Who Was the Bigot Here, After All?

I would have been really surprised if nothing like this happened during the campaign.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown was crucified today by all the major UK media (the BBC included) because he called a voter a "bigot" during a private conversation with one of his advisers, which was unfortunately caught by one of the BBC's microphones that he forgot to unhook from his lapel.

"Brown bigot remark raises character question again," the BBC writes. "It's very nice to see you… you bigot," the Mirror quips. "Brown says sorry to widow after calling her 'bigoted woman'", the Times victoriously proclaims.

The list can go on, virtually all the media joined into the feast. None, however, remarked on the profoundly offensive, and racist, character of her remark.

"You can't say anything about the immigrants … but all these Eastern European ones, where are they flocking from?" Gillian Duffy, described by the British media as a widow living in a terraced house in Rochdale, said at minute 2:36 of this video.

I mean, excuse me, flocking? Are these people from the East some sort of birds? Crows maybe? Hey, why stop at this? Why not go ahead and call them vermin since you're at it, I know you're probably thinking it, anyway. The "poor widow" said that nowadays nobody can say anything about immigrants but went ahead and insulted Eastern Europeans in the next sentence, and became famous for it.

The British media took her side and not the side of the man who had the decency to call her what she is: a bigot. I bet you none of the journalists present, and none of those who listened to the video, actually noticed there was something wrong with her remark.

Which poses an interesting dilemma for all the Eastern European immigrants who have "flocked" into Britain and are now paying, on top of the usual taxes, the BBC's licence fee. Why not boycott the Corporation until it shows Gillian Duffy, head in hands, apologizing for her mortifying mistake?

Come on, BBC, be impartial as your status claims you should be! Or at least give those Eastern Europeans their money back. They shouldn't be forced to pay to watch such masterpieces of hypocrisy; they had to live with it every day when they were under communism.

Justice for All … Easties Need Not Apply

This story in Le Figaro is really something. A woman in Germany sued a company for discrimination after being turned down for a job because she came from Eastern Germany.

Of course, it wasn't put as clearly as that. Somebody at the company, where the woman had applied for the position of accountant, forgot to detach from her CV a post-it which had the mention "Ossi" (Eastie) and a minus sign in front of it.

The court decided that she wasn't discriminated against because – get this – she had the same ethnic origin as the people at the company who rejected her.

I never would have thought it was ok to discriminate against people from other cities within the same country, but there you go. From now on, people from the south can discriminate against those from the north, east, west, etc. As long as they all have the same ethnic origin.

But what's the deal with the Ossis? Well, the Wessis (Westies, ok?) think they're lazy, haven't worked a day in their life and can't solve simple tasks.

A lot of Westies (everywhere, not just in Germany) think the Easties are only trying to take advantage of freedom to travel within the EU to do mischief, abuse generous benefit legislation, thieve and rape.

True? No. But it's enormously self-satisfying to feel you are superior to a certain category of people – and in this increasingly politically-correct world, the opportunities get fewer and fewer.

One other point here: Angela Merkel is an Ossi. I suppose it's a good thing for Germany that she didn't apply for a job with that company, hoping to work her way up…

Give Herta Mueller a Second Nobel Prize

Why are so many Romanians going abroad? No, not everybody is after the money and the "easy" life. Some of them leave because they have no choice. And I'm not speaking here about the Roma who can't find work and hope that they will in the richer West.

I'm talking about the ones who are still, 20 years after the 1989 revolution, fleeing the loathed secret police, the Securitate.

Nobel prize winner Herta Mueller, an ethnic German writer born in Romania, who left the country in 1987, at the height of the communist dictatorship, explains:

"I know that in Romania, scores of people who used to work for the Securitate are now in high-level positions and this has virtually no consequences. It is not important for the society," she told EU Observer.

And listen to this:

"These people have gained so much influence that they have managed to almost re-create their old network of power, where they all know and serve each other. It is the second life of the dictatorship. Under different circumstances, organised in a different way. And without ideology. Without Socialism."

Please, give the woman a second Nobel prize! This one, for being able to explain what is wrong with that system, in a nutshell.

Those of you who are still wondering why things are still not working in these countries, why people are still looking for a better life abroad, why those who stay have to give in to corruption, read her words, over and over again.

What she says is that communism is not really dead. It just changed its name to "market economy" and has taken over the private sector as well.

Mueller goes on to suggest that Eastern European countries should not have been so readily accepted into the EU. This is the part where I don't agree with her.

Joining the EU was the best chance these countries actually had (and still have) to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Those sick of working like slaves in a corrupt system can travel freely and escape the Securitate agents populating companies – and at some point even corrupt managers will realise they need highly-skilled people to advance their businesses and will get rid of incompetents.

Eastern Europeans can now also go to the EU courts when the corrupt justice system in their countries defies logic and common sense by taking absurd decisions that infringe on their freedoms, property and integrity.

The EU's principles of freedom and justice are well known. Too bad Western European companies investing in the East don't always follow them.

It seems that the Romanian saying that "money has no scent" is an international principle. But even those who currently hire the former Securitate agents will realise, at some point, that they aren't getting their money's worth - unless they hire them for the only job they know to do well: backstabbing.