Integrate this!

[dreamville_bg]

I came across this short story around our local blogosphere here, and though it isn't my creation, I've taken the task of translating it into English, and I would be grateful if the mods allow my version to be posted here, as I think it helps illustrate a point - even if it sounds a bit silly and hyperbolical. So here it is.

Comments

[ddstory]

One thing you're right about: it is hyperbolic.

[abomvubuso]

Although I don't necessarily agree with the point it's making (we've talked about this before: if you want to apply the Medieval moral standards of the Middle East to our societies, be my guest, but I'm afraid I can't second that sort of approach), I can still appreciate a piece that's had a lot of thought and effort invested in it.

[peamasii]

I can imagine asking for asylum in Saudi Arabia and quickly becoming a slave labourer with no rights and very little money, like in the first paragraph.

[luzribeiro]

Not bad. A bit over the top, but still it does score on all points where a decent reactionary diatribe is supposed to score. Bravo to whichever bigot came up with it, and definitely kudos for the translation. It gave us a glimpse of the precious mindset of a cartoonish type that is evidently very prevalent throughout some corners of the globe.

[garote]

It's interesting to me that this narrative leverages the sexual control of women so heavily. It's pure Wahabi to assume that women are - and should be - cocooned in clothing as a protection against the uncontrollable sexuality of men, and I find it deeply ironic that the author - who clearly sympathizes with this misogyny - has projected such lack of control onto a foreign devil who has probably seen more female flesh in any given week (and grown far less affected by it) than the author has probably seen in a lifetime.

[dreamville_bg]

Methinks you completely whizzed past the idea of this whole lampoon.

[garote]

Well, that's just, like, your opinion man!

Perhaps "the point" is to characterize immigrants as disruptive and entitled, and the state and populace as naïve and posturing, but that's, like, borrrr-riiiing ;)

[dreamville_bg]

It's simple. It argues that bending over backwards to accommodate the sensibilities of people who explicitly refuse to be integrated, is doomed to fail - in part because the other side refuses to reciprocate. That's all this is about. It's got nothing to do with leveraging the sexual control of women or anything beyond what I just described. Anything you might be imagining beyond that, is, like you said, "your opinion, man".