the post.

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Kidist writes:

I think I may have told you this already, but I left Ethiopia (with my younger brothers and parents) when I was nine years old. My father was stationed in Paris, in UNESCO, and we were sent about six months later to England to attend boarding school in southern Kent.

I left for University at 17 to the States, and later, my Dad was posted in New York’s UNESCO office. Once I completed that education, we all immigrated for good to Canada.

So, I have lived most of my life outside of Ethiopia. My Western experience is extensive and full—I was in my school choir throughout my time in England, and later in college; I studied piano until I was 21; I kept on playing and singing for much longer; I studied both ballet (until 13) and modern dance (into my 20s). I speak (pretty good) French. While in Paris, I must have been the only Ethiopian girl who was a fixture in the museums and galleries.

When I came to Canada, I decided to leave behind my science studies (biology/human nutrition) and pursue a “cultural” degree. I went to film/photography school for four years. Disillusioned with “art” I left that and started my training in textile design.

Since then, I have been as immersed in culture as I can be.

This is what makes me unique amongst immigrants:

- My isolated childhood from other Ethiopians while in France and England.

- My love for and immersion in the greatest of European culture when still a young girl—English choral music, and French art galleries and museums.

- By the time I had arrived in the States and Canada, I was too impressed with European culture to accept people’s denouncement of its inferiority, its oppressive nature, and other negatives.

- Without being presumptuous, it is my Amhara background, which has a history of leadership and civilization, that helped me to make analogies with what whites are going through in a multicultural society, which wishes to destroy whites in order to equalize everyone. This is what the communist regime in Ethiopia tried to do to Amharas.

- Also, my art education—music, dance, film and visual arts—also immersed me into the incredible beauty and complexity of Western culture, which have shaped my views.

- Living in a densely multicultural city like Toronto, largely of anti-Western non-whites, made me realized how strong and pernicious this anti-Western sentiment is, and I removed myself from it.

This might make my positions and opinions a little clearer. I know it throws many people off, seeing a Third World person like me so accepting and at ease with Western culture. But, maybe I’m just unusual with that. As I said before, 99.99 percent of all immigrants from the Third World do not wish to, nor are they able to, assimilate into Western culture.

"Dual Citizens, Dual Loyalties?”

What should Canadians make of dual citizenship?
Draft written in April 2009

After an episode on Television Ontario's The Agenda with Steve Paikin as host: "Dual Citizens, Dual Loyalties?"
On TVO, only a blog entry exists of the episode.

---

Immigration lawyer Ravi Jain, who is a first generation immigrant of Indian background, was recently on Steve Paikin's The Agenda panel on dual citizenship titled: "Dual Citizens, Dual Loyalties?” He was behaving in a manner typical of immigrants. He has an automatic, knee-jerk, expectation that the whole world (or more precisely, the non-Western world) is entitled to immigrate to U.S. and Canada, and once there, to obtain an uncontested guarantee of citizenship. I don't know why immigrants such as Jain (that is 99.9% of immigrants) never question the logic of their argument. Still, Jain is an immigration lawyer, so part of the answer lies in his professional background. He has to accept and support the concept of immigration to win his clients' cases. And if I were a little more cynical, I would have to say that it is a lucrative business being an immigration lawyer.

But this arrogant sense of entitlement goes deeper than career opportunism. I've thought long and hard about it, and I think that non-Westerners come to Canada or the U.S. (and to European countries as well) with a "they owe us" dig. Of course, this hails back to all the perceived insults and oppressions of the colonial period, and the American influence around the world since then.

The contradiction is that Jain's India is one of the more prosperous countries in the world, and I would say that it is thanks to the institutions the British left behind, and the economic benefits Indians reap from American businesses.

And the fact that many immigrants are opting for dual citizenship shows that their countries are no longer the dismal, economically non-viable back waters which they presumably left never to return to again.

The phenomenon of dual citizenship has been brewing for the past twenty years or so, with about 150 countries (including Canada and the U.S.) now accepting such a status compared to only a handful in the early 1990s.

I would like to say that claiming dual citizenship is a good thing. After all, if more Indians return to India, they will find much to attract them there, including living happy Indian lives with their relatives, their traditions, their cultures and the many beautiful things that are part of their Indianness. And then they will remain in India.

