A Political Glimpse from Ireland

Independence For All

I believe this is a special Independence Day for many people because they can feel the change in the air. No, this is not an Obama post but rather a post about the the changing world that we live in and how we can either fight these changes or accept them. Every July 4th, I am thankful for my time growing up in America as I would have not wanted to grow up anywhere else. Europe is great especially for a liberal like myself but nothing would beat a good hot dog, and some Baseball tonight.

On any Independence Day we should also remember the principle behind these days which is freedom. There are still many millions of people around the world who are not free and it should be the effort of every person to ensure that the world moves forward in its progress for freedom and equality for all. Another word also associated with Independence Days is “patriotism”.  Patriotism is defined in the American heritage dictionary:

Love of and devotion to one’s country.

Patriotism is a beautiful word but in recent years it has been used to divide America between those who oppose the war and those who support the war. This word should not be used for that because no matter if you oppose or support the war, you are still a patriot if you love America. Therefore I hope running up to the general election that we will hear no more nonsense about the patriotism of either candidate and that the media will focus on the issues at hand:

Happy Independence Day to all my friends in America, I really wish I was hanging out with you guys today.

Mugabe Madness

Today is a sad day in Africa, Robert Mugabe has been sworn in for a 6th term in a country that is falling apart. Some people even argue this fact which is beyond understanding since the numbers tell the story; 3 million Zimbabwean refugees live in South Africa.  That is 25% of the countries population as Zimbabwe is rumored to contain just over 12 million people according to a July 2008 estimate.  Can you imagine a quarter of a population being forced to leave their own country? Shouldn’t that give an indication to the President that things are not good?

Not in the fantasy land of Robert Mugabe where he might term these 3 million people “malcontents.” The situation is even tougher because of the politics involved. Robert Mugabe is well regarded in Africa for fighting for independence for his country therefore the leaders of the African Union give him a wide bearing. This is understandable but antiquated, how can the leaders of the AU abide by the level of violence and intimidation that preceded the election?

We can rule out an intervention from the U.K because they have their military committed to Afghanistan and Iraq with insufficient capacity for an effective operation in Zimbabwe. Can you imagine the headlines if they did act?

Ex-colonial power reasserts control in Zimbabwe…

The U.S could probably go in with some sort of military force but the PR fallout from such an action would be slightly less than the U.K. The only solution is for the AU leaders to combine their military might and send in a peacekeeping force to ensure free and  fair election. Action is not likely to occur soon therefore I urge everyone to write to their designated South African ambassador in their respective countries and urge a greater effort to remove Robert Mugabe since “quiet diplomacy” is currently showing no progress. The address of the South African Ambassador in Washington:

Ambassador Welile Nhlapo
4301 Connecticut Avenue, NW
Van Ness Building, Suite 2200
Washington D.C
20008

Immigration or Invasion

It was sometime in 2006 and I was catching the subway back to South Station when I overheard the following line: “We should just put all those immigrants into a container and dump them in the sea.” I almost said to the guy that I should push you onto the train tracks and see how you feel. I am not a homicidal maniac but those kinds of insensitive comments really get to me. How can someone even think about that? This event occurred in Massachusetts which most people consider one of the most liberal states out there but at the same time there is also a significant conservative population in the suburban areas.

I am generalizing here, but I think for the most part, conservatives are the most vocal people when it comes to immigration legislation. Liberals on the other hand realize like me that immigration has existed since the dawn of time but it must be controlled in a manageable manner so that it is far easier for people to immigrate than the current system allows. One of the biggest arguments against the current illegal immigrants residing in the USA is that they should have come here legally. Is anyone aware of the exhaustive process of immigrating to the USA? Let’s take a great example of Darren O’Brien, a fictitious Irish citizen with an MBA from Trinity College here in Dublin. Mr. O’Brien has decided that he can’t live on this small island and would like to immigrate to Canada or America. Mr. O’Brien qualifies as a skilled worker due to his education and his past work experience (2 years in Accenture):

1. Canada is actively encourages Skilled workers and since Mr. O’Brien exceeds the 67 points on the skilled assessment scale, he just needs to bring $10,168 in cash and make his application. Additionally they do not have a cap on the number of potential skilled immigrants that can apply for this program.

