Saturday, August 24, 2013

Our omphaloskepsis over onyxis


An ingrowing nail is painful but can be ignored for a bit; however it will become agonising and possible create an open festering wound...I missed posting this yesterday; I always like to remember 23rd August (anniversary of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact between the Communist Soviet Union and Nazi Germany) as it is International Black Ribbon Day (European Day of Remembrance for Victims of Stalinism and Nazism); and - at the risk of sounding bitter and twisted - I also think it is odd obscurantism, "Those who neglect their past have no future". It never ceases to amaze me how Nazism, Hitler, Nazi Germany etc are rightfully vilified yet the Soviet Communist regime is barely mentioned, a willful forgetfulness; they even call it Stalinism presumably to not taint 'Communism': I guess with so many left wing MPs and MEPs with their past in the Communist parties they feel another name is needed.
"Europe will not be united unless it is able to reunite its history, recognize Communism and Nazism as a common legacy and bring about an honest and thorough debate on all the totalitarian crimes of the past century" (Prague Declaration).
More 'forgetful' celebrations on the International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition (also on August 23rd) yet this day is to memorialize the transatlantic slave trade. Hold it right there! Slavery is everywhere and probably has been since man walked this earth. "The bigger problem with celebrating the 'abolition' of the slave trade is that it has not been abolished. It’s happening here, now, in Britain. It’s going under the euphemism 'human trafficking'". Good article and comments in The Spectator today (now yesterday!) about modern slavery.
"The brutal fact about slavery is that it was not just something that white imperialists did to Africans. People of every creed and colour were slaves, and were enslaved. When we commemorate slavery by focusing on its colonial aspect, we lose sight of a far wider historic evil. And its capacity to renew."
Nelson Fraser's article also appeared in the DT as 'William Wilberforce’s heirs are ready to tackle the great evil of the age'. He also mentions the Times report (££) on nail salons, innocuously sounding but behind the cosmetic front many of them are modern dens of manicured misery with thousands of immigrants (mainly Vietnamese in this instance apparently) are being forced to work 'as slaves'. The Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) is calling for a Modern Slavery Act: their report "It Happens Here: Equipping the United Kingdom to fight modern slavery" [pdf link]

More willful blindness is those that fail to see the key role of uncontrolled immigration in all of this.

Omphaloskepsis n. - contemplation of the navel
Onyxis n. - ingrowing nail.

2 comments:

Paul said...

I still have my t-shirt! Think the reason why Stalin etc are not vilified is because their recovery on the Eastern front helped our side win the second world war.

Good article in the Spectator, I think the reason why slavery like immigration doesn't get too much attention is because it is so obviously supported by the middle classes in the U.K. Who else needs cheap labour in such quantities?

Interesting that down this way more and more premises are being raided by immigration officers and illegals being removed.

Span Ows said...

Yes indeed re Stalin but I think it goes deeper than that.

Also yes indeed re Middle Class, a couple of the comments (in the Times) hit on this especially because a few said blah blah blah getting my nails done, odd atmosphere, odd man collecting money seemed in control, girls under stress etc...but did they even think too much about it or do anything? Of course not.