Close Reading

In the place I was born and raised everybody is like the guy on the bike. It's called Poland 🇵🇱

About 15 years ago, my sister in law wanted to bring her father here from South Africa; however, immigration said "no, because he was acriskbto the Canadian health system". They couldnt even bring him over even with the promise to pay out of pocket for healthcare should it be needed. I find it utterly disgusting that as a born Canadian citizen I can't get a job, proper healthcare and live in a culture where immigrants (not all if them do this) thumb their noses at us. These immigrants, in my opinion, have NO intention of learning the english language either. I can't figure out why some of them even bothered coming to Canada because they haven't left their crap where they came from. It is no wonder Poland is the way they are about Immigration.

I was born in Poland, raised in Canada, and despite living in Toronto, learned both official languages to utter fluency. Yet to communicate with others in Toronto, apparently Hindi and Punjabi are what is required for economic opportunity . That’s absurd…so I moved back to Europe because I like living in a place with a sense of identity, not just an economic unit for our corporate overlords (who are the real culprits of unskilled immigration.

I think everyone is missing the point here. I Don’t support Israel’s retaliation, but I wondered why the Arab world has not taken in a single refugee. Poland didn’t condone Russia’s attack by taking in hundreds of thousands Ukrainian refugees. If Egypt, jordan, Quatar, to name the immediate Arab Neighbors would rally together to get the women and children out of harms way, surely the outcome would be better for these poor people. \n\nSadly this is not the case and it appears as though this conflict will never find a solution, as long as both parties are not able to set aside their millennia aged quarrel, acknowledge each other’s deep roots and belonging to the same land, and accept that they both come from the exact same bloodline. The exact same seed of a man named Abraham. Both parties need not to like or even tolerate each other, but they both need to respect each other’s right to co exist within that space. I’ve heard some disgusting vitriol from both sides, honestly. Both sides have and are behaving like animals. Infact animals are more civil, as their disputes are settled in a more humane manner, without the casualties within their communities. Yet, despite being created in God’s image with the ability of sophisticated communication, both sides are unable to get past their own hurt pride, at least for the sake of the innocent lives that have and continue to be lost on BOTH sides, to finally squash this matter once and for all.\n\nGrowing up I had a cousin . We both were the only Sons of our respective immediate families’, born to identical twin sisters, 3 months apart. From\nA young age everything was competition between us. Who ran faster, jumped higher, threw further. Every thing we did, and we spent a lot of time around each other, was constantly turned into a “who does it better”. This resulted in us usually throwing down as one of us, feeling like we may be on the losing end of any given task, would just get frustrated, and start soccer punching the other. And my cousin and I from the time were off the diary to the day we both matured, would THROW down. We would literally just start throwing punches at each other, it was honestly impressive how we both would manage to land equal amount of hits to look like literal bloody hell, and guess what, even those fights became competition as even our dads would throw money with the others pitching for their favourite. Fortunately, our moms, the only adults in the our community, looking back, people would just pick a side and watch as go at each other, than pull us off each other, would come stomping out of the house grab each one of us by our ears, gives us a good smack in the back our heads and sit us down, look each one of us straight in the eye, and say something like, “cut it out, you two are family, more brothers than cousins” they would demand that we both go hug it out, have a bath, if we managed to do that peacefully then we were allowed to partake in dessert that evening or allowed to stay up a little later watching tv, or whatever . My point with this overtly personal analogy is that both the Palestinian and the Israeli sides should be dragged off each there by their figurative ears pulled, sat down, scolded and reminded of their ancestrial ties to each other and to the very same land. \n\nBe honest with yourselves, some how amongst all this hate, vitriol, unnecessary death of innocent lives, are you, and those you rally with be truly ok with your opposing side coexisting harmoniously beside each other? If the answer to this question is no, the other side can not have any claim to this land and needs to be removed to god knows where, if not off the earth all together then it’s your people, not mine, that are doomed. We’ll still be chilling in North America, horrified at the unfolding events but chilling nonetheless. Although it somehow claims to not be doing so, the actions of Israel demonstrate a gruelling callousness towards Palestinian life or right to life, and the staunch calls of the constant pro Palestine protests, calling for the eradication of Israel, none absent of a deep, hate and disgust towards the Jewish people. Both are in need of serious internal reform. Honestly as a complete outsider, SHAME ON BOTH OF YOU. I don’t care who started it, or who said or did what, at this point it is imperil that this end immediately. And as an outsider, I think it’s is important that pressure be applied to both sides to put their weapons down. I don’t recall the last time anyone even mention the Israeli hostages, putting any pressure on Hamas to do the one thing that would definitely appease the Israelis. In the same breathe, Israel needs to be further pressured to stop being so trigger happy and lay off of it. \n\nI can only hope, I guess. In the meantime i should really refrain from ranting on YouTube.

During the 1930's media in various countries made immigrants and asylum seekers out to be this horrible thing and demonised them. This came after a huge recession in 1923, the Wall Street crash, and the subsequent dramatic rise of far right parties in various countries, specifically Italy, then Germany and Spain. \nFast-forward to modern times. 2008 saw another global recession. Once again politics swung massively to the right with countries like Italy (once again), Hungary, Austria, Poland and Sweden, voting in right wing governments, France ending in a run off that narrowly defeated the far right, Belgium and Spain looking likely to be heading into heavily right wing governments at the next elections, whilst the US and UK governments both saw their politics swinging far further in that direction, especially the UK right now whilst led by an unelected leader who is demonising people in ways that would make Trump look soft. One of themajor rallying calls: immigration. The way media report on this becomes increasingly demeaning and hateful. During the 1930's much of the European media and even as far as the UK was ramping up the scorn against the ever increasing influx of Jewish immigrants coming from Germany. Even into 1944 there was a vast amount of demonisation of them seeking asylum, despite the knowledge by this point that there were horrific conditions in camps where extermination was becoming ever more apparent. The Nazi German government in 1936 passed laws that enabled them to revoke citizenship and stripped away laws on human rights. It would be great to say that these poor souls who were being demonised in their own country were accepted into nations who could see what was going on and who wanted to help, but that just wasn't the way it went. Media played out as it is now, leading to rejection and a greater number of deaths as a result of this. The way the UK government is currently working, it actually sounds like the maxi government of the mid 30's during the time of the Nürnberg laws. \n \nThe world feels far smaller now with double the amount of people and with things like social media playing a huge role in the lives of many. The ease of access to people around the world has made issues seem to stretch to far more countries now, whereas back then it was a time of empires. I get that there will be many here who support Trump, many who support Biden, there will be Brit's who support Sunak and the rather vicious words of Suella Braverman, whilst others will be more on the side of Starmer (I'm well aware of all the other parties but they don't stand to gain as much). There will be French people backing Macron, whilst others back Le Pen. We could go through each country all the way to the battle between Fujimori and Castillo in Perú, and the stories are much the same, but how will history judge us when people look back to this time? Will it be another occasion where we demonised those trying to escape the horror of the place they had the bad luck to be born in whilst we were luckier? \n\nI know there is hardship everywhere. I'm struggling more than most and I know I can't keep living this way. However, I don't want to be a part of history people look back at and say ‘if only they did something to help prevent this.’. I would rather be a part of history people look back upon and say; ‘that was a boring time period where nothing important happened’. It's already too late for that. Instead I try to remember that, though I was born into a family who never really wanted me, I was lucky enough to be born into a country that could support me during the hardest times. When you look at immigrants, remember that every one of us has immigrants in our family tree somewhere.