File spoon-archives/lyotard.archive/lyotard_2003/lyotard.0310, message 136


Date: Tue, 28 Oct 2003 18:10:07 +0000
From: "steve.devos" <steve.devos-AT-krokodile.co.uk>
Subject: Re: How it is


This is a multi-part message in MIME format.

Carole,

This is a reasonable point - but I'm struck by the fact that whilst 
Beckett was writing in this way, Lyotard/Fanon and Sartre were raising 
the neo-colonialism issue in  ways that still resonates today.  It is 
clear that Beckett was in a very different social and historical moment 
than we are, hence the question.

The mass migrations, the circulating flows of the multitudes as they run 
from the regions devastated by the imposed Western socio-economic 
systems are unstoppable. This is an inevitable aspect of the ongoing 
process of modernisation which has encouraged massive migrations from 
rural areas to meteropoliton centers within each country and across the 
globe. We can all recognise the flows of people from south to north but 
also from south to south - these including the temporay workers or 
immigrants amoungst the southern regions, but let us not forget that the 
number of refugees that are in Iran dwarfs the numbers that have washed 
up on the shores of Europe. For those who have been forced to wash-up on 
the shores of europe, the misery of the forced migration has to be seen 
to be believed,  the support we can offer is limited.

Incidentally the majority of the current wave of migrants are from 
eastern europe, only a comparatively small number has been arrriving 
from North and Central Africa. Current estimates are that last year the 
UK had 250,000  migrants, (Gov figures are 150,000). These volumes are 
not really significant enough to fundamentally impact the local culture, 
any impact will be positive. The amnesty and automatic citizenship 
offered this weekend was probably one of Blunket's more surprising but 
intelligent and liberal actions. Immediately after this Blunkett 
announced new asylum  bill...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Refugees_in_Britain/Story/0,2763,1072270,00.html 
(for details)

regards
steve
http://www.krokodile.co.uk

carole lindholm wrote:

>Steve,
>
>On Tue, 28 Oct 2003 09:03:00 +0000
> "steve.devos" <steve.devos-AT-krokodile.co.uk> wrote:
>  
>
>>I  read this and wondered if anyone else thought it was
>>odd to read an email from SA which says "...if I can be
>>Irish and then French I could just as well be Danish or a
>>dog..." I am wondering at the narrow range of "proper
>>names" and whether it is just me that thinks that the
>>narrowness is not reflexive of our unreconstructed
>>eurocentrism ?
>>    
>>
>
>The phrase "if I can be Irish and then French" was a
>reference to Samuel Beckett, an Irishman who became a
>French citizen. 
> 
>And I'm hardly eurocentric. Other whites in South Africa,
>who still feel somewhat European, complain that their
>vision of Europe involves migratory flows of Muslims and
>Africans crisscrossing it like blood vessels. And of course
>they're horrified by this thought.
>
>I disagree. Personally I think the British government
>should open up Sangrette and let those asylum seekers come
>pouring in by the millions. Same for the rest of West
>Europe. That might be the end of Britain and Western Europe
>as we know them, but speaking as a South African, this
>would be a good thing, in my opinion.
>
>Carole
>
>
> 
>=>Download ringtones, logos and picture messages at Ananzi Mobile Fun.
>http://www.ananzi.co.za/cgi-bin/goto.pl?mobile
>
>  
>

HTML VERSION:

Carole,

This is a reasonable point - but I'm struck by the fact that whilst Beckett was writing in this way, Lyotard/Fanon and Sartre were raising the neo-colonialism issue in  ways that still resonates today.  It is clear that Beckett was in a very different social and historical moment than we are, hence the question.

The mass migrations, the circulating flows of the multitudes as they run from the regions devastated by the imposed Western socio-economic systems are unstoppable. This is an inevitable aspect of the ongoing process of modernisation which has encouraged massive migrations from rural areas to meteropoliton centers within each country and across the globe. We can all recognise the flows of people from south to north but also from south to south - these including the temporay workers or immigrants amoungst the southern regions, but let us not forget that the number of refugees that are in Iran dwarfs the numbers that have washed up on the shores of Europe. For those who have been forced to wash-up on the shores of europe, the misery of the forced migration has to be seen to be believed,  the support we can offer is limited.

Incidentally the majority of the current wave of migrants are from eastern europe, only a comparatively small number has been arrriving from North and Central Africa. Current estimates are that last year the UK had 250,000  migrants, (Gov figures are 150,000). These volumes are not really significant enough to fundamentally impact the local culture, any impact will be positive. The amnesty and automatic citizenship offered this weekend was probably one of Blunket's more surprising but intelligent and liberal actions. Immediately after this Blunkett announced new asylum  bill...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Refugees_in_Britain/Story/0,2763,1072270,00.html (for details)

regards
steve
http://www.krokodile.co.uk

carole lindholm wrote:
Steve,

On Tue, 28 Oct 2003 09:03:00 +0000
 "steve.devos" <steve.devos-AT-krokodile.co.uk> wrote:
  
I  read this and wondered if anyone else thought it was
odd to read an email from SA which says "...if I can be
Irish and then French I could just as well be Danish or a
dog..." I am wondering at the narrow range of "proper
names" and whether it is just me that thinks that the
narrowness is not reflexive of our unreconstructed
eurocentrism ?
    

The phrase "if I can be Irish and then French" was a
reference to Samuel Beckett, an Irishman who became a
French citizen. 
 
And I'm hardly eurocentric. Other whites in South Africa,
who still feel somewhat European, complain that their
vision of Europe involves migratory flows of Muslims and
Africans crisscrossing it like blood vessels. And of course
they're horrified by this thought.

I disagree. Personally I think the British government
should open up Sangrette and let those asylum seekers come
pouring in by the millions. Same for the rest of West
Europe. That might be the end of Britain and Western Europe
as we know them, but speaking as a South African, this
would be a good thing, in my opinion.

Carole


 
=Download ringtones, logos and picture messages at Ananzi Mobile Fun.
http://www.ananzi.co.za/cgi-bin/goto.pl?mobile

  

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