Quizzes & Puzzles1 min ago
Things Calais Migrants Say To The Cameras & Journos
60 Answers
Rather than one thread on each, I thought a compendium thread would prevent clutter. Examples so far:-
"I am a bio-engineer" (Egyptian; presumably left his certificates at home. I would like to be a bio-engineer myself. Can I just walk to SE England and claim to be one, too?
"My wife and children will be in trouble if my face is seen" (East African with back of head to camera. Claims to be a dissident).
"God wants us to be here" (African. Country of origin not stated. BBC coverage 31/07/15)
"…because I speak English, no French" (paragraph of mostly broken English). No real hardship to start any other European language from scratch, given the basic attainment achieved with English, so far. Half the planet has command of rudimentary English. This should not have any weight as a criterion upon which to base choice of country of settlement.
So, what migrant quote caught your attention? Please mention what TV channel your quote was gleaned from. Normal news links also welcomed.
"I am a bio-engineer" (Egyptian; presumably left his certificates at home. I would like to be a bio-engineer myself. Can I just walk to SE England and claim to be one, too?
"My wife and children will be in trouble if my face is seen" (East African with back of head to camera. Claims to be a dissident).
"God wants us to be here" (African. Country of origin not stated. BBC coverage 31/07/15)
"…because I speak English, no French" (paragraph of mostly broken English). No real hardship to start any other European language from scratch, given the basic attainment achieved with English, so far. Half the planet has command of rudimentary English. This should not have any weight as a criterion upon which to base choice of country of settlement.
So, what migrant quote caught your attention? Please mention what TV channel your quote was gleaned from. Normal news links also welcomed.
Answers
//Just because someone wants an 'easy life' does not mean they are 'scum of the earth.// no. but just because they are "desperate" doesn't excuse criminal acts. these human beings force their way into trucks causing hundreds of pounds of damage. they then clamber all over the loads inside, contaminatin
10:58 Sat 01st Aug 2015
/// You know very well what I meant regarding UK citizens taking benefits, ///
You do not have to be so rude, just because you have been caught out.
But then being rude seems to be your thing, I quote.
/// Now I realise,by reading some replies, how Hitler managed to rise to power with the Nazi party. 'SOME OF YOU LOT' should read your replies again 'THEN ASK YOURSELF 'AM I RACIST?' I think something needs to be done but there is no need for these 'MIDDLE CLASS POMPOUS DEGRADING REMARKS' . ///
I know perfectly well what you meant, I can read.
There was no reason for you to mention 'White born UK people' why not just 'There are plenty of UK born people who already have 'an easy life' at the expense of the tax payer. UK people'?
You do not have to be so rude, just because you have been caught out.
But then being rude seems to be your thing, I quote.
/// Now I realise,by reading some replies, how Hitler managed to rise to power with the Nazi party. 'SOME OF YOU LOT' should read your replies again 'THEN ASK YOURSELF 'AM I RACIST?' I think something needs to be done but there is no need for these 'MIDDLE CLASS POMPOUS DEGRADING REMARKS' . ///
I know perfectly well what you meant, I can read.
There was no reason for you to mention 'White born UK people' why not just 'There are plenty of UK born people who already have 'an easy life' at the expense of the tax payer. UK people'?
Retrochic
/// BTW AOG Ummmm is my evil twin ,she got kidnapped by Irish gypsies and I got put on a boat to the Colonies. /// ;-)
No way to describe your twin sister in such a way, apart from that what have you got against the Irish and Gypsies. :0)
Point of historical fact also, I don't think the Irish had any Colonies. :0)
/// BTW AOG Ummmm is my evil twin ,she got kidnapped by Irish gypsies and I got put on a boat to the Colonies. /// ;-)
No way to describe your twin sister in such a way, apart from that what have you got against the Irish and Gypsies. :0)
Point of historical fact also, I don't think the Irish had any Colonies. :0)
ummmm
/// But you did know what was meant and you're just arguing for arguing's sake! ///
As I have said before I know perfectly well what she meant, by the way she described only a certain section of UK born people.
Those tips you gained from those Irish Gypsies your sister sent you to on "how to read peoples minds", obviously don't work.
/// But you did know what was meant and you're just arguing for arguing's sake! ///
As I have said before I know perfectly well what she meant, by the way she described only a certain section of UK born people.
Those tips you gained from those Irish Gypsies your sister sent you to on "how to read peoples minds", obviously don't work.
No worries, AOG. I was remarking, only yesterday that I would be chuffed just to get a thread to go beyond page 2. You, Retrochic (& secret twin, Ummmm) have done me proud. Thanks to all, in fact.
//Point of historical fact also, I don't think the Irish had any Colonies. :0) //
Western Scotland? Wasn't there a lot of back and forth conquest, in the Dark Ages?
---------
Another quote I recalled, while reading TWR's thread was
"I can get a house there".
Yes, with which quarter of a million pounds does he expect to bring that about?
