No doubt you will have heard that an English teacher in Khartoum has been jailed for naming a teddy bear 'Mohammed'. She didn't name the bear, the children did. She intended no offence, but was jailed anyway and is to be deported. Crowds are now calling for her death.
If I was in that country I know what I'd be doing. Packing.
The anti-Muslim sentiment in this country is at boiling point over this. There are cries of 'Barbarian' and 'It would never happen here'.
Wouldn't it? Is our government more sensible? Really?
Then why has a man just been charged with racial abuse because, in an argument, he called a Welsh woman English? He's been sentenced to 10 weeks imprisonment, suspended, even though the woman he argued with was the same race as him.
They are both caucasian. He's from Northern Ireland, she's from Wales. He called her a name - 'English' - and was arrested, charged, convicted and sentenced to a longer spell in jail than the woman in Sudan. For essentially the same offence - misusing a name and causing someone to get a bit miffed.
Both cases are extremely silly. The woman has been branded as an 'Islam-insulter', the man as 'Racist'. For what, really? For a single word, in each case. For nothing that should have been regarded as insulting, in each case. The man's case just goes to show that idiocy is not restricted to other parts of the world. Our own legal system can make itself look just as stupid as any other.
This sort of ruling just panders to the lunatic fringe. It's like rewarding toddlers for tantrums.
Isn't it time we all just grew up?
4 comments:
Good lord. Remind me not to visit Great Britain. I would never be able to tell the difference between its inhabitants if I were judging by their speech. I would say "accent," the one we Americans think is so sexy, except we're the ones with the accents, right? I used to think it was an "English" accent, then moved over to "British." For all I know, it could be Welsh. I can usually distinguish the Irish and the Scottish, but if I made a mistake, I certainly wouldn't want to be locked in one of their towers for it.
If you're English in Scotland, you're going to get called names. It's always been that way. If you're Scottish/Welsh/English/Irish in Ireland/Scotland/Wales/England, you're going to get called names. It's our favourite national pastime.
Sometimes the Huffy People take offence, but they're the sort of people who spend their lives looking for things to be offended about. The rest of us just call names back.
It's just now reached the ultimate stupidity when the law gets involved in that.
He called her an 'English bitch' and was in trouble for using the word 'English'.
If he called her a 'stupid, pustulent, vile extrusion from a syphilitic bitch's arse', hey, no problem in law. As long as he doesn't mistake her nationality for the one next door. The one with the same genetic composition, whose only difference is an accent.
Someone, somewhere, is in need of a slap. I feel it in me bones...
I believe you've rendered me speechless.
A woman? Speechless? Now if that isn't proof of a paranormal phenomenon, I don't know what is.
I swear to use my powers only for good ;)
Most of the time.
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