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Microsoft founder Bill Gates has called on Europe to stop demonstrating generosity towards asylum seekers to avoid an overwhelming migrant influx. He also advises European states to make Africans' way to the continent much more difficult.
During an interview Germany's Welt am Sonntag, Gates, one of the richest people on the planet, warned of the grave consequences of exceeding generosity towards refugees coming to Europe, whose numbers would only rise unless something is done.
"On the one hand you want to demonstrate generosity and take in refugees, but the more generous you are, the more word gets around about this – which in turn motivates more people to leave Africa," Gates said.
While Germany has been one of the pioneers of the open door policy, it cannot "take in the huge, massive number of people who are wanting to make their way to Europe." Thus Gates advised European nations to take action in order to make it "more difficult for Africans to reach the continent via the current transit routes."
Source: https://www.rt.com/news/395356-migrants-overwhelm-europe-gates/
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 13 2017, @01:41AM (11 children)
There is a difference between what kind of immigrants a country permits entry. A college educated Australian will differ from a immigrant that can't even read and think subjugating women is natural..
(Score: 2) by Lagg on Thursday July 13 2017, @03:04AM (9 children)
I've seen plenty of immigrants and plenty of assholes from over the border, but the absolute worst case of this is a result of being raised on catholic "values" that I might as well blame ancient spaniards for. I have little doubt Islam has similar bullshit to Catholicism because that's the nature of religious oppression. But I don't make the error of thinking either group is more or less educated than each other and particularly more educated than me. Willfully ignorant is a better descriptor. To me encouragement of intuition is the solution to both issues. Not giving them more targets to hate and martyrs to blindly follow.
Even if they really can't read and really do think women should be subjugated, do you not consider yourself someone who would change their opinion based on evidence? I was raised on old style "thou shall obey" christianity and fully believed for a portion of my life that God was over family and women were to obey. That changed very quickly when a seed of doubt was planted. But no one actually gave me that chance. I had to discover it myself. This idea that people are inherently bad and ingrained in hate is another symptom of the wider poisoning I feel I'm witnessing currently.
Also: College educated is rather elitist and presumptuous of one's own culture. What I have seen on campuses in the last several years does not scream inclusiveness and desire to understand the wider world. The people featured in What About Me [youtu.be] are more aware and educated than half of what I've seen produced at campuses I've been at in America. We're going to be learning one way or the other - and harshly - that education goes beyond the paperwork.
http://lagg.me [lagg.me] 🗿
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 13 2017, @05:22AM (3 children)
Cultures which subjugate women have rapid population growth. This puts them on track to dominate the world. In the end, women WILL be subjugated.
A bit of relatively mild western-style subjugation (for example, USA pre-1960) is a lesser evil than allowing a greater evil to win.
There is a cultural choice: go back to the year 1950, or go back to the year 700.
Catholic values at least don't include: chopping sex parts off of kids, marrying a 6-year-old (to be consumated at 9), stoning adultresses, tossing LGBT off of buildings, chopping off hands, crucifiction...
(Score: 2) by Lagg on Thursday July 13 2017, @06:22AM
I'm pretty sure all those things have a reference in one of the testaments. I can tell you for sure there's a reference to child slaves and stoning. Oh and there's circumcision. This overlaps into overarching christianity I know - but I have never known an actual orthodox catholic before.
In any case, there are two things I can't deny: Christianity was the religion that chose to walk the path of least resistance and evolve to be acceptable in moving past the old testament. Islam has not made the same choice. This is something its practitioners will someday have to deal with. The other thing being that women are eventually turned into a resource and property. But then that brings up its own questions. Does that mean our societies suck and we should just go screw around in the jungle again until we figure out something that works? Maybe.
http://lagg.me [lagg.me] 🗿
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 13 2017, @07:45AM
Threw out people with hostile cultures in combination with rapid population growth then?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 13 2017, @08:04AM
No, in the end, or to be more precise, not in any end, women will cut off your Johnson, and keep it in a pickle jar, Lebowski!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 13 2017, @07:21AM (4 children)
Oooo, the arrogance! Those poor ignorant Muslims, if they only knew better. They must not have the internet. That must just be completely unaware of the rest of the world's views on their views. They'd do better if only they knew that they were wrong, like I know they are! Give me a year with an Muslim fundamentalist and he'll be joining me in pride parades! You are seriously invoking a myth of the noble savage [wikipedia.org] here. Here [wikipedia.org] is a list of hijackers in the 9/11 attacks. Look at the bios of these people. Engineers, architects, foreign educated (on scholarship), the majority from extremely well to do families, etc.
As you get older you begin to realize that much of what you choose to believe is not based on evidence, but based on cultural values. We believe that women are fully capable and deserving of equal treatment not because of our upbringing (I was also raised in a rather backwards household) but because of our culture. But it's somewhat interesting. If we actually look at the evidence and ways of quantifying this view, it tends to run contrary to our views. Of course we dismiss this since the evidence is just tainted by bias. In declaring bias we ignore the fact that the countless thousands (millions?) if human cultures throughout time have almost all seen the exact same result of women falling behind. Nonetheless, we continue to see things as we do because we feel that we must be right. Now as adults, it's difficult to even imagine see things from any other perspective given access to what we know. How could somebody not believe this? If you spent a year locked in a room with 100 Muslim Imams you're going to still come out believing that women are just as capable as men and deserving of completely equal treatment.