Are the banks letting *anyone* get a mortgage, at the moment, let alone unskilled labourers?
Or is he expecting to be "given" a house, like the asylum seekers get?
(Last I recall, asylum seekers are not permitted or visa-ed to work, for tge 6 months or more it takes to assess their claim.
If that is correct, I have no idea why it is and, since they are not cold-war defectors any more, it is an anachronism and needs to be changed.
//Point of historical fact also, I don't think the Irish had any Colonies. :0) //
Western Scotland? Wasn't there a lot of back and forth conquest, in the Dark Ages?
---------
Another quote I recalled, while reading TWR's thread was
"I can get a house there".
Yes, with which quarter of a million pounds does he expect to bring that about?
Are the banks letting *anyone* get a mortgage, at the moment, let alone unskilled labourers?
Or is he expecting to be "given" a house, like the asylum seekers get?
(Last I recall, asylum seekers are not permitted or visa-ed to work, for tge 6 months or more it takes to assess their claim.
If that is correct, I have no idea why it is and, since they are not cold-war defectors any more, it is an anachronism and needs to be changed.
@AOG
I'm surprised you didn't correct Retrochic's punctuation before you responded in kind. "White born" is a peculiar phrase, seemingly predicated on the fact that people can change the colour they were born with.
White, born UK, people (or born-UK people or born-in-UK people, as preferred) is what was intended, I would guess.
As you (AOG) so rightly pointed out the phrasing did fail the usual test of "if I flip the colours around, does this statement sound racist?"
The people in Calais are by no means all from Africa. Syrians are there in large numbers and some of them look very European to me. Assad reminds me of a caricature of DeGaulle, for some reason.
If 3000 white migrants were there, throwing bricks and planks at trucks and rendering cargo unsellable and had the same spongey intentions as the crowd we are discussing, I think we'd hate them just as much.
It is how they behave and how little they respect our laws and property that we base our attitude on, not their colour.
I'm surprised you didn't correct Retrochic's punctuation before you responded in kind. "White born" is a peculiar phrase, seemingly predicated on the fact that people can change the colour they were born with.
White, born UK, people (or born-UK people or born-in-UK people, as preferred) is what was intended, I would guess.
As you (AOG) so rightly pointed out the phrasing did fail the usual test of "if I flip the colours around, does this statement sound racist?"
The people in Calais are by no means all from Africa. Syrians are there in large numbers and some of them look very European to me. Assad reminds me of a caricature of DeGaulle, for some reason.
If 3000 white migrants were there, throwing bricks and planks at trucks and rendering cargo unsellable and had the same spongey intentions as the crowd we are discussing, I think we'd hate them just as much.
It is how they behave and how little they respect our laws and property that we base our attitude on, not their colour.
From their own mouths, TTG. Thanks.
Sigh. This means I'm going to have to back off, a little, on the fear-mongers who merely *predicted* that this would be what they want.
There is a lot of repetition of film segments, across BBC news and I may have seen the clip to which you refer. I nearly submitted the post with a quote saying "they will give me a house" but that was from memory and I was so unsure whether this was the *actual* words used or merely my interpretation of their meaning that I edited it to read "I want a house".
For what I am trying to achieve, here, it is important to quote the exact words they use and not to paraphrase, interpret or spin to ones own agenda. Your paraphrasing is made obvious by the absence of a quote; my 'edit' needed to be brought to the attention of anyone who has not seen this footage.
Sigh. This means I'm going to have to back off, a little, on the fear-mongers who merely *predicted* that this would be what they want.
There is a lot of repetition of film segments, across BBC news and I may have seen the clip to which you refer. I nearly submitted the post with a quote saying "they will give me a house" but that was from memory and I was so unsure whether this was the *actual* words used or merely my interpretation of their meaning that I edited it to read "I want a house".
For what I am trying to achieve, here, it is important to quote the exact words they use and not to paraphrase, interpret or spin to ones own agenda. Your paraphrasing is made obvious by the absence of a quote; my 'edit' needed to be brought to the attention of anyone who has not seen this footage.
à Rétrochic
Ne pas le français doivent ses virgules au bon endroit, trop ?
:-P
@aggie
A brace of fifties is not a century, alas. I could attempt to emulate AOG's skills and argue the toss over the *exact* words he used, in the early pages, which magically metamorphose into other meanings, *inside their minds* {{{echo}}} causing a 6-page clash of syntactic opinions… but there is nothing worse than a cheap cover version, is there?
Ne pas le français doivent ses virgules au bon endroit, trop ?
:-P
@aggie
A brace of fifties is not a century, alas. I could attempt to emulate AOG's skills and argue the toss over the *exact* words he used, in the early pages, which magically metamorphose into other meanings, *inside their minds* {{{echo}}} causing a 6-page clash of syntactic opinions… but there is nothing worse than a cheap cover version, is there?
