vdare--2020-04-04--Flight from White, Part MLXXVII: Egyptian-American Hates Being Called "White"

From The New Yorker : Wait , I thought .
What part of our father—who was born , in 1932 , in Cairo , Egypt—was white ?
His skin , for most of his adult life , was a dusty brown .
“ White , ” one of my sisters said .
She said it quickly , as if it were a formality , a diversion from our steady progress toward Question 12 : Was the decedent ever in the U.S. armed forces ?
We filled out our father ’ s name , his age , his county of death @ @ @ @ @ @ @ then we reached Question 11 : decedent ’ s race .
It was December , 2017 .
Our father ’ s body lay just a few rooms away , down the carpeted stairs of the funeral home , beyond a sequence of quiet hallways and a series of unlocked doors .
We ’ d gathered , his five children and his wife of forty-nine years , at Harvey Funeral Home , in Seattle , to complete official paperwork : the State of Washington ’ s death worksheet .
It seemed like a simple @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the basement , replacing our father ’ s blood with formaldehyde and methanol and water , we had twenty-three boxes to mark on a form .
Even in death , I was unable to forgive my father for the way he ’ d turned against his heritage , fallen under the thrall of right-wing demagogues on radio and television .
Our Father ’ s Body An Egyptian refugee , the construction of whiteness , and what the U.S. census leaves out .
Perhaps , perhaps not .
Here ’ s his father @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I said it , I knew I was lying .
Although Egypt had declared its independence from the United Kingdom ten years before my father was born , the vestiges of British and French colonial life had marked his adolescence .
In Cairo , he ’ d attended Le Collège de la Sainte Famille , a French-language school run by Jesuits , and this had given him a sense of apartness from the society in which he lived .
He was from a branch of the family that had converted to Catholicism in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ up within a narrative of cultural difference .
I found it difficult to look at my mom .
“ Maybe he would have wanted to be listed as Arab-American , ” I said .
We looked at the form again .
My mother pointed to its text .
“ Check one or more boxes to indicate what the decedent considered himself to be , ” she said .
She smoothed the fabric of her jeans .
The gold tassels of her rings struck each other as she worked her hands back and forth @ @ @ @ @ @ @ thought he was , ” she said .
“ Isn ’ t it ?
” When he spoke English , his Egyptian accent , with its rounded vowels and guttural rhotics , classified him as foreign-born .
Every night of my childhood , he sang me lullabies in Arabic ( Mama zamanha gaya ) and French ( Malbrough s ’ en va-t-en guerre ) , lullabies that he remembered from his own childhood , in North Africa .
His paternal grandfather was a Melkite Catholic born in Aleppo , Syria , who moved @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fell apart in 1918 .
He was exceptional in Egyptian society , the priests of Sainte Famille told him .
Specially chosen .
Dad ’ s experience was not unusual .
When Jean-Paul Sartre said that colonialism “ selected adolescents , branded the principles of Western culture on their foreheads with a red-hot iron , and gagged their mouths with sounds , pompous and awkward , ” he was largely pointing to the upper-middle class of North Africa .
“ Every effort is made to bring the colonized person to admit the inferiority @ @ @ @ @ @ @ warned , at the Congress of Black African Writers , in 1959 .
He might as well have been talking about my family .
In other words , his father ’ s background was similar to Edward Said ’ s , but unlike Said , his father appreciated the country that gave him refuge .
The truth was this : I was angry at my father .
I was unable to forgive him , even in death , for the way he ’ d turned against his heritage , fallen under the thrall @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
I couldn ’ t forgive the horrible things he ’ d taken to saying about the Middle East , the hatred he ’ d directed at Muslims , in particular—posting on his anonymous Twitter account , tweeting and retweeting the sentiments of xenophobes and bigots .
Sitting in the funeral home , we turned the question over and over .
Everyone was sad , and everyone was grieving in complex ways .
But I held my ground .
And so , eventually , we checked the box marked “ other.
” And @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” Tom Harvey , the funeral director , wrote a single , hyphenated word : “ Arab-American.
” My eyes filled with tears , which I held back .
That wasn ’ t really who my dad had been .
I was the one who ’ d taken Arabic classes as an adult .
I was the one who ’ d pushed Dad to travel with me and my sister to Egypt , so that he could show us the place he ’ d come from , the place where he ’ d @ @ @ @ @ @ @ life .
I was the one who ’ d discovered an unexpected allegiance to Arabic culture during a year living in Morocco .
I was the one who ’ d recited the shehadah before an adul , and formally converted to Islam .
Ashhadu alla ilaha illa Allah , I ’ d repeated three times , wa ashhadu anna Muhammad rasul Allah .
My family tree was full of Muslim names ; during the Franco-Ottoman alliance , which lasted centuries , the family had been both Christian and Muslim .
As I spoke @ @ @ @ @ @ @ up inside of me—a feeling of return .
It was not a feeling , I knew , that my father would have accepted , or understood .
Just weeks before my father died , I ’ d had a nasty argument with him , on the phone , about racial categories in America .
I had called him when I ’ d heard that the 2020 census would likely include a Middle Eastern/North African designation .
It was something that Arab-American activists had been advocating for more than two decades .
I don @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , calling Dad to tell him this .
It was an obvious mistake , something I sensed as soon as I broached the subject .
“ You know what this is , ” he told me .
“ It ’ s the beginning of Sharia law .
It ’ s so they can take over this country .
It ’ s the first step.
” I was driving and talking on a headset .
I could imagine where he was—the only place he went these days—sitting in one corner of his reclining leather @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his swollen feet , watching Fox News .
Diagnosed with congestive heart failure earlier that year , he was struggling even to stand up and walk to the kitchen .
As he talked , I could hear the mossy purr of his oxygen machine .
“ You want them to track you , I guess , ” he said .
“ Maybe that ’ s O.K .
for you , then .
You and your friends in the Democrat Party .
But I don ’ t want to be tracked.
” We continued @ @ @ @ @ @ @ signature legislative achievements of the nineteen-sixties—the Civil Rights Act , the Voting Rights Act , the Fair Housing Act—were enforced using numbers from the census .
The Equal Credit Opportunity Act , the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act , hundreds of millions of dollars of Community Development Block Grants—they all depended on these numbers .
Didn ’ t he want to be counted ?
Sharia law , he said again .
“ Just you wait and see.
” I could hear how hoarse his voice was ; he couldn ’ t seem to clear @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on the phone for a few more minutes .
I arrived at work .
“ I ’ ve got to go , ” I said .
“ O.K.
, ” he said .
“ Love you , darling.
” And then he hung up .
It was the last conversation we ever had .
… My family came to America two years after that ruling—eight out of a hundred lucky Syrians granted admission as Quota Visa recipients in 1946 .
Legally speaking , my father was white ; his presence in the country @ @ @ @ @ @ @ deemed “ stateless , ” though he wasn ’ t , and he was marked down as speaking English , though he didn ’ t .
… It ’ s not surprising , then , that he loved to tell the story of his transformation into an American , of his eventual oath of citizenship , which , according to a well-worn family story , he took from Marilyn Monroe , of all people , at the Hollywood Bowl , in 1949 .
… Perhaps it ’ s also not surprising that my @ @ @ @ @ @ @ : his first wife , an Irish-American , and then my mom , a Latvian refugee .
In his children , he created what he yearned to be .
Thrown into a crowd of white Americans , each of us could pass for Sons and Daughters of the American Revolution .
Perhaps the single most powerful categorization tool at work in the United States is the Office of Management and Budget ’ s Directive No .
15 .
It determines the work of every federal program that is engaged with statistical activities .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ like me , forty-three years old , having been created by the Ad Hoc Committee on Racial and Ethnic Definitions , in the late seventies .
It divides the nation into five basic racial groups : black , white , American Indian/Alaskan native , Asian , and native Hawaiian/other Pacific islander .
That ’ s it .
Hispanic is rejected as its own distinct racial category , and is treated instead as an ethnicity , a subdivision within the other races .
The directive was revised , slightly , in 1997 ; a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and ethnicity may be thought of in terms of social and cultural characteristics as well as ancestry.
” But the categories remained monolithic .
Why do we still use such antiquated racial categories ?
… But , since my father died , I have found myself wondering about the rage I saw in him as he grew older , and whether it might have reflected the refusal of his adopted and beloved country to see him .