2. America is far more difficult as first Mr. O’Brien would have to have a job offer from an American company. This company would then have to advertise in the local and national paper for the job and wait the statutory period of time before offering the job to Mr. O’Brien. They then would have to file with the Department of Labor to get a certification. Once certified, they would then have to make a file an immigration petition with the Department of Homeland Security and pay over $1000 for premium processing which speeds the petition up to 15 days. There is also currently 65,000 H1B visas available but the DHS receives triple the amount in applications. This option would not seem very likely for Mr. O’Brien.

Given the choices, wouldn’t the logical choice for Mr. O’Brien be Canada. The U.S immigration system needs reform because it currently has so much red tape you could tie a big red ribbon around the country. This complexity therefore forces people to immigrate illegally because it is the only way they can earn more than they do in their own countries. Beyond the complexity of the immigration system, there is still the issue of the large number of undocumented aliens already in America which worries many citizens in the USA. The American Legion blames these illegals for the increase in crime, draining the social system, housing shortages and school overcrowding. The American Legion also forgets to include some of pertinent benefits of illegal immigration but then what do you expect from such an organization. Funnily enough on many conservative blogs, newspapers and other media, they only seem to talk about illegal Hispanic immigration, but not the illegal Irish, Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Korean and African people. I find this very strange and bordering on some hidden racism but I am waiting for someone to prove me wrong with a sound-bite or video.

I also remember talking to a lady at my old work who was tired of the Spanish nurses talking in their language at the nursing home. I remember her saying what most Americans have said, “Why don’t they just use English, this is America after all.” I love America for the simple reason that the culture is uniform however I think a time has come in world history when cultures amalgamate for lack of a better word. This amalgamation is going to take the form of more people learning Spanish and maybe even Spanish being declared as the second official language in America.

The best example of social progress and legal immigration is here in Ireland. Ireland has approximately 4 million people living in the country with 1 million people living in Dublin. Out of those 4 million people, we have over 600,000 immigrants as of the 2006 census. A lot of these immigrants would be people of Eastern European descent who come to Ireland because of the 8.65 euro minimum wage which is far higher than their native countries. This massive immigration has caused a lot of problems in Ireland with people echoing similar issues to those people in America; like a division of culture, lack of using English but the only difference is these immigrants are legal. It may be illegal for some nationalities to immigrate into America but there will come a time when it will be legal and the USA will face these same issues so better to work through them now rather than down the line.

For the most part, these 600,000 immigrants in Ireland are here legally but it has still changed Irish society fundamentally. It has given it a diversity that it never had before. I have a lot of Irish friends who only hang out with Irish people because they do not get along with Polish people or Chinese people. This cultural polarization is the first step in cultural amalgamation. In the future, what we know as American, Irish and Chinese culture will be fundamentally altered because that is the way society moves forward. My point here is that even with legal immigration in America, the core beliefs and values of the country will have to change. That is how society progresses (through change) but many people do not understand change and are afraid of what it brings into society. Change will always bring good and bad things but it is the choice of each person to look beyond the bad and see the good.
Reading a recent report by the PEW Global Attitudes Project, I was startled to read that there was only one country out of all the countries surveyed that disagreed that they should further restrict immigration control. That country being South Korea which might actually be my next place of work if all things work out for me but that is another post for another time.

I have said a lot in this post because this is an issue I am very passionate about and I hope that change will happen sooner rather than later. As a business student, most HR literature will tell you that diversity within a company means a greater spectrum of ideas and solutions and I think that logic applies to countries as a whole. Immigration is a good thing in my book and it should be encouraged so that society can continue to blend, evolve and grow. Gone are the days when we were African, Irish, British, Chinese or Hispanic. If society is to move forward, we must all be citizens of the world in a sense. Humanity can only move forward once we accept people for their differences and realize that we are all the same regardless of what we believe in. In all sincerity, I hope that this anti-immigration sentiment will start to dwindle within the world because otherwise we are going to be in for some tough years in the coming century.

