Patriotism Vs Racism

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Patriotism Vs Racism

Postby delby » Wed Mar 21, 2007 11:28 am

to start this off my definitions are


Patriotism = Pride in being a citizen of your country.


Racism=any form of discrimination according to colour ,religion ,country of origin or accent . also derogatory names phrases or just plain Ignorance.


O.K. I wanted to start this thread because of a news item in my area
You may or may not have read about it but recently in a town called bishop auckland in county durham there is a taxi war between a company which employs several polish and lithuanianmen and one which does not and the self employed men. they are telling the general public not to use the foreign Taxi drivers because they charge more and dont know the town , some guys have gotten together and made window stickers which say proud to be a british taxi driver.

my partner and I were discussing this and he thinks it is ok because it displays patriotism. I on the other hand completely disagree I think it is an act of blatant racism thinly veiled by patriotism and I cannot countenance such an act. The fact that these men are willing to work long unsociable hours and probably send money home should be commended in a country with so many unemployed. and I think these so called patriots should be heavily fined .

Racism of any form should not be tolerated in so called modern society and these small minded bigots really P*ss me off let me know your thoughts Is there any room for Patriotism in todays multi cultural england or is it just a way to have a dig at immigrants who are just trying to make a better life for themselves.
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Postby Monsoon » Wed Mar 21, 2007 1:16 pm

You may or may not have read about it but recently in a town called bishop auckland in county durham there is a taxi war between a company which employs several polish and lithuanianmen and one which does not and the self employed men. they are telling the general public not to use the foreign Taxi drivers because they charge more and dont know the town , some guys have gotten together and made window stickers which say proud to be a british taxi driver.


I know this is not quite the answer you are looking for as regards a debate Delby, but the above paragraph which is the mainstay of the story quite simply strikes me as good 'business'. Every business should advertise itself as being better than its rivals. The stickers are all too similar to the saying 'Buy British' or a well known lager advertised as 'Brewed by Danes, for Danes'. If they are cheaper and can offer a better sevice than their rivals then they should be letting people know this. If i wanted a taxi i would choose the one that is cheapest with a driver who knows the area best, whichever town or country i was in.
Perhaps there is more to this story than you have outlined but the bottom line here is that the self employed guys have to make a living to!
While a tiger eyed its prey and an eagle raged in a thunderous sky a river of darkness fell upon a burning sun and the wolf cried tis a time to die, thus did the angels weep as power and triumph in those golden eyes did creep.


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Postby delby » Wed Mar 21, 2007 5:04 pm

Exellent points of course monsoon


Sorry I forgot to mention that these guys do not in fact charge more than anyone else also they r not saying dont use that company but dont use the foreign drivers.
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Postby John R » Wed Mar 21, 2007 5:52 pm

i normally stay out of these type of discussions (like ones such as the dixie thread) mainly because i don''t know enough about the subject matter to give a proper opinion.

With this one, i can relate a bit more to it as my town recently has had a massive influx of Polish people. Apparently every 1 in 8 people in my town is now Polish, and this i find quite shocking. Anyway, as where this topic is concerned, i can see and understand BOTH points of view.

Everyone has a right to fight for their living, these foreigners are coming over for a better way of life, which they have a right to, but our own people are also trying for a better way of life. Everyone wants that.

You say these foreigners are not charging more but the british taxi drivers are saying they are. This is obviously not fair. But i can understand how difficult it must be for the locals, to see all these people coming over and effecting their income, their lives, their children.

If it was the other way around, and the british were going over to eastern Europe to find jobs, you would surely find the same thing happening.

Possible controversial point but... Its like the people from India, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia etc who now live here and want all sorts of things changed for them, but at the end of the day it's our country so they should adapt to it, we shouldn't have to change for them. If we started going over to Saudi for example and asked for special english schools or catholic churches etc, you've have no chance at all.
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Postby Nefer » Wed Mar 21, 2007 6:15 pm

Well like John said, I was going to stay out of this as I have no info on the topic.

However... :lol:

As for the 'immigrants' thing - the world is getting smaller, and it is easier for everyone to migrate to different countries. If you look back far enough, everyone has the immigrant stamped into their heritage.

Cultures have always been exchanging with each other - what is happening is that now you have influxes of actual people. Sure that generates some friction; instead of asking immigrants to change their way of life completely it helps to accommodate some requests.

The more diversity of culture in a community makes for a better learning (and dining :mrgreen:) experience, and forces everyone to re-think their ideas and conceptions of the world.

We often learn best when we are confronted with ideas that greatly challenge us and make us uncomfortable - the lessons learned are all the better :)
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Postby delby » Thu Mar 22, 2007 9:24 am

The more diversity of culture in a community makes for a better learning (and dining :mrgreen:) experience, and forces everyone to re-think their ideas and conceptions of the world.



That is an excellent point especially the bit about the food :lol: I myself work with twelve thai girls two polish girls seven polish men one lithuanian girl one czech girl an african man ten enlish girls seventeen englishmen and a scotsman( sorry john no welshmen :lol: ) and there is hardly ever any antagonism because its not tolerated mostly by the so called minorities but by our boss who rates people only by their work potential not by colour nationality or even age (as our handyman is seventy three ).

I am so averse to racism because I was brought up by an overtly Racist and Religiously bigoted man who was openly abusive and even at an early age it disgusted me . I just see people as people and I just cant understand those who do not .
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Postby John R » Thu Mar 22, 2007 12:24 pm

No welshmen working there! Thats clear racism in my book! :eek: :wink:
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