Who is afraid of the Diaspora?

A young Adolf Hitler then a down and out tramp walking the streets of Vienna with ambitions of becoming a successful painter, records in ‘Mein Kamph’ written much later at a mature thirty five, his first encounter with a Jew.

At the time, Vienna the magnificent capital of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, attracted many races and communities. Until his relocation to the busting Capital city Hitler had lived in the hilly-wooded countryside bordering the Austro-German frontier amidst a predominantly peasant community.

Typical Germans, straightforward, hard working and faithful they were very unlike the amorphous flotsam and jetsam the struggling artist was to encounter later in the seedy backstreets of Vienna to which he was willy-nilly forced by circumstances.

“I suddenly encountered an apparition in a black caftan and black side-locks. Is this a Jew?, was my first thought. For sure, they had not looked like that in Linz. I observed the man furtively and cautiously, but longer I stared at this foreign face, scrutinizing feature for feature, the more my first question assumed a new form: Is this a German?”.

Had he had the occasion to observe the frenzied protests by the new ‘citizens’ of various countries like Norway, Germany, Canada, United Kingdom, Italy and Australia about the Sri Lankan military operations against the LTTE, the terrorist group which has wrecked such havoc in this island in the Indian Ocean, the young Hitler would surely have undergone a very serious trauma.

As we know, among the various hotchpotch theories that gave life to National Socialism as espoused by the Nazi Party was the idea of the superior form of the Homo Sapiens. The dark skin, slight stature, narrow shoulders, the hesitant step, furtive assessing eyes most times associated with the new citizens of these developed countries are not exactly the kind of features Hitler wanted in his idealized ‘supermen’.

The social habits of the new citizens like their obvious clannishness, grovelling attitude towards superiors, religious/social practices conducted noisily, constant bickering and personal tastes inclined towards the garish would have struck him as symbolic of backwardness.

To Hitler things like regular facial features, strong build, combined with social discipline, purposefulness and proven inventiveness denoted a higher state of human existence. In his Darwinian way of thinking, races that are colonized are inferior and deserved that fate.

The influx of varied races to European countries began after the defeat of Hitler. It gathered momentum in the 1970s eventually becoming, for good or for worse, a factor affecting the demographics of the recipient countries. A vast majority of the immigrants were economic refugees desperate to better their lives.

A few were escaping social /political strife in their countries of birth. And there were also those who having amassed wealth in ways not quite legitimate, needed refuge in these countries to enjoy their filthy lucre. Whatever the reason for their resettlement, it is obvious that for the vast majority of the new immigrants a whole new world has opened up in the adopted countries.

It is not that the recipient countries are just passive targets of immigrants. It is an observed fact of the human condition that better economic and educational standards result in smaller families.

Today many developed countries are moving towards negative population growth. But in order to maintain their tax base and to man the ever expanding economic base created by the dynamism of their systems, more hands are needed. Since these vacancies cannot be filled with immigrants from kindred cultures they have to turn to alien cultures.

Today most of the developed countries have diverse emigre populations such as the Chinese, Indians, Vietnamese, Mexicans and various African groups who are gradually becoming important minorities in their adopted countries. Sri Lanka too has contributed significantly to the immigrant populations of these countries.

This background is relevant when looking at the conduct of certain elements of the Sri Lankan Tamil emigre group sometimes referred to by sympathetic writers as the Diaspora. Like many other things associated with the LTTE, this description is subtly deceptive.

The word Diaspora is of Greek origin and was generally used to describe the displacement of the Jews from the lands they were living in such as Mesopotamia. These events which happened about 6-8 Centuries BC are naturally obscure historically and subject to much romanticizing.

Subsequently however, this scattering of the Jewish people was to have a crucial impact on the progress of all mankind. There is no denying the incredibly rich contribution by the Jewish people in shaping the thoughts, habits as well as progress and prosperity of the world at large, particularly the civilization of the West.

When the recent relocation, of a people, mainly in search of greener pastures is described as a Diaspora, though perhaps permissible linguistically, its historical implication could be deceptive.

Far from enriching humanity many of them are in fact charges on the welfare systems of these countries. Before the recent military operations against the LTTE, some writers routinely referred to certain rag-tag units of this organization as ‘elite’.

These writers did not of course enlighten us on the basis of their fond adjective. But when it came to the moment of truth there was nothing elite about these barely teenage toy soldiers.

A part of our troubles is perhaps this pervasive inclination to cover ourselves with dubious honours by the mere use of words, particularly of foreign languages. In this lingo we are not refugees but a diaspora. We are not just middle order workers but outstanding if not elite. Even our problems are often described in exaggerated terms.

Despite living in an electronic age when comparing and contrasting with the wider world is much easier, it seems old habits die hard.

The so called Diaspora which in now running wild attacking private and public property in Western countries may be more aptly called a mob. Who is afraid of such a mob!.

- RP