No Irish
No Blacks

No Dogs

Before writing about the Chinese New Year celebrations in Ireland and cultural dialogue, I need to get a couple of things straight. I’m Irish; I live in Dublin and while many of the messages I send from the Big Rock Candy Mountain reference Ireland or have a distinctly Irish hue. Mine is not the only voice here. We have Finns, Swedes, Dutch, Australians and French writing, Canadians, Americans and Scottish editing, and we hope to add to that.

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The reason I led this message with the words that used to be on signs outside many English boarding houses is very simple. There is a terrible problem with racism amongst the Irish. I saw it first amongst Irish-Americans I met; a hideous hateful racism against all non-whites. Opening my eyes a little, I saw it at home – everywhere, even amongst my own friends.

As a small island people who were constantly invaded and eventually oppressed for eight hundred years, I can understand the near genetic distrust of foreigners many of the Irish have, at least, to a certain point. Keeping the hope that after the initial period of distrust a warmth can develop.

I also know that for many non-Irish coming here, it can be difficult – we have a very distinct, dark, cynical sense of humor that involves a lot of teasing. We call it “having the banter” or “taking the piss”, it’s hard to explain without writing an essay, but socially, the only thing that matters from the night before, above how much you can drink, who you fucked or what you own, is how much you took the piss.

One of the difficulties with taking the piss when with many non-Irish is that nothing is sacred. Everything, absolutely everything has to be able to be made fun of. Be it finding out that day your wife was cheating on you, your health problems, where you’re from or who you are. This can create some difficulties, even amongst other Irish, as sometimes, you’ll find someone who was taking the piss, is actually a hideous racist, the kind that deserve a quick exit from life.

Let me be plain as day here, while no-one, absolutely no-one on the planet has any right to be, above all;

The Irish Have No Right To Be Racist.

After eight hundred years.
After being the only culture to have its language destroyed within a thirty-year period.

After the genocide that was the Irish Famine.

They, We, The Irish, were at one stage known as “mud-crawlers” because We, They, had to jump from English ships before the port and drag themselves through sucking mud in which many of them died.
They, We, The Irish, were at one stage worth less than a black slave in New Orleans.

Spat on, shat on and enslaved for centuries – no Irish person you ever meet has any right to be racist.

Yet it’s here, alive and vibrant. You only have to take a taxi, mention the wrong thing in a conversation to be greeted with a scowl and the words “Were they foreign?”. With the “Celtic Tiger” boom of the Irish economy over the last decade, Ireland has seen a rise in immigrants moving here, like the Irish once did across the world, to make money and improve their lives.

The Chinese form the biggest expatriate community in Ireland, at the moment and it has taken years for them to win the respect of the people in that even the bigots will begrudgingly allow them to be “great workers.”. Which is why I think it is so incredibly important that Ireland kicks off its shoes and celebrates Chinese New Year as hard as it possibly can.

2008 is the official EU ‘European Year of Intercultural Dialogue’. It is supposed to build and expand upon the European Year of Equal Opportunities that was 2007. The EU Commission and EU parliament may say it is important to promote mutual understanding, equality, respect and interaction in the context of increasing diversity. I don’t think it’s important, I think it’s absolutely pivotal.

Learning to understand other cultures with a hope toward genuine affection. Learning to treat all cultures with equality and respect with a hope toward genuine affection. These things are pivotal because in the end, they are the only social hope for mankind. Without them, we can look at centuries more of genocide and war. Even if we fix global warming; without these things, we’re fucked.

I love Asia. Not just China. And I’m sorry; but I do play favorites, if your parents can (and they do – that’s right, they’re lying to you) then I can. I adore Vietnamese, Bhutanese, Korean and Malaysian culture. But I have to say, if it wasn’t for China and it’s millennia cooked culture, I wouldn’t have this love.

Chinese culture is like a cultural gateway drug to other Asian cultures. Many people discover the food first; maybe then they discover the absolute joy that is Chinese cinema. Hopefully after that they’ll find the wonder that is Chinese traditional music.

I was lucky, as a child with some guidance and some serendipity, I happened across Japanese culture and Chinese culture at around the same time, through a childhood love of mythology. After that it was a straight and natural childish run into the rest of their cultures. Japan had Godzilla, Samurai and Miyazaki. China had Jackie Chan, The Shaw Brothers, Bruce Lee, beautiful music and just amazing cinema. Aside from ten authors, nothing else on this planet has shaped me as a writer and a voice like my love of Chinese and Japanese culture.

