Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Sensitivity Lesson - You better watch what you say in today’s Britain.
City Journal ^ | 19 January 2007 | Theodore Dalrymple

Posted on 01/25/2007 10:14:41 PM PST by neverdem

Here is an interesting little slice of contemporary English life.

The police go to a pub in a small town in Devon, looking for a suspect. They see a man there who they think resembles the suspect, and approach him. He becomes abusive and they arrest him and take him down to the station. He is drunk.

After a couple of hours in a jail cell, he says he feels sick and demands a doctor. The police call the police surgeon. When he arrives (he is an Indian), the arrested man says, “I want an English doctor, not a f*cking Paki.”

The police then charge the man with racially aggravated insulting behavior. He elects for a superior court trial, and the prosecution proceeds with the case as though it were a very serious one.

The judge decides that the court should not waste its time on so trivial a matter, especially when burglars and robbers frequently escape charges. The doctor, he says, is a man of some social standing; a single insult from a drunk could not, or should not, have harmed him unduly. He then gives a bit of advice to the accused: “Next time, call him a fat bastard and don’t say anything about his color.”

The judge soon had to explain publicly, in an almost groveling way, that he by no means underestimated the seriousness of racial insult, and that he was not making light of it.

Contained in this story, of course, are many elements of modern social and moral pathology. The judge, surely, was being ironic at the expense of those who thought that a single boorish remark by a man who, after all, had been wrongly identified by the police so threatened the social fabric that it deserved the attention of many highly educated people and a cost to the public of many thousands of dollars. But even mild criticism of the prevailing pieties is becoming intolerable in Britain.

In the very same week, the British Medical Journal published a debate on whether British Muslims should have their own, separate medical services—funded by the state, naturally. Now there’s irony for you.


TOPICS: Editorial; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: britain; india; islam; liberalagenda; muslim; paki; pakistan; racism; sensitivity
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-36 last
To: Monterrosa-24

An example of cheap immigrant labor reducing Aetna's costs?


21 posted on 01/26/2007 5:50:42 AM PST by Mr J (All IMHO.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: nutmeg

Amazing. More like 1984 every day.


22 posted on 01/26/2007 5:54:29 AM PST by stanz (Those who don't believe in evolution should go jump off the flat edge of the Earth.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: Monterrosa-24

IMO, it still does not change the fact that the doctors could give lower rates for people who can or have to pay out-of-pocket. There is less administrative cost for accepting cash. They make enough money off of insurance companies to still live comfortably.

They still live in nice houses and drive nice cars. I have yet to see a doctor driving an old junker or living in a low-income area.

I for one wouldn't mind paying $50 or so for an office visit as long as it helps to keep the cost of medical insurance down.


23 posted on 01/26/2007 6:07:08 AM PST by beachn4fun (Liberals wouldn't know the truth even if it hit them in the face.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 20 | View Replies]

To: beachn4fun

I agree with you that cash customers should have a lower rate on medical services. It would certainly lower their paperwork.


24 posted on 01/26/2007 8:15:46 AM PST by Monterrosa-24 ( ...even more American than a French bikini and a Russian AK-47.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 23 | View Replies]

To: Monterrosa-24
I live in Alabama and most doctors I know here are Indians not Pakis or Mohammed Hajee. Sorry to say but you are just a victim of racial stereotype.
25 posted on 01/26/2007 11:02:50 AM PST by Gengis Khan
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: neverdem
Theodore Dalrymple is just another racist pig like many in his country.
26 posted on 01/26/2007 11:13:24 AM PST by Gengis Khan
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

Comment #27 Removed by Moderator

To: Gengis Khan

I know there are lots of Indians here and that is why so many motels post "American Owned" signs. I know that both Hindu, Christian Indian, and Moslem Indians can be good doctors. But unless I'm referred to one by someone I trust I ain't dragging my child into see one. I would rather go to a Jones than a Sankar all things being equal. Do you think that the ones named Mohammed are Hindu?


28 posted on 01/26/2007 1:25:41 PM PST by Monterrosa-24 ( ...even more American than a French bikini and a Russian AK-47.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 25 | View Replies]

To: Gengis Khan

I know there are lots of Indians here and that is why so many motels post "American Owned" signs. I know that both Hindu, Christian Indian, and Moslem Indians can be good doctors. But unless I'm referred to one by someone I trust I ain't dragging my child into see one. I would rather go to a Jones than a Sankar all things being equal. Do you think that the ones named Mohammed are Hindu?


29 posted on 01/26/2007 1:26:06 PM PST by Monterrosa-24 ( ...even more American than a French bikini and a Russian AK-47.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 25 | View Replies]

To: John Williams

You first.


30 posted on 01/26/2007 1:26:34 PM PST by Gengis Khan
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 27 | View Replies]

To: Monterrosa-24
Most of the gas stations that put up the "American Owned" signs are run by Whites who think they are the only "rightful" Americans in this country.

"I would rather go to a Jones than a Sankar all things being equal."

Which is why I said you are a victim of stereotype. I would have no problem going to any of them but would prefer to go to the one I know or believe is better and that has nothing to so with the name or the ethnicity of the person. And I dont mind even if the name is Mohammad. I know many Muslim doctors who are far better then their White colleagues.

" Do you think that the ones named Mohammed are Hindu? "

In Alabama, wherever there is significant number of South Asians (Huntsville, Birmingham, Montgomery, Mobile) Hindu doctors significantly outnumber Muslims. Just take a look at the campus of UAB and you will find more Hindus then American. Almost 90% of them are studying medicine.
31 posted on 01/26/2007 1:47:46 PM PST by Gengis Khan
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 29 | View Replies]

To: Gengis Khan

If they are so much better than their White colleagues then why do they cheat their butts off in class? I seen it too many times. So yes I don't care what you call me but I would rather go to a "rightful" doctor in Birmingham than in Calcutta.


32 posted on 01/26/2007 1:58:24 PM PST by Monterrosa-24 ( ...even more American than a French bikini and a Russian AK-47.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 31 | View Replies]

To: Monterrosa-24
"....why do they cheat their butts off in class?"

Ah and now you are claiming Indian are cheaters because they do better than Americans? You sound like a whiner.

Well the doctors I am talking about are ones who have long graduated from their schools and proved their worth in their field of specialization.

Well up to you if want to go to a "rightfully" (inferior) doctor. I would prefer to go to a far superior doctor. Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, "Paki" ....... whatever. Too bad you are scared of the colour or the name or whatever.
33 posted on 01/26/2007 2:17:48 PM PST by Gengis Khan
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 32 | View Replies]

To: neverdem

How low the "Free Born English" have sunk.


34 posted on 01/26/2007 2:38:56 PM PST by BnBlFlag (Deo Vindice/Semper Fidelis "Ya gotta saddle up your boys; Ya gotta draw a hard line")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: neverdem
“Next time, call him a fat bastard and don’t say anything about his color.”

Right on!

35 posted on 01/27/2007 2:34:55 PM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks (“Don’t overestimate the decency of the human race.” —H. L. Mencken)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: MadIvan; Mrs Ivan

Big Brother is a worldwide industry.


36 posted on 01/27/2007 2:38:44 PM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks (“Don’t overestimate the decency of the human race.” —H. L. Mencken)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-36 last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson