India’s Supreme Court awards disputed religious site to Hindus in landmark ruling

2019/11/11 Leave a comment

Will be seen as another manifestation of Modi’s Hindu bias:

India’s Supreme Court on Saturday awarded a bitterly disputed religious site to Hindus, dealing a defeat to Muslims who also claim the land that has sparked some of the bloodiest riots in the history of independent India.

The ruling in the dispute between Hindu and Muslim groups paves the way for the construction of a Hindu temple on the site in the northern town of Ayodhya, a proposal long supported by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling Hindu-nationalist party.

Representatives of the Muslim group involved in the case criticized the judgment as unfair and said it was likely to seek a review of the verdict.

In 1992 a Hindu mob destroyed the 16th-century Babri Mosque on the site, triggering riots in which about 2,000 people, most of them Muslims, were killed across the country.Court battles over the ownership of the site followed.

Jubilant Hindus, who have long campaigned for a temple to be built on the ruins of the mosque, set off fire crackers in celebration in Ayodhya after the court decision was announced.

Thousands of paramilitary force members and police were deployed in Ayodhya and other sensitive areas across India. There were no immediate reports of unrest.

“This verdict shouldn’t be seen as a win or loss for anybody,” Modi said on Twitter.

“May peace and harmony prevail!”

Still, the verdict is likely to be viewed as win for Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its backers.It comes months after Modi’s government stripped the Muslim-majority Jammu and Kashmir region of its special status as a state, delivering on yet another election promise to its largely Hindu support base.

Neelanjan Sircar, an assistant professor at Ashoka University near New Delhi, said the court ruling would benefit the BJP, which won re-election in May, but a slowing economy would ultimately take centre stage for voters.

“In the short term, there will be a boost for the BJP,” said Sircar. “These things don’t work forever … Ram Temple isn’t going to put food on the table.”

Hindus believe the site is the birthplace of Lord Ram, a physical incarnation of the Hindu god Vishnu, and say the site was holy for Hindus long before the Muslim Mughals, India’s most prominent Islamic rulers, built the Babri mosque there in 1528.

‘Milestone’

The five-judge bench, headed by the Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, reached a unanimous judgment to hand over the plot of just 2.77 acres, or about the size of a soccer field, to the Hindu group.

The court also directed that another plot of 5 acres in Ayodhya be provided to the Muslim group that contested the case but that was not enough to mollify some.

“The country is now moving towards becoming a Hindu nation,” Asaduddin Owaisi, an influential Muslim opposition politician, told reporters.

Modi’s party hailed the ruling as a “milestone.”

“I welcome the court decision and appeal to all religious groups to accept the decision,” Home Minister Amit Shah, who is also president of the BJP, said on Twitter.

Appeals for calm

The Sunni Muslim group involved in the case said it would likely file a review petition, which could trigger another protracted legal battle.

“This is not a justice,” said the group’s lawyer, Zafaryab Jilani.

Muslim organizations appealed for calm.

The Hindu group Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh – the parent organization of Modi’s party – had already decided against any celebrations to avoid provoking sectarian violence between India’s majority Hindus and Muslims, who constitute 14 per cent of its 1.3 billion people.

Restrictions were placed on gatherings in some places and internet services were suspended. Elsewhere, police monitored social media to curb rumors.

Streets in Ayodhya were largely deserted and security personnel patrolled the main road to Lucknow, the capital of the northern state of Uttar Pradesh.

Ayodhya residents were glued to their televisions and mobile phones for news of the ruling, which delighted Hindus when it came.

“Everyone should come together to ensure that the construction work begins at the site without any delay,” roadside vendor Jitan Singh said over the chants of “Jai Shri Ram” (hail Lord Ram) from fellow shop-keepers.

