Saturday 15 August 2009

Freedom come / Freedom go

In Gang-Raping Liberian Arraigned in Arizona Courtroom, Brenda Walker questions the compatibility of Liberians with America:

In addition, the refugees’ home cultures may be incompatible with our values; for example, Liberia made rape illegal only three years ago and the crime is still endemic there. Of all the people we could invite into the national community, surely Liberians would fall at the bottom of the list of desirables.

True enough, but I would also have thought that life in America is incompatible with fundamental Liberian values, isn’t that why Liberia exists?.

The same thoughts occurred when I saw Rastafarian Benjamin Zephaniah interrogating the BNP’s Rev. Robert West and Andrew Brons on ‘The Big Questions’ a couple of months ago - what is this guy even doing in Britain? Quite apart from the general problem I have with people like him living in my country, how does a Rastafarian square his religion with his presence here? My Hutchinson Encyclopaedia defines Rastafarianism as being

based on the ideas of Marcus Garvey who preached that the only way for black people to escape their poverty and oppression was to return to Africa. (my emphasis)


It seems odd that no matter how racist, exploitative, and oppressive we are these people just won’t leave.

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