Latest quote is actually from one of the refugees in Kos
Journo: what did you expect, when you got here?
Refugee: "A paradise. We expect{ed} a paradise here. Not this."
------
Because it is nobody's job to do so, none of the privations of the camps in Greece, Lampedusa, Calais and wherever the others are located, are not being fed back to where these people are fleeing from.
The ones in the camps demur that they regret the journey, things at home are less bad than the temporary camps. This does not make sense to me: refugees should put up with any old ***t because it's always going to be better than persecution, torture or death.
It is not clear to me whether the Greek island migrants have come direct from the Syrian coast or if they've made a shorter hop, from Turkey. The latter fits the bill for "nearest, safe" country and has plenty of land area to accommodate half another country's population. But it's not in the EU. If that doesn't make them economic migrants, I don't know what does.
Journo: what did you expect, when you got here?
Refugee: "A paradise. We expect{ed} a paradise here. Not this."
------
Because it is nobody's job to do so, none of the privations of the camps in Greece, Lampedusa, Calais and wherever the others are located, are not being fed back to where these people are fleeing from.
The ones in the camps demur that they regret the journey, things at home are less bad than the temporary camps. This does not make sense to me: refugees should put up with any old ***t because it's always going to be better than persecution, torture or death.
It is not clear to me whether the Greek island migrants have come direct from the Syrian coast or if they've made a shorter hop, from Turkey. The latter fits the bill for "nearest, safe" country and has plenty of land area to accommodate half another country's population. But it's not in the EU. If that doesn't make them economic migrants, I don't know what does.
-- answer removed --
We all acknowledge that war is hell and the two world wars extended their strife to parts of Africa and the Middle East. Refugees did head this way and that but there was no mass migration on this scale.
Okay, they would have had to trek through axis territory, where they'd likely have got short shfift but, aside from allegiances of the time, why not, back then? What is so different now?
It must be that living standards were so similar, 70 years ago that they decided to stay where the weather was warm, the winter fuel bill was negligible and bombs rarely fell from the skies. The weather is the same (or, perhaps uncomfortably hotter in summer, of late?) but the other two sides to the equation have changed, providing a strong draw factor.
Sealing the land border only reroutes some of the flow elsewhere. Sea is not the barrier it once was and modern sensibilities do not permit using gunboats against unarmed civilian vessels.
I have used the phrase "unarmed invasion", in recent weeks. I expected to be given a pounding for doing so but, this being AB, no-one batted an eyelid. Not even the ones so often derided as being "politically correct".
Anyway, my argument is that the UN needs to re-examine the parameters of what constitutes one country damaging another, to include economic damage by population pressure. No weapons but still crossing borders and using up the resources, such as education services, with which we achieve social advancement, above that of a third world (sorry for that term) country.
A UK resident who is not willing to cut family ties, as migrants are more than willing to, move out of the sticks to London, or other conurbation and take one of those better-paying jobs is destined to have a more lowly lifestyle than the educated children of a migrant who got themselves housed conveniently within commuting reach of such a city.
If migrants were housed in an area with only farming, tourism or retail as employment sectors, they'd hate it (****ty wages). It would be like being back on the farm, back home.
I've grossly over-simplified the situation but I have to ask myself why I don't cross the UK, in search of a better job. My parents are elderly but it's only seven hours, by train, if they fall ill, suddenly.
Okay, they would have had to trek through axis territory, where they'd likely have got short shfift but, aside from allegiances of the time, why not, back then? What is so different now?
It must be that living standards were so similar, 70 years ago that they decided to stay where the weather was warm, the winter fuel bill was negligible and bombs rarely fell from the skies. The weather is the same (or, perhaps uncomfortably hotter in summer, of late?) but the other two sides to the equation have changed, providing a strong draw factor.
Sealing the land border only reroutes some of the flow elsewhere. Sea is not the barrier it once was and modern sensibilities do not permit using gunboats against unarmed civilian vessels.
I have used the phrase "unarmed invasion", in recent weeks. I expected to be given a pounding for doing so but, this being AB, no-one batted an eyelid. Not even the ones so often derided as being "politically correct".
Anyway, my argument is that the UN needs to re-examine the parameters of what constitutes one country damaging another, to include economic damage by population pressure. No weapons but still crossing borders and using up the resources, such as education services, with which we achieve social advancement, above that of a third world (sorry for that term) country.
A UK resident who is not willing to cut family ties, as migrants are more than willing to, move out of the sticks to London, or other conurbation and take one of those better-paying jobs is destined to have a more lowly lifestyle than the educated children of a migrant who got themselves housed conveniently within commuting reach of such a city.
If migrants were housed in an area with only farming, tourism or retail as employment sectors, they'd hate it (****ty wages). It would be like being back on the farm, back home.
I've grossly over-simplified the situation but I have to ask myself why I don't cross the UK, in search of a better job. My parents are elderly but it's only seven hours, by train, if they fall ill, suddenly.
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