Bloggers Unite: Jail for Email

I mentioned two days ago about an upcoming blogging event however it is 20 minutes to 12am over here so I might be a bit delayed. This event is in conjunction with Amnesty International and the people over at Blog Catalog about a human rights issue that is pertinent to me. Given that I am as  geeky as they come, something that means alot to me is the freedom of expression. Sometimes people can abuse that though whether it be the ladies of code pink or some newspaper publishing a cartoon about the prophet Muhammad, where do we draw the line? I honestly don’t know, but I personally believe that the only information that should be regulated is information that relates to the national security of a country. Preventing people from accessing western media, images, or dialogue is simply wrong and I am not just pointing a figure at China here but at other countries around the world who censor the internet.

I am going to talk about China though and about the jailing of journalist Shi Tao in April 2004 for sending an email to a pro-democracy based organization in the USA. Can  you imagine going to jail for sending an email? If so I am sure we would all be in jail beyond our human lifetimes. I don’t understand how such censorship is beneficial though, some of my friends describe China as a democracy in progress but can anyone imagine the CCP giving up power to a President in the near future. I cannot imagine such an event occuring but the next best thing would be to let the media in China; local and foreign do what they want and publish what they want. From the Amnesty International Action Letter:

China has constructed an extensive system of Internet censorship to silence activists and journalists like Shi Tao. All Internet communications pass through government-controlled routers, and authorities are able to block access to many sites, to filter content, and to delete links or web pages considered “dangerous” or “subversive.”

There is the other side of the coin though, the PEW research center recently released a report about the internet in China stating that in 2007, over 85% of the respondents in the survey believed that the Government should control the internet. I find it startling that anyone would want to have their internet censored but Carolyn Marsan over at Network World has written a great article on the 10 ways that the Chinese internet is different from ours. She lists the following as positives as far as their internet infrastructure is concerned:

1. There is less pornography
2. Malicious activity such as botnets, phising scams and zombies are less common
3. China produces 4% of the world’s spam while the United States originates 42%
4. China’s internet is based on the next generation internet backbone aka IPv6

The negatives far outweigh the positives though in that if I lived in China I would not be able to acess this blog or any of the other blogs on my blog roll. The most important fact is that Shi Tao should not be in jail for something as silly as sending an email. People need to be free, and deserve to be free, it is a basic human right. If you would like to speak out about the jailing of Shi Tao, please send a polite letter to China’s Prime Minister asking him for the unconditional release of Shi Tao. The address is:

Prime Minister of the People’s Republic of China
Wen Jiabao Guojia Zongli
The State Council General Office
2 Fuyoujie
Xichengqu
Beijingshi 100017
PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA

Bloggers United For Human Rights

I was browsing around the internet today when I came upon RR’s homepage and the badge on the right hand pane. I am a member of Blog Catalog but in all honesty I joined the place because I had seen the icon on alot of blogs around the internet. To my astonishment, the people at Blog Catalog in conjunction with Amnesty International are making May 15th: “Bloggers Unite for Human Rights Day.” I am a firm believer in Human Rights having being born into a country where the color of my skin made me a second class citizen for a long time however in the present day I am lucky enough to live in a country where I am free to express my views no matter how crazy they may be.

Many of us living in the  Western Hemisphere forget how lucky we are; countries like China employ over 30,000 people to actively censor blogs like this one. This was proven to me earlier on this year when I tried to send the link to my blog to two friends of mine in China who cannot access it to this day. This kind of censorship is wrong as all people are entitled to read, express and voice their views on any subject. 2008 is  the 60th anniversary of the U.N declaration of human rights therefore I hope many of the other bloggers that I know will blog about this issue on Thursday. Some topics for consideration:

1. The wrongful imprisonment of journalists covering assemblies.
2. Governments that ignore the plight of citizens left to the mercy of gangs.
3. The censorship of the Internet in order to prevent freedom of expression.
4. Harsh punishments that include torture, forced labor, and starvation.
5. Sexual assault against women by members of military or militia.