DURBAN

Back in 2001, when I criticized the Durban Conference (the world conference on racism sponsored by the UN), I was castigated by a number of right-thinking Dutch weasels and their fellow-travelers, one of whom called me a Jew, a member of Kahane Chai, a possible/probable killer of children, and an advocate of ethnic cleansing.

It is therefore with relish that I reproduce the following text, lifted from the Arutz Sheva website, regarding the follow-up conference scheduled for next year.


[Begin quote]

Canada: Next Durban Conference Will Be No Better

Canadian Foreign Minister Maxime Bernier and the Secretary of State for Multiculturalism and Canadian Identity, Jason Kenney, issued a statement on January 23 in which they announced that their country would not be taking part in the UN's 2009 World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance in Durban, South Africa. The reason for their decision, they said, was the prospect that the conference would again degenerate into a festival of anti-Semitism, as occurred in 2001.

"Canada has a long and proud history of fighting racism, discrimination and intolerance in all its forms," said Minister Bernier. "It was for this reason, and its promise of concerted global action against racism, that we participated in the 2001 in Durban, South Africa. Unfortunately, that conference degenerated into open and divisive expressions of intolerance and anti-Semitism that undermined the principles of the United Nations and the very goals the conference sought to achieve.

"Secretary of State Kenney and I had hoped that the preparatory process for the 2009 Durban Review Conference would remedy the mistakes of the past," Bernier explained. "We have concluded that, despite our efforts, it will not. Canada will therefore not participate in the 2009 conference."

"Canada will continue to focus its efforts on genuine anti-racism initiatives that make a difference," added Kenney. "Our government’s decision to seek full membership on the Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance, and Research demonstrates that we remain committed to the fight against racism and to the promotion of freedom, democracy, human rights and the rule of law at home and around the world."

[End quote]

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For perspective, I also reproduce an e-mail I sent on September 7, 2001.
The recipient was the Suriname Mailing List.

[Begin e-mail]

From:
Sent: Friday, September 07, 2001 2:44 PM
To:
Subject: Durban

Odd that there has been no comment on the list regarding that travesty in Durban.

Surely my fellow list members have opinions?

The results of the Durban conference sofar:

The Jews (eternal victims of bigotry) have been slammed by the Arabs (slave traders for millennia, who still discriminate against those who are neither Arab nor Muslim, and still surreptitiously support slavery). Odd that those who pretty much invented the slave trade are being allowed to dominate the proceedings... third world solidarity in action?

The African nations, who profited from selling their war-captives and minorities to Europeans and Arabs, now want to be paid again. No mention of reparations for the actual descendants of the merchandise, who of course do not live in Africa anymore.
It is proposed that tax-money paid in part by the descendants of slaves should be given to those who are in part descended from the sellers of those same slaves. And oddly, no one is demanding that the Arabs pay any reparations at all... third world solidarity in action?

India, whose treatment of its oppressed classes is uncivilized and a scandal, gets off Scot-free by collaborating with Africa and the Arabs to slam Israel and the west.... third world solidarity in action?

No mention of discrimination against the Roma by the Slavs? Odd, I didn't know that Eastern Europe was part of the third world....


Shouldn't more time have been spent on actually discussing racism in the world today (such as the dismal record of my own country as regards minorities and the US justice system) and less time devoted to the consideration of a markedly anti-western agenda by a bunch of third world failures with abominable human rights records?

Might it not have been more productive to look at how America and the European countries are dealing with minority issues?
These are, after all, reasonably successful nations who have actually attempted to deal with racism and discrimination.... quite unlike the repressive dictatorships which litter the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and South America.

The usual chorus of resentful tin-pot tyrants and greedy third-world beggar nations has been allowed to dominate the discussion, giving a shrill chorus of anti-western rhetoric, and sweeping their own rather glaring faults under the rug. One would almost think that hunger for an easy buck drove the proceedings... quite understandable, given that those who steal from their own people often see no reason why they shouldn't steal from everybody else.

Comments? A different opinion? Speak up, I am keen to hear your point of view.[End e-mail]



Today's readers will note that I have not changed very much in ten years, and neither has the world.
Attentive readers will undoubtedly also realize that there is a strong quotient of neener neener neener to this post. Along with a little bitterness.