GrodsCorp

mX letters cagefight

Friday 13 June 2008, 7:52 am

The Editor

Categories: Media, Politics, Society

Tags: bigots, citizenship, English, language, minorities, MX, voting

Remember the charming bigot whose letter in mX the other day got so many GrodsReaders’ blood boiling? Well imagine my surprise when I was on the train last night on the way to GroupthinkFC’s latest courageous defeat and I saw this.

I was scratching my head about who this pen-wielding GrodsReader might be until I got to soccer and Jeremy was grinning from ear to ear.

So now we must turn our attention to Olivia of Camberwell who wrote this.

DOWN WITH PC NONSENSE

Good on Steve. It takes guts to say something that might offend a minority. We are an English-speaking country — to get a citizenship you should be able to speak our language.

Have at it, GrodsReaders.

49 Comments

THR (Friday 13 June 2008, 8:00 am) #

Grods strikes again! Maybe in time, the word Grods will become a Melbourne legend, something akin to the Cave Clan.

And Olivia is probably MK’s nom-de-fool.
keri (Friday 13 June 2008, 8:05 am) #

I showed my mother and brother last night, and it started the bun fight to end all bun fights.

My mother somehow misread it and thought it was about getting your driving license, and my brother went on about people who couldn’t speak English not being able to understand “the issues”

When I asked him what “the issues” were, the best he could do was say that someone who didn’t speak English wouldn’t be able to tell who was standing for parliament.

Mmmm. This coming from the boy who doesn’t know who the Deputy PM is.
magic bellybutton (Friday 13 June 2008, 8:28 am) #

Olivia, based on her grasp of the English language, seems to think that citizenship is something you go down to the shops and ask for from behind the counter.
Jason (Friday 13 June 2008, 8:54 am) #

old-skool flame-war.
Bron (Friday 13 June 2008, 9:14 am) #

Oh boy. Where’s Wah’s response to Olivia’s knee-jerk twattery?
Dam Buster of Preston (Friday 13 June 2008, 9:27 am) #

I have enough trouble with English.
John Surname (Friday 13 June 2008, 9:34 am) #

Keri, How could he not know Julie Bishop is the deputy PM?

Bron, I think Wah just exploded. Read Olivia’s letter and POP he was gone.
keri (Friday 13 June 2008, 9:36 am) #

He doesn’t watch the news, or read newspapers.

I doubt he’d know who was opposition leader either.
keri (Friday 13 June 2008, 9:36 am) #

And very funny, smart arse
Wah (Friday 13 June 2008, 10:01 am) #

Olivia is a rather unpleasant person.
John Surname (Friday 13 June 2008, 10:03 am) #

Does not compute.
Bron (Friday 13 June 2008, 10:07 am) #

That was a restrained response from Wah.

Bugger.
Steve D (Friday 13 June 2008, 10:13 am) #

Maybe an upper age limit on requiring English for citizenship? Or some requirement on having family who are also (or are becoming) citizens?

I had an (Italian) electrician in a few weeks ago, and while waiting for the inspector to show up we had a chat about this. He said that he was very upset that he didn’t take English classes initially and his kids did, because now they speak English so much better than Italian he has trouble communicating with them.

Citizenship is a big thing. It’s most definitely not just “wander down to the store”. Requiring the national language is not a big issue here. If someone doesn’t want to learn English they can remain a permanent-resident.
Jeremy (Friday 13 June 2008, 10:14 am) #

“It takes guts to say something that might offend a minority.”

See, those people who offend a majority are just cowards. They should pick the much more intimidating minority target, like Olivia.

Okay, sure, there are by definition a lot fewer of them and they almost certainly have much less power in our society than the majority, but maybe they’re intimidating in some other way.

Meanwhile, you’ve got to respect “Steve” for having the “guts” to put his first name on the line like that. Imagine what those terrifying minorities could do to him!

-Grods, Ringwood.

(Yes, I know it means underpants.)
Wah (Friday 13 June 2008, 10:15 am) #

Oh fuck it, I tried taking deep breaths into a paper bag …

I fuckin hate when people say “it takes guts to say something that might offend a minority”. No it fucking doesn’t you stupid fucking bitch. It’s actually piss weak!

You know what takes guts you fucked up mole? Living in a refugee camp and reloacting to a new country and culture so your children can have a semblence of a normal life, which is not helped of course by stupid in-bred bitches like you.

