> while being labeled racist and bigot for wanting to maintain their own.
Could you give a specific example here, as others have asked?
I don't doubt that you feel this way. As an immigrant into the US I initially felt there is too much political correctness going on, which prevented some people from expressing their thoughts clearly, which is never good.
But in terms of culture, I am surrounded by, and happily participate in the celebration of American culture. For instance, just to name a few things:
- trick or treating in costume with my kids on Halloween
- pumpkin carving
- lots of bbq-ing in the summer
- incredible amount of decoration, shopping and eating during the holidays, Christmas trees
- meeting extended family in thanksgiving, eating turkey
- wearing green on St Patty's day (not sure if that counts)
I also don't meet any Americans who are apologetic about any of these types of cultural expressions. I could argue that diversity and celebration of foreign culture is also a distinctively American trait, but that is a separate point.
So my question again would be - can you give an example of a cultural expression or tradition which you would like to see continued, but is disappearing, perhaps due to media pressure from the left?
That's old news, the civic proposal to harden the laws on abrotion was later overthrown in the parliament by the "extreme rightwing" ruling party. I wonder if BBC reported on that.
> I assume the answer would be obvious if we were talking about Christianity
Not at all. Would you stay Christians want creationism to be taught in schools and not evolution? Would you say Christians are anti-abortion and anti Gay marriage?
Sociology isn't maths. Social groups almost always have some internal diversity. That doesn't mean they aren't meaningful categories. Christianity shares a common core of beliefs. It has a common narrative. It has a large set of overlapping beliefs. The same goes for Muslims (and Buddhists, libertarians, you get it).
There are sweet apples, sour apples and everything in between. That doesn't mean it would make sense to start pondering on which of those really are apples, nor whether you should try to sell them in a neighborhood known not to like apples.
Sure, you can subset Muslims into different groups and branches, and some of those will be more compatible with Western society than others. The net impact with zero filtering however is negative.
I completely see the point of wanting to maintain and evolve the current set of social norms, rules and values in a society, and wanting immigrants to integrate well. But I do think that 'Muslim' as a category is too broad, not useful and in fact detrimental to smooth integration where it is possible.
You might as well use a different broad category - say 'foreigner' and whatever you say (erosion of society's values etc.) would hold true in general. Then you could draw the conclusion that foreigners are causing the social disruption and so any immigration is to be resisted.
Basically what I'm saying is, if you point to specific values that you respect and that are being eroded (e.g. 'I dont like immigrants that dont support womens rights') it may be better received than if you transfer the blame to a generic broad category, specially along religion or race, because then you might appear to be a racist.
Nobody has that kind of cash at home, if some emergency comes tomorrow they will have to go to the ATM which will won't work, or banks which will be closed. Tomorrow and day after will be a bad day for people having emergencies unless hospitals are free of cost.
Technically, yes. You can even just start using 100 rupee bills instead.
But what this does is adds cost to doing business secretly in cash. Also it increases the threat of government taking another bold move in the future to flush out more stores of black money. Basically, it increases the risk of operating outside official accounting, making that option more scary and less appealing.
Watch for real estate crash in New Delhi. On paper there wont be a crash but sharp growth, because the declared transaction value is about 40% of the real transactions, the remaining being in cash. With this move, declared values will move up, while actual values will move down.
(I'm watching the news live in New Delhi right now). The move is being pitched as an attack against 'black money' and terrorist/criminal activities and counterfeit .
The idea is if you have very large sums of money stashed away in cash, you're now forced to deposit it into a bank and reveal it. If you're not comfortable doing that, you're basically going to lose your money.
There is always some rationale that involves bad actors. Then you peel back the layers of the onion and find out the government just wants to screw regular people out of whatever.
I don't disagree with your premise, but in this case, how can this screw regular people? If someone has chosen to store a lot of their money as cash instead of in a bank and doesn't know about this, I can see that. Am I missing something else?
I am not an expert. But may be, it is only the small time tax evaders that store black money in local currency...So if someone has stashed away his lives savings in a stack of 1000 Rupee notes, this move will force them to pay taxes.
Nothing is still being done to deal with really big fishes. The ones who can really make a difference.
So as usual, it is the middle class and lower that are being forced to pay, while the upper and elite classes still given a pass and the government earns good name in the process..
Rich and powerful still wins. It is business as usual..
Not sure if they will do this during the exchange, but technically you can attach your Aadhaar ID to the exchanged sums. That means in one swoop they know who has how much money...
Current PM 2.5 level in LA is 74. Current level in Delhi is 500+. The scale is just not comparable. I lived in LA for 3+ years in the 2000s. I just returned to Delhi and the air quality is way, way worse than I have ever experienced, anywhere.
Could you give a specific example here, as others have asked?
I don't doubt that you feel this way. As an immigrant into the US I initially felt there is too much political correctness going on, which prevented some people from expressing their thoughts clearly, which is never good.
But in terms of culture, I am surrounded by, and happily participate in the celebration of American culture. For instance, just to name a few things:
- trick or treating in costume with my kids on Halloween - pumpkin carving - lots of bbq-ing in the summer - incredible amount of decoration, shopping and eating during the holidays, Christmas trees - meeting extended family in thanksgiving, eating turkey - wearing green on St Patty's day (not sure if that counts)
I also don't meet any Americans who are apologetic about any of these types of cultural expressions. I could argue that diversity and celebration of foreign culture is also a distinctively American trait, but that is a separate point.
So my question again would be - can you give an example of a cultural expression or tradition which you would like to see continued, but is disappearing, perhaps due to media pressure from the left?