British Indians ?

As we know, it is very easy to find foreing people living as part of the population of a country all over the world; since times as the colonization in the past, we can find a huge diversity in this globalized world.
But, in this case I have found something really interesting and it is the way that Indian people live in London; they are not guests in this city, they are even considered sometimes as "British Indians", because they contribute to many aspectos of London life.
The South Asian population in the UK is over one and a half million inhabitants, where we can see the majority in the city of London and it is estimated that nearly half of the South Asians in Britain are of Indian descent.

What I would like to express in this blog entry is the huge contribution of Indian population; starting in the 20th century, where there were merchants, doctors, lawyers and students in addition to the sailors and servants that had been in this place since many years ago. Also in the 1920s, wealthy Indians often sent their sons to be educated at British public schools and universities, so they'd became part of the society.

Nowadays, UK politicians say "Britain's future economic success lies on the shoulders of businessmen and businesswomen of Indian descent. We look to Indians to put the 'Great' into Great Britain." They are an important part of this country.
In recent times Indian culture has made a huge impact on the British entertainment industry. This culture has borrowed musical elements from Bollywood films. They are also famous for their restaurants, stores and music in general.


 So, my point is that sometimes we look the minorities in every country as just inmigrants that arrive to find job opportunities and to take benefist of our countries, and we don't see how much they can contribute to our own economy or the potential that they maybe have as the Indian population does in Britain.

 

THOSE BORN AS SLAVES

MUST DIE AS SLAVES

A cruel motto reality.

Can you imagine how would be to hide all life only because you belong to a breed that is discriminated? And probably you are asking why to hide? I tell you why... because there is a group of people that going to pursue you until your life ends, no matter how nice you have been, they just going to kill you.

Sign and clothing of the KKK

The Ku Klux Klan (KKK), informally known as the Klan or the "Hooded Order", is the name of three distinct past and present far-right organizations in the United States, which have advocated extremist reactionary currents such as white supremacy, white nationalism, and anti-imigration, historically expressed through terrorism. Since the mid-20th century, the KKK has also been anti-communist. The current manifestation is splintered into several chapter with no connection to each other; it is classified as a hate group by the Anti-Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Center. It is estimated to have between 5,000 and 8,000 members as 2012.

I will focus mainly on discrimination against African Americans, as I have read in chapter 4 of the text that Miss Cardenas gave us to our presentations, the KKK was created in Georgia because the president of the USA (Abraham Lincoln) wants to end slavery but the South didn't want, so North and South go to war, before the North won slavery partly disappears, but discrimination continued of the worst way possible.

Two children in the KKK

The KKK came to kill over a thousand blacks during its busiest period, but gradually began to decline their activity, until its dissolution in 1869 ordered, but the Klan didn't disappear. Far from it, Easter Sunday 1873 ocurred the most slaughter by the KKK: 280 black men were killed in Louisiana.

They burned crosses to oppress their victims

There were 3 KKK but in 1994 it began to dissolve the last one. At present there are still some small organizations KKK. In 2000 it was estimated that there were a total of 3000 members. Is clear that discrimination didn't end completely. Anyway, if we can see great progress as the president of the USA that he is African American, that doesn't meant anything... look at this video:

Young girl burned by the KKK in 2012

Do you know..?

Membership in the Klan is secret. Like many organizations, the Klan has signs which members can use to recognize one another. A member may use the acronym AYAK (Are you a Klansman?) in conversation to surreptiously himself to another potential member. The response AKIA (A Klansman I am) completes the greeting.

We all belong to the same breed: H U M A N

Poverty in Native American people

The poverty situation of native people in North America is the result of the European colonization over the centuries. And its review, with the exception of some cases, can be extensive for the colonies in Africa, Asia, and South America.

The Anglo-Saxon families who first arrived at North America, settle down in Native American’s territories, and with the support of the Kingdom’s militia, they forced Native American into less habitable land.  They had to develop new ways of subsistence; they had to become a sedentary tribe and started to learn the colonizer language, culture, and manners.

They started to trade with the colonizers, but this was not always a monetary exchange, but in many cases they were paid with alcohol. The result of this exchange was the growing alcohol dependence among Natives along the centuries, especially between men.

The excess of alcohol mixed with the lack of opportunities, the exclusion, the sense of helplessness and the government’s indifference, has triggered into a rising poverty situation among the people of the reservations, without mention that "they have lower education, health care insurance coverage, and a larger risk of being prison inmates, unemployed, or low-paid workers"

To be a Native nowadays it’s a difficult thing. They have had to adapt to a culture that is not theirs. To other rules, conditions and laws.  A modern society that does not accept that other do not follow its rhythm, a modern society that do not respect those who don’t want to be part of this capitalist society. . To all  this we have to add the fact that they are still victims of racism, the fact that the society still sees them in a stereotypical way and the fact that they have been relegated to the shadows of our society for far too long.