As such, I think China has Japan on the whole thing by a short head. While I had been suffering an addiction to Chinese food from a very young age, it would be years before I would discover Japanese food and as such until I was much older, Japanese culture for me equated simply to Godzilla, Anime and Samurai. China was this cultural behemoth of such immense depth and joy that it kept giving me something new and its culture made my childhood a better place.

Hopefully, you’ve read around the site, in which case, you’ve probably noticed some broadside shots I’ve made about China. So I’m not going to lie. I abhor the current political makeup of China. If I could, I’d line up and execute every last motherfucker responsible for what has happened in Tibet. I have nothing but hate for communism and while in Amsterdam and meeting Maoist communist activists for the first time, I found myself stuck between being incredulous and wanting to spit in their faces.

I come from a cultural history that has all but genetically seared into my being a hate for censorship and oppression. The fact that we now have the great Internet firewall of China or the fact that the scurrilous Microsoft gave in to a demand by the Chinese government to completely remove the word democracy from its Chinese version of Microsoft’s search engine (“Back on the Leash”), does nothing but summon up the out-stretched grasping hand within me.

Yet I want you to love China. I want you to love it not just because you love Chinese food. But because its culture has so much to give you, because its people, though sometimes and sadly prone to being insular when living in other countries, make loyal and wonderful friends. Because, goddamnit, Chinese New Year is one long fabulous party and one everyone should get to celebrate. For one day or one week a year, we should all be Chinese, not just to thank a culture for what it has given the world but because it is so much goddamn fun.

This is why I cannot support the powers that be in Ireland enough in their efforts of pushing Cultural Dialogue. Life is one long stamp toward darkness and we have fleeting moments of happiness to make all the other stress worthwhile. Taking the time to celebrate the beauties that are the cultures that surround us, on their holidays and festivals, is a way of bringing more happiness to that journey.

In the end though, I’m going to leave you with an edited version of Charlie Chaplin’s speech from ‘The Great Dictator’. If only because some evils cannot be ignored, if only because it underscores the need for cultural dialogue better than I ever can.

“I’m sorry, but I don’t want to be an emperor. That’s not my business. I don’t want to rule or conquer anyone. I should like to help everyone if possible – Jew, Gentile – black man – white.

We all want to help one another. Human beings are like that. We want to live by each other’s happiness – not by each other’s misery. We don’t want to hate and despise one another. In this world there’s room for everyone and the good earth is rich and can provide for everyone.

The way of life can be free and beautiful, but we have lost the way. Greed has poisoned men’s souls – has barricaded the world with hate – has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed. We have developed speed, but we have shut ourselves in. Machinery that gives abundance has left us in want. Our knowledge has made us cynical; our cleverness, hard and unkind. We think too much and feel too little. More than machinery we need humanity. More than cleverness, we need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost.

The aeroplane and the radio have brought us closer together. The very nature of these inventions cries out for the goodness in man – cries for universal brotherhood – for the unity of us all. Even now my voice is reaching millions throughout the world – millions of despairing men, women, and little children – victims of a system that makes men torture and imprison innocent people. To those who can hear me, I say: ‘Do not despair.’ The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed – the bitterness of men who fear the way of human progress. The hate of men will pass, and dictators die, and the power they took from the people will return to the people. And so long as men die, liberty will never perish.

Soldiers! Don’t give yourselves to brutes – men who despise you and enslave you – who regiment your lives – tell you what to do – what to think and what to feel! Who drill you – diet you – treat you like cattle, use you as cannon fodder. Don’t give yourselves to these unnatural men – machine men with machine minds and machine hearts! You are not machines! You are not cattle! You are men! You have the love of humanity in your hearts. You don’t hate, only the unloved hate – the unloved and the unnatural!

Soldiers! Don’t fight for slavery! Fight for liberty! In the seventeenth chapter of St Luke, it is written the kingdom of God is within man not one man nor a group of men, but in all men! In you! You, the people, have the power – the power to create machines. The power to create happiness! You, the people, have the power to make this life free and beautiful – to make this life a wonderful adventure. Then in the name of democracy – let us use that power – let us all unite. Let us fight for a new world – a decent world that will give men a chance to work – that will give youth a future and old age a security.

By the promise of these things, brutes have risen to power. But they lie! They do not fulfill that promise. They never will! Dictators free themselves but they enslave the people. Now let us fight to fulfill that promise! Let us fight to free the world – to do away with national barriers – to do away with greed, with hate and intolerance. Let us fight for a world of reason – a world where science and progress will lead to all men’s happiness. Soldiers, in the name of democracy, let us unite!”

Reference

“Back on the Leash: China appears to regret opening up its media industry.” The Economist 20 August 2005. Vol. 376. Issue 8440. pp. 32 – 33.