From The New Yorker:
Wait, I thought. What part of our father—who was born, in 1932, in Cairo, Egypt—was white? His skin, for most of his adult life, was a dusty brown.
“White,” one of my sisters said. She said it quickly, as if it were a formality, a diversion from our steady progress toward Question 12: Was the decedent ever in the U.S. armed forces?
We filled out our father’s name, his age, his county of death, his Social Security number. And then we reached Question 11: decedent’s race.
It was December, 2017. Our father’s body lay just a few rooms away, down the carpeted stairs of the funeral home, beyond a sequence of quiet hallways and a series of unlocked doors. We’d gathered, his five children and his wife of forty-nine years, at Harvey Funeral Home, in Seattle, to complete official paperwork: the State of Washington’s death worksheet. It seemed like a simple thing. While the embalming technicians labored in the basement, replacing our father’s blood with formaldehyde and methanol and water, we had twenty-three boxes to mark on a form.
Even in death, I was unable to forgive my father for the way he’d turned against his heritage, fallen under the thrall of right-wing demagogues on radio and television.
Our Father’s Body An Egyptian refugee, the construction of whiteness, and what the U.S. census leaves out.
Perhaps, perhaps not. Here’s his father’s obituary photograph.
Even as I said it, I knew I was lying. Although Egypt had declared its independence from the United Kingdom ten years before my father was born, the vestiges of British and French colonial life had marked his adolescence. In Cairo, he’d attended Le Collège de la Sainte Famille, a French-language school run by Jesuits, and this had given him a sense of apartness from the society in which he lived. He was from a branch of the family that had converted to Catholicism in the nineteenth century, and he grew up within a narrative of cultural difference.
I found it difficult to look at my mom. “Maybe he would have wanted to be listed as Arab-American,” I said.
We looked at the form again. My mother pointed to its text. “Check one or more boxes to indicate what the decedent considered himself to be,” she said. She smoothed the fabric of her jeans. The gold tassels of her rings struck each other as she worked her hands back and forth. “It’s what he thought he was,” she said. “Isn’t it?”
When he spoke English, his Egyptian accent, with its rounded vowels and guttural rhotics, classified him as foreign-born. Every night of my childhood, he sang me lullabies in Arabic (Mama zamanha gaya) and French (Malbrough s’en va-t-en guerre), lullabies that he remembered from his own childhood, in North Africa.
His paternal grandfather was a Melkite Catholic born in Aleppo, Syria, who moved to British-ruled Cairo when the Ottoman Empire fell apart in 1918.
He was exceptional in Egyptian society, the priests of Sainte Famille told him. Specially chosen. Dad’s experience was not unusual. When Jean-Paul Sartre said that colonialism “selected adolescents, branded the principles of Western culture on their foreheads with a red-hot iron, and gagged their mouths with sounds, pompous and awkward,” he was largely pointing to the upper-middle class of North Africa. “Every effort is made to bring the colonized person to admit the inferiority of his culture,” Frantz Fanon warned, at the Congress of Black African Writers, in 1959. He might as well have been talking about my family.
In other words, his father’s background was similar to Edward Said’s, but unlike Said, his father appreciated the country that gave him refuge.
The truth was this: I was angry at my father. I was unable to forgive him, even in death, for the way he’d turned against his heritage, fallen under the thrall of right-wing demagogues on radio and television. I couldn’t forgive the horrible things he’d taken to saying about the Middle East, the hatred he’d directed at Muslims, in particular—posting on his anonymous Twitter account, tweeting and retweeting the sentiments of xenophobes and bigots.
Sitting in the funeral home, we turned the question over and over. Everyone was sad, and everyone was grieving in complex ways. But I held my ground. And so, eventually, we checked the box marked “other.” And on the line beside “other,” Tom Harvey, the funeral director, wrote a single, hyphenated word: “Arab-American.”
My eyes filled with tears, which I held back. That wasn’t really who my dad had been. I was the one who’d taken Arabic classes as an adult. I was the one who’d pushed Dad to travel with me and my sister to Egypt, so that he could show us the place he’d come from, the place where he’d spent the first fourteen years of his life. I was the one who’d discovered an unexpected allegiance to Arabic culture during a year living in Morocco. I was the one who’d recited the shehadah before an adul, and formally converted to Islam. Ashhadu alla ilaha illa Allah, I’d repeated three times, wa ashhadu anna Muhammad rasul Allah. My family tree was full of Muslim names; during the Franco-Ottoman alliance, which lasted centuries, the family had been both Christian and Muslim. As I spoke the shehadah, a distinct feeling opened up inside of me—a feeling of return. It was not a feeling, I knew, that my father would have accepted, or understood.
Just weeks before my father died, I’d had a nasty argument with him, on the phone, about racial categories in America. I had called him when I’d heard that the 2020 census would likely include a Middle Eastern/North African designation. It was something that Arab-American activists had been advocating for more than two decades. I don’t know what I was thinking, calling Dad to tell him this. It was an obvious mistake, something I sensed as soon as I broached the subject.
“You know what this is,” he told me. “It’s the beginning of Sharia law. It’s so they can take over this country. It’s the first step.”
I was driving and talking on a headset. I could imagine where he was—the only place he went these days—sitting in one corner of his reclining leather couch, wearing an ice pack on his swollen feet, watching Fox News. Diagnosed with congestive heart failure earlier that year, he was struggling even to stand up and walk to the kitchen. As he talked, I could hear the mossy purr of his oxygen machine.
“Never mind,” I said. “I shouldn’t have called.”
“You want them to track you, I guess,” he said. “Maybe that’s O.K. for you, then. You and your friends in the Democrat Party. But I don’t want to be tracked.”
We continued arguing. I said that all the signature legislative achievements of the nineteen-sixties—the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act, the Fair Housing Act—were enforced using numbers from the census. The Equal Credit Opportunity Act, the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act, hundreds of millions of dollars of Community Development Block Grants—they all depended on these numbers. Didn’t he want to be counted?
Sharia law, he said again. “Just you wait and see.”
I could hear how hoarse his voice was; he couldn’t seem to clear his airway to breathe. We were on the phone for a few more minutes. I arrived at work.
“I’ve got to go,” I said.
“O.K.,” he said. “Love you, darling.” And then he hung up.
It was the last conversation we ever had. …
My family came to America two years after that ruling—eight out of a hundred lucky Syrians granted admission as Quota Visa recipients in 1946. Legally speaking, my father was white; his presence in the country depended on it. He also was deemed “stateless,” though he wasn’t, and he was marked down as speaking English, though he didn’t. … It’s not surprising, then, that he loved to tell the story of his transformation into an American, of his eventual oath of citizenship, which, according to a well-worn family story, he took from Marilyn Monroe, of all people, at the Hollywood Bowl, in 1949. …
Perhaps it’s also not surprising that my father married two women of European descent: his first wife, an Irish-American, and then my mom, a Latvian refugee. In his children, he created what he yearned to be. Thrown into a crowd of white Americans, each of us could pass for Sons and Daughters of the American Revolution.
Perhaps the single most powerful categorization tool at work in the United States is the Office of Management and Budget’s Directive No. 15. It determines the work of every federal program that is engaged with statistical activities. In May, it will be, like me, forty-three years old, having been created by the Ad Hoc Committee on Racial and Ethnic Definitions, in the late seventies. It divides the nation into five basic racial groups: black, white, American Indian/Alaskan native, Asian, and native Hawaiian/other Pacific islander. That’s it. Hispanic is rejected as its own distinct racial category, and is treated instead as an ethnicity, a subdivision within the other races. The directive was revised, slightly, in 1997; a note was added stating that “race and ethnicity may be thought of in terms of social and cultural characteristics as well as ancestry.” But the categories remained monolithic. Why do we still use such antiquated racial categories?
… But, since my father died, I have found myself wondering about the rage I saw in him as he grew older, and whether it might have reflected the refusal of his adopted and beloved country to see him.


vdare--2020-04-03--Her Name Is Emily Jones: White Seven-Year-Old Brutally Stabbed to Death by Somalian Immigrant in Bri

Her Name Is Emily Jones: White Seven-Year-Old Brutally Stabbed to Death by Somalian Immigrant in British Park