http://www.ecineq.org/milano/WP/ECINEQ2008-96.pdf

http://www.spotlightonpoverty.org/ExclusiveCommentary.aspx?id=0fe5c04e-fdbf-4718-980c-0373ba823da7

TOMAHAWK

 A Simple weapon but with History

Tomahawks were  tools used by Native Americans and the invaders European and often employed as a hand-to-hand or a thrown weapon also used as a trade-item with other Native Americans for food and provisions
were initially forged stones and bones but with the arrival of Europeans turned into metal this weapon also has the function of pipe in one hand has the pipe and on the other the head of the axe this symbolizes "Peace and War"
the Tomahawk word is from Powhatan "Tomahaac" derived from Proto-Algonquian language from This language is derived from other tribes throughout northern and eastern North America
The versatility of this weapon lasted for a long time even in the war of vietman which used a more modern version, but with the same models  

In this picture we can see the tomahawk in hands of Mel Gibson in his movie "The Patriot" The peculiarity is that the movie is based on the independence of the United States of America from British Empire and also we can see slavery and the slaughter caused by foreigners to Native Americans

A North American native using the pipe tomahawk

We are equal

The discrimination in our society is an act very common, through our actions, words and apathy we disqualify a guy, ethnic group or a community in particular. The concepts like xenophobia, segregation, discrimination, etc., caused a lot of conflict in the history, for example: The segregation in The United States of America, the base for the Nazi's ideology, alleged supremacy between white over blacks people, etc. But the discrimination is not just a racial issue, is more than that, we can see other cases like religion, social class, preferences, and other things that society of today fight for the mutual acceptance

.

Where does it come the idea that white people are better than black people? Ones of my theories is that in the Middle Ages, Catholics were the only ones those who dominated everything and through their ideas and people's ignorance they could control laws and different ideologies in that moment; in this period was where the idea about the black with the sin and the white with purity comes, that is why we associated the white with the good, purity, divine and superiority and the black we associated with the sin, bad things and inferiority. Many times, the reason of those discrimination are just collectives, I mean, we follow what people say about some social group; the stereotypes plays an important role when we discriminate, the stereotypes are like little mind's  boxes  and they are made just to classify and organize in our head a group of people, and we know due to their behaviors, preferences, social classes, etc.

It's amazing how ideologies can move a huge crowd of people; Martin Luther King was able to create worldwide awareness about what was happening to black people in The United State, he was able to create a revolution never seen before, but in other way we have Adolf Hitler, a man who left a mark in the universal history of humanity , his ideology was based upon a complete discrimination against Jews, disabled people and black people; he thought that white people were higher, perfect and better than other kind of race. Perhaps today we don't see revolutionary instances but discrimination has been a factor very common in everybody; sometimes we can't accept other ways of thinking and if we want eradicate those stereotypes, we have to change our mindset.

If we want to understand the cultural diversity, is necessary learn to live with different kind of people; we have the ability to eradicate stereotypes around so we can provide a change against the discrimination and we have to know that in the only thing that we are equal, is that we are different.

Here, some cases of discrimination:

The price of progress

Native American radioactivity exposure

-For many years the Native American people on the USA (Sioux, Cherokee, Navajo, Spokane ,etc), have been exposed to radiation from Uranium mining in territories close to their reservations.  They have been affected for decades by the serious health consequences from uranium mining.  Their lands have been used to dispose toxic waste as well.

In 1951 when USA  started to do their tests with nuclear bombs, they targeted a place in the state of Nevada and their called it "Nevada test site ", but what they didn´t told to the public was that this area was the Western Shonshone Nation.  This territory has had more nuclear bombs dropped than any other place in the world. Even when this territories has been given to the Native American nation by the government, his land has been sacrificed looking towards the "progress", and these people who has been abused for many many years had have to pay the price for something that they never ask for.

The government of the USA has been lying to these people for a long time, they hired Native American Indians to do the mining work, as cheap labour force and they never told them about the risks and dangers that this kind of job could be for their health.  Many of these workers have died of cancer related to radioactivity exposure.

How much it cost a life?

On Dec. 22, 1987, a law called "The screw Nevada bill" was passed. This law aimed to designate the Yucca Mountain in Nevada as a place for further study as a possible toxic waste dump. This decision was taken behind close doors (rumors said that a lot of lobby was made by the Nuclear industry and The USA department of Energy). But Native American people couldn´t stand this anymore, a great activist movement was formed. Led by Western Shoshone spiritual leader Corbin Harney, the Western Shoshone National Council maintained tireless opposition to the dump, joined, over time, by more than a thousand environmental groups. Then, in 2009, President Obama and his Energy Secretary, Steven Chu, wisely cancelled the dangerous, controversial proposal.

Clearly, the USA government is in debt with the Native American Nation, they has been not only displaced from the land of their forefathers, they also has been forced to deal with the radioactivity problem, as in many others countries worldwide (like in Chile), natives are not treated with enough respect, in many cases they are segregated and suffer a lot of discrimination. In my opinion, this kind of abuse must end, once for all.