Tuesday, February 08, 2011

How referring to gossip as 'jungle drums' led to six-month racism probe in Britain

We read:
"A health watchdog has had its funding withdrawn after its chairman was bizarrely accused of racism for using the phrase ­‘jungle drums’ to describe gossip.

The innocuous remark at a public meeting was seized upon by an equality campaigner – and the ensuing race row has lasted six months at a cost to the taxpayer of tens of thousands of pounds.

The trouble began at a gathering of the Wiltshire Involvement Network (WIN), an independent health watchdog, in ­Potterne Wick, Devizes, when chairman Anna Farquhar, 70, noted that gossip about NHS changes had been spreading within the Health Service, remarking: ‘You ­cannot help the jungle drums.’

The term comes from the use of wooden drums which were traditionally used in parts of Africa to communicate messages over long distances.

But a member of the public in attendance at the meeting in the local Scout headquarters, Sonia Carr, declared the phrase to be racist.

Mrs Farquhar immediately apologised for any offence but Mrs Carr, a member of the Wiltshire Racial Equality Council, was unsatisfied and submitted an official complaint to Wiltshire Council, which launched a costly investigation.

After producing a ten-page report, the council barred all members of WIN from council premises and meetings. It also withdrew funding to cover the group’s administration costs.

Source

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Get your 5 minutes of fame accusing everyone and everything of "racism". Jungle drums were/are a fact of no negative association. I hope that woman is counter-sued for "vexatious litigation".

Anonymous said...

What all of them - r u stupid!? Guess so if you're a Yank

Anonymous said...

"Mrs Farquhar immediately apologised for any offence ...". That was the mistake. Instead she should have ridiculed the complainer and accused her of being racist for associating race with a perfectly normal and totally unrelated expression. By apologising she is going on the defensive and tacitly admitting an element of guilt, thereby encouraging this sort of lunatic.

Dean said...

"Jungle drums" - never heard that one before. Good description of a gossip circle. I'll have to remember that and use it where appropriate.

Anonymous said...

Ditto 6:22 , ditto Dean .
But on another note , ba-dump-bump .

ISHGEBOR

Use the Name, Luke said...

When you're trying to shut down a watchdog group which is trying to hold you to the law, any excuse will do; even one as transparent as this one.

Anonymous said...

Dean said...
"Jungle drums" - never heard that one before.

You're probably not old enough. It's an old saying which refered to communicating.

Anonymous said...

Obviously as a health watchdog you oversight health expenditure.

Seems that one vexasious litigant was pissed off with the way they conducted their oversight to the point of take them out which ever way you can.

Why would a member of a racial equality council be overseeing this committee unless she had an axe to grind? Seems that the wrong committee was suspended.

Hopefully if the latest comments from the PM hold sway racial equality commissions will be a thing of the past and rightly so. Perhaps giving rise to a local integration committee to oversee racial harmony and educate the non integrationists. Now that would be something to see.

-btm

Anonymous said...

Fact is, in a modern context, it *is* a bit racist since it refers to primitive conditions which are consistently represented these days by dark skinned groups whose ancestors failed to invent the wheel or the number zero. The real challenge is, thus, to begin fighting for the right of anybody out there to in fact be a bit racist. It's that simple.

Anonymous said...

And jungle drums are beating and their saying BOOM,BOOM,BOOM,BOOM,BOOM,BOOM,BOOM,BOOM

Anonymous said...

11:53 PM It is PC-silliness. Do references to the Dark Ages or burning witches, etc., denigrate all of european descent, or any previous cultural practice? Of course not, so why should a ref to the cultural practice of sending messages by jungle drums denigrate those of african descent.

Anonymous said...

So why not ban ALL words? After all, no matter what you say SOMEONE will be "offended!"

This PC crap is getting on my nerves!