Previously by Paul Kersey : Her Name Is Ebba Åkerlund : 11-Year-Old Swedish Girl Victim of Islamic Terrorism in Stockholm I found myself mulling over a discussion in our class in History and Moral Philosophy .
Mr. Dubois was talking about the disorders that preceded the breakup of the North American republic , back in the 20th century .
According to him , there was a time just before they went down the drain when such crimes as murder were as common as dogfights .
The Terror had not been just in North America — Russia and the British Isles @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as other places .
But it reached its peak in North America shortly before things went to pieces .
“ Law-abiding people , ” Dubois had told us , “ hardly dared go into a public park at night .
To do so was to risk attack by wolf packs of children , armed with chains , knives , home-made guns , bludgeons … to be hurt at least , robbed most certainly , injured for life probably — or even killed .
This went on for years , right up to the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Chinese Hegemony .
Murder , drug addiction , larceny , assault , and vandalism were commonplace .
Nor were parks the only places — these things happened also on the streets in daylight , on school grounds , even inside school buildings .
But parks were so notoriously unsafe that honest people stayed clear of them after dark.
” I had tried to imagine such things happening in our schools , I simply couldn ’ t .
Nor in our parks .
A park was a place for fun , not for getting @ @ @ @ @ @ @ one — Outside of a few websites , the story of seven-year-old Emily Jones is barely being told .
And there ’ s a reason for it .
She was British , a young white little girl playing in a park with her family in the middle of the day .
Though news is still breaking about what happened , we do know three things : • She was brutally stabbed to death in front of her parents • The corporate media in the United Kingdom is conspicuously absent from covering this story @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Powell ’ s “ Rivers of Blood ” prophecy Elected officials have just one job as public servants : Guard against preventable evils .
That ’ s statesmanship , and even at the local level it matters .
But even if you have great leadership at the local , if those elected to national office fail , it trickles down everywhere .
Emily Jones Bolton stabbing inquest : 7 year old girl killed by random woman while riding her scooter at Queen ’ s Park in Heaton .
Court opens case into girl @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was stabbed to death by a stranger woman in front of her father as she rode her scooter past a park bench on Mother ’ s Day , an inquest heard earlier this week in the UK .
Emily Jones was out ‘ enjoying the spring sun ’ with her family at Queen ’ s Park in Heaton , Bolton on March 22 when the 30-year-old unidentified woman , who was sitting on a wooden bench , stabbed the girl in the neck .
Emergency services were called to the park at around @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to nearby Salford Royal Hospital , only for Emily to tragically die a short time later despite ‘ best efforts ’ of doctors , the UK ’ s Bolton News reported .
Acting Senior Coroner Alan Walsh , described Emily ’ s death as ‘ one of the most tragic ’ , instances he ’ d presided over at the start of the inquest into the child ’ s death at Bolton Coroner ’ s Court .
‘ I have been truly touched by the photographs of Emily that have been sent to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to Emily ’ s family and friends , but particularly to her parents , who were present in the park and her father , who was nearby , ’ the coroner said .
‘ In my 20 years as a coroner this is one of the most tragic deaths that I have dealt with and the loss of a beautiful , innocent , lively , intelligent and lovely seven-year-old in these circumstances is an unimaginable tragedy .
I appreciate that Emily ’ s parents are beyond devastated and my sincere thoughts are with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ Walsh reiterated .
The 7 year old girl ’ s body has since been released for burial .
During the judicial inquiry , police coroner ’ s officer Rebecca Gardner told the court , ‘ Emily was on her scooter playing .
As she rode past a wooden bench , a female sat on the bench suddenly attacked Emily , stabbing her in the neck , causing catastrophic injury.
’ ‘ Emily was taken to Salford Royal Hospital , but despite best efforts to save Emily her death was diagnosed at 15.56 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ heard that Emily ’ s autopsy found that she died as a result of an incised wound of the neck .
The accused woman was arrested at the park and has been detained under the Mental Health Act .
She remains in a high-security facility .
Social media identified the perpetrator as a Somalian immigrant .
Authorities have yet to confirm the woman ’ s identity .
Continued Walsh : ‘ I am enormously sad at her death and it is important that her parents know that all our wishes are with them @ @ @ @ @ @ @ this enormously sad time.
’ Meanwhile , the child ’ s family paid tribute to their daughter as they called her ‘ the light of our lives ’ .
Told her parents who were not present in the court during the inquest , ‘ She was always full of joy , love , and laughter .
Emily had such a cheeky smile and was beautiful inside and out .
She had a heart as big as her smile.
’ Adding , ‘ Emily was never happier than when she was spending time with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ our own little social butterfly .
Emily had a passion for the outdoors and loved to play any sport , even when she was wearing her pink sparkly dresses.
’ ‘ We are beyond devastated that this random act of violence means that we will never get to see our beautiful little girl grow up into the wonderful young lady she was showing such promise of becoming .
It is truly heartbreaking to wake up to a world without Emily in it and we can not comprehend why this has happened , ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ … we can not comprehend why this has happened.
” Emily Jones , a seven-year-old white girl , couldn ’ t even ride her scooter at 2:30 p.m. in a British park… but we can help her parents understand why this absolutely devastating tragedy happened .
But were you to show a picture of this seven-year-old white girl to her great-grandfather who was at the heroic evacuation of Dunkirk , hoping for salvation and trip back to England , and you were to tell him of her fate at the hand of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ scooter in broad daylight , do you think he ’ d return to fight for King and Country ?
The horror of what happened to you rests not just in the hands of the Somalian immigrant who murdered you , but almost solely on the shoulders of those who decided mass immigration to the United Kingdom ( and Sweden , Germany , France , the United States , Canada , Australia… ) was an idea worth pursuing .
Enoch Powell warned the British people what was coming ; Robert Heinlein seemed to understand @ @ @ @ @ @ @ democracy .

Previously by Paul Kersey: Her Name Is Ebba Åkerlund: 11-Year-Old Swedish Girl Victim of Islamic Terrorism in Stockholm
I found myself mulling over a discussion in our class in History and Moral Philosophy. Mr. Dubois was talking about the disorders that preceded the breakup of the North American republic, back in the 20th century. According to him, there was a time just before they went down the drain when such crimes as murder were as common as dogfights. The Terror had not been just in North America — Russia and the British Isles had it, too, as well as other places. But it reached its peak in North America shortly before things went to pieces. “Law-abiding people,” Dubois had told us, “hardly dared go into a public park at night. To do so was to risk attack by wolf packs of children, armed with chains, knives, home-made guns, bludgeons … to be hurt at least, robbed most certainly, injured for life probably — or even killed. This went on for years, right up to the war between the Russo-Anglo-American Alliance and the Chinese Hegemony. Murder, drug addiction, larceny, assault, and vandalism were commonplace. Nor were parks the only places — these things happened also on the streets in daylight, on school grounds, even inside school buildings. But parks were so notoriously unsafe that honest people stayed clear of them after dark.” I had tried to imagine such things happening in our schools, I simply couldn’t. Nor in our parks. A park was a place for fun, not for getting hurt. As for getting killed in one — Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein
Outside of a few websites, the story of seven-year-old Emily Jones is barely being told. And there’s a reason for it.
She was British, a young white little girl playing in a park with her family in the middle of the day.
Though news is still breaking about what happened, we do know three things:
She was brutally stabbed to death in front of her parents Her murder was a female Somalian immigrant The corporate media in the United Kingdom is conspicuously absent from covering this story and the obvious racial angle confirming Enoch Powell’s “Rivers of Blood” prophecy
Elected officials have just one job as public servants: Guard against preventable evils. That’s statesmanship, and even at the local level it matters. But even if you have great leadership at the local, if those elected to national office fail, it trickles down everywhere.
Bolton stabbing inquest: Somalian immigrant kills 7 year old girl riding scooter in park,Scallywagandvagabond.com, April 2, 2020 Emily Jones Bolton stabbing inquest: 7 year old girl killed by random woman while riding her scooter at Queen’s Park in Heaton. Court opens case into girl’s death. A seven-year-old girl was stabbed to death by a stranger woman in front of her father as she rode her scooter past a park bench on Mother’s Day, an inquest heard earlier this week in the UK. Emily Jones was out ‘enjoying the spring sun’ with her family at Queen’s Park in Heaton, Bolton on March 22 when the 30-year-old unidentified woman, who was sitting on a wooden bench, stabbed the girl in the neck. Emergency services were called to the park at around 2.30 pm – with the child rushed to nearby Salford Royal Hospital, only for Emily to tragically die a short time later despite ‘best efforts’ of doctors, the UK’s Bolton News reported.
Acting Senior Coroner Alan Walsh, described Emily’s death as ‘one of the most tragic’, instances he’d presided over at the start of the inquest into the child’s death at Bolton Coroner’s Court. ‘I have been truly touched by the photographs of Emily that have been sent to me. I send my heartfelt condolences to Emily’s family and friends, but particularly to her parents, who were present in the park and her father, who was nearby,’ the coroner said. ‘In my 20 years as a coroner this is one of the most tragic deaths that I have dealt with and the loss of a beautiful, innocent, lively, intelligent and lovely seven-year-old in these circumstances is an unimaginable tragedy. I appreciate that Emily’s parents are beyond devastated and my sincere thoughts are with them at this enormously sad time,’ Walsh reiterated. The 7 year old girl’s body has since been released for burial. During the judicial inquiry, police coroner’s officer Rebecca Gardner told the court, ‘Emily was on her scooter playing. As she rode past a wooden bench, a female sat on the bench suddenly attacked Emily, stabbing her in the neck, causing catastrophic injury.’ ‘Emily was taken to Salford Royal Hospital, but despite best efforts to save Emily her death was diagnosed at 15.56 hours that day.’ The court also heard that Emily’s autopsy found that she died as a result of an incised wound of the neck. What motivated stabbing? The accused woman was arrested at the park and has been detained under the Mental Health Act. She remains in a high-security facility. Social media identified the perpetrator as a Somalian immigrant. Authorities have yet to confirm the woman’s identity. Continued Walsh: ‘I am enormously sad at her death and it is important that her parents know that all our wishes are with them and our thoughts are with them at this enormously sad time.’ Meanwhile, the child’s family paid tribute to their daughter as they called her ‘the light of our lives’. Told her parents who were not present in the court during the inquest, ‘She was always full of joy, love, and laughter. Emily had such a cheeky smile and was beautiful inside and out. She had a heart as big as her smile.’ Adding, ‘Emily was never happier than when she was spending time with her family and friends, she was our own little social butterfly. Emily had a passion for the outdoors and loved to play any sport, even when she was wearing her pink sparkly dresses.’ ‘We are beyond devastated that this random act of violence means that we will never get to see our beautiful little girl grow up into the wonderful young lady she was showing such promise of becoming. It is truly heartbreaking to wake up to a world without Emily in it and we cannot comprehend why this has happened,’ the girl’s parents added.
“… we cannot comprehend why this has happened.”
Emily Jones, a seven-year-old white girl, couldn’t even ride her scooter at 2:30 p.m. in a British park… but we can help her parents understand why this absolutely devastating tragedy happened.
Open borders.
Egalitarianism.
Multiculturalism.
Diversity.
Inclusion.
Equity.
Tolerance.
Pick your poison.
But were you to show a picture of this seven-year-old white girl to her great-grandfather who was at the heroic evacuation of Dunkirk, hoping for salvation and trip back to England, and you were to tell him of her fate at the hand of a Somalian immigrant as she rode her scooter in broad daylight, do you think he’d return to fight for King and Country?
Rest in peace, Emily.
The horror of what happened to you rests not just in the hands of the Somalian immigrant who murdered you, but almost solely on the shoulders of those who decided mass immigration to the United Kingdom (and Sweden, Germany, France, the United States, Canada, Australia…) was an idea worth pursuing.
Enoch Powell warned the British people what was coming; Robert Heinlein seemed to understand one possible solution to the madness of democracy.
[Comment at Unz.com]


vdare--2020-04-03--Virus Agnosticism, Jobpocalypse, Cont. Despotism's Advantage, And China's Immigration Policy