But what the modern non-Western immigrant does is keep all his options open. For Indians, it would be to live and enjoy their Indian life, but keep the other foot firmly planted in Canada, including encouraging (coercing) more, ever-increasing Indian immigration to Canada. And going through impossible hoops to change Canada into their version of a Nordic India (if ever possible).

The objectives of non-Westerners like Jain is not Canadian nation building, but the acquisition of the rights and privileges of living in a prosperous nation and to glean as much as they can from it. Such “Canadians” will never publicly admit this, but their hearts and minds, all the way down to their second and third generation offspring, are back in their ancestral lands. The “We Love Canada” mantra of many non-Western Canadians is easily dismantled when asked what their affiliations to their non-Western lands are, and more succinctly, if they have, or agree with dual citizenship.

This is the tidy(!) quagmire the thoughtless wielders of our immigration policies have come up with. A set-up for people like Jain, whose loyalties, despite his family living in Canada for multiple generations [Update 2018: Probably Jain is a "first generation" immigrant. There is no information on his family background anywhere], will always be as an Indian first (a non-Westerner), and when push comes to shove, a Canadian next. When pressed, "Why Canadian" his reply will eventually reveal that what he wants are the gains, and let’s face it, it is mostly economic gains, he will get from Canada. In the mean time, he will be busy working under the radar to make sure that this prosperous Canada will continue to be a temporary haven (or a displaced haven) for people like him, and for thousands more whose entrance to Canada he will facilitate.

This is the stark reality of non-Western "Canadians." Don’t listen to what they say, look at what they do.

The Warfare Against a Homeland

Driving through Upstate New York
July 2009
[Photo By: KPA]

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"People want a homeland despite all the psychological warfare against it, and the world can provide it."
Laura Wood
The Thinking Housewife

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"I love thy rocks and rills,
Thy woods and templed hills;
My heart with rapture thrills,
Like that above."

Excerpt from "My Country, 'Tis of Thee"
(Also known as "America")
Written by Samuel Francis Smith, 1832
Via The Orthosphere, July 24, 2018
From the Article "The Shabbiest Gospel"
By: J. M. Smith

"And I will make of thee a great nation"

Genesis 12:2

And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing

"Les Anglais"

The contemporary thinking about foreigners turns them into moral, cultural or social issues, but downplays the most important one: actual logistics.

Foreigners are people who travel to lands which are not their own, with cultures and social structures different from theirs, with languages they don't speak or speak without the fluency of their own languages.

In less progressive eras, when a foreigner came to a country other than his own, he had to understand the country he came to and subjugate himself to these different circumstances, and behave accordingly. He would always remain a foreigner, however many years he has lived there, and however many obstacle tests he has passed (and with distinction even).

There was an intriguing and endearing time in my life in Paris.

When we just arrived, our apartment was in a neighborhood which had its own boulangerie, patisserie, cafe, tabac and all the other accoutrements of French neighborhood life. It was like a mini-village within the large city, as all Parisian residential neighborhoods are (our next neighbourhood was slightly more cosmopolitan being near the Tour Eiffel and the shopkeepers were friendly but too busy to ask for details, although they always greeted us familiarly).

I went to a French bilingual school for the first six months and later we went to the first of two boarding schools in England, in Kent.

We had always been English speakers, having had our elementary education in Addis Ababa at what was then called The English School. I was fluent in English at a very early age.

As is always the case, neighborhood merchants, especially those one frequents regularly and with a Mom & Pop management style, make an effort to know their clientele, and even their names.

This particular French boulanger and his wife would greet us in a familiar way and I'm sure, when we (the kids) no longer came accompanied by their mother, asked: "Ou sont les enfant?"

By then my mother knew some French and no doubt told them as best she could that we were at school in England.

This was an instinctive association by country. If this Arab-looking family sent their children to a pensionat in England, then they must be of the English cultural persuasion and therefore they are English. Most Arabs in France have a French - colonial - association, and they would have kept their children within the French culture.

On a side note, this was the argument - the debate - used to say that North Africans (Moroccans and Algerians mostly) were French because of this colonial past, and that the huge numbers of immigrant North Africans can live in France as Frenchmen. Of course Arabs feel differently: they ARE NOT Frenchmen!!! They would always be Arab.

