BBC mocks Swiss party with tone of voice

[ascendinglark]

OK so I can't post a link to this, because it was something I just heard on the BBC world news (not sure of the presenter).

They were talking about a report which says that Switzerland's naturalization process, in which villagers take a vote on whether or not to give someone citizenship or not, is "racist".

Of course 99% of the segment was devoted to fawning over the plight of a Muslim woman who said that she was being shunned because of her name (Fatima) and that she couldn't thus take part in the political process of Switzerland (presumably to vote for Sharia law).

Nothing from the "other side" of the story - until the last minute or so of the segment, when they interviewed a politician from the "People's Party", which of course they wasted no time in describing as "right wing" (presumably to help anyone who was confused by such a caring sounding name). Of course, her rebuttal was sound and contained arguments which threw everything the BBC was implying in a new light.

After she spoke, the presenter introduced her as such and such from the "People's" Party - and said the word "People's" in a slow, mocking, sarcastic tone by way of putting raised eyebrows on it in a "how ironic" kind of way. It was a fine example of subtle (or not so subtle) BBC ideological bias and I just wish I had a link to the audio so you could hear it.

[Teddy Bear]

I couldn't find a link to any related article that you describe, but I did find this. One can see immediately (note the headline) the view that the BBC is expressing, and are not merely reporting the news. They castigate the Swiss for protecting their society, something we'd dearly love to see more of here.

This one article illustrates much as to what has contributed so much to the loss of British identity and values thanks to the BBC.

Friday, 8 June, 2001, 15:18 GMT 16:18 UK
Swiss democracy gone mad?

By Imogen Foulkes in Emmen, Switzerland
Milunka Milovanovic has had a hectic social calendar recently. She and her family are busy trying to persuade their local community of Emmen, near Lucerne, that they deserve Swiss nationality.

Now they have to convince Emmen's 10,000 voters

In Switzerland, 20% of the population is foreign, but you can only vote if you are Swiss. Switzerland has the strictest nationality rules in Europe - you have to have lived in the country at least 12 years,

Emmen is a small industrial town and, like many similar Swiss communities, it recruited foreign workers in the 1970s and 80s. Among them were the young Milovanovics: 21 years ago they arrived from Yugoslavia.

Now they and their three children, who were all born here, would like to be citizens of their adopted homeland.

The Milovanovics have met all the legal requirements for citizenship: They have paid 1,000 francs for their application to be considered, they have been interviewed by the local council, they have passed German tests, and demonstrated their understanding of the Swiss way of life.

But now they have to convince Emmen's 10,000 voters. In order to help people make up their minds, Emmen town council has sent a brochure to every home: In it the hopeful faces of the applicants stare out. Beneath the photographs their jobs, hobbies and reasons for wanting to be Swiss are listed.

Public test

Milunka Milovanovic, we are told, works in an old people's home, and in her free time likes to walk in the country. She wants to be Swiss, she says, because she has lived in Switzerland more than half her life.

But all this is not enough: The local political parties in Emmen have been holding meetings so that voters can ask the applicants questions.

The meeting organised by the right-wing Swiss people's party becomes a shameful spectacle. The five Milovanovics are placed on a stage. Rows of upright Swiss voters stare up at them. The questions come thick and fast.


Who would you cheer for at a football match - Switzerland or Yugoslavia?
What language do you dream in?
Why do you really want a Swiss passport - isn't it just because you think you can get a better life here?
The Milovanovics answer everything patiently, meekly, with great courtesy. But why submit to such a humiliating public examination? After all, the meetings are supposed to be voluntary.

Milunka smiles wearily before hurrying off to the next meeting.

"Well, if it has to be, it has to be,'" she says. "We'll just put up with it."

Locals' whims

There is good reason for her stoicism; last year when Emmen voted on applications for nationality, 48 out of a total of 56 were rejected. Not a single person from the Balkans was accepted.

Ethnic origin is not supposed to influence citizenship decisions. But Switzerland has accepted a lot of asylum seekers from former Yugoslavia, and, human nature being what it is, many people now think there are too many people from the Balkans in their country, and are expressing their concern at the ballot box.



