Promoting tolerance. You're doing it wrong! (part 1)
To make ends meet, Nasreddin Hodja and his friend Halim decided to sign up for a construction job in the misty city of St. Petersburg in the far-away Russian land. Upon arrival, as they boarded the bus at the airport that was going to take them to the construction site, the foreman distributed an illustrated booklet titled "Migrant Worker's Handbook" (also available in Tajik, Uzbek and Kyrgyz languages) that was supposed to help newcomers to better integrate into the life of "Russia's cultural capital". The web address of the publisher reads spbtolerance.ru, undoubtedly referring to St. Petersburg tolerance.
Upon seeing the illustrations, Halim's blood boiled over with righteous anger.
"Look at those pictures! Those Russians don't even think of us as human beings! Migrant workers are being depicted as mere tools: a brush, a painting roller, a trowel and a broom!" he exclaimed. "The local doctor, policeman, bureaucrat and tourguide are humans, however. Superheroes, even. Intolerant racist xenophobes!"
"Calm down, my friend!" said the foreman with a big smile on his broad nordic face. "There is nothing disparaging in those depictions. The authors just wanted to avoid drawing caricatures of ethnic stereotypes." he continued. "Moreover, as the German proverb goes: Good tools are half the work."
To which Nasreddin Hodja calmly replied: "But we arrived to provide the other half."
Upon seeing the illustrations, Halim's blood boiled over with righteous anger.
"Look at those pictures! Those Russians don't even think of us as human beings! Migrant workers are being depicted as mere tools: a brush, a painting roller, a trowel and a broom!" he exclaimed. "The local doctor, policeman, bureaucrat and tourguide are humans, however. Superheroes, even. Intolerant racist xenophobes!"
"Calm down, my friend!" said the foreman with a big smile on his broad nordic face. "There is nothing disparaging in those depictions. The authors just wanted to avoid drawing caricatures of ethnic stereotypes." he continued. "Moreover, as the German proverb goes: Good tools are half the work."
To which Nasreddin Hodja calmly replied: "But we arrived to provide the other half."