Back to my Parisian neighbourhood. We became known as "Les Anglais!" The patriotic neighbourhood baker and his wife (his wife mostly because she was the one who ran the storefront and communicated with the customers) associated us with their perennial and historical antagonists, the English, those most foreign of foreigners!

But she loved us! Who wouldn't! This cute threesome, with their coats and hoods in the winter rushing to school early in the morning, or coming in for their favorite "Kim-Cone" ice cream in the summer which they bought with long-saved pennies, now going across the seas to learn things! How brave they are!

"Quand viennent-ils, les enfant?" she would ask my mother those long months when we were away.

But we always remained "Les Anglais."

The World in a Sochi Doll

God first gave us man, then family, then tribes, then nations. But without the nations, none of these other things would exist.


Canadian souvenirs for the Sochi Olympics

Genesis 35: 10-12

10 And God said unto him, Thy name is Jacob: thy name shall not be called any more Jacob, but Israel shall be thy name: and he called his name Israel.

11 And God said unto him, I am God Almighty: be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall be of thee, and kings shall come out of thy loins;

12 And the land which I gave Abraham and Isaac, to thee I will give it, and to thy seed after thee will I give the land.

All nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth

Acts 17:26-27

26 And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation;

27 That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us

Making Africa

View From the Right
September 27, 2009

Kidist Paulos Asrat writes:

There is never a dull moment at VFR!

I really do think that Ethiopia is the exception in the African continent. Much of the current Ethiopian border was forged by a succession of 18-20th century Kings (perhaps more correctly known as Emperors). It started with a rather mad and universalist Emperor Twedros, later on moved by the northern Emperor Yohannes, who was more concerned with his tribal group (the less influential northern Tigray) than nationhood, and sealed with the Amhara—the leading group throughout Ethiopia’s history—Menelik. The rationale behind Menelik’s decisive nationalization was to put an end to the ethnic and tribal differences, and make one nation out of the region. Haile Selassie continued with that legacy. I personally think this imperialistic nationalization actually did more harm to Ethiopia proper, which led directly to the communist rule of Mengistu Haile Mariam. But that is a topic for another time.

Yes, there were European influences, perhaps the most notorious being the Eritrea question. In fact, the acquisition of Eritrea by the Italians was a territorial exchange to prevent Italians from encroaching further into Ethiopia. So, the argument stands the Eritrea was once part of Ethiopia, but had to be forfeited for general national security. It was later returned to Ethiopia.

Similarly, the Ogaden was, by imperialistic acquisition, part of Ethiopia long before the European intervention. In fact, the great Muslim conqueror of Ethiopia of the 16th century came from that region—so conflict between Ethiopia and the Somali of the Ogaden is perennial—it still continues.

One reason why Ethiopia didn’t descend into a non-nationalistic fragmentation of tribes is because a leading group, the Amhara, held firm throughout at least the Christian history of Ethiopia (which dates as early as the 3rd century) as leaders of the various regions, which they controlled earlier on as tributaries. Of the three Emperors I mentioned above the two Amhara were most influential in consolidating these tribes under one “civilized” Christian nation.

I am still trying to figure out how all this happened. But, I think it wouldn’t have happened without the Amhara, and without Christianity.

LA replies:

“I am still trying to figure out how all this happened. But, I think it wouldn’t have happened without the Amhara, and without Christianity.”

The two most important elements of society that I always emphasize: a majority ethnicity, and Christianity!

Update: "You Stupid Man"

Prashant Ajmera:
Indian immigration Attorney
with specialisation in foreign investment
and related masters


Facebook page screenshot

I looked up the lawyer (or lawyer candidate in Canada via Canada's multicultural immigration policy) that I mentioned in my previous post (originally from a 2012 Camera Lucida post - my pre-Reclaimaing Beauty commentary blog) and here s what found (short story I was right).

Prashant Ajmera has since started his own law office in Dollard-des-Ormeaux, Qebec, but also runs an office in Gujarat, India (his home town).

Here is what he says about his firm's services:

Ajmera Law is an official web site of Indian law office of Prashant Ajmera & Associates which is a boutique law firm in India providing unique legal services to businessmen in India and outside India.