00m52s Virus agnosticism .
( But politicians have to do something . )
05m48s The Jobpocalypse , cont .
( Into the unknown . )
18m40s Despotism 's advantage .
( China in the age of Big Data . )
29m20s One for the contrarians .
( Smoking may be good for you . )
01 — Intro .
And Radio Derb is on the air , this third week of the coronavirus panic .
Greetings , listeners , from your placidly genial host John Derbyshire , with VDARE.com 's weekly update of events .
Before I proceed with commentary @ @ @ @ @ @ @ permit me some brief remarks about my own general outlook on the current crisis .
02 — Virus agnosticism .
I 've had a scattering of emails from listeners and readers urging me to take a strong line on the panic one way or the other .
Is it all an absurd over-reaction , as the Z-man says ?
Or are we looking at a possible fifty million worldwide deaths , as Greg Cochran has suggested ?
Pass .
I know both those guys personally .
Both are sensible fellows and good quantitative @ @ @ @ @ @ @ them is , I do n't belong to that portion of humanity that believes it should have a strong opinion about everything .
I spent thirty-odd years of my working life up to my elbows in data .
I have a great respect for data , and fancy I have a good feel for the quality of data .
The quality of data in this pandemic has , from the beginning , been low .
The first numbers we got were out of Communist China , a country I know well from decades @ @ @ @ @ @ @ give a farthing for any numbers the ChiComs put out .
As I had occasion to observe back in February , quote from me , borrowing from Mary McCarthy , quote : `` Every word they say is a lie , including 'and ' and 'the ' . ''
Then we started seeing `` number of cases '' reported , without elaboration .
What did it mean ?
Number of people tested and found positive ?
Out of how many tested ?
Likewise with number of deaths .
If I suffer from hemorrhoids @ @ @ @ @ @ @ what goes on my death certificate : the hemorrhoids or the heart attack ?
Now : What goes on my death certificate if I die in the middle of a huge national panic about hemorrhoids ?
That 's the kind of data that 's been on offer to us .
I say it 's spinach and I say the hell with it .
You ca n't deduce anything from it .
Well , I 'm not going to .
Politicians , of course , are not in my happy situation of being able @ @ @ @ @ @ @ : `` Lousy data , no opinion . ''
They have to do something .
What to do ?
Well , if you 're a politician — and you can square and cube this if you 're a politician in an election year — if you 're a politician , what you do is , you take whichever course of action , according to whatever experts you can muster , offers the least possibility of really dire optics : optics like , for example , hospital parking lots full of geezers on gurneys @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Hence our present situation .
Will it , ten years from now , when we understand much more , will it all look to have been a ridiculous over-reaction ?
I would n't be terrifically surprised .
It might also look to have been a wise and prudent response to a real , serious threat .
I do n't know .
Neither do you .
All we have is surmise based on shoddy data , and politicians who have to do something .
03 — The Jobpocalypse ( cont . )
We shall @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , have a vaccine against this new coronavirus .
We may even get really lucky and find something that suppresses its effects , like the hydroxychloroquine we 've been hearing about .
That will all be good .
What will not be good about the next few years will be the economic effects of the lockdowns that we and most other nations have implemented .
We just got last week 's numbers for new unemployment claims in America : 6.6m .
That 's on top of 3.3m the week before .
So we @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Americans on the dole than two weeks ago .
And those are people who 've successfully signed on .
I do n't know how it is in other states , but here in New York every newspaper or TV story about the unemployment numbers comes with a sidebar story about how nearly-impossible it is to get through to the State Department of Labor to sign on .
They are of course totally overwhelmed .
The phone lines ca n't handle the volume ; and the online services are , like most government online @ @ @ @ @ @ @ error-prone .
There will surely be more layoffs to come .
The effects ripple down .
You lay off restaurant workers , those workers have no disposable income to spend on goods and services that have nothing to do with restaurants .
You tell people to stay home , do n't go anywhere , suddenly gas pump attendants , auto repair workers , mass transit workers , and a lot of other people have way less work to do … and so on .
There 's talk about a V-shaped recovery , with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to the way things were before .
Countering that are the people — and here you can include me — saying that nothing will ever again be the same : that like technological innovation in wartime , this crisis will massively accelerate changes , especially changes in employment , that were happening anyway , and will be permanent .
So people who 've switched from socializing in restaurants to calling in orders for home delivery are going to decide the latter suits their lifestyle better .
Then , when restaurants start to get @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fewer walk-in customers than they had before , and need fewer waiters , busboys , and desk staff .
People working online from home for the first time , and the companies that employ them , are going to decide that it 's a better deal than they supposed , with major savings to be made for the price of only a minor loss of control over employees ' time usage .
So there 'll be a lot more Americans working from home , with ripple effects on everything from mass transit to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ one my son attends , that have put their instruction and testing online , will have raised the profile of MOOCs .
That 's M-O-O-C , MOOCs : Massive Open Online Courses , that I 've been hearing about for years , but never seem to go anywhere much .
Perhaps now they will .
At the other end , with high unemployment and depleted savings , are American parents going to continue shelling out six-digit sums so their kids can get degrees in Art History or Gender Studies ?
Or the kids @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ?
So I 'm skeptical about the V-shaped recovery .
We 're in for some major changes — major and permanent .
04 — Will the virus panic be a reality check ?
It 's an ill wind that blows nobody any good , and the coronavirus panic has some winners .
The stock of Zoom video-conferencing software has been soaring , notwithstanding some bad publicity about its security features , or lack of them .
Less well-publicized has been the bonanza for lawyers , with laid-off workers suing employers , businesses suing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ detention suing to be released , travel firms , cruise lines , and airlines being sued by disgruntled vacationers , and so on .
Do lawyers ever come badly out of anything ?
Longer-term , out here on the Dissident Right , there 's been a vein of commentary to the effect that this is all going to work out well for the causes we care about .
A key text here is Greg Johnson 's March 18th post at Counter-Currents , title `` How Coronavirus Will Change the World . ''
It @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 'll read off Greg 's main headings .
Each one identifies a fact that , according to Greg , will be made more obvious by the current crisis and its aftermath .
By `` Conservatism '' in that last one Greg means what we at VDARE.com call `` Conservatism , Inc. '' That 's all good upbeat stuff , but I have my pessimistic doubts .
Greg 's assuming that under pressure of a political and economic crisis , people in the generality will come to see reality more clearly — the reality @ @ @ @ @ @ @ borders and ports of entry are essential to the common good .
I dunno , Greg .
That particular aspect of reality has been obvious to me , and to a great many of us over here , for a long time , but the obviousness of it has n't worked its way through to political action .
Even under pressure of the current crisis , it has n't .
Our government is still cheerfully bringing in tens of thousands of guest workers from abroad , even as the numbers of unemployed Americans @ @ @ @ @ @ @ presser this Wednesday , President Trump told us that without foreign guest workers coming in to do agricultural work , actual quote from the President , `` we 're not going to have farms . ''
Reporting on this , John Binder at Breitbart noted that , quote : The President 's remark illustrates an important counter to Greg Johnson 's optimism .
We should not underestimate the determination on the part of our ruling class — even members of it , like Trump , with a reputation as mavericks — to keep @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to their cherished catch-phrases — `` jobs American wo n't do , '' `` crops rotting in the fields , '' `` nation of immigrants , '' and the rest — in defiance of any amount of reality .
Whether the American public , suffering Depression-era levels of unemployment , will let the ruling class and their tech-billionaire enablers keep their rackets going , is another question .
It 's perfectly possible that we shall , though .
I 've always thought T.S .
Eliot greatly overrated as a poet , but he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ when he wrote that `` Humankind can not bear very much reality . ''
That all said , I would like to add just one extended quote from Greg Johnson 's piece .
It 's true , and it 's relevant to my next segment .
Edited quote , from under the heading `` Democracy is bad '' : 05 — Despotism 's advantages in the age of Big Data .
On a global scale , one thing likely to change in a big way is our relationship with China .
In a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ good way .
I bring some prejudice to this topic .
I 've been hating the Chinese Communist Party since I first got a close look at them nearly fifty years ago .
They run a brutal , corrupt Leninist despotism .
Remember , to take a random recent example , their treatment of scholarly , peaceable dissident Liu Xiaobo , who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2010 .
Liu could n't go to Oslo to accept the prize because he was serving an eleven-year jail sentence .
He got that sentence @ @ @ @ @ @ @ reform and a more open society .
So ChiCom power will collapse at last , like the old U.S.S.R. did , right ?
And the people of mainland China will enjoy open , consensual , constitutional government at last , as the people of Taiwan currently do .
Right ?
In my dreams .
There are some structural instabilities in the system , to do with corruption , environmental degradation , demographics , and the inevitable slowing of economic growth now that the low-hanging fruit has all been picked .
As best I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are good for another decade at least .
They might even make it to the ChiCom centenary in 2049 , although personally I 'd bet a modest amount of money against that .
Tucker Carlson occasionally has Gordon Chang on his show as a guest , introducing him as the author of a book titled The Coming Collapse of China .
That always gets a smile out of me .
I reviewed that book when it came out … back in August of 2001 .
As horrible as it is for people who @ @ @ @ @ @ @ despotism has some advantages over free , open societies .
In the age of Big Data , it may have some new advantages it never had before .
One of the best guides to this territory is David Goldman , who posts at Asia Times .
David is an exceptionally brilliant man , with a wide range of knowledge about subjects from mathematics to musicology , from political science to high finance .
He 's been studying China for years , and has sat talking and dealing with senior figures in the ChiCom @ @ @ @ @ @ @ like Huawei and Alibaba .
David has a book coming out shortly , provisional title : You Will Be Assimilated : China 's Plan to Sino-Form the World .
He 's given us a preview of it in his latest Asia Times column .
Sample quote : The ChiComs , says David , have for years been doing something we have n't been doing , and in fact ca n't do because of our concerns about personal autonomy and privacy .
They have been investing massively in big data , artificial intelligence and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ field , with the ultimate aim of total , real-time monitoring of every citizen 's status on key indices of health .
It all sounds a bit breathless and credulous , I know .
Two years after Lenin 's revolution in Russia , Lincoln Steffens visited the place and famously proclaimed : `` I have seen the future and it works . ''
David Goldman sometimes sounds a bit like that .
He 's nobody 's fool , though — smarter than Lincoln Steffens , for sure — and I await his book @ @ @ @ @ @ @ right , I dread the consequences .
There are big opportunities in this current crisis for a ramping-up of population surveillance in all countries , not just the despotic ones .
Where China leads , powerful lobbies in free countries will want to follow .
That is something we should dread , if we love liberty .
Human Rights Watch , a left-leaning open-borders outfit I have never previously had any reason to think well of , came out with a statement this week saying the same thing .
The statement is all @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , warning for example against , quote : On the main issue , though , they are right .
There is real danger here .
The level of population surveillance the ChiComs are aiming for might very well prevent future pandemics .
Personally , as a lover of liberty , I 'd rather take my chances with the viruses .
06 — Miscellany .
And now , our closing miscellany of brief items .
Imprimis : Speaking of China , as a contributor to a website promoting patriotic immigration reform , I sometimes @ @ @ @ @ @ @ laws .
What are they like ?
Short answer : Like Japan 's , but more so .
Way more so .
There was a good summary in the March 14th issue of The Economist , page 34 .
This being The Economist , an open-borders rag , it comes with an air of sniffy disapproval , but you get the facts .
Quote : This restrictionism is solidly supported by the mass of Chinese people .
Last month the ChiCom justice department called for comments on a proposal to make it slightly @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to become permanent residents .
They got more than they bargained for .
Quote : Wow .
Mrs Derbyshire is even more of an outlier than I thought .
Item : Here 's a little gem for contrarians .
All of us — including me — have been supposing that because the great threat from COVID-19 is its getting down into your lungs and wreaking havoc there , cigarette smokers , whose lungs are presumably compromised to some degree , are in more danger than nonsmokers .
Not so , says a study @ @ @ @ @ @ @ study : Smoking , vaping and hospitalization for COVID-19 .
The authors seem to be respectable scholars from a university in Greece , collaborating with NYU .
They studied more than two thousand people hospitalized in China with this new coronavirus , breaking them down by sex and smoking habit , as compared with the Chinese population in general .
Edited quote : All right , all right , it 's one study .
Some skepticism is justified .
We forget , though , that smoking was once thought to be healthful , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ from one of my old columns .
`` Eton '' here refers to England 's premier boys ' boarding school .
Quote : End inner quote , end quote .
Item : A minor theme here at Radio Derb is the normalization of dirty talk , which I deplore .
In what follows , to spare you a whole lot of annoying beeps , as before I 'm going to substitute the word `` pop '' for the common f-word .
Use your imagination .
OK , here 's the headline from MailOnline @ @ @ @ @ @ @ L. Jackson reads from book called Stay The Pop at Home to encourage people to social distance and quarantine amid Covid-19 pandemic .
Is this an April 1st spoof ?
I do n't think so .
The news story gives the book 's authors as Adam Mansbach and Ricardo Cortes .
I ca n't find the book on Amazon.com , but I see a 2011 book by those authors with the title Go the Pop to Sleep .
Apparently this is , or is going to be , a sequel .
I guess @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Jimmy Kimmel who is helping him promote it , I guess they think it 's very woke , bold , and transgressive .
What do I think ?
I think Jackson and Kimmel should be prevented by court order from approaching with a hundred yards of small children .
Item : Finally , in a spirit of citizenly duty , I just filled out my census form .
While doing so , I recalled something I 'd put in one of my monthly diaries , in the Math Corner .
This was in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
I 'd been grumbling about how little respect the number three and the concepts of threeness and third-ness get .
Then I got to wondering when America 's population will reach precisely one-third of a billion .
Looking up the Census Bureau 's population clock and applying some arithmetic , I came up with an estimate of January 25th , 2020 .
That might be out some , of course .
Still , any time you see a reference to the U.S. population , it 's always given as 327 million .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ short .
Is there any chance we can get pundits and reporters saying `` a third of a billion '' ?
It 's surely closer to the truth , and gives a bit of that missing respect to the number three .
07 — Signoff .
That 's all I have , ladies and gentlemen .
Thank you for listening .
Welcome to April — `` the cruellest month , '' according to the aforementioned T.S .
Eliot .
All right , I 'll admit the guy could , on a good day @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I much prefer dear old Geoff Chaucer : I will allow , though , that this particular April , some of you may be feeling more on the T.S .
Eliot side — a little claustrophobic under the lockdown regime .
In an attempt to catch your mood , here for our signout music is country singer Cheyenne Kimball singing `` Four Walls . ''
There will be more from Radio Derb next week .

