Sunday, July 05, 2009

Cultural Enrichment in Leicester and Nottingham

Cultural Enrichment News

Here are two articles celebrating diversity in England. The first is from the Leicester Mercury (Note: in the British media, “Asian” is a well-known euphemism for Muslim, usually a Pakistani):

Hunt after assault on woman, 79

A 79-year-old woman has been left too “scared” to leave her home after she was sexually assaulted in a city street.

The elderly victim was approached by a man in Upper Tichborne Street, Highfields, Leicester, before he tried to grab her.

After the victim told the man that she was going to call the police he ran off into the nearby Warrington Court flats.

The incident happened between 2.30pm and 3pm on Monday, June 29.

The man is described as Asian, about 50, of a medium build, clean shaven and had short, red hair that was combed back.

The second article is from This is Nottingham:
- - - - - - - - -
Rapist ‘almost cut man’s face off’

A TEENAGER who raped a 15-year-old girl, head-butted his ex-girlfriend and slashed a man’s face will be locked up and eventually deported.

Alan Elyasi, 18, injured the man so seriously that it appeared “almost as if the front of his face was cut off”, Nottingham Crown Court heard.

Judge Sean Morris said Elyasi’s consecutive custodial sentences, adding up to ten years and four months, would have been longer were it not a waste of taxpayers’ money— he will be automatically sent back to Iraq on his release.

Judge Morris described him as a “predatory young male”.

Elyasi, of no fixed address, denied the rape, forcing his victim to give evidence.

The judge said it must have been traumatic for her to face in court a jury, judge and counsel.

“I have considered imprisonment for public protection in your case but I understand that deportation proceedings are to commence and you are to be sent back to Iraq at the conclusion of your sentence,” he said.

“I, therefore, do not see why the British taxpayer should be put to the extra expense of that kind of sentence when we will be rid of you upon your release.”

The girl Elyasi head-butted was his former girlfriend. Judge Morris described the act as “the mark of a coward”.

On the same day, Elyasi challenged her new boyfriend to a “contest”, which the other man declined, the court heard.

Elyasi produced a knife and repeatedly struck out at the man.

The most serious of several cuts was 15cm long and was so deep that part of the internal structure of the face was visible. The man also had cuts to his left hand, left thigh and upper chest.

The man slashed by Elyasi has been left with scars and movement in his face is affected.

“Attacking a man with a knife is again the mark of a coward,” Judge Morris said.

“He was unarmed. You haven’t the guts to take out your anger in any other way than a cowardly way.”

Elyasi, who pleaded not guilty to all the charges, denied even being present during the attack in Cope Street, Hyson Green.

He was, however, found guilty of section 18 wounding with intent.

The girl he raped had gone back to a Radford house with him, his male friend and her female friend, on March 27, 2008.

Elyasi followed her to the bathroom and raped her on the floor.

With no previous convictions and in custody since his arrest in September, Elyasi tried to swallow a razor blade after he was convicted. Because of that, the probation service is, the court heard, worried about how he will cope with a long period in custody.


Previous posts about Cultural Enrichment:

2009 Jun 27 Today’s Cultural Enrichment News
    27 Cultural Enrichment, Coming to a Country Near You
    28 Portuguese Cultural Enrichment
    28 More Danish Enrichment
    29 Cultural Enrichment in Paris
    29 Cultural Enrichment in Berlin
    29 Today in Denmark
    29 Cultural Enrichment in Scotland
    29 A Baby as a Weapon
    30 Cultural Enrichment in Italy
    30 Today’s Danish Dose
    30 Cultural Enrichment in Sweden
  Jul 1 Cultural Enrichment in Manchester
    1 Cultural Enrichment in Germany
    2 Cultural Enrichment in Brisbane
    2 Target: The French Police
    3 Sex-Slaves in Århus
    3 Cultural Enrichment from Bosnia
    4 Cultural Enrichment in Fredericia

Hat tip: Earl Cromer.

6 comments:

Jedilson Bonfim said...

The man is described as Asian.

I wonder why the Brits keep using this term to refer to Porkis/Pakis. Is it just to get people to mix them up with Koreans, the Japanese and the Chinese, so that people's outrage would somehow not be directed just at Porkis?

X said...

It's idiomatic. Asian here means people of south-east asian or eurasian extraction, so anyone from the Indian sub-continent and points north, or parts around the Indian Ocean. Our interaction with the far eas - the part where you Americans refer to people as Asian - was rather more limited to China. We tend to refer to those as east asians or just chinese, since most of our east-asian immigrant population is Chinese, whereas the Americas have a much larger mix of east-asians than eurasians.

But, that aside, most of the time when you hear "asian" used in the news it actually means pakistani muslim. Other asian groups have complained repeatedly about being lumped in with it. Hindu Indians are especially unhappy at having to live with the same label as pakistani muslims - largely because the Indians, especially Gujas, are hard-working, prosperous and generally attempt to adapt to our culture and they don't want to be associated in the public mind with a bunch of indolent, feckless, bomb-happy, benefit claiming, work-shy... there's no polite way to finish that sentence. Regardless, we British tend to assume anything that mentions "asians" in a negative sense is talking about muslims.

Edwin Greenwood said...

"(Note: in the British media, “Asian” is a well-known euphemism for Muslim, usually a Pakistani)"

No it isn't. In British usage, both media and popular, "Asian" tends to mean someone from or whose "heritage" is from what used to be British India, ie the modern-day Pakistan, Indian, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. It would be fair to say that most of the actual trouble comes from our Muslim friends of Pakistani and to a lesser extent Bangladeshi origin, but the word itself does not imply either Muslim or Pakistani.

As to why the "Brits keep using this term", it is simply because until recently at least the vast majority of Asian immigrants have been from the Indian subcontinent, whereas in the USA, for example, most have been from China / Korea / Japan / Indochina, so the word has stuck accordingly.

Personally I avoid the term Asian and use South Asian or (North) East Asian as appropriate.

Edwin Greenwood said...

"British India, ie the modern-day Pakistan, Indian, Pakistan and Sri Lanka."

Or possibly, "Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka", but you probably got my meaning.

(Greenwood's First Law of Posting: Never comment while both drunk and annoyed ("pissed and pissed" in respectively the British and US senses?) particularly after travelling home from the pub among a bus-load of bumptious Nigerians. Really, if you want to truly celebrate hyperdiversity, come to South London and play "spot the White Man".)

Zenster said...

With no previous convictions and in custody since his arrest in September, Elyasi tried to swallow a razor blade after he was convicted. Because of that, the probation service is, the court heard, worried about how he will cope with a long period in custody.

Isn't this one of those ideal opportunities to find out if malign neglect can have a positive outcome? Hell, leave a packet of double-edged razors within reach of his cell door.

X said...

Really, if you want to truly celebrate hyperdiversity, come to South London and play "spot the White Man".

Let me guess: he'll be the one wearing a police uniform and backing up against a wall.