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p>It’s pretty common for bigots to complain that outsiders are intent upon luring, seducing and despoiling their women. The defense of the motherland is intimately linked to the defense of mothers, and women in general, who have to be protected from the depredations of the evil other. It’s also common for nativists to complain that there are too many immigrants, and that those who arrive under legal cover often stay to do something else. However, it’s rare to complain that illegal immigrants pose a national danger because they’re just too good looking.
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Warning: Bangladeshis will not be allowed into Malaysia if they look too much like this man! |
Until now.
Malaysia is being swamped by thousands of illegal Bangladeshi workers who are gaining entrance on the pretext of being students, according to reports… Home affairs minister Radzi Sheikh Ahmad said the men end up doing menial jobs in response to a labour shortage. [Link]
Malaysia has a manpower shortage, and Bangladeshi men are arriving in Malaysia to fill the gap, to give Malaysia what it needs. There’s nothing to be ashamed of in this – it’s completely natural. Why should the minister object, then?
Home Affairs Minister Radzi Sheikh Ahmad said Bangladesh workers were still spotted on construction sites and in restaurants despite a ban on their employment two years ago over concerns they were causing “social problems”. “They have blue eyes and look like Hindi film actors and they create social problems here,” Radzi was quoted as saying by the New Straits Times of the reason for the ban…. Hindi films are popular amongst Malaysian women, as are handsome male Bollywood film stars. [Link]
Ahhh … that explains it. Bangladeshis are too sexy for their jobs (too sexy for their jobs, so sexy, they’re fobs). Can you just imagine the Malaysian ambassador asking the Bangladeshi PM to make sure that only ugly “students” go to Malaysia? [Give us your tired your poor, your ugly masses yearning to be free, the unattractive refuse of your too too sexy shore … ] And what does it mean that no such restriction is imposed upon Indians? 
I’m sure that today, all over Dhaka, Bangladeshi college students are walking around, catching reflections of their butts in shop windows, and comparing each other to movie stars. “Dude! You so look like SRK! I’m not kidding man, you really do! You’ve got the same blue eyes as he has!”
[Thanks also to technophobicgeek who blogged this story on the News tab]
Brilliant story!
Haha, that’s great.
Hillarious!!! The way you added your comments … just great I almost laughed out loud in my cube.
They check each other’s butts and then comment on the eye color?
I wonder how many Bangladeshis are blue-eyed.
Paging Razib, paging Razib … a question about both Bangladeshis and genetics … No where did I leave the top secret Razib phone …
We need to send this to Lou Dobbs.. Give him one more reason to whip-up xenophobia. (In case he runs out of all the other reasons that he regularly uses) 🙂
We need to send this to Lou Dobbs
I used to like Lou Dobbs when he actually talked about business and finance. Now he has turned his show from a business show into a nativist anti-free trade hate-fest. Lou Dobbs should feel more comfortable at Fox News where they raise the flag higher than any news network. CNN though is not far behind Fox now, they have Lou Dobbs and also that equally obnoxious wench, Nancy Grace.
Nancy Grace causes more destruction every night to defendant rights guaranteed in the Bill of Rights than O’Reilly and Hannity combined.
Ah, I see another reason for America to hate Islam…
I remember back to my onetime visit to Singapore, and I remember how the Malaysians were beaming their version of the Islamic 700-club into the Singaporean TV market. And I recall why Singapore had such a strong military.
Thank God, at least someone somewhere considers desi men to be sexy. Gentlemen, there is hope.
Hmm true i dont think it is, some bengalis have eye lids which are similar to east asian population. Is that reason, familiar but exotic In india you do see a lot of green/blue(well grayish blue) eyes in rajasthan. Sindhis have that too, some punjabi although hazel would be more common there than green/blue.
At the moment in the UK version of the TV show ‘The Apprentice’ the one contestant who is making the most waves and impact is a Bangladeshi Londoner called Syed who has green eyes. He makes me female work mates heats go a flutter.
He is very sharp and singleminded – I hope he wins the show.
I meant of course ‘my female work mates HEARTS go a flutter’!
I wonder how many Bangladeshis are blue-eyed.
i one blue-eyed rikshawallah in dhaka 2 years ago (it seems implausible that a rikshawallah would be able to afford blue eye contacts). green and hazel eyes are not TOTALLY unknown, though really rare (out of the cousins i’ve seen in person, which is around 100, i know one with hazel-green eyes).