The fact is these people will pick up English and already have. But it’s one thing to read road signs and another thing to comprehend the language that comes with government and legal jargon - so fuck off slut guts, and stop hiding your bigotry behind the myth of political correctness and your fucktard heroes like Cunt Head of Melbourne.
Jeremy (Friday 13 June 2008, 10:19 am) #

Oh and “…you should be able to speak our language”?

It’s not “our” language, Olivia, it’s the language of the English. What happened was, our ancestors came out to a new country and refused to communicate in the locals’ tongue because they couldn’t be bothered learning it. Also they could communicate perfectly well with each other in the language they already knew.

But any visitors AFTER us can damn well do as we didn’t.
Bron (Friday 13 June 2008, 10:22 am) #

Huzzah, Wah!
Krypto (Friday 13 June 2008, 11:15 am) #

my dog used to be named Olivia, I changed it because I consider the name synonomous with “bitch” (which technically she is, but still not as much so as “Olivia of Camberwell”.
Krypto (Friday 13 June 2008, 11:19 am) #

Here’s a comparable statement to Olivia’s “it takes guts to bash a young woman to near death with a pair of fibro cutters and then set fire to her house and leave her to die…”
(Disclaimer: I do not endorse beating people and setting them on fire).
Magic Bellybutton (Friday 13 June 2008, 12:15 pm) #

Well, there goes one fantasy!
Damian (Friday 13 June 2008, 12:31 pm) #

And Olivia is probably MK’s nom-de-fool.

Perhaps, THR. Maybe they just edited out the bit about “kumbaya-singing leftist filfth PC overlords” for lack of column space.
EC (Friday 13 June 2008, 12:39 pm) #

Slut guts! LOL. Go Wah!

Well done Grods, Ringwood.
Krypto (Friday 13 June 2008, 1:32 pm) #

OK, time to come up with an appropriately derogatory term for Olivia.

Turd-fur how’s that?
Bruce (Friday 13 June 2008, 1:52 pm) #

There is a guy in the office who has set himself the challenge of getting 20 angry responses to deliberately provocative letters in MX for 2008.

I suspect you have added to his score. I will have to check when I get in on Monday.
Andy B (Friday 13 June 2008, 1:57 pm) #

Am I a prick for sort-of agreeing with that Steve bloke? He does sound like a fucking tool, but behind all that I do see his basic point.

The vote issue does raise a good point though. If they don’t understand English, how can they make an informed choice on who to vote for? I, for one, don’t want 50,000 non-English speaking voters accidentally voting for some Liberal/CEC/Family First candidate and potentially giving them a seat in Parliament.

That said, they should continue have the right to vote, like anyone else, and nothing needs to change. Just as long as they are informed and understand the potential consequences of those actions.

No reason why the Government can’t provide a subsidy to support these people in learning English, for those that want to. Might even help their job prospects.
Steve D (Friday 13 June 2008, 2:06 pm) #

Andy - the solution is to make them English speaking voters. More of a concern is (immigrant) men threatening to beat their wives in the polling booth if they don’t vote for who the husband wants (true story, police were called). Also, I can give you plenty of English-speaking voters who don’t make an informed choice (probably about 50% of the population, no matter which ’side’ you’re on).

I’m pretty sure the government already provides subsidies for English classes. The biggest problem is that it’s hard enough to get anything out of the government even if you already speak English. How are you supposed to find out about this if you can’t understand them?
Jeremy (Friday 13 June 2008, 2:41 pm) #

“If they don’t understand English, how can they make an informed choice on who to vote for? I, for one, don’t want 50,000 non-English speaking voters accidentally voting for some Liberal/CEC/Family First candidate and potentially giving them a seat in Parliament.”

Perhaps the AEC should provide electoral materials in other languages (and funding for political parties to do likewise) so that these people can be informed.

Oh, wait, that’s exactly what “Steve” was complaining about.
keri (Friday 13 June 2008, 3:09 pm) #

If we’re going to exclude people on the basis that they are “uninformed” then I’ll be campaigning for both a comprehension test and a current affairs (And real current affairs, not the TV show bullshit) test to be taken by all citizens before they are permitted to vote.

Not being able to speak a language doesn’t make you uninformed. Being a cock-brained, moronic, snivelling bigot does.
Krypto (Friday 13 June 2008, 3:30 pm) #

Andy I don’t think non-english speakers have a monopoly on being ill informed by any stretch.