00m52s Virus agnosticism. (But politicians have to do something.)
05m48s The Jobpocalypse, cont. (Into the unknown.)
11m03s A reality check? (Nah, we hate reality.)
18m40s Despotism's advantage. (China in the age of Big Data.)
26m37s China's immigration policy. (With strong public support.)
29m20s One for the contrarians. (Smoking may be good for you.)
32m26s Normalizing dirty talk. (Stay the Pop at Home.)
34m34s A third of a billion? (Census thoughts.)
36m15s Signoff. (For claustrophobes.)
01 — Intro. And Radio Derb is on the air, this third week of the coronavirus panic. Greetings, listeners, from your placidly genial host John Derbyshire, with VDARE.com's weekly update of events.
Before I proceed with commentary on the week's news, please permit me some brief remarks about my own general outlook on the current crisis.
[Permalink]
02 — Virus agnosticism. I've had a scattering of emails from listeners and readers urging me to take a strong line on the panic one way or the other. Is it all an absurd over-reaction, as the Z-man says? Or are we looking at a possible fifty million worldwide deaths, as Greg Cochran has suggested?
Pass. I know both those guys personally. Both are sensible fellows and good quantitative thinkers. The difference between me and them is, I don't belong to that portion of humanity that believes it should have a strong opinion about everything.
I spent thirty-odd years of my working life up to my elbows in data. I have a great respect for data, and fancy I have a good feel for the quality of data. The quality of data in this pandemic has, from the beginning, been low.
The first numbers we got were out of Communist China, a country I know well from decades of close acquaintance. I wouldn't give a farthing for any numbers the ChiComs put out. As I had occasion to observe back in February, quote from me, borrowing from Mary McCarthy, quote: "Every word they say is a lie, including 'and' and 'the'."
Then we started seeing "number of cases" reported, without elaboration. What did it mean? Number of people tested and found positive? Out of how many tested?
Likewise with number of deaths. If I suffer from hemorrhoids but die of a heart attack, what goes on my death certificate: the hemorrhoids or the heart attack? Now: What goes on my death certificate if I die in the middle of a huge national panic about hemorrhoids?
That's the kind of data that's been on offer to us. I say it's spinach and I say the hell with it. You can't deduce anything from it. Well, I'm not going to.
Politicians, of course, are not in my happy situation of being able to recline back in the Barcalounger murmuring: "Lousy data, no opinion." They have to do something. What to do?
Well, if you're a politician — and you can square and cube this if you're a politician in an election year — if you're a politician, what you do is, you take whichever course of action, according to whatever experts you can muster, offers the least possibility of really dire optics: optics like, for example, hospital parking lots full of geezers on gurneys choking in their own lung fluids.
Hence our present situation. Will it, ten years from now, when we understand much more, will it all look to have been a ridiculous over-reaction? I wouldn't be terrifically surprised.
It might also look to have been a wise and prudent response to a real, serious threat. I don't know. Neither do you. All we have is surmise based on shoddy data, and politicians who have to do something.
[Permalink]
03 — The Jobpocalypse (cont.) We shall probably, after a year or so, have a vaccine against this new coronavirus. We may even get really lucky and find something that suppresses its effects, like the hydroxychloroquine we've been hearing about.
That will all be good. What will not be good about the next few years will be the economic effects of the lockdowns that we and most other nations have implemented.
We just got last week's numbers for new unemployment claims in America: 6.6m. That's on top of 3.3m the week before. So we're now close to ten million more Americans on the dole than two weeks ago.
And those are people who've successfully signed on. I don't know how it is in other states, but here in New York every newspaper or TV story about the unemployment numbers comes with a sidebar story about how nearly-impossible it is to get through to the State Department of Labor to sign on. They are of course totally overwhelmed. The phone lines can't handle the volume; and the online services are, like most government online services, crappy, slow, and error-prone.
There will surely be more layoffs to come. The effects ripple down. You lay off restaurant workers, those workers have no disposable income to spend on goods and services that have nothing to do with restaurants. You tell people to stay home, don't go anywhere, suddenly gas pump attendants, auto repair workers, mass transit workers, and a lot of other people have way less work to do … and so on.
There's talk about a V-shaped recovery, with our troubles bottoming out, then rebounding to the way things were before.
Countering that are the people — and here you can include me — saying that nothing will ever again be the same: that like technological innovation in wartime, this crisis will massively accelerate changes, especially changes in employment, that were happening anyway, and will be permanent.
So people who've switched from socializing in restaurants to calling in orders for home delivery are going to decide the latter suits their lifestyle better. Then, when restaurants start to get back in business, they'll have fewer walk-in customers than they had before, and need fewer waiters, busboys, and desk staff.
People working online from home for the first time, and the companies that employ them, are going to decide that it's a better deal than they supposed, with major savings to be made for the price of only a minor loss of control over employees' time usage. So there'll be a lot more Americans working from home, with ripple effects on everything from mass transit to commercial real estate.
Colleges like the one my son attends, that have put their instruction and testing online, will have raised the profile of MOOCs. That's M-O-O-C, MOOCs: Massive Open Online Courses, that I've been hearing about for years, but never seem to go anywhere much. Perhaps now they will.
At the other end, with high unemployment and depleted savings, are American parents going to continue shelling out six-digit sums so their kids can get degrees in Art History or Gender Studies? Or the kids themselves go into debt for those sums?
So I'm skeptical about the V-shaped recovery. We're in for some major changes — major and permanent.
[Permalink]
04 — Will the virus panic be a reality check? It's an ill wind that blows nobody any good, and the coronavirus panic has some winners. The stock of Zoom video-conferencing software has been soaring, notwithstanding some bad publicity about its security features, or lack of them.
Less well-publicized has been the bonanza for lawyers, with laid-off workers suing employers, businesses suing insurers, jailbirds and illegal aliens in detention suing to be released, travel firms, cruise lines, and airlines being sued by disgruntled vacationers, and so on. Do lawyers ever come badly out of anything?
Longer-term, out here on the Dissident Right, there's been a vein of commentary to the effect that this is all going to work out well for the causes we care about. A key text here is Greg Johnson's March 18th post at Counter-Currents, title "How Coronavirus Will Change the World." It doesn't summarize easily, but I'll read off Greg's main headings. Each one identifies a fact that, according to Greg, will be made more obvious by the current crisis and its aftermath.
Globalism is bad.
Democracy is bad. If that made you jump, I'm going to give Greg the benefit of the doubt and assume he's in the Winston Churchill camp here: Democracy's bad, but not as bad as the alternatives. More on this in just a minute.
Global "free trade" is bad.
Liberalism is bad
Diversity, multiculturalism, open borders, & anti-racism are bad.
Conservatism is bad.
By "Conservatism" in that last one Greg means what we at VDARE.com call "Conservatism, Inc."
That's all good upbeat stuff, but I have my pessimistic doubts. Greg's assuming that under pressure of a political and economic crisis, people in the generality will come to see reality more clearly — the reality, for example, that strictly-regulated national borders and ports of entry are essential to the common good.
I dunno, Greg. That particular aspect of reality has been obvious to me, and to a great many of us over here, for a long time, but the obviousness of it hasn't worked its way through to political action.
Even under pressure of the current crisis, it hasn't. Our government is still cheerfully bringing in tens of thousands of guest workers from abroad, even as the numbers of unemployed Americans rises through the stratosphere.
At his presser this Wednesday, President Trump told us that without foreign guest workers coming in to do agricultural work, actual quote from the President, "we're not going to have farms." Reporting on this, John Binder at Breitbart noted that, quote:
H-2A foreign visa workers make up only about ten percent of the total U.S. crop farm workforce.
The President's remark illustrates an important counter to Greg Johnson's optimism. We should not underestimate the determination on the part of our ruling class — even members of it, like Trump, with a reputation as mavericks — to keep the cheap-labor rackets going and to cling to their cherished catch-phrases — "jobs American won't do," "crops rotting in the fields," "nation of immigrants," and the rest — in defiance of any amount of reality.
Whether the American public, suffering Depression-era levels of unemployment, will let the ruling class and their tech-billionaire enablers keep their rackets going, is another question. It's perfectly possible that we shall, though. I've always thought T.S. Eliot greatly overrated as a poet, but he wrote a very wise and true thing when he wrote that "Humankind cannot bear very much reality."
That all said, I would like to add just one extended quote from Greg Johnson's piece. It's true, and it's relevant to my next segment. Edited quote, from under the heading "Democracy is bad":
Democracy encourages politicians to think only as far ahead as the next election. Since disasters happen only occasionally, every politician knows that they are unlikely to happen on his watch …