I think Anand got a little excited at the thought of Syed’s nasheeli blue eyes himself, hence all those typos in his post 😉
Yet another “Brokeback moment” here on SM…..
Sorry guys, that should have said “green eyes”. Unlike Anand, I haven’t been paying much attention to Syed’s oh-so-dreamy eyes.
just kidding, Anand
Blue eyes in northern India, while certainly not common, do pop up here and there. Green eyes are more common, and hazel even more so. In India, Kashmiris and Punjabis probably have the highest frequency. Afghani Pashtuns of course very often have blue or green eyes, and brownish, sometimes blondish hair. If you go to Punjab during a big festival (for example I was there one year during Hola Mohalla) when huge numbers of people gather in close quarters, you’ll be amazed at how high a percentage of the rural population has fair skin, brownish hair, and light eyes. Rajasthan, Haryana and western UP also to a lesser degree. For that matter I’ve seen south Indian brahmins with green/hazel eyes. Aryan invasion/migration theory, anyone?
For that matter I’ve seen south Indian brahmins with green/hazel eyes. Aryan invasion/migration theory, anyone?
Oh boy! Run to your house and fall on your knees so God may save you from the wrath of the great Khan.
@anand,
green/hazel eyes are not uncommon in south karnataka at least. konkanis and iyengars are the worst offenders here, but some others have it too. aishwarya for eg (she is tulu). blue is unheard of. and the color of the eye is not always correlated with complexion.
as for the aryan theory for the eye color, i wouldn’t be sure. too many variables. for one, it could be the europeans who settled in colonial times, or the middle easterns who blended into the population. that seems more plausible to me. konkanis are coastal people, and they may have had trade contacts always.
but in any case, more races in your blood is a sure way to beat genetic diseases. all for your good only :).
and the color of the eye is not always correlated with complexion.
the genes are probably unliked (hair and skin color have a more close link it seems), so they aren’t fundamentally connected (they simply happen to be selected together quite often i suspect for a variety of reasons).
re: eye color, c.s. coon the living races of man has some data on indians and eye color. mixed eyes are known in the northwest, but there is a strong nw->se gradient toward uniform brownness. re: groups that have light eyes in south india, some of it is probably admixture/migration. but, strong inbreeding can also result in high frequencies of different alleles in populations. to give an example of what i’m talking about, assume that you have a population where 10% of the genes are for “blue eyes” and 90% are for “brown eyes.” assume that you need two “blue eye” copies for blue eyes, then 0.1*0.1 = 0.01, or 1% of the population. but, if you separated the population into two groups, with all the blue eye genes being in one population, that the aggregate metapopulation would be 10% blue eyed. in other words, novel genetic traits will emerge without endogamy and population substructure because of sampling variation, something you have india….
Good post.
We Bangladeshis are damned sexy and distracting at work.
In all seriousness, I think the discrimination of the workers based on their national origin is sad (mimics too closely what is going on here in So Cal with the Mexican immigrants). It’s obvious that they fill a much need labor force in Malaysia, and probably get paid much cheaper than whatever their minimum wage should be. And to have Radzi actually quoted on his discrimination practices because they looked like film actors is just really, really, unfortunate.
HHmm……………..interesting! and there’s nothing wrong with a few sexy fob men if you ask me. bring em on.
Glad that there is finally a story mentioning Bangladeshis. I haven’t met many Bangladeshis with eye colors other than browns unless they are sporting colored contacts to look American.
Ultra-high caste Marathi people tend to have hazel or green eyes. Light brown is also fairly common.
omg!!! haa haa haa, that has to be the funniest thing i have ever read! can u imagine the uproar if someone in this admin. said that? jeebus save us from the imbecelic mutterings of politicians. maybe this minister is good friends with pat “isaystupidthingsallthetime” robertson.
in all the years, i have yet to see a bangladeshi with blue eyes. oddly enough, i have seen quite a lot working class people with hazel or even greenish eyes. 😉
I dont know what is Ultra-high caste 🙂 … but anyways, these are Kokanastha Brahmins of Maharashtra. (Also called Kobra). They also call themselves Chitpavan Brahmins. They are a RECENT MIGRATION to India from West Asia. They have distinct light colored eyes and light skin.
Famous Kobras are model/actor Milind Soman , revolutionaries and freedom fighters such as Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Veer Savarkar, Chafekar brothers etc. and ofcourse movie star Madhuri Dixit
RC, how did (relatively) recent migrants end up as brahmins?