Our law firm was established in 1984 and as an Indian law firm pioneered in providing services in the area of immigration and visa services since 1993 to professionals and businessmen from India and around world.

Over the years, firms have developed association with law firms around the world and has specialize in the services of assisting businessman from any country in the world to other country in the world in making investment for residency and citizenship. This are of practice of the firm brought new opportunity to the firm in the area of international trade and investment which firm is capable of providing thought their in house lawyers and professionals.

Nothing in this man page about the firm's Canadan services.

But in the middle of "professional" information about the firm and its employees (and founder), here is what we have:

An Indian lawyer (Gujarat Bar Association), Canadian citizen and a NRI since 1988, with more than 18 years of experience in international immigration and visa matters, including several years of experience in corporate migration law and international trade. Started law practice as an Assistant Advocate in the High Court of Gujarat, Ahmedabad, India, in the Office of the Additional Central Government Standing Council (Federal Government Attorney).

So Canadian citizenship is not exclusive to one's "nationality." An "Indian Lawyer" can also be without any equivocation a Canadian citizen! There you have it!

And true to his Indian Nationality, Ajmera's major work at his law firm concerning Canadian issues is...drum roll...:

Indian Immigration, Work Visa, Residency and Sponsorship.

If your are interested in going to India to work (a great opportunity for all the Indian Diaspora), all the details are here.

If you are a wealthy ndan you can also get asssantce from Mrl .... to:

Invest...in foreign country [i.e. Canada for the purpose of obtaining residency and citizenship

There you have it. Your one-stop-shop to make it out here.

His Facebook page is more direct. He identifies himself as an EB-5 Visa Consultant.



More on the EB-5 visa.

The EB-5 visa, employment-based fifth preference category or EB-5 Immigrant Investor Visa Program, created in 1990 by the Immigration Act of 1990, provides a method for eligible Immigrant Investors to become lawful permanent residents - informally known as "green card" holders - by investing at least $1,000,000 to finance a business in the United States that will employ at least 10 American workers." Most immigrant investors who use the EB-5 program invest in a targeted employment area (TEA): - a rural area or area with high unemployment - which lowers the investment threshold to $500,000. The EB-5 program is intended to encourage both "foreign investments and economic growth." The EB-5 Immigrant Investor Visa Program is one of five employment-based (EB) preference programs in the United States. [Source]

And just follow the global enterprise:

"You Stupid Man"

Post from 2012 at Camera Lucida, my blog before (and including) Reclaiming Beauty:


An Indian immigrant in Canada, with wife and child.
Eventually, this family will grow considerably.
And the "Canadian-born" children will pine after
a country - Indian - which they never knew, but
which they cannot separate themselves from.
Such is the multicultural invasion that is
occurring in Canada.

The story behind this photo is here.
The story behind this photo is here.

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I've written before about a changing Canada, a really transforming Canada, where almost everyone I walk by in the streets, in the malls, in the restaurants, is a non-white, Chinese or Indian (there are actually very few blacks in the major city centers, since most blacks stay in their neighborhoods either in the northern part of the city or in the Scarborough township of the Greater Toronto Area. Plus, there are much fewer blacks compared to other non-whites in Canada).

Yesterday, I was in my local Walmart. I like Walmart. It is a store established for cheaper goods, and even has a reasonably good grocery. Many of the products are Chinese made, but right now we have to survive, and boycotting Chinese goods will come with time (I can assure you).

I notice that these Chinese and Indian immigrants have no real etiquette. They talk really loudly, walk around in large groups taking up whole sidewalks, have no consideration for "side walk" etiquette of moving aside as someone comes towards them. And the men have no courtesy toward women.

Yesterday, I refused to cede my "path" to an approaching Indian man, as usual. He walked right into me. I just kept walking on.

The man ran after me with, "You stupid woman!" He had a distinct Indian accent. I turned around and said, automatically, "You stupid man!" He was red-hot furious, and lunged towards me as though to attack me. I was standing in line by then, and just turned around away from him.

In a flash, he realized what he was doing. Did he really want a scuffle in Walmart? I was clearly standing there ready for his confrontation. He skidded into a halt, stood for half a second watching me, then went about his way.