There's no particular evidence that's changing our views, it's just what we have come to believe. And it will unlikely ever change. The same is true of other people and other cultures. Traveling abroad was a particularly eye opening experience for me. For instance I was really taken back by one thing in Buddhist culture. I had multiple people, wealthy educated and otherwise perfectly intelligent, literally laugh at people with various physical deformities. Some guy with deformed legs trying to walk was the most hilarious thing to them. I came to learn the reason. You probably know that in Buddhism it's believed that if you are a good person in this life then you'll be rewarded in the next life. What we don't really get in the west is the corollary. What does it mean if you are in a terrible position in this life? It means you must have been a bad person in a past life - so seeing somebody struggle to walk is suddenly just hilarious since they're being punished for all the awful things they did in their past life. And I emphasize these were very intelligent well to do folks. They spoke English better than some natural speakers, but just the so radical difference in our views was something that's shaped my life and views ever since.
You are a product of your culture. As are we all. Don't think you can shape people to your culture anymore than you are willing to consider the possibility of them shaping you to theirs.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 13 2017, @07:41AM
Great, deny people with Islamic beliefs internet access. And throw out people that exercise their non-western interpersonal cultures in public or that makes kids.
(Score: 2) by Lagg on Thursday July 13 2017, @07:54AM (2 children)
That's bizarre, but okay. I base these opinions on my own experience. Basic schooling is all you need to bootstrap yourself into university. Everyone who has something to offer (and in a lot of cases those who have resources as a result) will have that basic education. I'm talking about the smarts that you don't get by being in a social bubble like academia. The important ones, the shit that makes you well adjusted and willing to consider other culture. What I have seen are simply not that as much as they pretend to be.
I'll assume you're trying to come from a good place but that wikipedia link is weird to me, and I also feel like you got the wrong impression about my own circumstances. Which are such that I don't exactly have a good opinion about academia. But part of the reason I'm not willing to judge based on the education that "well educated australian" refers to is that in doing so i'd be judging myself because I can almost guarantee I would not fit this criteria. Even though I'm an otherwise normal american that happened to be around poverty. I still expect to be given a chance and have been.
Also: That wikipedia article is so far off from the spirit of my post that if I understand what you're getting at: is both outdated (these are fairly normal african villages and stuff) and kind of insulting to my own education level. The very notion of this article seems built upon the privilege to think of people that way. Which doesn't even come close in my mind. It was one example of many where you don't need to be abiding by the standard of a "well todo" education to have a message or be free of ignorance. And you can be full of ignorance while having a well todo education.
http://lagg.me [lagg.me] 🗿
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 13 2017, @02:48PM (1 child)
The point of the myth of the noble savage is mostly about our tendency of attributing positive characteristics to societies we're unfamiliar with, even moreso when we view these societies as less developed.
I'm fairly certain you don't think that if you could just go speak to let's say a racist redneck that you could change their worldview. This is largely because of familiarity and experience. We don't attribute the same obstinance to individuals in foreign cultures who hold similarly egregious views because we somehow think they're different, better. It's all just a misunderstanding or a nuance. If they just knew how you felt and knew what you know, they'd certainly be able to adapt their ways. But the reality is that not only do these individuals hold these sort of views, but in many cases they tend to be vastly more obstinate and dead set in their correctness. Africa, for instance, has had numerous problems with various groups attempting to engage in organized attempts at literal genocide of other groups. Indonesia is a country that I saw a Soylental label as a moderate and successful Muslim majority nation. In reality while we were going through our sexual revolution and the civil rights movement they were engaged in the mass murder of the population [wikipedia.org] in an attempt to kill off "communist sympathizers, ethnic Chinese and alleged leftists." In modern times the country has become increasingly radicalized and oppressive beginning to do things like legally force all women to wear the burqa in certain regions. But again, due to a lack of familiarity or headline with these nations we tend to envision them as being something much greater and better than they are. What mistakes they have are more misunderstandings, or a lack of knowledge - not a conscious decision to behave in such a way.
In America we have a culture that emphasizes individualism. And it does so to a point that I think we don't really realize how much we really all share an extremely similar culture. You attribute your views to yourself. I did as well. But the reality is that your views are almost entirely a product of our culture. I assure you, had you grown up in an African village, or an Islamic nation your views would be radically different. And you would be equally convinced that they were your views and that they were correct. An Islamic you might likely believe that if he just had some time with an ignorant American he could convince you of the value and virtue of Islam. How likely do you think this individual would be in convincing and converting you? This is the fallacy of thinking you can so easily convince him of the correctness of your views. These are things that are not learned but somehow subconsciously instilled as a product of our environment.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 13 2017, @08:57PM
No, we don't. Our culture pretends to emphasize individualism, but as soon as someone actually does something different, they are ridiculed and mocked by most people. Our school system in particular is good at crushing those who are different and encouraging mindless conformity.
(Score: 2) by http on Thursday July 13 2017, @03:51AM
They should go to the USA, then. They'll fit right in.
I browse at -1 when I have mod points. It's unsettling.