Dianne Abbott vs Lola Ayonrinde
Seconds out, round one.
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10 comments:
In as much as I usually steer well clear of the race threads, I think to disagree in terms of representation, with the notion of blacks being classed under a single umbrella, would be germaine.
If the Caribbean’s have their own sovereign territory, I think they should stop referring to themselves as Africans.
The blacks in India and even Sri Lanka do not class themselves as Africans. Those blacks in India are known rightly or wrongly as Untouchables because of the accumulation of sins in previous lives.
The Indian religion of Hindu in fact describes these people as foul and loathsome, and any physical contact with them was regarded as polluting.
What we need is a commitment to partnership and closer association between all groups. It will be good to see representatives from all groups in the UK parliament.
I think the British government can re-enact in the UK, what it almost successfully entrenched in its east and central African colonies (Kenya, Zimbabwe etc), in the post war years, prior to the Mau Mau rebellion. In those colonies, it developed truly "multicultural societies", although with unequal representation. In Kenya, for example, the British decided on a ratio of two European representatives to one African and one Asian - 2:1:1.
Hmm, does anyone have a link to Ms. Abbotts original comments for those of us who dont live in England? Already, this seems to be another example of the consequences of our (read: Naijas and other African's) "siddon look" attitude.
There are so many Africans in the UK, yet it appears no influential lobby, political, student or religious group, and no representatives in government. Why? Are we not educated, well traveled, astute, financially capable, etc enough?
So, we continue to get marginalized by our own leaders, foreign governments, and fellow immigrants in foreign lands. Pity...
"My people dey fear too much; dem fear to fight for justice..." - FELA: Sorrow, tears and Blood
What a storm in a teapot! This is what comes when one's life is so good, one seeks out other things with which to occupy one's time, such as inventing divides between black people. Pshaw!
@msmak
Check this link the
The African Carribean debate
http://www.bbc.co.uk/caribbean/news/story/2006/05/060526_black.shtml
Both these women are controversial. I have met them both several times
Diane Abbott wrote the article last year.
There was a post on this blog at the time here
which generated a lot of comments
and there's a link to the article itself in that post.
Happy Reading
"There are so many Africans in the UK, yet it appears no influential lobby, political, student or religious group, and no representatives in government. Why? Are we not educated, well traveled, astute, financially capable, etc enough?"
50% of us dont have "proper papers"
no stay = no say ;)
i saw this last year, i think the lady is right most grants/committe set up for "black" people are usually chaired by caribbeans and discuss issues relating to "them"
And Monsieur Jeremy is the referee!!
I can't believe that no one has spoken out against Lola Ayorinde's attitude. All I heard from her was hate and superiority. Who is she to despise anyone's African heritage? It made me ashamed to be African and worse still Nigerian.
The whole story was a contradiction in terms. Africans are the poorest, yet they show an interview of an African man in his middle class home.
In my experience, majority of black people in top UK universities are African. Majority of black people who work in the City are African. Majority of black doctors are African. Majority of black children on mentoring/achievement programmes are African. Admittedly, this is in my experience and I would accept that mine has been a sheltered life. However, I would be hard pressed to be convinced that Africans in the UK as compared to Caribbeans in the UK get a raw deal.
That's because what you call a deal
i.e. Good Education, Good Job, Good Prospects is different from what they are calling a deal
i.e Bog Standard Comprehensive Education, Public Sector Job and State benefits and Lottery Funding.
Some people will always think that a free gift, no matter how rubbish is a deal.
They are basically complaining that Caribbeans get more freebies.
I'm saddened by Lola Ayorinde's stance (and of course her aggressive attitude in the video clip). We have greater battles to fight as ethnic minorities in the UK and creating a divide with other communities equally experiencing marginalisation indeed will never help our cause.
Invariably you will find that disadvantaged communities have large percentages of ethnic Minorities, just look at Peckham, Tower Hamlets, Tottenham, Brixton and Southall. What these communities need to do is develop stronger networks to campaign for greater resources to deal with the deprivation.
Dami, I don't know where you got your statistics of the percentages of illegals from and I suspect you have overstated the problem. And indeed you will find the UK Nigerian community is not alone in having illegal immigrants ostensibly "without a voice".
The Diversity agenda should tackle the differences issue and indeed if anything we ourselves are to blame if we don't create strong organisations to represent us at local and national level. Our community organisations shouldn't exist just to throw fundraising events to change the political landscape back home, while the grass is growing the goat must still eat. Lets work to change the political landscape here.
Lola I suspect is being controversial to increase her public profile (I don't even think she is still a local councillor in Wandsworth) and satisfy her local Tory party.
Diane Abbott's article about Nigeria in the Jamaica Observer was regretable (it was called Think Jamaica is bad, Try Nigeria but by creating the divides Lola is promoting we'd just be playing into the hands of the divide and rule "masters".
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