The Cultural Appropriation Bollocks

I'm not a Beyonce fan by any stretch of anyone's imagination and just about am on the borderline with much of Coldplay's Bono-esque drivel, but I love this song. I like it for its imagery and I hope they get richer from it. 

More than that, I like it because it's riled up the professional butthurt, forever-offended Rhodes-Must-Fall, Bomb-Out-The-Bamiyan-Buddha, Demolish-The-Mosque brigade. You're all the same to me.

What the actual proverbial is this new bat-shit crazy PC cultural appropriation concept? Which bored 'suit' got paid to come up with this nonsense? Are Bollywood actors going to be called out for wearing Western clothing? Do we all go back to just wearing our own traditional attire? 

Seems like I'd have to go shopping for kurta-pajamas and juttis, forget cakes and switch to ladoos, stop miming to Bon Jovi and stick with Assa Singh Mastana...

You don't help eradicate the racial divide; you exacerbate it. Not that it affects you in any way, ensconced in your plush leather Chesterfields in your leafy Hertfordshire homes.

It's as though the Taliban infiltrated the Guardianista intelligentsia.

Watch this video. It's a joy to behold. And there's not a single snake charmer or flying carpet in sight...

Tax

Tax his land, tax his bed

Tax the table at which he's fed

Tax his work, tax his pay

He works for peanuts anyway

Tax his cow, tax his goat

Tax his pants, tax his coat

Tax his smoke, tax his drink

Tax him if he tries to think

Tax his car, tax his gas

Find other ways to tax his ass

Tax all he has and let him know

You won't rest, till he has no dough

Should he scream; should he holler
Arrest him; grab him by the collar
Then tax him some more

Tax him till he's good and sore

Tax his coffin, tax his grave
Tax the sod in which he's laid

When he's gone, do not relax

Screw his corpse with inheritance tax

YOUR God? Your Devil More Like

If you have to be taught about tolerance, your parents raised you wrong. If you have to take classes to teach you about discrimination and racism, you've acquired a blinkered approach to people and the world of your own accord.


No one-day seminar on "Diversity Training" will ever change your mind; no law or legislation will ever change the way you feel inside, despite how you may act on the outside in resentful compliance.


Once you've been led to believe that your God is the right one, and the only one; that prescribed and codified morality is superior to your untainted natural instincts; that you are somehow of the chosen ones, you will always believe there are others that are inferior and lesser.

I submit that your beliefs have more to do with hatred than to do with love. Well, guess what? There IS a hell and eternal damnation.

You're smack bang in the middle of it.

The Printing Machine - by Kalki Koechlin

This has got to get as much airing as it can get.

Or you might prefer the unplugged version...

Being A Sikh

As a Sikh, I don't care what religion you follow or whatever label you ascribe yourself to; as long as you are kind, treat others how you'd like to be treated, and understand that all humanity lives in a symbiotic relationship with one another: In the end, that's what it's all about. 

You might want to remember, most of the Gurus and heroes from the Sikh pantheon bled and died for far more than the narrowly defined beliefs of any one faith or way of thinking, INCLUDING their own. 

Call God whatever you you want, I don't care. Neither would a single one of the ten, nay, eleven Gurus we hope to emulate. The starting point of our scriptures define God as without form, without fear or hatred or prejudice; without beginning or end, and in one word, indescribable.

That, I believe is what Sikhism is all about. Despite our beards, turbans and long locks, we are NOT the Taliban. We are not separate from you; we are part of you, and we care about you. We care about you because our humanity and our compassion expects us to be.

When your argument rests on the nature and length of your beard or your underwear, or the fact that you believe YOU, and not God are the moral arbitrator of who a Sikh can marry without the blessings of the the  "establishment" or conversion to your narrow little constraints, you actually limit and contradict the very God you pretend (yes, pretend) to follow, you belittle the Mool Mantar - the very basis of what Baba Nanak stated God is.

I'm sorry, the only "establishment" I recognise is the Shri Guru Granth Sahib. If you'd read it purely, and without the contamination of the so-called leaders and defenders of the faith, you'll probably wise up some.

We're NOT a seprate ethnic identity; Sikhism is bigger than mere skin colour or geographical culture. Sikhism is about sanity, reason, compassion, kindness, acceptance and love, and I'm happy to challenge anyone who believes otherwise. I dare you to debate me. By all means, bring your scriptures and fatwas along.

This isn't an anti-Sikh or anti-religion tirade. This is an anti-idiot rant. Tell me I'm wrong, and prove to me I don't get it; I'm happy to learn and change my way of thinking - if you make sense.

Anyone?