Source: India’s Supreme Court awards disputed religious site to Hindus in landmark ruling

Filed under Multiculturalism, Religion Tagged with , , ,

Response to our petition to reconsider location of the 2020 International Metropolis migration conference in Beijing

2019/11/09 Leave a comment

Further to our petition on change.org, the co-chairs of the Conference, Jan Rath of the University of Amsterdam and Paul Spoonley, Massey University New Zealand, provided the following response:

The International Metropolis Project has been made aware of a petition urging that Metropolis change the location of our 2020 annual conference which is  planned for Beijing in June. The argument that the petition expresses concerns about  the position and actions taken by the Government of China with respect to some of the country’s ethnic minorities and with respect to freedom of expression. Let it be said that Metropolis understands these concerns, which have long been voiced, and takes them seriously. But let it also be said that Metropolis has always been – and remains – an apolitical network that believes in the value of international exchange among a whole range of migration players and stakeholders, to enhance mutual understanding. It also believes in engagement and dialogue over isolation. We, therefore, stand by the decision to accept the offer of the Beijing-based think tank, the Centre for China and Globalization, to host the Metropolis Conference in 2020.

China has emerged not only as a major economic power in the world, but also as a country with a significant role in migration, whether in Asia or globally. For us to understand regional and global migration means understanding China’s role in migration, both as a country of origin and, more recently, a country of destination. To ignore China in the field of migration today is to have but a partial understanding of global migration phenomena. An International Metropolis Conference there offers a direct opportunity for members of the Metropolis network to meet and engage with their counterparts in that country and in the region, and vice-versa. We trust that this will foster an enhanced mutual understanding of migration developments.

The petition that asks Metropolis to re-locate the 2020 conference originates in Canada, which is now engaged in a sensitive and difficult diplomatic matter with China. This is no matter for Metropolis to get involved with. Furthermore, that Metropolis should choose to hold its conferences in any particular country is not to be taken as support for the policies of our host country, regardless of which country it is. No country is without blemishes in its policies and actions, not even those with enviable reputations regarding migration. That is why, engaging in international exchanges of the kind that Metropolis conferences facilitate is important to keep the dialogue going and to map out issues of interest  and concern in an informed manner. The 2020 Metropolis Conference in Beijing is being organized jointly by the Metropolis International Steering Committee and the Centre for China and Globalization. The Government of China is not involved in setting the agenda or the terms of the debate. As always, the program is set by the International Steering Committee, specifically its Chairs in consultation with the local host in Beijing, China. This will therefore be a regular International Metropolis Conference located in a country that, owing to its current migration dynamics, offers a range of pertinent insights for those who take part.

As we said, although we understand the concerns expressed in the petition and we take them seriously, we regard the petition as mistaken in its position that it is better to isolate than to engage.

We will, in due course, post a formal response but suffice to say, to make the assertion that:

“The Government of China is not involved in setting the agenda or the terms of the debate. As always, the program is set by the International Steering Committee, specifically its Chairs in consultation with the local host in Beijing, China.”

The Chinese host is, of course, the Center for China and Globalization (CCG), part of the United Front Work Department, a branch of the Chinese Communist Party, that aims to project Chinese government influence.

Once again, grateful that you consider signing the petition (change.org) and spreading the word as the more signatures we get, and the broader the geographic coverage, the better (as of November 8, we have about 140 signatories, about three quarters from Canada with the vast majority of the rest being from the US.

 

Filed under Immigration, Multiculturalism Tagged with , , ,

P&G eyes billion-dollar multicultural opportunity | WARC

2019/11/09 Leave a comment

Meanwhile, market realities and opportunies:

Procter & Gamble, the fast-moving consumer goods manufacturer, believes that multicultural audiences represent a billion-dollar opportunity for its brands.

Marc Pritchard, P&G’s chief brand officer, discussed this subject at the Association of National Advertisers’ (ANA) 2019 Multicultural Marketing & Diversity Conference in San Diego, California.

The company, he reported, has long “known it was important to respect and serve” all consumers, both from a societal perspective and an economic one.

“But we haven’t always appreciated the relative opportunities across multicultural consumer groups,” he said. (For more, read WARC’s in-depth report: Procter & Gamble’s four steps for enhanced multicultural marketing.)

In quantifying the scale of the opportunity, he asserted, “we had to disaggregate the data to get a clear view of the situation.”

And in measuring the performance of its brands among Black, Latino and Asian consumers in the US compared with the average across the general population, it made some profound discoveries.

“We established a system to measure market share, the market share ‘gap’ versus the national average, user growth, and sales growth among multicultural consumers,” said Pritchard.

And P&G, in fact, recorded a strong performance among these demographics – with 17 of its top 20 brands ranking first or second, and positive results also taking shape at the granular level with distinct cohorts.