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I've said before that we are going to have to do a lot of fighting as we figure out what to do with this invasion of Indians and Chinese "immigrants" who have no intention of assimilating, and are working now decidedly to change the country and culture to their advantage.

One obvious strategy is of course to reduce all immigration into Canada, including the so-called "education" and "economic" immigration, where candidates are accepted by the amount of financial investment they bring with them, and the level of education they have acquired. This should be strictly kept with Asian immigrants (Indian and Chinese), who seem to be the highest applicants for this kind of immigration, and less so for European immigrants (British, and even Polish and Russian). Refugees from Africa and Latin America can be accommodated in nearby countries (Somali refugees in Kenya or Ethiopia for example), and eventually returned to their countries of origin when war and other crisis situations have subsided.

How about the ones already here? And not only the ones already here, but their offspring who now call themselves "Canadian"?

One proposal I've made is to find incentives to send these immigrants and especially their "Canadian" children back to their original countries, either through monetary gifts, or by inter-governmental arrangements through employment centers and universities. And to make their stay in those countries permanent. In other words, once they accept these incentives, they cannot return back to Canada without a formal re-application for immigration. The acceptance of re-applying immigrants can be fine-tuned to reduce the re-acceptance level to a minimum, and preferably to zero.

The other strategy is to phase out and eventually remove "multiculturalism" in Canada, both legally and culturally. The Canadian documents which profess Canada to be a multicultural country should be revised, and state the Western, British nature of the country. All multicultural programs, whether on television or in other media institutions, schools, employment centers, and even business areas like shopping centers and restaurants, should be phased out. If a business wants to go "multicultural" as in a French restaurant wanting to be "French," then it is up to the business to make that happen, and not some special government fund.

This true Canadianness will either be accepted or rejected by these immigrants, and their descendants. I would say that the majority of non-whites will reject it. This unwelcoming environment will eventually become difficult for them. And with the combination of strategies provided above, they will start to leave on their own. Already, Chinese and Indian immigrant off-spring are "re-acquainting" themselves with their ancestral countries by traveling there for vists, and some are staying and re-establishing their lives there.

The alternative is that there will be a confrontation between immigrants (this is now a generic word I will use for all non-white immigrants - first, second, third, etc. generation) and whites. Immigrants will refuse the white, European and Western nature of Canada, and will fight to have it resemble their own conditions. Whites are now beginning to realize what they've lost, or are losing, and will begin to start to reclaim their land and culture, since especially after their decades-long acceptance of these others, all they are getting is epithets of "racist" and "prejudiced" by these same immigrants.

This may take some time, but with incremental changes, and a combination of all the strategies and scenarios above, it may be sooner than we think.

Can Canada Become Canada Again?

From Laura Wood's The Thinking Housewife blog: January 2, 2013.

My arguments and the ensuing comments.

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AT Camera Lucida, Kidist Paulos Asrat, who lives in Toronto, offers a plan for reversing the mass influx of Asian immigrants that has culturally transformed Canada:

I’ve said before that we are going to have to do a lot of fighting as we figure out what to do with this invasion of Indians and Chinese “immigrants” who have no intention of assimilating, and are working now decidedly to change the country and culture to their advantage.One obvious strategy is of course to reduce all immigration into Canada, including the so-called “education” and “economic” immigration, where candidates are accepted by the amount of financial investment they bring with them, and the level of education they have acquired.

This should be strictly kept with Asian immigrants (Indian and Chinese), who seem to be the highest applicants for this kind of immigration, and less so for European immigrants (British, and even Polish and Russian). Refugees from Africa and Latin America can be accommodated in nearby countries (Somali refugees in Kenya or Ethiopia for example), and eventually returned to their countries of origin when war and other crisis situations have subsided.How about the ones already here? And not only the ones already here, but their offspring who now call themselves “Canadian”?

One proposal I’ve made is to find incentives to send these immigrants and especially their “Canadian” children back to their original countries, either through monetary gifts, or by inter-governmental arrangements through employment centers and universities. And to make their stay in those countries permanent. In other words, once they accept these incentives, they cannot return back to Canada without a formal re-application for immigration. The acceptance of re-applying immigrants can be fine-tuned to reduce the re-acceptance level to a minimum, and preferably to zero.

