A senior council officer has sparked fury after claiming that it is acceptable for employers to slap their servants.She didn’t, of course, claim anything of the sort. It was a joke.
A joke in bad taste? Well, maybe:
Rehana Mohamed made the comments on her Twitter account after watching a TV debate on the abuse of foreign domestic workers exploited by wealthy families.But since when was it illegal or unacceptable to joke on Twitter about anyth…
While watching the Channel 4 Dispatches programme, Britain's Secret Slaves, Cambridge University educated Miss Mohamed wrote: 'Oh this is so self-righteous.
'That b****y maid needs a good slap. Some ppl [sic] here have no idea what it's like having servants.
'I'm sorry but being on call 24/7 and not having a day off for months and not being allowed to leave the house DOESN'T make you a slave.'
Oh. Right.
Miss Mohamed, who is from Sri Lanka, works as a strategic change management consultant at Brent Council in north London, an ethnically diverse area.Naturally, the Righteous have freaked out and are outraged that someone from a demographic they expect to be sympathetic to Righteous causes is, instead, flippant about them.
She added: 'Damn right they should get up and make what you want. That's their job.
'We never let out female servants for their own safety.'
Even, perhaps, sarcastic…!
Miss Mohamed, who is in her thirties, today insisted she had made the astonishing comments 'in jest and that's been acknowledged'.Sorry, love. It doesn’t matter.
You have been insufficiently respectful of a Righteous cause, and now your Shield of Ethnicity and Sword of Disadvantaged Gender will be no use against the dragons…
Sarah Teather, Brent Central MP and Education Minister, called the remarks 'unacceptable'.Here we go…
The Liberal Democrat MP added: ''I am extremely shocked by these comments.The personal is the political is the personal is…
'Anybody who is working on policy on a council like Brent needs to be sensitive to the issues.
'The council should ask whether it is appropriate to employ a consultant who holds such views to work in policy for the most ethnically diverse borough in the country.'
Brent Council said it is considering what action to take.And it won’t be ‘Nothing’. Which, of course, is what it should be.
In today's deliberately manufactured oh-so-touchy, chip-on-shoulder society, everyone has to be permanently on guard to protect ourselves from such things.
ReplyDeleteOne of my former council colleagues was taken to task (and more!) for telling a joke, during a break in a meeting, using the word "Paddy".
Yet, even as recently as earlier this decade, those old "The Comedians" programmes were still being shown on TV (Granada Cable channels) and they contained far worse from the likes of Bernard Manning and many others.
There is no sense in the current make-up of our society. It will take years to bring us back, slowly, to sanity, and it is barely beginning.
At least, with the recent change of national government, the direction of change has turned, but it won't be fast.
Actually, Julia, I think it quite likely that nothing will be done, given the ethnicity (and religion?) of the woman involved.
ReplyDeleteBut of course if an English, Irish Welsh or Scottish person had made this 'joke' it would be a very different story.
SHe surely should have known better working for The Peoples Democratic Republic of Brent so a little bit of schadenfreude for me....nice. AS an aside I just listened to part of Dame Ellen Macarthur's interview on Weekend Woman's Hour - I was driving along and turned the radio on and stayed listening as she spoke in a weird mix of earnest municipal/business/PC-talk - not like a normal human being. Every aspect of her daily life seemed to 'fascinating' and linked to 'educating the next generation' and - aaarrrgghhhh! - Sustainability. Drivel!
ReplyDeleteI'm far from convinced that the comments made were "in jest" .. She's desperately rowing for the shore ..
ReplyDeleteI've known some very arrogant but rich (and totally dishonest) Sri Lankans ..
I also believe that she's quite typical of the arrogance we see from Council officials up & down the country on a daily basis ..
I doubt she'll get any punishment harsher than "words of advice" ..
Oh, how I love it so .. when the multi-culti, do-as-we-say-or -else Councils get dropped, or drop themselves in the manure ..
"a strategic change management consultant" at Brent Cancer? Any excuse is quite sufficient to get rid of vermin like that.
ReplyDelete...strategic change management consultant...
ReplyDeleteA wha?
@Gibby - yeah, very confusing. Geez, can't even have a twatter account now though. What next? Impounding sms, laptops, crackberries. FFS, sure she'd be righteous if it was anyone else, though.
ReplyDeleteThe whole episode is a postmodern stunt.
Being Muslim and into diversity is a contradiction, though I know some who manage it. Al Murray is superb at ribbing this kind of dud 'morality'. Sanity may have gone forever. Racism is crass, but replacing it with speech crimes is worse - the same attitudes persist in the etiquette and politesse.
ReplyDelete"It will take years to bring us back, slowly, to sanity, and it is barely beginning."
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure it's possible. I did once think that, but no more.
"...should have known better working for The Peoples Democratic Republic of Brent so a little bit of schadenfreude for me....nice."
Yes, I was wrestling with that too! I only just won...
"I also believe that she's quite typical of the arrogance we see from Council officials up & down the country on a daily basis .."
Undoubtedly. But despite the delight in seeing them hoist on their own petard, I'd still, on balance, rather see that petard defused for good.
"Geez, can't even have a twatter account now though. What next? "
I wonder if she used a personal account, or a council one?
If the former, she was daft to break her anonimity for just this reason...
"Racism is crass, but replacing it with speech crimes is worse..."
Both stem from the same desire - that of being in control of the lives of others.