It is fashionable now to deride the "deep state" for being democratically unaccountable bureaucrats. But in a democracy, only a democratically unaccountable permanent bureaucracy can engage in long-range planning to secure the future against preventable evils.
End quote.
[Permalink]
05 — Despotism's advantages in the age of Big Data. On a global scale, one thing likely to change in a big way is our relationship with China.
In a big way, but not likely a good way. I bring some prejudice to this topic. I've been hating the Chinese Communist Party since I first got a close look at them nearly fifty years ago. They run a brutal, corrupt Leninist despotism.
Remember, to take a random recent example, their treatment of scholarly, peaceable dissident Liu Xiaobo, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2010. Liu couldn't go to Oslo to accept the prize because he was serving an eleven-year jail sentence. He got that sentence for publishing a document calling for political reform and a more open society.
So ChiCom power will collapse at last, like the old U.S.S.R. did, right? And the people of mainland China will enjoy open, consensual, constitutional government at last, as the people of Taiwan currently do. Right?
In my dreams. There are some structural instabilities in the system, to do with corruption, environmental degradation, demographics, and the inevitable slowing of economic growth now that the low-hanging fruit has all been picked. As best I can judge, however, the ChiComs are good for another decade at least. They might even make it to the ChiCom centenary in 2049, although personally I'd bet a modest amount of money against that.
Tucker Carlson occasionally has Gordon Chang on his show as a guest, introducing him as the author of a book titled The Coming Collapse of China. That always gets a smile out of me. I reviewed that book when it came out … back in August of 2001.
As horrible as it is for people who can think independently, though, oriental despotism has some advantages over free, open societies. In the age of Big Data, it may have some new advantages it never had before.
One of the best guides to this territory is David Goldman, who posts at Asia Times. David is an exceptionally brilliant man, with a wide range of knowledge about subjects from mathematics to musicology, from political science to high finance. He's been studying China for years, and has sat talking and dealing with senior figures in the ChiCom leadership and executives of major Chinese corporations like Huawei and Alibaba.
David has a book coming out shortly, provisional title: You Will Be Assimilated: China's Plan to Sino-Form the World. He's given us a preview of it in his latest Asia Times column. Sample quote:
In my forthcoming book … I report on China's ambition to become the world's preeminent force in digital healthcare, perhaps the single biggest economic trend of the 21st century.
End quote.
The ChiComs, says David, have for years been doing something we haven't been doing, and in fact can't do because of our concerns about personal autonomy and privacy. They have been investing massively in big data, artificial intelligence and other information technology resources in the healthcare field, with the ultimate aim of total, real-time monitoring of every citizen's status on key indices of health.
It all sounds a bit breathless and credulous, I know. Two years after Lenin's revolution in Russia, Lincoln Steffens visited the place and famously proclaimed: "I have seen the future and it works." David Goldman sometimes sounds a bit like that. He's nobody's fool, though — smarter than Lincoln Steffens, for sure — and I await his book with great interest.
Assuming he's right, I dread the consequences. There are big opportunities in this current crisis for a ramping-up of population surveillance in all countries, not just the despotic ones. Where China leads, powerful lobbies in free countries will want to follow. That is something we should dread, if we love liberty.
Human Rights Watch, a left-leaning open-borders outfit I have never previously had any reason to think well of, came out with a statement this week saying the same thing.
The statement is all slanted in a woke, anti-white direction, warning for example against, quote:
discrimination and other rights abuses against racial minorities, people living in poverty, and other marginalized populations, whose needs and lived realities may be obscured or misrepresented in large datasets
End quote.
On the main issue, though, they are right. There is real danger here.
The level of population surveillance the ChiComs are aiming for might very well prevent future pandemics. Personally, as a lover of liberty, I'd rather take my chances with the viruses.
[Permalink]
06 — Miscellany. And now, our closing miscellany of brief items.
Imprimis: Speaking of China, as a contributor to a website promoting patriotic immigration reform, I sometimes get asked about mainland China's immigration laws. What are they like?
Short answer: Like Japan's, but more so. Way more so.
There was a good summary in the March 14th issue of The Economist, page 34. This being The Economist, an open-borders rag, it comes with an air of sniffy disapproval, but you get the facts. Quote:
China is hardly poised to become an immigrant melting-pot. In 2016 it issued just 1,576 permanent-residency permits. In the same year America granted permanent residency to over 1m foreigners — roughly equivalent to China's entire foreign-born population. Unlike American green cards, China's residence permits are not considered a pathway to citizenship.
End quote.
This restrictionism is solidly supported by the mass of Chinese people. Last month the ChiCom justice department called for comments on a proposal to make it slightly easier for rich or highly skilled foreigners to become permanent residents. They got more than they bargained for. Quote:
A dismaying number of comments betrayed racial and sexual panic, with men vowing to defend Chinese women from immigrants, notably from Africa. Several young women vowed to leap from the Great Wall rather than marry a foreigner.
End quote.
Wow. Mrs Derbyshire is even more of an outlier than I thought.
[Permalink]
Item: Here's a little gem for contrarians. All of us — including me — have been supposing that because the great threat from COVID-19 is its getting down into your lungs and wreaking havoc there, cigarette smokers, whose lungs are presumably compromised to some degree, are in more danger than nonsmokers.
Not so, says a study published March 29th. Title of the study: Smoking, vaping and hospitalization for COVID-19. The authors seem to be respectable scholars from a university in Greece, collaborating with NYU. They studied more than two thousand people hospitalized in China with this new coronavirus, breaking them down by sex and smoking habit, as compared with the Chinese population in general. Edited quote:
An unusually low prevalence of current smoking was observed among hospitalized COVID-19 patients … compared to the expected prevalence based on smoking prevalence in China … This preliminary analysis does not support the argument that current smoking is a risk factor for hospitalization for COVID-19, and might even suggest a protective role.
End quote.
All right, all right, it's one study. Some skepticism is justified. We forget, though, that smoking was once thought to be healthful, or at any rate prophylactic. Quote from one of my old columns. "Eton" here refers to England's premier boys' boarding school. Quote:
In the 1660s, smoking was made compulsory at Eton, as it was believed to be a prophylactic against the plague. A certain Tom Rogers remarked about this time that [inner quote] "he was never so much whipped in his life as he was one morning for not smoking."
End inner quote, end quote.
[Permalink]
Item: A minor theme here at Radio Derb is the normalization of dirty talk, which I deplore. In what follows, to spare you a whole lot of annoying beeps, as before I'm going to substitute the word "pop" for the common f-word. Use your imagination.
OK, here's the headline from MailOnline, April 1st, quote: Samuel L. Jackson reads from book called Stay The Pop at Home to encourage people to social distance and quarantine amid Covid-19 pandemic.
Is this an April 1st spoof? I don't think so. The news story gives the book's authors as Adam Mansbach and Ricardo Cortes. I can't find the book on Amazon.com, but I see a 2011 book by those authors with the title Go the Pop to Sleep. Apparently this is, or is going to be, a sequel.
I guess Samuel L. Jackson, and TV person Jimmy Kimmel who is helping him promote it, I guess they think it's very woke, bold, and transgressive. What do I think? I think Jackson and Kimmel should be prevented by court order from approaching with a hundred yards of small children.
[Permalink]
Item: Finally, in a spirit of citizenly duty, I just filled out my census form.
While doing so, I recalled something I'd put in one of my monthly diaries, in the Math Corner. This was in, let me see … October 2016.
I'd been grumbling about how little respect the number three and the concepts of threeness and third-ness get. Then I got to wondering when America's population will reach precisely one-third of a billion. Looking up the Census Bureau's population clock and applying some arithmetic, I came up with an estimate of January 25th, 2020.
That might be out some, of course. Still, any time you see a reference to the U.S. population, it's always given as 327 million. That is probably at least five million short.
Is there any chance we can get pundits and reporters saying "a third of a billion"? It's surely closer to the truth, and gives a bit of that missing respect to the number three.
[Permalink]
07 — Signoff. That's all I have, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for listening. Welcome to April — "the cruellest month," according to the aforementioned T.S. Eliot. All right, I'll admit the guy could, on a good day, turn a nice phrase. Still I much prefer dear old Geoff Chaucer:
Whan that Aprill, with his shoures soote
The droghte of March hath perced to the roote
And bathed every veyne in swich licour,
Of which vertu engendred is the flour …
I will allow, though, that this particular April, some of you may be feeling more on the T.S. Eliot side — a little claustrophobic under the lockdown regime. In an attempt to catch your mood, here for our signout music is country singer Cheyenne Kimball singing "Four Walls."
There will be more from Radio Derb next week.
[Permalink]
[Music clip: Cheyenne Kimball, "Four Walls."]


