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Will Haitians Sail North to US
January 19th, 2010With the US immigration status changing for Haitians living illegally in this country to legal status will this prompt more Haitians that are still on the devastated island to sail to the US?
Please see:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-na-haiti-refugee16-2010jan16,0,7757504.story
Groups like FAIR lead by Dan Stein are conservative and no doubt not likely to open their arms to the Haitian people that may set sail north.
We will no doubt need a refugee plan for Haitian people so they can be safe from the ravages of the quake and following anarchy. Other countries will indeed need to be refugee hosts as well. If we don’t what does that say about our US moral fibre?
With the US dubios history in this country, how will the US help rebuild the island nation. Capitalist will traditionally want to decend on the country, because traditionally they will be able to scent the short term rebuilding profits ( And for gods sake don’t let Haliburton in there). If that happens then the Hatian government and therefor the people will see short term gains in rebuilding infrastructer and so on but once done with that then the bills come due. Then the small island economy will be starting out in the hole, much like the US students start there careers after college. Being always under the financial gun is highly likely to run into failure issues if anything happens from natural to political.
Should the UN take a major role and try to get the capitalists to rebuild the country in the form of world grants instead of loans? The grants could have stipulations requiring this and that be done in order to get the rebuilding money flowing. The capitalists will enjoy a stable income in the future with the new economy put into place. There would be plenty of money to be made but not so much in the short term. The main principle in this way of thinking is Hatian agra, financial, political sustainability, and respect gained from the Haitian people to the world for a ‘hand up’ not just a financially temporary expensive ‘hand out’ . But the key factor in this is that the country as a whole would not be starting out with a big debt causing the poor of the country not to be able to afford items causing political unrest due to the items inflated cost because of loan monies.
Obviously the current Hatian President René Préval, has a large job in front of him. Without the world backing of the UN lack of progress will only turn into more violence, and more failure both socially and economically leading to more refugee camps. The world has a chance to turn this lemon into lemonade if done correctly. If the world stands by and watches, a few foreign rebuilders will get richer while the many islanders will remain poor and angry then again pressuring that term ‘hope’. And yes we the US will have to go back again and again and again.
I believe that if the Haitian people see hope for rebuilding their country they will want to stay on the island and the need for long term refugee camps will be a short term one.
S
US Citizens,Rejoice in Obama recieving the Nobel Peace Prize
October 9th, 2009The world is paying attention to our new leader who actually has a vision of peace for the world. We as a country need to understand that the best leaders are transparent to the populations they effect. This transparency indicates that you as a leader are in tune with the people, and if you are in tune with the people you won’t need violence to accomplish the peoples goals. By this I mean that if you need violence to rule over a people or World then the more force you will need to keep your power. The more in tune you are the less violence we would see. Power through force is only temporary and expensive (as we see with our military budget being so large) as there is always opposition and struggle that accompanies it. We should be asking the question why do we need to spend so much money on the Military to keep other countries from trying to attack us. What have we done to deserve that ire? Imagine what our country could do if we didn’t have to spend 21% of our GDP on the military.
‘For the 2009 fiscal year, the base budget of the Department of Defense rose to $518.3 billion. Adding emergency discretionary spending, supplemental spending, and stimulus spending brings the sum to $651.2 billion. Defense-related expenditures outside of the Department of Defense constitute between $274 billion and $493 billion in additional spending, bringing the total for defense spending to between $925 billion and $1.14 trillion in 2009.’
Imagine how the balance sheet of our country would look if we could cut Military by ½?
How much more could we help our own and the world peoples?
Through working with your adversaries instead of shooting at them you most always have their respect at least and that goes a long way to prolonging peace anywhere. I liked when Obama said he would meet with any opposing group willing to talk. Keeping people at the table discussing options is far better than firing the guns. Yes it gives the appearance of legitimacy to some in US eyes that probably don’t deserve it but it also keeps the door open for understanding. If we can talk our way to understanding the extreme thinking of these groups would most likely fad away. When you don’t negotiate you don’t get anywhere.
Obama’s starting with the Nuclear threats and undoubtedly move to other venues as well. The world has seen a shift from the preemptive for profit war started by W Bush and the violence the Iraqi war continues to bear on those people and ours with the daily death count of their people and ours. If Obama can untangle the web or violence against the world that our Country has built up, and replace it with cool headed diplomacy we are on the road to a more stable world not rocked by continual home made bombs and extremist movements controlling small countries and occasionally bombing ours. Violence begets Violence and our capitalistic system has caused a lot of damage throughout the world. There are good aspects of capitalism but unfettered can cause our greed gene to kick in and cause troubles. There are those that profit from war in this country and they will struggle to keep violence their top priority. Obama knows that the war manufacturers and private mercenary armies hold a great deal of sway in this country. I think they are a dangerous group and need to be watched very closely. Obama has taken his case for peace to the world and they have responded, like an end run in a football game that starts quite unassuming but all of a sudden a break for the end zone happens right before your very eyes and the world cheers, and we should too….
Level of US Foreign Generosity a surpirse to me…
October 1st, 2009I’ve always had the understanding that the US was one of the most generous nations on the planet to poor nations needing help. I guess I maybe a victum of the mainstream media. In terms of dollars the numbers we donate seem high but I ran across this in a book I’ve been reading.
Quoting: Another measure of the health of a society is how generous the affluent are to the poor. Figure 4.4 (if interested see link below and page down 12 times) show the Official Development Assistance (ODA) measured as a percentage of Gross National Income (GNI) by the Development Assistance Committee (DAC), consisting of 22 nations of the OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. This figure shows that the US falls well behind the rest of the developed world in Generosity. Relative to the other affluent OECD nations the US is quite stingy. The UN set a target for the richer nations to contribute .7% of their Gross National Index (an index similar to the GDP and GNP) to the poorer nations. The average contribution for these wealthier nations is .46% what that of the US is .18%, only marginally above that of Greece. The US allocation per year comes to $76 per person, hardly generous considering that the average per capita income in the US is much greater than the other nations. Compare this to the approximately $2,090 per US citizen spent yearly on the military. The US is responsible for over 50% of the arms expenditures in the world. These two numbers give a sense of the values of the nation.
http://www.globalissues.org/article/35/us-and-foreign-aid-assistance
So I guess all I’m saying is that this was a surprising set of stats for me.
SahSen
Definition of GNI
Gross national income (GNI) comprises the total value produced within a country (i.e. its gross domestic product), together with its income received from other countries (notably interest and dividends), less similar payments made to other countries.
The GNI consists of: the personal consumption expenditures, the gross private investment, the government consumption expenditures, the net income from assets abroad (net income receipts), and the gross exports of goods and services, after deducting two components: the gross imports of goods and services, and the indirect business taxes. The GNI is similar to the gross national product (GNP), except that in measuring the GNP one does not deduct the indirect business taxes.
For example, the profits of a US-owned company operating in the UK will count towards US GNI and UK GDP, but will not count towards UK GNI or US GDP.
Baucus Snow vote NO on National Health Care Option
September 29th, 2009For anyone who is interested in campaign finance reforms here’s a good example of why we need it. Snow and Baucus both know what the constituencies want but since they took money or are influenced by the Insurance Corporations have voted NO on the National Health Care option. I say for all of us who want the national option now is the time to turn up the heat on these two!
Bill Nelson and Tom Carper voted Yes on the National Option. Tom Carper is and economist and he really should know if we can afford it or not. Baucus and Snow are owned by the Special Interest that got them where they are today
S