“That’s encouraging, but we still have substantial gaps to close and opportunities to realise – especially when you consider the demographic and spending power growth projections of multicultural consumers,” Pritchard said.

Elaborating on this theme, he explained that if P&G’s brands matched their general-market performance with multicultural audiences, the financial impact would be considerable.

“The size of the prize is big – up to $1 billion in extra sales just by achieving market shares equal to the national average on all of our brands.

“That could represent up to three extra points of sales growth on our North American business and would significantly contribute to more market growth.”

Source: P&G eyes billion-dollar multicultural opportunity | WARC

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A memo for Canada: back off of Quebec’s Bill 21

2019/11/09 Leave a comment

Struck a nerve.

But seriously, it is one thing to argue that comments from English Canada may not be helpful to some of the internal debates within Quebec, another to argue that English Canadians have no right to comment on discriminatory laws whether in Quebec or elsewhere.

But Ontario MPPs take a shot at Quebec with unanimous vote supporting religious freedom may be an example where this may not be helpful.

Not to mention, that there are international human rights conventions and practices that presumably Quebec adheres to:

Let me say to all the bien pensants in the “Rest of Canada” who make up the growing chorus of critics of Quebec’s Bill 21 provisions on the wearing of religious symbols by certain public servants: Have a care. You are playing with fire, and your knee-jerk reaction to legislation supported by a vast majority of Quebeckers risks starting a major conflagration that might consume our country.

First, you should actually read the bill. You should note its very narrow application, only to certain officials who must interact with the public, only while in the exercise of their official duties, and only to people newly hired in these positions.

Second, you should remember that most of Quebec’s French schools, colleges and universities were largely operated by Roman Catholic teachers and administrators, all of whom wore religious garb, until the 1960s. When I attended law school at Laval University from 1960-63, the rector was future cardinal Louis-Albert Vachon, who was named to the Order of Canada and the National Order of Quebec. He is the last of an unbroken line of distinguished clerics to hold this position. Quebec’s famous and progressive Quiet Revolution was largely about escaping the influence of the Catholic Church in this and many other areas.

Third, you should pay attention to the increasing expressions of incredulity, anger and outrage in Quebec’s French-language media over your virtue signalling and self-righteous condemnations of a legitimate act of Quebec’s National Assembly, which is legislating well within its constitutional authority.

And fourth, you should consider that on Oct. 21, 33 per cent of Quebeckers (555,000 more than in 2015) voted for the Bloc Québécois, which had almost disappeared until resistance in the Rest of Canada to Bill 21 reignited the long-dormant but always smouldering view among many Quebeckers that they can never be fully understood and accepted in this country. From there, it is but a step, if Quebec Premier François Legault should ever conclude that public opinion demanded it, to a third referendum on Quebec independence.

It is argued that those likely to be most affected by Bill 21 are some Muslim women living in Quebec who may be forced to choose between a possible future career in Quebec’s public service and their desire to wear religious garb at all times, and that the bill is therefore racist and specifically directed against devout Muslims.

One might ask whether such women would agree to have their own children taught by nuns or priests or monks wearing Roman Catholic religious symbols? Or whether such devout Muslim women might not agree, as did many devout Roman Catholic teachers in Quebec after the secularization of Quebec’s education system during the Quiet Revolution, to forgo wearing religious garb or symbols during working hours in order to be hired in future for certain public-service jobs?

I was raised and educated largely in Quebec. I lived for 20 years in London, Ont., and 10 years in Banff, Alta. I still have family in both places, as well as in Nova Scotia and British Columbia. I have worked in the Premier’s office in Quebec City, the Prime Minister’s office in Ottawa and for a large media corporation in Toronto. For the past 15 years, I have lived in Quebec’s Eastern Townships. It cannot be said that I am ignorant of my country.

I warn the Rest of Canada, in the words of columnist Richard Martineau writing on Saturday in Le Journal de Montréal, Quebec’s most widely read daily, that we are now suddenly on track towards a head-on collision. Mr. Martineau quotes the famous words of Quebec’s Liberal premier Robert Bourassa after the defeat of the Meech Lake accord: “Whatever we say and whatever one may do, Quebec is, today and for always, a distinct society, free and able of assuming its destiny and its development.” We are once again shouting past one another in a dialogue of the deaf. Will Canada accept Quebec as it is, or persist in interfering in Quebec’s internal affairs of which it is largely ignorant? Or will Quebeckers conclude, once and for all, that they are not welcome in this country and must reluctantly leave it?