The other strategy is to phase out and eventually remove “multiculturalism” in Canada, both legally and culturally. The Canadian documents which profess Canada to be a multicultural country should be revised, and state the Western, British nature of the country. All multicultural programs, whether on television or in other media institutions, schools, employment centers, and even business areas like shopping centers and restaurants, should be phased out. If a business wants to go “multicultural” as in a French restaurant wanting to be “French,” then it is up to the business to make that happen, and not some special government fund.

This true Canadianness will either be accepted or rejected by these immigrants, and their descendants. I would say that the majority of non-whites will reject it. This unwelcoming environment will eventually become difficult for them. And with the combination of strategies provided above, they will start to leave on their own. Already, Chinese and Indian immigrant off-spring are “re-acquainting” themselves with their ancestral countries by traveling there for vists, and some are staying and re-establishing their lives there.
The alternative is that there will be a confrontation between immigrants (this is now a generic word I will use for all non-white immigrants – first, second, third, etc. generation) and whites. Immigrants will refuse the white, European and Western nature of Canada, and will fight to have it resemble their own conditions. Whites are now beginning to realize what they’ve lost, or are losing, and will begin to start to reclaim their land and culture, since especially after their decades-long acceptance of these others, all they are getting is epithets of “racist” and “prejudiced” by these same immigrants.

This may take some time, but with incremental changes, and a combination of all the strategies and scenarios above, it may be sooner than we think.

—- Comments —
Michael S. writes:

“Immigrants will refuse the white, European and Western nature of Canada, and will fight to have it resemble their own conditions.”

Then why do they immigrate, if they just want to make their new place like their old place? What’s the point?

I’ve heard enough Puerto Ricans gush about how lovely Puerto Rico is. Couldn’t have been THAT lovely, if you live in the Bronx. Just sayin’.

Ireland is beautiful, too, but I can see why my ancestors left.

S. Li writes:

I never thought of writing to you until I read this post, “Can Canada Become Canada Again?” today. I thought that I might have a few words to add.

I am Chinese and I have been reading your blog for quite a while. Previously I tried to learn English from CNN/NYT, then I gradually found them boring and spiritually and intellectually suffocating. After finding your blog, I have made your blog my daily/weekly read instead. I like your blog design and picture choices in the first place, which are really pleasant for reading. I like your posts about English literature, which are nourishing for the soul. I like your posts about traditional Christian values, which I believe are the real foundation that made the West great. (I wish the West had exported more of traditional Christian readings to China such as C.S. Lewis and G.K. Chesterton, and I never regretted when Chinese government banned ‘artists’ such as Lady Gaga etc., or art such as most ‘Hollywood movies’).

In China, we call Chinese born in Canada/U.S. “Banana” (yellow outside, white inside) as very obviously they are culturally Western in our eyes. (Second-generation Chinese immigrants usually speak English even while they visit China, as they either do not speak Chinese well or do not bother to speak Chinese, and they almost always like to remind us that “I am American/Canadian, not Chinese” upon introduction). And we can easily spot that they are different from local Chinese by their appearance (maybe due to more dairy consumption), and because their knowledge of Chinese classics is close to none. It would be a blessing if they could spell their grandparents’ names in Chinese. I find it hard to believe that they could ever possibly “culturally transform Canada.”

Let us take Jeremy Lin, the NBA basketball player and a Chinese American, for example, even though he might look like Yao Ming (Chinese basketball player who also played in NBA previously), we Chinese do not find anything similar with regards to the ways they talk, think and act. Even though they both look Chinese by skin color, we can almost spot Jeremy Lin as “not from China” at first eyesight. The same is true to for Patrick Chan, the Canadian figure skater.

Also, I find the example Ms. Asrat used to support her “Chinese and Indian immigrants have no real etiquette” comment a little naive. We can easily substitute her “rude Indian” story to another “rude non-Asian” story, plus Ms. Asrat was not without fault (at least inconsiderate) at the confrontation.

Ironically, I found it hard to believe that Miss Asrat put her own picture along her post, as she looks Asian to me. Is the post or the picture a joke?

Laura writes:

Thank you for writing. Your command of English is good. I made a few grammatical corrections, but not many.

