Comments on: Arab Slums Much Worse than PalArab “Refugee” Camps

By: jusa

jusa — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 17:14:21 +0000

You need english in America? How come my TV, Radio, Newspapers, ATM, national products like microwavable food, some supermarket circular, products like vacuums and VCRs, and a LOT of job postings are in Spanish?
I don’t even live on the border, and I’m not in Miami.
You would be better off here if you knew English, true. But I’d have a lot more doors open to me if I knew Spanish. Which would take away from my learning Chinese(new global language), or even Hebrew(personal wish).

By: Mark

Mark — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 23:33:20 +0000

a slice of life in Egypt:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/17/world/middleeast/17youth.html

By: Mack

Mack — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 20:46:32 +0000

Kashif,

In America, the defacto language of commerce and administration is English. This is cold reality, not an opinion.

I have an English surname as the result of the American “occupation” of the American southwest - I am ethnically Mexican and a native speaker of Spanish. This territory was historically Mexican for generations, and thus there have been accomodations made to make life easier for the existing Spanish-speaking and immigrant populations. This doesn’t change the reality of the situation one bit.

In America, the defacto language of commerce and administration is English. Regardless of how “unjust” America’s possession of the land may be, neither the American government nor the English language are going away anytime soon.

In Israel, the defacto language of commerce and administration is Hebrew. In either locale, one can either count on the graciousness of the government and good fortune to get by, or learn the language and flourish. It is a person decision, and a personal responsibility.

That is all

Es todo, nada mas, solo faltamos las lagrimas…

By: kashif

kashif — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 16:17:23 +0000

“I’ve lived in Central America for nearly ten years. In that time I have become a fluent Spanish speaker. It’s not the job of my hosts to learn English on my behalf. If Arabs have lived in Israel for forty years, maybe they should think about learning Hebrew”

David,

May be you want to read your history books again. Arabs are not guests on this land, but some other group of people.

Now that you have mentioned Spanish, please visit the United States where hospitals have hired spanish workers to help them serve migrants coming from south america.

By: Ollie

Ollie — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 16:09:47 +0000

Kashif makes the apologetic response for the dictatorships and Islamic radicals based on the argument that if there are other bad people in the world they must be the casue of the problem. There must be some excuse for violence and making slaves of their neighbors.

Maybe the Palestinians have made the mistake of not learning Hebrew? Maybe they do not want to integrate into the Israeli country? Maybe they want to be outcasts? So they can claim it is right to kill everyone who disagrees with them? Then they can collect the free food, free shelter assistance, free medical care from the West.

Funny, it is not the Arabs supporting these things. The other Arabs support only the military ventures there, not the humanitarian and progressive areas of learning, work and productivity for future economic growth. Training and western education remove the ability to control the population, God forbid, they might think of bettering their lives without killing their neighbors and behaving as slaves to the Islamic radicals or the local dictatorship.

“The ones that stayed in these “camps” for generations are the lazy ones who feel that free medical care, housing and food are their right long after their status of “refugees” is long gone by any sane definition. ”

Why do we have to hear this over and over when it always is a recipe for failure and disaster. They are being trained to live at the trough of “WELFARE”. So that they do not have to do anything, especially think, and can be easily managed and manipulated by the radicals and the local dictatorship.

The only thing that will improve their lot is to work and learn. We have found that out in the West. It is about time they learned the same, and we in the West stopped subsidizing them. The Isralis have never had to learn this, they just do it.

By: David Gillies

David Gillies — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 16:00:49 +0000

I’ve lived in Central America for nearly ten years. In that time I have become a fluent Spanish speaker. It’s not the job of my hosts to learn English on my behalf. If Arabs have lived in Israel for forty years, maybe they should think about learning Hebrew.

By: kashif

kashif — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 15:40:14 +0000

Klaus,

In 40 years Jerusalem hospitals have not been able to solve the language problem?

May be source of all this conflict is because Israel have not made any attempt to learn the language and therefore failed to understand what Arabs are saying.

By: Klaus Flauten

Klaus Flauten — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 15:24:44 +0000

Kashif,
Interesting that the author of the article to which you link is named Kashif. Your conclusion that language differences seem to account for the difference in care sort of distracts from any racism.

By: kashif

kashif — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 14:48:13 +0000

this story on the same site is also worth reading to get a complete picture:

http://www.twocircles.net/2008feb01/arabs_jerusalem_receive_lower_quality_medical_care_study.html

By: Diggs

Diggs — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 14:31:57 +0000

If the Islamists had attacked Saddam’s forces as violently and consistently as they attack Coalition forces, Saddam would have been out of power years ago. So why didn’t they? Because Islamists are not trying to remove dictators, or give any sort of freedom to the masses, or establish governments that believe in improving the lives of their citizens. In fact, the Taliban, Hamas, Iranian Revolutionary Council and other Islamist governments have shown the exact opposite; they will enslave their own people just as quickly as a military dictator like Saddam.
Not that this would ever be recognized by the Leftists around the world. They think the Islamists are fighting the US because we are inherently evil. They don’t understand history, or else they’d understand that the Islamists fight us because America ISN’T evil enough.