Posted on 12/26/2016 2:22:26 PM PST by Loyalist
Immigrants who settle in Quebec City are being offered a new guide to explain local customs, and the authors spare no detail in telling the newcomers how to fit in for example, refrain from committing incest, wash with soap and use underarm deodorant to "control perspiration and bad odours."
The guide from city hall was made public last week and has already been condemned as insulting and paternalistic. ..... Quebec City is one of 13 municipalities across Quebec designated by the province to settle refugees from Syria. While Montreal remains the overwhelming destination of choice for newcomers, more than 550 state-sponsored refugees landed in Quebec City, 400 of them from Syria.
To help them integrate, city hall unveiled a guide last week, "Québec, Une ville pour moi" (Quebec City, A city for me) that spells out "common values" and ways of life in the province's second-largest city. Some of the values, such as the equality of men and women, are commonly recognized in Canada. Other rules in the booklet, whose contents were first reported in Le Journal de Québec, seem to treat newcomers as if they are joining the civilized world for the first time, or have never bathed.
The section on "Hygiene and body care," which is accompanied by a diagram of a dark-haired man with a beard, advises brushing one's teeth at least twice a day "with a toothbrush and toothpaste." Hand-washing is a must, "especially after going to the bathroom," among other occasions. Socks and underwear should be washed after each use. And when washing one's body, "pay particular attention to underarms, feet and intimate parts."
(Excerpt) Read more at beta.theglobeandmail.com ...
Oh, c’mon, all cultures are equal, right?
I found one of the offended:
“It’s a good idea to prepare something intelligent to help immigrants, but the way it was done is infantilizing,” Anne Guérette, municipal opposition leader in Quebec City, said on Sunday.
The name of the opposition is a female Marxist ape called “Anne Guérette.”
The good citizens of Quebec City need to tally an immediate census to determine if one of their female apes escaped from the zoo. If not, Anne Guérette needs to be thrown in the zoo with her fellow apes.
Funny. One of my best friends is from valencia Spain and he immigrated to Montreal off all places. What makes him unique is that he did NOT know a word of English NOR French so for a 12 year old boy to overcome everything on his own is no small feat. Everyone knows once you get out of Montreal’s city limits, everything is in Fwench...
American immigrants in the early 1900s were held in quarantine on Ellis Island. The society ladies sponsored Settlement Houses which taught ‘modern’ living. The Settlement Cookbook was one of their projects.
All four of my grandparents were immigrants. All except my paternal grandmother learned English to an acceptable or better degree. My paternal grandfather spoke, read and could write 5 languages, including English and Spanish. His family spent 9 years in Argentina, which was the only country then that didn’t charge for a visa.
On my mother’s side, both grands came over at 18 and were allowed in as workers. The other side had 2 kids and grandma was pregnant, so a sponsor, a job + a visa were required. 6 kids combined in my parents’ generation, all assimilated, all were enthusiastic Americans. They even refused to teach us Russian, Yiddish or Lithuanian because they didn’t want us to be greenhorns. I picked up some Yiddish, but by the time my brother was born 5 years later, they stopped using it around us, so I forgot.
These people came from rural areas with dirt floors and weekly baths, wood heat and wood cook stoves. They were all born in the 19th century in Eastern Europe. They figured things out quickly. They wouldn’t discuss life in Europe. If I asked, the answer was “It’s better here.” End of discussion.
Are they talking about Syrians or French?
Maybe they should have invited Ivanka instead. I hear she looks like she smells nice.
So in other words, appropriate for it's target audience.
Exactly! Eastern Europe and Ireland were both difficult places in which to live 100+ years ago."It's better here" was the typical attitude of immigrants back then regardless of what horrible place they came from.OTOH,if the democrats have their way it won't be long before we'll be dialing "1" for Spanish,"2" for Chinese,"3" for Arabic and "4" for English.
And it sounds like Canada might be headed in the same general direction.
The terrorists have been driven out of Aleppo so it’s safe for these refugees to return home. There’s lots of work for them there.
Yes. But asking them to refrain from committing incest, wash with soap and use underarm deodorant to “control perspiration and bad odors is asking a lot.
“”dirt floors and weekly baths, wood heat and wood cook stoves””
Probably not so much different from other elders on this site. Except for the “dirt floors”, I grew up with all of the above in upstate NY!
The Muzzlime women smell worse than the men do. Deodorant and perfume doesn’t work if you don’t bathe occasionally.
Just enlightening and enriching culture, aren’t they?
I grew up outside a city in Illinois in the 1940s, then we moved to town in the early 50s. Never lived without plumbing/power, though.
In 1975, my husband and I moved to rural WI and I encountered people who lived just as you say, even then. I had no idea there were still places where indoor plumbing wasn’t universal. It came to the rural part of our present county in 1967 or so. I think they had electric power, though.
There were people who signed their counter checks at the bank with an X and many who had never been more than 50 miles from home, if that. Yet, they raised their own food, cut their own fuel and managed to live their lives. But it all seemed exotic and like something from the distant past or a foreign country.
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