Surely yours is an argument for providing information on current events in languages OTHER than english.

Surely it’s not that hard for MSM to include a translate function for their online media.

There’s something like that built in to google so the technology obviously exists.

Language barriers can be inconvenient, and I’ll be the first to admit, frustrating, but linguistic diversity, particularly indigenous languages are so important to humanity generally that it’s a lot more important than some beaurocratic paperwork.
Ray Dixon (Friday 13 June 2008, 3:38 pm) #

Surely it’s not that hard for MSM to include a translate function for their online media.

Krypto, that’d be making them less informed. Better if they don’t read the papers.

I think there’s something to be said for NOT knowing the language and NOT understanding what the politicians are saying. Just vote on how they look! That’d keep the Liberals out forever (and Belinda).
Chuck A. Spear (Friday 13 June 2008, 3:42 pm) #

Let’s be honest, with the amount of utter shit politicians talk anyway, does it really matter if people can’t understand them?

It’s probably a good thing not to be able to speak English.
Damian (Friday 13 June 2008, 3:46 pm) #

And another thing, just how many of these non-english speakers are there out there?

And what language are they speaking? Islam?
Jack Dorf (Friday 13 June 2008, 4:01 pm) #

And what language are they speaking? Islam?
A lot are speaking Asian too!
Dave from Albury (Friday 13 June 2008, 4:45 pm) #

I’m sure that the irony won’t be lost on anyone here, but one of the first things the Howard government did upon taking office was cutting the budget for English language classes for new migrants
Broken Left Leg (Friday 13 June 2008, 5:54 pm) #

“And what language are they speaking? Islam?”

They speak “muslim” not “islam” you unedukated full.

Youse have got to learn to talk proper like wot we do.
Spock... (Friday 13 June 2008, 6:18 pm) #

Dear Steve and Olivia,
It appears, from your letters that even a working knowledge of English is not enough when it comes to understanding “the issues”.
And as such I propose that all people, English speaking or not, should be bared from voting unless they can demonstrate an interest and understanding of the issues that goes beyond the Xenophobic, knee-jerk trash you’ve been exposed to.
Spock... (Friday 13 June 2008, 6:22 pm) #

Oh fuck!

Barred*

Doesn’t that make me look like an idiot! And I’m sure there’s another that I’ve missed…
Private Tom (Friday 13 June 2008, 6:52 pm) #

Dave-I’m actually somewhat surprised by the coalitions’s decision. I thought that Howard would’ve only cut funding for english classes for those savage Africans, and increased education funding for the racially pure western european migrants.

Anywho, do you have any links to your claim (it would be useful in a discussion)?
Montague "Pitty-Pat" Smythe-JeJones (Friday 13 June 2008, 7:45 pm) #

Why don’t they just ditch compulsory voting. The sheer effort of having to go to a polling booth would ensure few ~~ignorant fuckwit lazy inbred bogan turds~~ Howard battlers muster up the effort to vote.
Mikey (Friday 13 June 2008, 8:34 pm) #

It’s nice to see the Hansonites are still living and breathing amongst us. Maybe Olivia is actually from Camden?
Spock... (Friday 13 June 2008, 9:13 pm) #

Speaking of Camden, it’s probably just me, but I can no longer say “Camden” without putting on the voice of “Uncle Sam” from Salem Cafe.
Wah (Friday 13 June 2008, 9:52 pm) #

Unkle Sam! Why not!
Bron (Saturday 14 June 2008, 12:26 am) #

Unkle Sam! TAP!
kii (Sunday 15 June 2008, 3:12 pm) #

This must be the greatest media prank ever.

You wrote an email to a newspaper and they published it.
Ant Rogenous (Sunday 15 June 2008, 9:13 pm) #

You’re the only person in this thread who’s referred to it as a “prank”, Kii.

But yeah, zing. You certainly showed us!
Krypto (Sunday 15 June 2008, 9:44 pm) #

excercising his right to free speech in the media, what a practical joker.
John Surname (Sunday 15 June 2008, 11:33 pm) #

Why are Jeremy’s trolls always anonymous?
Bron (Monday 16 June 2008, 12:37 am) #

And why does he have so many? What’s he got that we don’t?
Krypto (Monday 16 June 2008, 12:44 am) #

wake up guys, he’s arguing the “negative” to his own arguments, with sock puppets he names “anonymous”.
It’s like the evil opposite of Mr. Lefty I reckon.