Source: A memo for Canada: back off of Quebec’s Bill 21: Peter White

Filed under Interculturalisme, Multiculturalism Tagged with , ,

25% of citizenship applicants under Sephardic law of return are not Jewish

2019/11/08 Leave a comment

Pretty high number:

At least a quarter of those who have applied for Spanish nationality under the country’s law of return for descendants of Sephardic Jews are not Jewish, according to the local media.

Of the 153,767 applicants, 52,823 are from four Latin American countries — Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Venezuela and Ecuador — the La Razon newspaper reported Sunday. Their combined Jewish population is smaller than 10,000, according to the World Jewish Congress.

That means that nearly 43,000 applicants, or 27 percent of the total who applied before the closing of the deadline for applications in October, are not Jewish based on the relatively liberal definition of who is a Jew applied by the World Jewish Congress.

Only 4,313 applicants, or 2.8 percent, are Israelis and more than one-fifth, or 33,653, come from Mexico, which has the highest number of applicants. Colombia was next at 28,314. The United States had 5,461 applicants and Turkey had 1,994.

Only 31,222 applications had been approved by Oct. 1 and the rest are still pending. September had the most applicants, no fewer than 71,789, since the opening of the window in January 2018.
Spain passed its law of return for descendants of Sephardic Jews in 2015 shortly after Portugal.

Thousands of applicants have asked to be naturalized in Portugal, where the law is open ended.

In both countries, the government described the law as an act of atonement for the persecution and mass expulsion of Jews during the Inquisition that began in the 15th century. Many Jews were forcibly converted to Christianity.

Source: 25% of citizenship applicants under Sephardic law of return are not Jewish

Filed under Antisemitism, Citizenship, Immigration Tagged with , ,

New Zealand’s migrant boom is good news for Māori. It empowers us

2019/11/07 Leave a comment

In many ways, the Maori have played a similar role to French Canada forcing recognition that there is not one monolithic identity and the need for compromise, however imperfect, between different groups.

While in general there does not appear to be much tension in Canada between Indigenous peoples and newcomers, there is a need for greater understanding among newcomers (and indeed among all Canadians) regarding Indigenous peoples and the issues.

I would expect, should the newly re-elected Liberal government get around to it, the replacement to the citizenship guide, Discover Canada, will be far richer in its account of Indigenous peoples:

In April 2003, the year New Zealand’s population hit 4 million, statisticians were predicting the country would hit at 4.8 million people in 2046. As in Europe and North America the country’s birth rate was falling, and no one quite knew whether mass immigration would – or even could – continue at pace. Instead, the pressing concern at the time was how to reverse the brain drain.

In the mid-2000s almost 40,000 New Zealanders were upping sticks each year. Miners and truck drivers were packing their bags for Queensland’s mining boom. Bankers and lawyers were taking up plum jobs in London. Teachers, nurses, and other public servants were comparing what they made in Wellington with what they might make in Washington or Ottawa.

And in that very brief moment it felt as if New Zealandwas topping out. In 2008, the aspiring prime minister John Key took a camera crew to the capital city’s 35,000-seat stadium to illustrate just how big mass emigration was. The implication? We were, to repurpose a dangerous phrase, sending our best – to the US and beyond.

But the consensus among the commentariat was that Key’s stadium stunt was just that – a stunt – and even if he and his party came to power there was precious little they could do to reverse what was the natural order of things: a stronger Australian economy, its gravitational pull drawing in more and more New Zealanders.

Of course the commentators were right. The Australian economy remains stronger on most measures, and mass emigration was still a problem in the Key government’s early years. But one thing no one was anticipating was just how quickly the government would compensate for the brain drain with mass immigration.

In 2017, the Key government’s final year in power, net migration (the difference between those coming in or immigrating, including returning New Zealanders, and those going out or emigrating) was at a record 72,300. In 2015, net migration was at 58,000 and in 2013 it was a little shy of 50,000.

These are small numbers for countries such as Australia or the UK, sure, but for this country it was momentous. In the 20 years to 2014, average net migration to New Zealand was only 13,300.