vdare--2020-04-03--Human BioDiversity and the Novel Virus: Time Will Tell

From the U. of Hawaii : Are some ethnic groups more susceptible to COVID-19 ?
UH News » Research » Are some ethnic groups… April 2 , 2020 UH News A University of Hawaiʻi Cancer Center molecular epidemiologist is working on an initiated coronavirus study aimed at understanding why certain individuals and racial/ethnic groups are more prone to the infection , and may suffer more severe symptoms of COVID-19 .
The study by Maarit Tiirikainen and Hawaiʻi-based genomics company LifeDNA , Inc. will initially focus on the multi-ethnic population of Hawaiʻi and genetic variants of the ACE2 gene as they @ @ @ @ @ @ @ respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 ( SARS-CoV-2 ) , the virus that causes COVID-19 .
“ There have been major differences in the rates of SARS-CoV-2 infection and the severe disease between the different geographic regions since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic , even among young individuals , ” said Tiirikainen , an associate professor at UH Mānoa .
“ Epidemiological studies.indicate that populations carry different variants of the ACE2 gene .
This variation in the gene coding for the ACE2 receptor may have an effect on the number of ACE2 receptors on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on how effectively the virus binds to the receptor .
There may also be genetic differences in immunity and other important genes explaining why some people get more sick than others , ” she added .
Polynesians were particularly hard hit by the Spanish Flu of a century ago , so it ’ s a good idea to check up on these things .
On the other hand I haven ’ t been paying much attention to speculation over whether some racial groups are more or less prone to infection and severity of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ topics like how human biodiversity affects sprinting results , because there is a huge amount of data on this , and we ’ ve had decades to argue over it .
In contrast , we have three months of data on a brand new disease and we don ’ t ( yet ) have any kind of level playing field to distinguish nature from nurture .
At this point , things seem pretty random and contingent .
There doesn ’ t seem to be much in the way of a priori reasons for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ more or less vulnerable than any other to a novel disease , other than wishful thinking .
( When it comes to diseases , people like to have a theory explaining why those who have gotten it deserve to get it , and why they , personally , won ’ t get it because they deserve to not get it . )
First there was speculation then Chinese were particularly susceptible so nobody else had much to worry about .
Then Iranians had to be accommodated into the theory .
Then Northern Italians @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
On the other hand , there may well turn out to be in hindsight genetic differences in response to this novel virus , which would be both innately interesting and potentially useful .
No section of the human race has had time to evolve a resistance to this particular disease yet , but it might turn out that , say , resistance to some other older disease might play a role with the new disease .
Or something else .