Amitabh, Read the Wikipedia entry I linked. The fact that amongst Maharastrian population Kobra’s are distinctly different looking shows a recent arrival. Their being Brahmin shows that in earlier times the “Brahmin” was a functional classification and not racial one. Later on it did become racial though. There is no other way of explaining their uniquely distinct appearance.
I have green eyes, but I aslo got some of the bad punjabi genes: tall, chicken legs ,goat-meat fetish, prone to swearing, and horrible co-ordination :).
I have green eyes, but I aslo got some of the bad punjabi genes: tall, chicken legs ,goat-meat fetish, prone to swearing, and horrible co-ordination :).
wow, so that’s where the swearing comes form. lol. and i thought it was my brit side. hhmm….tall and chicken legged. i seriously needed more punjabi blood in my family, boy was i cheated!
Amitabh,
I found a genetic study about Chitpawan Brahmins.
So the explanation about them being “Brahmins” was my guess at explaining this curious situation about their recent arrival. Its interesting.
Ok Looks like the link where I got that study didnt appear in the last comment.
Chitpavanbrahmin demonstrates younger maternal component and substantial paternal gene flow from West Asia, thus giving credence to their recent Irano-Scythian ancestry from Mediterranean or Turkey, which correlated well with European-looking features of this caste. This also explains their untraceable ethno-history before 1000 years, brahminization event and later amalgamation by Maratha.
Wow! Undermines the caste system.
Thank you RC. Fascinating.
Thanks RC!
You like tall and chicken legged, Pattie lol?
Illegal bangladeshis go to Malaysia = labour shortage Illegal bangladeshis go to India = security threat ?
As long as there’s a turban on top, I’m sure Pattie will excuse the bad genes =)
As long as there’s a turban on top, I’m sure Pattie will excuse the bad genes =)
meaty, lean, give it fuzz and a dastar and the body wight/hieght don’t mean didly!
but yes, tall and chicken legged does have a certain appeal…i know a certain singh with nice skinny legs! 😉
RC,
I don’t know whether you did it intentioanally, but calling brahmin Kobra (A snake)is highly derogatory and even bigoted. I have heard this term in TamilNadu and Maharashtra. Regards
Gaurav said:
If you had actually read my post you wouldnt have asked this question. Kobra is short for Kokanastha Brahmin. (Its actually first two symbols of how its written in Devnagari). I have several very close Kobra freinds too.
I don’t know whether you did it intentioanally, but calling brahmin Kobra (A snake)is highly derogatory and even bigoted.
This is true. In Tamil Nadu there is a saying :”If you see a Brahmin and a snake, kill the Brahmin.”
Well Its NOT TRUE for Maharashtra. I dont know about Tamilnadu. Besides Kobra is not Kobra as in the snake, Kobra is the first two symbols of how its written in Devnagari. For example Author/Director P.L.Deshpande is known as Pu La Deshapande in Maharashtra, as Pu and La are the first two symbols of his first and middle name. Although I have not lived in Maharashtra, I have heared the term from my Kobra freinds.
In the Wikipedia link that I posted above about chitpavans …. The first line:
Unbelievable, man!! I cant even believe in this day and age, people still hold those kind of views.
Well Its NOT TRUE for Maharashtra. I dont know about Tamilnadu. Besides Kobra is not Kobra as in the snake, Kobra is the first two symbols of how its written in Devnagari. For example Author/Director P.L.Deshpande is known as Pu La Deshapande in Maharashtra, as Pu and La are the first two symbols of his first and middle name. Although I have not lived in Maharashtra, I have heared the term from my Kobra freinds.
Oh RC, sorry man. I know you had no demonizing intentions at all 🙂
Looks like some people still believe in the Myth of Brahminical Hegemony.
M. Nam
Man, if this thing works we’ll have desi kudian and desi auntiejis holding protest marches to ban all those girls from the Northeast who have so dramatically improved the pulchritude quotient in Delhi in the last decade.
This is for “Greg on March 14, 2006 04:23 PM ” Shut ur face u fuckin dick…u dont know ur arse from ur elbow
Some Afghans consider themselves Aryans while some theories say they are tribes of Mongol origin. Anyways, the aryan king asoka’s edicts are found throughout Afghanistan and Gandhari from Mahabharat was from Gandhar (Kandhar, the place where our Indian Airlines plane was hijacked). Note: this is not to prove supremacy of Saffron balls (which seems to be in vogue on SP thesedays), just facts from history.