And this year the country will reach another population landmark: 5 million people. It took more than 20 years to grow from 2 million to 3 million. It took 30 years for it to grow from 3 to 4 million. It took only 16 years to reach 5 million. And we are, because of that growth, a country transformed.

Population growth and the capital that comes with it aretransforming the Auckland skyline. Tradespeople from Asia, the Philippines especially, are in good part responsible for rebuilding Christchurch after the devastating earthquake in 2011. Tourism and dairy, New Zealand’s leading export industries, are thriving off the back of migrant labour.

You can spot the transformation in schools, workplaces and universities, and the streets as well. Māori make up 16.5% of the population, up from 15% in 2013. We’re present in every part of the country’s private and public life, and in a way that was unthinkable half a century ago.

Māori make up 23% of MPs – a disproportionate share – and Māori lead or co-lead every sitting parliamentary party, bar Jacinda Ardern’s Labour. It’s fashionable to imagine New Zealand as a 1950s Britain – the temperate climate, a buttoned-down national character, and the things that were best about Britain like a cradle-to-grave welfare system – but in reality this is a Māori country.

For a very brief moment in the 80s that fact was at the heart of New Zealand’s constitution. The government understood the country as “bicultural”. Two peoples were in partnership, Māori and the European settlers who came after, and we’d run the show as equals. Sure, there was a gap – sometimes even a chasm – between promise and practice, but the aspiration was there.

The problem, though, is mass immigration from the 90s onwards quickly made biculturalism unworkable. In 2019, Asian peoples make up 15% of the population and Pacific peoples another 8%. In this new country only one kind of culturalism works: multi.

For people who oppose Māori reasserting their claim on political powerthis is great news. Māori are just one minority among many, the opponents insist, claiming they’re not even indigenous. But for the small number of Māori who tie their political claims to their demographic power it’s quite terrible. On current trends Asian peoples will overtake Māori as the second-largest ethnic group in New Zealand. This is an “ethnic-cultural tension point”, as the country’s leading demographer put it, confirming that in every settler colony, population politics is toxic.

Except when it isn’t. The truth is immigration isn’t diminishing Māori claims on political power. It’s strengthening those claims, pushing each one forward. At Ihumātaohundreds of land protectors are occupying the historic site and reclaiming it for the local tribes. Among the occupiers are groups such as “Asians for Tino Rangatiratanga” meaning Asians for Māori political power. Visitors to the land and supporters of the occupation include west African Islamic scholars, Cook Islands royalty, and indigenous Taiwanese people.

This is what sets New Zealand apart – and maybe above – other countries in the Anglosphere. Māori rights aren’t contingent on their status as a (growing) minority. Population power doesn’t secure our rights. The Treaty of Waitangi does. The country’s founding document reaffirms Māori political power (in the treaty’s own words it reaffirms our “tino rangatiratanga”). And equally so the treaty protects migrants, guaranteeing that New Zealand is their place to stand as well. The only thing the treaty expects of them is to recognise and respect Māori political power. The bargain is that simple and, if Ihumātao is any guide, it’s one that migrants are more than willing to make. This is the reason I’m so happy about New Zealand at 5 million.

Source: New Zealand’s migrant boom is good news for Māori. It empowers us

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House of Commons becoming more reflective of diverse population

2019/11/07 Leave a comment

My latest in Policy Options:

How well does Canada integrate immigrants and visible minorities into political life? While the barriers to entering political life are significant, as the Samara Centre for Democracy study on nomination processes has shown, the recent election is cause for hope.

This article is based on an analysis of the 2019 election I undertook, using a dataset developed together with the Hill Times, Samara, and McGill University political scientist Jerome Black. We drew on a mix of official party biographies, media articles, social media, and name and photo analysis (we did not include Indigenous candidates and MPs). We also compared the 2019 results with those for the 2015 election and with visible minority representation in other countries’ legislatures. Our results show that in 2019 in Canada the visible minority composition of MPs elected is reasonably representative of the immigrant and visible minority populations in the country as a whole.

….