I understand that Chinese immigrants to the West are not fully Chinese in the cultural sense and have many Western mannerisms. However, that does not mean that they fully identify with the West or consider themselves Canadians in the sense that those whose ancestors came from Britain do. Many Chinese Canadians probably consider themselves a distinctive combination of East and West. In other posts, Kidist has more fully described what she sees as the differences between Asian immigrants and white Canadians. For some Asians, Canada is more a place to get ahead than a place to feel fully at home. When Kidist, who is Ethiopian, speaks of Asians culturally transforming Canada, I don’t think she means they are making it exactly like China or India. That could never be. Nevertheless, the influx of Asians into Canada has been enormous and however much prominent Asian Americans or Canadians may seem Westernized, there is no question that Canada is changed by the presence of large numbers of Asians and their distinctive characteristics, just as China would be transformed if millions of white Canadians settled in its major cities, even if those Canadians adopted many of the local customs and spoke the language.

Thirteen Provinces and Multiculturalism?

These were the alternate designs submitted to a focus group.

But why wasn't the simple 13 maple leaves design, representing the thirteen provinces, within two thin blue circles, chosen?

But then, where would they put all that multiculturalism?

How Multiculturalism Infantilizes design

2017 1967
The winning design for Canada's Sesquicentennial anniversary is a rip off from the winning design for the Centennial Anniversary.

Both represent the Maple Leaf, although the 150th designer does so somewhat reluctantly.

And both are stuck on "multiculturalism."

I've said many times that "multiculturalism" makes for bad design.

Here is an article I posted at Camera Lucida in 2008:

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July 19, 2008
How Multiculturalism Infantilizes design

I haven't yet read Diana West's book The Death of the Grown-up, but here is an interesting insight she makes while answering questions on an interview on National Review Online:

Kathryn Jean Lopez: How are “dhimmi life under Islam” and “PC life in a multicultural world” similar?

Diana West: For me, this pairing was something of a “eureka” moment in the writing of the book.

I would describe PC life in a multiculti world as being marked in part by self-censorship based in fear — fear of professional failure, opprobrium or social ostracism. I would also describe this same self-censorship as a form of childishness. During one lecture on The Death of the Grown-Up, I took a question from a man who wondered, in a rather agitated way, if I were actually saying that multiculturalism is juvenile. I hadn’t phrased things that way, but, on quick reflection, I told him that, yes, that was indeed what I was saying. The fact is, buying into multiculturalism — the outlook that sees all cultures as being of equal value (except the West, which is essentially vile) — requires us to repress our faculties of logic, and this in itself is an infantilizing act. I mean, it’s patently illogical to accept and teach our children the notion that a culture that has brought liberty and penicillin to the masses is of no greater value than others that haven’t. In accepting the multicultural worldview, we deceive ourselves into inhabiting a world of pretend where certain truths are out of bounds and remain unspoken — even verboten.

I remember looking at logos of institutions who stressed diversity either in their title, or in their mission statements, and found this very same infantilizing going on at the design level.

Since there are no standards, that everyone and everything is equal, logo designs stress the equality of all these elements to the detriment of their design.

I've already talked about the COSTI Immigrant Services logo, which went from a lovely clear red line, as though traveling into to the horizon, to me signifying the release of the new immigrant into the bigger and greater society, into a disheveled, hardly stable umbrella which is trying hard to shade all those diverse elements under its inadequate roof. By forfeiting their strong message of "you can make it," they turned it into a half-hearted, insincere, "we'll protect you."

The same with the Ontario logo design which had a solid, identifiable trillium and withstood all the elements for several decades, until diversity entered the vocabulary. The logo devolved into three stick-figure like objects, hardly resembling the strong structure of the original.

Stick figures abound in diversity logos, as well as bright crayola colors. How childish can they be?

So, yes, as Diana West says, multiculturalism does infantalize. And a logo doesn't lie.

I wonder how long before either we change these logos (I hope COSTI comes to its senses), or we abolish these institutions altogether.

Here are a selection of logos I found just by googling: Canada diversity.

Left: COSTI's newest logo
Right: Canada's Best Diversity Employers

Left: Diversity in the workplace
Right: Harmony Movement

Left: Diversity Canada Foundation
Right: Ontario's new logo resembling stick figures

Left: Unity in Diversity
Right: Hamilton's Centre for Civic Inclusion

Even those that seem to show some form of artistic design - for example, some idea of composition etc. - actually show their weaknesses through obvious signs of childishness.

