Caste System Creeps West

There's been a continuing migrating of peoples from lands, once deemed their homeland, to other countries.  The lure has been typically food, when in their homeland they would confront starvation; safety, when in their homeland they would confront steady onslaught of violence and death; jobs, when in their homeland there are so few that pay well enough; and religious and/or political freedom.

Current Immigration patterns 
The magazine National Geographic, Feb. 2012, notes the present-day migration patterns occurring in Europe.  It also makes reference to the fact that many of the Africans who are moving into France, even as far north as England are Muslims.  Because these foreigners are so different from the native culture, they usually live together in the poor neighborhoods and from time to time cause trouble when they go to the streets to protest what they deem as wrongful treatment of aliens.  The article does not mention that the native populations have tended to reject these foreigners' presence on their soil despite being cheap labor for indigenous industry and long range, offering age change from an older population to a youthful majority.

Maldovia, comes to mind, as a country supplying domestics in Turkey, but whose society looks down upon this new source of laborers.  Indeed, some in the country have called for the return of Maldovian immigrants no later than in 3 months! 

I understand the Japanese has been encouraging workers from  Bangladesh to take menial jobs in the country.  And, the US has still not decisively cut off the flow of immigrants from south of its border--permitting these illegals to stay, seemingly, for much the same reasons.

Be it understood, that these immigrants are treated differently from the indigenous peoples.  Because they don't usually worship together, they tend not to share the same foundation from which may be derived ethical principles.  Moreover, they are relegated to doing mential chores or doing low-level farming tasks, e.g., removing animal detritus.  So, it is relatively easy to separate them from the native born and to look upon their differences in behavior and dress as indicative of a lower class.

Caste Presence in the Educational Systems
To take one example from abroad, in Great Britain currently, the state supported schools are being conjoined with state-supported private schools.  The latter group of educational institutions develop their own budgets individually, in consort with the parents who send their kids to these private schools.

And in the US, as an example I cite the Washington, DC schools, where in addition to the typical public schools have developed another educational system of schools, the latter having greater control in choosing its students and teachers from those who apply, and in developing its own curricula.  It also draws upon an aggregate governmental stipend of some $13,000 annually per student, plus other public sources of funding.  In DC, this system is called "charter schools."  As a result, there's been a "migration" of the better students into these new, quasi-independent schools away from the ordinary public school system.

In some form or other, the same bifurcating of students to make up both the regular public school system and the above-average, semi-private school system has been occurring throughtout the country with public funds--the latter system made up of schools capable of controlling their own educating environment to a far greater degree, including accepting or rejecting any student who applies for admission. 


Add to these trends, viz., an educational caste system and an obvious immigrant population division of labor, is the local property tax which separates the social classes by neighbohood--with the wealthy affording the very expensive homes--and you've got the makings of a marked fossilization of class intransigence, whereby the individual is confined to the boundaries of his own class in which he was born, educated and employed.  Of course, the European countries are more familiar to this outcome than is the United States, since at one time the wealthy class were given title designations and stately honors.  Notwithstanding these trends toward class identity, some individuals, a very few, are able to rise above, or fall below, their initial class fit, e.g., President Obama!    





 

 

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

--I've just completed the second item on the Social Uplift topic--The Emergence of the Welfare State in the US.  Alluding to its Meta-Elements, you can see that there's a long way to go before reaching fruition on this front.  Some critics express a fear that the US will lose its posture in world affairs should the project be successful.  I believe them mistaken.  Through this enterprise, the government in its various forms touches the individual--understanding his inner self and his humanness--heretofore beyond government's ken.  Now, it can truly work with the individual to reach his aspirations and help him meet his express wants, when, before, the individual had to "go it alone," or as the Republican Conservatives would say, the individual ought to be (euphematisically) "self-reliant."  In a day and age, when the realm of knowledge has litterally exploded beyond the comprehension of any lone individual, the exhortation to rely on oneself is preposterous, and if taken seriously, would exhort the individual citizen to succumb to the wiles of those "in the know," as does the novice player of poker pay up to the card shark.  He  can't stand a chance!

Thus, the need for rules and regulations to govern any transaction in which there's an unequal knowledge base among the transactors, e.g., the banker as mortgage lender and the home-seeker wanting a home loan.  So too, until recently, the investment banks could deal in derivatives without rules to abide by.  That's changed; despite the howl of the investment houses.  Apparently, the idea was to have knowledge of how to play the game above and beyond what other participants in the transaction have so as to always make the others into sucker players!

--There's at least one more topic to the Social-X series.  After "Social Uplift," I'm planning "Social Experience."  Because the Social-X series doesn't deal with current events as such, I'm going to expand the "Pithy" section of John's "What's Up?" to at least mention some important (to my way of thinking) present-day phenomena in an ever-changing world.

--P.S. I really like Omaha!  A place I've settled down in.