Source: House of Commons becoming more reflective of diverse population

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Hospital patients in Canada lacking English need access to interpreters, study says

2019/11/06 Leave a comment

An inevitable consequence of living in a diverse society where a percentage will not be fluent enough to understand the language used by doctors. Good study documenting the issue and sorting out where the needs may be greatest:

Waking up with worsening pain had Surjit Garcha worried, but the red blisters on her stomach were so alarming that she went to her neighbour’s home to try to explain, in her limited English, that she needed help.

Garcha, who lives alone, doesn’t have the English skills to call her doctor’s office and felt more comfortable going to someone she trusts.

Her neighbour took her to the emergency department in Delta, B.C., where Garcha learned she had shingles, a viral infection that can include complications such as scarring and vision and hearing loss in older adults.

Garcha, now 82, said the intense pain was bad enough, but not being able to understand what was wrong with her made her feel even more vulnerable.”The employees who bring food to patients would leave it outside the door, because they could catch what I had and no visitors could come in my room,” she said in Punjabi about her experience three years ago.

Garcha’s only solace was that a nurse spoke Punjabi, but it wasn’t until her daughter arrived from Seattle the next day that she had any contact with a family member.

Interpreters trained in medical terminology are more often provided for patients in Canada’s larger centres, but a researcher from the University of Toronto said lack of access to interpretation could potentially result in unsafe health care through missed diagnoses and medical errors, suggesting language services should be a priority.

Dr. Shail Rawal, lead author of a study that includes data from Toronto General and Toronto Western hospitals, said patients with a chronic disease and limited English are more likely to return to the emergency room or be readmitted to hospital because of poorer understanding of discharge instructions and not taking medication as required, compared with those who are proficient in the language and were discharged with similar health concerns.

The study was published recently in the Journal of the American Medical Association and includes data for all patients discharged from the two hospitals with acute conditions, pneumonia and hip fracture, and chronic conditions heart failure and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, between January 2008 and March 2016, amounting to 9,881 patients.

“We saw that if you had heart failure and limited English proficiency you were more likely to come back to the emergency room to be reassessed in 30 days after you were discharged,” said Rawal, an assistant professor in the University of Toronto’s department of medicine and a staff physician at the University Health Network, which includes the two hospitals.”Patients who had limited English proficiency and heart failure or chronic obstructive lung disease were more likely to be readmitted to hospital in the 30 or 90 days after discharge,” she said.

For those with pneumonia or hip fracture, the data showed no difference in return to hospital regardless of patients’ ability to speak English, Rawal said.

“Our thinking is that those are acute conditions that have a pretty standard treatment, whether it be surgery and then rehabilitation or a course of antibiotics, whereas the two chronic conditions require a lot of patient-centred counselling and patient management plans.”

Of the 9,881 patients:

  • 2,336 had limited proficiency in English.
  • Nearly 36 per cent spoke Portuguese.
  • Just over 23 per cent spoke Italian.
  • Cantonese, Mandarin and Chinese were the primary languages for about 14 per cent of patients.
  • Greek and Spanish were the least spoken languages.
  • 18.5 per cent of the study subjects’ languages were listed as “other.”

Rawal said patients at the two hospitals have around-the-clock access to interpretation in various languages by phone and in-person interpretation is also available but must be pre-booked and is typically offered during business hours.

“The quality of care or the level of access to interpretation, in my view, should not vary based on which hospital you happen to present at with your illness,” she said.

“Currently, that is the case, that depending on what hospital you go to in our city, in our province or across the country, you will have varying levels of access to professional interpretation services and I think that in a linguistically diverse country the language needs of patients and families should be met by institutions.”

Family members often step in to interpret and alleviate a patient’s anxiety but may end up having to rearrange their schedules while waiting for nurses, doctors or specialists to show up at the bedside, Rawal said.

However, she said previous research studies have shown that families are less accurate in their interpretation than professionals and sometimes may not wish to translate what a clinician is saying, perhaps to lessen the impact if the prognosis would be too upsetting.

Kiran Malli, director of provincial language services for the Provincial Health Services Authority in British Columbia, said patients in Vancouver and the surrounding area have access to 180 languages through interpreters who work at hospitals and publicly funded long-term care homes.

The top three languages are Cantonese, Mandarin and Punjabi, Malli said.

In-person and phone interpretation is provided without a pre-booked appointment. The health authority started a pilot project last year to provide services by phone to family doctors’ offices, she said.