It is democracy gone sour, a way to express prejudice, and punish innocent people

But the victims are not asylum seekers at all, who cannot apply for citizenship, but families like the Milovanovics, who live here permanently.

After watching the goings on in Emmen with increasing unease, I asked a Swiss friend whether it would not be better to take the whole nationality issue away from the local communities and make the decision anonymously at federal level. He too is repelled by the prejudices expressed in Emmen, but he looks at me in surprise.

"That could never happen in Switzerland. The people always have the final say," he said.

Another Swiss acquaintance related with approval that she regularly rejected applications.

"We had one woman who applied," she explained. "She'd been here for 20 years, but you know she never said hello to me on the street, and she didn't join any of our lady's clubs -so I voted against her."

Personal view

Is this really what Swiss democracy is supposed to be? Neighbour judging neighbour, over real or imagined slights?

Switzerland has been my home for almost 11 years now, and it is in so many ways a very civilised, friendly and cultured country.

But the example of Emmen depresses me, because it is democracy gone sour, a way to express prejudice, and punish innocent people. But because in theory it is democracy, no one, it seems, wants to challenge it.

"People would vote the same way in your country if they could," said one Swiss friend.

I am sure many would, but they do not have the right to, and quite frankly after watching the ordeal of the Milovanovics I think I prefer a more limited democracy.

The irony of the whole miserable Emmen episode is that if the Milovanovic family's application for citizenship is rejected, they will still live permanently in Switzerland, doing the same jobs, going to the same schools and visiting the same shops.

But they will be doing it all in the knowledge that for some reason their neighbours did not think they were good enough to be Swiss, and worthy enough to vote alongside them.

[ascendinglark]

Isn't it funny - you just know that the lefties at the BBC, if pressed in a different context, would be 100% behind any push to put decision making "in the hands of the people" and out of the hands of some "cruel", unfeeling administrative machine.

But as soon as "the people" make a decision that flies in the face of their politically correct sensibilities, then suddenly "the people" are evil right wingers and the decision making process should be snatched from them, as they can't be trusted - and entrusted to an anonymous, impersonal administrative machine again. Those pesky proletariats - as soon as they're given the control we've always said they should have, they go and do a thing like make choices over who can and can't have citizenship. Take it away from them! Give it back to the state, unless they agree to attend a BBC re-education camp!

What the BBC's position amounts to is this: when a decision concerning citizenship affects two parties, the immigrants and the natives, then the feelings and wishes of the immigrants must ALWAYS be considered more important than the feelings and wishes of the natives. In fact the natives are automatically in the wrong simply by merit of their own existence.

UNLESS....

Unless the "natives" are from a "less sophisticated" country - imagine (for example) a similar story about white Brits applying for citizenship of Papua New Guinea - in which case the delicate cultural sensibilities and traditions of the natives must be respected at all times, with particular emphasis on the potentially destructive influences of European culture on a people that have lived in balance and harmony for thousands of years, etc etc etc.......you get the picture. Suddenly a village committee becomes a quaint, fascinating part of indigenous culture, a process to be respected and never questioned. If only Westerners could be as civilized and democratic as this.

The BBC is just another victim of the leftist cult of self-sacrifice. We must, according to them, lie down and sacrifice ourselves at the altar of altruism in order that the inferior peoples may devour us. And that word, "inferior", is one which the left will never admit to thinking - even though it is 100% behind their patronizing attitude toward all non-westerners.

[Teddy Bear]

A great observation AL, and very well though out and expressed. I hope a few of them will read it and reflect, and perhaps understand why their mindset is so negative - but I won't hold my breath.

[steevo]

Yes very well put AL, I even enjoyed your exploration of the pathetic egotism.

If I may... I've never bought the Beeb's own victimhood with anything. I also can't help to wonder if they even believe altruism has meaning? I have trouble believing they believe in anything but their own prestige and power. Maybe I'm selling them short?