From the U. of Hawaii:
Are some ethnic groups more susceptible to COVID-19?
UH News » Research » Are some ethnic groups…
April 2, 2020 UH News A University of Hawaiʻi Cancer Center molecular epidemiologist is working on an initiated coronavirus study aimed at understanding why certain individuals and racial/ethnic groups are more prone to the infection, and may suffer more severe symptoms of COVID-19. The study by Maarit Tiirikainen and Hawaiʻi-based genomics company LifeDNA, Inc. will initially focus on the multi-ethnic population of Hawaiʻi and genetic variants of the ACE2 gene as they relate to infection with the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the virus that causes COVID-19. “There have been major differences in the rates of SARS-CoV-2 infection and the severe disease between the different geographic regions since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, even among young individuals,” said Tiirikainen, an associate professor at UH Mānoa. “Epidemiological studies.indicate that populations carry different variants of the ACE2 gene. This variation in the gene coding for the ACE2 receptor may have an effect on the number of ACE2 receptors on the lung cells, as well as on how effectively the virus binds to the receptor. There may also be genetic differences in immunity and other important genes explaining why some people get more sick than others,” she added.
Polynesians were particularly hard hit by the Spanish Flu of a century ago, so it’s a good idea to check up on these things.
On the other hand I haven’t been paying much attention to speculation over whether some racial groups are more or less prone to infection and severity of outcome.
I have strong opinions on topics like how human biodiversity affects sprinting results, because there is a huge amount of data on this, and we’ve had decades to argue over it. In contrast, we have three months of data on a brand new disease and we don’t (yet) have any kind of level playing field to distinguish nature from nurture. At this point, things seem pretty random and contingent.
There doesn’t seem to be much in the way of a priori reasons for imagining that any specific group would be more or less vulnerable than any other to a novel disease, other than wishful thinking. (When it comes to diseases, people like to have a theory explaining why those who have gotten it deserve to get it, and why they, personally, won’t get it because they deserve to not get it.)
First there was speculation then Chinese were particularly susceptible so nobody else had much to worry about. Then Iranians had to be accommodated into the theory. Then Northern Italians. Then New Yorkers. Then Detroiters.
On the other hand, there may well turn out to be in hindsight genetic differences in response to this novel virus, which would be both innately interesting and potentially useful. No section of the human race has had time to evolve a resistance to this particular disease yet, but it might turn out that, say, resistance to some other older disease might play a role with the new disease. Or something else.
Time will tell.
[Comment at Unz.com]


vdare--2020-04-03--This Day In VDARE.com History, 2010: Sailer Was Right: Obama Doesn't "Transcend Race"

First published here on this day in 2010 .
A friend sends the news that President Obama checked the box @ @ @ @ @ African Am.
, or Negro '' on the Census Form rather than the much-promoted `` @ @ @ @ @ It ’ s official : Obama is black—President checks black , not black and white @ @ @ @ @ MSNBC , April 3 , 2010 .
No reader of Steve Sailer 's America 's @ @ @ @ @ .
One guess about what the MSM will do about all its post-racial , race-transcending @ @

First published here on this day in 2010.
A friend sends the news that President Obama checked the box that says "Black, African Am., or Negro" on the Census Form rather than the much-promoted "mixed race" option. It’s official: Obama is black—President checks black, not black and white, on census form, MSNBC, April 3, 2010. No reader of Steve Sailer's America's Half-Blood Prince will be surprised. One guess about what the MSM will do about all its post-racial, race-transcending propaganda.


vdare--2020-04-03--Italian Governor of Lombardy (Area Hit Hardest by Coronavirus) Says He Was Called "Racist" for Wanti

Italian Governor of Lombardy (Area Hit Hardest by Coronavirus) Says He Was Called "Racist" for Wanting Tests of Chinese Travelers in February

Earlier , by James Fulford : Italian Virologist : Italy THOUGHT Of Isolating People Coming From China , But `` It Became Seen As Racist '' —Killing Thousands The power of calling someone a “ racist ” who dares engage in public displays of pattern recognition is on life support during the Coronavirus crisis .
There ’ s no going back if this power–causing those accused of holding such iniquitous views to normally grovel for forgiveness in a world governed by wokeness – is broken .
A world carefully governed by social constructs of equality , tolerance , diversity , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ forced to accept these positions as the highest form of morality realize they instead enabled the Coronavirus to spread .
It came from China .
But you ’ re a racist for saying that !
So what ?
But how can you think that in the current year ?
I ’ m literally shaking right now !
So what ?
Italy : Governor accused of racism for wanting to test travellers from China , Voice of Europe , April 2 , 2020 The Governor of Lombardy , Attilio Fontana , has said that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in February when he suggested that travellers coming from China should be tested for the coronavirus ( COVID-19 ) .
Fontana , who is a member of Matteo Salvini ’ s nationalist Lega party , revealed the response to his warning during a debate in the Regional Council on Tuesday , according to a report by La Repubblica .
He claimed that when he had suggested that people arriving from China should be tested for the virus on February 3 , he was assured by Italy ’ s Left-wing Prime Minister , Giuseppe @ @ @ @ @ @ @ no danger of a mass outbreak because the medical system was too well-prepared for it .
Fontana added that some of his colleagues had called him a racist at the time for suggesting the tests , and said that he had been “ mocked with insolent words ” and that he had been offended by the remarks .
He also claimed that he was told that ordering the testing would lead to a loss of Italy ’ s standing in the eyes of the world .
Lombardy is the region of Italy which @ @ @ @ @ @ @ outbreak .
Overall , Italy has had the most confirmed cases of coronavirus infection of any European country .
The first cases in Italy appeared at the end of January , when two Chinese tourists were confirmed to have it .
The first significant outbreak was discovered on February 21 in Lombardy , when there were 16 confirmed cases .
Fontana also had harsh words for Italy ’ s National Institute of Health ( ISS ) , which has forced a Lombardian company capable of manufacturing 900,000 protective masks per day to wait @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
“ The ISS has yet to realize that we are in a state of emergency , ” Fontana said .
“ Since no one is giving us masks , at least give us permission to produce them.
” Italy , like many other European countries , has a severe shortage of protective masks .
Dr. Giorgio Palù , Professor of Virology and Microbiology at the University of Padova , has also said that Italy ’ s response to the pandemic had been slowed in the beginning as a result of fears that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ China was racist… People have lived in fear of being accused of being a “ racist ” for decades , countless good men and women incapable of mustering a defense of their own moral position because of the damning consequences associated with this word .
But as the Coronavirus disrupts life across the entire world , much of what we once feared evaporates .
Social constructs of diversity , inclusion , equity , and tolerance turn out to have been built on foundations lacking long-term structural integrity .
One line from Orson Scott @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has always stuck with me : “ There are times when the world is rearranging itself , and at times like that , the right words can change the world.
” Right now , the world is rearranging itself .
It ’ s not just the right words changing the world at this point , it ’ s ignoring one particular world forever changing this word .
When this happens , there ’ s no going back to the world we knew before the Coronavirus was first reported in China .
This one @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it for decades , momentarily impeding the next era of western civilization .

Earlier, by James Fulford: Italian Virologist: Italy THOUGHT Of Isolating People Coming From China, But "It Became Seen As Racist"—Killing Thousands
The power of calling someone a “racist” who dares engage in public displays of pattern recognition is on life support during the Coronavirus crisis. There’s no going back if this power–causing those accused of holding such iniquitous views to normally grovel for forgiveness in a world governed by wokeness – is broken.
No going back.
A world carefully governed by social constructs of equality, tolerance, diversity, and inclusion will collapse as people long forced to accept these positions as the highest form of morality realize they instead enabled the Coronavirus to spread.
It came from China. But you’re a racist for saying that! So what?
But how can you think that in the current year? I’m literally shaking right now! So what?
Italy: Governor accused of racism for wanting to test travellers from China, Voice of Europe, April 2, 2020 The Governor of Lombardy, Attilio Fontana, has said that he was accused of being a racist in February when he suggested that travellers coming from China should be tested for the coronavirus (COVID-19). Fontana, who is a member of Matteo Salvini’s nationalist Lega party, revealed the response to his warning during a debate in the Regional Council on Tuesday, according to a report by La Repubblica. He claimed that when he had suggested that people arriving from China should be tested for the virus on February 3, he was assured by Italy’s Left-wing Prime Minister, Giuseppe Conte, that the country was in no danger of a mass outbreak because the medical system was too well-prepared for it. Fontana added that some of his colleagues had called him a racist at the time for suggesting the tests, and said that he had been “mocked with insolent words” and that he had been offended by the remarks. He also claimed that he was told that ordering the testing would lead to a loss of Italy’s standing in the eyes of the world. Lombardy is the region of Italy which has suffered the most during the coronavirus outbreak. Overall, Italy has had the most confirmed cases of coronavirus infection of any European country. The first cases in Italy appeared at the end of January, when two Chinese tourists were confirmed to have it. The first significant outbreak was discovered on February 21 in Lombardy, when there were 16 confirmed cases. Fontana also had harsh words for Italy’s National Institute of Health (ISS), which has forced a Lombardian company capable of manufacturing 900,000 protective masks per day to wait for certification before it can commence work. “The ISS has yet to realize that we are in a state of emergency,” Fontana said. “Since no one is giving us masks, at least give us permission to produce them.” Italy, like many other European countries, has a severe shortage of protective masks. Dr. Giorgio Palù, Professor of Virology and Microbiology at the University of Padova, has also said that Italy’s response to the pandemic had been slowed in the beginning as a result of fears that taking steps to test people coming from China was racist…
People have lived in fear of being accused of being a “racist” for decades, countless good men and women incapable of mustering a defense of their own moral position because of the damning consequences associated with this word.
But as the Coronavirus disrupts life across the entire world, much of what we once feared evaporates. Social constructs of diversity, inclusion, equity, and tolerance turn out to have been built on foundations lacking long-term structural integrity.
One line from Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game has always stuck with me: “There are times when the world is rearranging itself, and at times like that, the right words can change the world.”
Right now, the world is rearranging itself. It’s not just the right words changing the world at this point, it’s ignoring one particular world forever changing this word.
When this happens, there’s no going back to the world we knew before the Coronavirus was first reported in China.
This one word has corrupted life as we know it for decades, momentarily impeding the next era of western civilization.
[Comment at Unz.com]