Another pilot on video-remote interpreting at hospitals, which Malli said would greatly benefit patients needing sign language — which is already being provided — will also start soon and benefit those living in isolated parts of the province.

A few scattered grassroots programs were available in B.C. in the 1990s but the current standardized one didn’t start until 2003, she said.

“It was getting pretty evident that we needed to do something a little more than just pulling up any bilingual person or calling on the overhead paging [system] to say ‘If anybody speaks Cantonese could you please come to emergency,”’ Malli said of the current program’s genesis.

“Research shows us that as people get older, even if you know English when you’re younger, you tend to revert back to your mother tongue as you age,” she said, adding elderly people in medical distress tend to forget the English skills they have.

“I do think we are seeing more elderly patients for that reason,” she said.

It’s unfair for health-care staff to expect family members to act as interpreters because, just like English-speaking patients’ relatives, their role should be to support their loved ones and not to be burdened further, Malli said.

“If we are looking at equity, as family I should just be there to support my family member through whatever it might be rather than act as their language conduit,” she said.

Source: Hospital patients in Canada lacking English need access to interpreters, study says

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Ethiopia: Nderitu – Ethiopia’s Chicken and Egg: Ethnicity or Citizenship? – AllAfrica

2019/11/06 Leave a comment

Interesting take from an Ethiopian perspective:

Does the 1995 ethnic federal constitution hinder Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed by entrenching ethnicity as an identity right from the preamble and demarcating states on ethnicity rather than geography? Last week, I argued it was partly responsible for the mushrooming of ethnic-based political parties, militias and even banks.

Liban Guyo engaged me in a lively discussion stating that the Ethiopian Constitution was crafted to accommodate demands for regional autonomy while managing inter-ethnic tensions.

Guyo said ethnic federalism, with security as the responsibility of central government, is embraced by groups such as the Oromo who suffered either real or imagined domination by the Amhara ethnic groups.

It was intended as a solution for social consequences of growing inequality and political powerlessness. With this in mind, Guyo said, Abiy is best placed to work towards a unitary system of government.

Throughout history, racial, ethnic and other groups such as women have organised to demand recognition on the basis of difference.

However, ethnic political mobilisation often informed by a shared history, language and sometimes religion raises different challenges for national citizenship.

Is the case of ethnic belonging and national citizenship that of the chicken and egg story? Which comes first and which is a subset of the other? Is it a threat to the citizenship and the nation when groups push for political recognition on the basis of ethnicity? In itself, ethnic-based social identity is not a problem.

However, it becomes a political problem because it identifies who we are but in the same breath, who we are not. It therefore makes it easy to be Oromo, if you are not Amhara, Hutu if you are not Tutsi, Kikuyu if you are not Luo and Dinka if you are not Nuer.

It becomes categorisation when ethnic identity marks boundaries between those in “our group” and those in “other.” This is dangerous for national citizenship and I will tell you why.

In circumstances where clear political divisions between ethnic groups exist, we perceive those in our group as similar in thought and behaviour. We also assume the “other” group thinks alike and what we know about one, applies to all of them.

For many people the immediate family and ethnic group, and not information from other sources, becomes the key shaper of opinions. We then pay more attention to differences, rather than commonalities. We translate this into actual discrimination against those who do not “belong” to our group.

This has important consequences on ethnic political identity as a source of violence. Identity- based conflicts such as witnessed in Northern Ireland and Myanmar, are very difficult to solve.

Leaders are often challenged to hold together a multi-ethnic society under a national identity. Citizenship in itself is an indicator of national cohesion when linked to efficient and non-discriminatory government services and policy practice in fields such as voting, stable economy, rule of law, and promoting equality of opportunity for diverse populations, in for instance, education and health.

It is the work of governments to budget for these services and grow economies. Contention usually begins when groups feel excluded from services as citizens especially when ethnic leaders appropriate state resources.

Ethnic federalism comes with challenges such as homogenizing and therefore weakening of national political parties and disaggregation of unions. This weakens citizenship.

Without a shared interconnected history, citizens see themselves as disconnected from the whole. The challenge for leaders is to lead citizens towards a common civic culture without devaluing ethnic identity or citizenship.

Resolving violent conflict, ethnic or otherwise, consumes immense resources that would otherwise be allocated to services such as education.