These two from Culturescope.ca look interesting (although there is actually nothing to see, hence another indication of a lack of good design) but also have scribbles of lines going through them.

Culturescope.ca

And there are many more.

Addendum: Culturescope.ca no longer exists. As this website indicates:

As a result of a Strategic Review of Government of Canada, Culturescope.ca has been discontinued since April 1st, 2008 as the original program objectives have been fulfilled. The digital space has evolved tremendously since the Canadian Cultural Observatory was created in 2003 and the website still contains rich resources and documents on diverse thematic areas.

The evolution of culturescope.ca fulfilled these objectives:

The Canadian Cultural Observatory (Observatory) and Culturescope.ca: The Department of Canadian Heritage launched the Observatory in November 2003 to provide statistics and information on cultural and heritage policies, programmes, legislation and regulations. Its objectives are to advance cultural development in Canada by fostering responsive research, encouraging informed decision-making in policy and planning, and stimulating community debate and improved knowledge exchange. Culturescope.ca is the Observatory's collaborative, interactive website developed in partnership with the not-for-profit, private and public sectors...[Source]

But we still keep coming back to those multi-culti stick designs.

Victoria Day

What does Victoria Day mean anymore in Canada?

The Government of Canada website explains thus:

Sovereign's birthday

The Sovereign's birthday has been celebrated in Canada since the reign of Queen Victoria (1837-1901).

May 24, Queen Victoria's birthday, was declared a holiday by the Legislature of the Province of Canada in 1845.

After Confederation, the Queen's birthday was celebrated every year on May 24 unless that date was a Sunday, in which case a proclamation was issued providing for the celebration on May 25.

After the death of Queen Victoria in 1901, an Act was passed by the Parliament of Canada establishing a legal holiday on May 24 in each year (or May 25 if May 24 fell on a Sunday) under the name Victoria Day.

The birthday of King Edward VII, who was born on November 9, was by yearly proclamation during his reign (1901-1910) celebrated on Victoria Day.

It was not an innovation to celebrate the birthday of the reigning sovereign on the anniversary of the birth of a predecessor. In Great Britain, the birthdays of George IV (1820-1830) and William IV (1830-1837) were celebrated on June 4, birthday of George III (1760-1820).

The birthday of King George V, who reigned from 1910 to 1935, was celebrated on the actual date, June 3 or, when that was a Sunday, by proclamation on June 4.

The one birthday of King Edward VIII, who reigned in 1936, was also celebrated on the actual date, June 23.

King George VI's birthday, which fell on December 14, was officially celebrated in the United Kingdom on a Thursday early in June. Up to 1947 Canada proclaimed the same day but in 1948 and further years settled on the Monday of the week in which the United Kingdom celebration took place. George VI reigned from 1936 to 1952.

The first birthday of Queen Elizabeth II, in 1952, was also celebrated in June.

Meanwhile, Canada continued to observe Victoria Day. An amendment to the Statutes of Canada in 1952 established the celebration of Victoria Day on the Monday preceding May 25.

From 1953 to 1956, the Queen's birthday was celebrated in Canada on Victoria Day, by proclamation of the Governor General, with Her Majesty's approval. In 1957, Victoria Day was permanently appointed as the Queen's birthday in Canada. In the United Kingdom, the Queen's birthday is celebrated in June.

The Royal Union Flag, commonly known as the "Union Jack" where physical arrangements allow, is flown along with the National Flag at federal buildings, airports, military bases and other federal buildings and establishments within Canada, from sunrise to sunset, to mark this day.

Physical arrangements means the existence of at least two flag poles; the Canadian flag always takes precedence and is never replaced by the Union Jack. Where only one pole exists, no special steps should be taken to erect an additional pole to fly the Union Jack for this special day.

Attached is a list giving the dates of the observance in Canada of the Sovereign's birthday since Queen Victoria.

Almost all other official websites (commercial or governmental) tell us what shops are closed or open, and some inform us of fireworks locations.

This formidable queen is fighting for her memory in absentia. But it is a battle she will not win. Soon, there will no longer be a Victoria Day, being deemed "too British" for this multicultural land.