Ethiopia’s ethnic federal constitution lays a foundation for framing citizenship at the local level. Future governments may not escape from this variable in formulating national public policy and political programs.

What is guaranteed is that ethnic insecurity will require a political response that links the local to the national.

Source: Ethiopia: Nderitu – Ethiopia’s Chicken and Egg: Ethnicity or Citizenship? – AllAfrica

Filed under Multiculturalism Tagged with ,

House-hunting as an Asian immigrant in Vancouver means navigating racism

2019/11/05 Leave a comment

Account how some of the general narratives about Chinese and Chinese Canadians play out at the individual level. Although stating that her car is a Porsche (no shame, she works hard, and a good reporter) perhaps a detail that reduces empathy:

When my mother graduated from high school in Hong Kong in the 1970s, she and her friends did not have the luxury of going straight to college or spending a “gap year” travelling the world.

At age 18, she worked as a secretary all day and attended class in the evenings to earn a degree in business administration, while also studying English and shorthand.

She made 500 HKD a month, which was roughly equivalent to $80 Canadian at the time. Adjusted for inflation, that would still be less than $500 Canadian a month. My dad was working long hours, meanwhile, as a salesman for commission.

In my parents’ first home as a married couple, they lived in a flimsy shack on the rooftop of a high-rise building, which they jokingly referred to as their penthouse. It was better than when they bunked with their parents and siblings, with both families stuffed into 200-square-feet studios.

They saved fastidiously. My mom socked away half her salary each month and invested the money. Since she was constantly upgrading her skills at night, she also jumped jobs to double and triple her salary. By the time I was born, she had a fairly comfortable government job and my dad had moved up the ranks to general sales manager.

Yet they gave it all up to start over again in their early 30s. After selling their apartment, my parents moved to Canada, in hopes of giving their children a more secure future in a democratic country.

I’m now the same age they were when they settled in Vancouver. Even though I haven’t been quite as disciplined, because I followed their example of jumping jobs and working multiple gigs at once, I’ve saved enough and I’m looking for a home of my own.

Favourable rent comes at a steep price when it’s time to move

Searching for a condo in Vancouver as an Asian immigrant is a fraught and emotional experience. Why? Because there is a class struggle centred around housing affordability happening in the Lower Mainland — and it’s led to outright racism, ageism, classism and xenophobia.

If you chat with any Asian person in Vancouver, they’re likely to say they’ve noticed an uptick in racism, of people who voice their assumptions that they are recent migrants with bucketloads of cash and are driving up the real estate prices for “locals” and “real Canadians.”

Earlier this year, a stranger confronted and raged at me that my Porsche had almost struck her. I was dumbfounded. I commute an hour to work on public transit every day. Other times, people have simply shouted: “Chink!” at me, as I walked down the street.

At an apartment pre-sale event in Burnaby, I saw a one-bedroom that cost less than $450,000, and I couldn’t help blurting out, “Wow, that’s pretty cheap!”

It was a very crowded exhibition hall and immediately, everyone around shot dagger eyes at me and one white lady made a furious sound that sounded like “Eeuarrrckk!” then hissed under her breath, “Go back to China, bitch.”

And that’s just what I get as a young person. My parents are both boomers and immigrants, and even though they are so law-abiding they wouldn’t jaywalk, let alone engage in seedy real-estate fraud, they represent the most popular scapegoats for soaring real-estate prices in this city.

At best, it’s an unhealthy “us” versus “them” dynamic — at worst, it’s bigotry.

“I would never sell to a ‘housewife’ from China,” someone wrote to me in response to my first house-hunting story. The insinuation was that these people are undeserving of homes in Vancouver.

It makes me sad to see valid frustration about rising unaffordability lead to ugly attitudes toward people who are eager to become Canadians. My first job as a teenager was working as an English tutor, where I was mostly employed by “astronaut families.” Usually, it is the father who stays and works in the home country, planning to make money and join his family later, while his wife and children move abroad. The astronaut mothers that I knew were devoted to their kids’ educations, hiring multiple tutors and music teachers in ardent hope of helping them build bright futures in a new land.

Source: House-hunting as an Asian immigrant in Vancouver means navigating racism

Filed under Multiculturalism, Racism Tagged with , , ,

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