Officiellement, il existe déjà quatre mosquées à Blois.

Aujourd’hui une nouvelle étape est franchie avec l’annonce du début des travaux de la première « véritable mosquée », dont la première pierre devrait être bientôt posée. Car les mosquées actuelles sont des locaux réaménagés (locaux associatifs en pied d’immeuble, ancien locaux commerciaux ou à usage d’habitation). cette fois-ci, il s’agit d’un véritable projet architectural avec coupole et minaret, destiné à montrer ostensiblement la présence, et peut-être la prééminence de l’islam dans ces quartiers de la ZUP reconstruits à grands frais par la municipalité blésoise, hier centriste-UMP, aujourd’hui socialiste.

Pourtant en 2008, lors de la campagne des municipales, le Front National avait posé les vraies questions :

• Dans quelles conditions s’est faite l’acquisition de la maison rue Montesquieu ? : pas de réponse.

• La Ville pouvait-elle préempter dans le cadre du PRU ? : pas de réponse.

• À quelles conditions le terrain donnant sur l’avenue de l’Europe a-t-il été cédé, et par qui ? : pas de réponse.

• Quelles seront les surfaces respectives de la salle de prière et des parties annexes destinées aux activités « culturelles » : pas de réponse.

• La réalisation de places de stationnement est-elle envisagée, et avec quel financement ? : 16 places seront aménagées sur le terrain, ce qui n’évitera pas les débordements sur les trottoirs et les espaces voisins.

• Le bâtiment sera-t-il identifiable (dôme, minaret) ? : la réponse est oui, l’Architecte des bâtiments de France a donné son accord.

• Les appels à la prière se feront-ils à l’aide d’un haut-parleur ? : pas dans l’immédiat…  (selon le maire de Blois) mais attendons la suite !

• Quel sera l’impact sur la valeur de l’immobilier dans le quartier ? : les riverains vont s’en apercevoir à leurs dépends.

Le même jour, la Nouvelle République nous apprend que la mosquée de Mer, « la plus grande de la région Centre » est pratiquement achevée, et que vendredi prochain, on y célébrera la fête du mouton.

Là encore, le maire Claude Denis (UMP) a soutenu le projet, en vendant le terrain à un prix fort avantageux (pour l’acheteur !) à tel point que le Tribunal administratif de Nantes à donné raison aux opposants qui avaient déposé un recours… ce qui n’a pas empêché les travaux de commencer ! L’association cultuelle des Turcs de Mer à l’origine de ce projet déplore toutefois ne pas avoir obtenu l’autorisation d’édifier un minaret et un dôme… mais ne désespère pas aboutir bientôt… avant les prochaines municipales ?

Devrait-on traduire UMP par : Une Mosquée de Plus ?

Further to Mairead’s post the other day, I’d like to expand a little on the issue of ethnic minority recruitment in an Garda Síochána.

Mr Justice Morris idenfitied in his first report on the Morris Tribunal a culture of ‘us and them’ in the Gardaí. The Gardaí he investigated saw themselves as removed from society in some way. This was behind the ‘blue wall of silence’ which Justice Morris encountered at every turn, meaning that members of the force refused to discuss the wrongdoing of other members. This was epitomised by Garda Leonard who stated ‘You don’t hang your own’. In his recommendations in that first report, Justice Morris called for increased recruitment from ethnic minority groups to break down those concepts of ‘us’. He stated at para 13.124:

“If a sector of society providing one of the most important functions of a democratic society is monolithic in its makeup then that attitude is
reinforced.”

To that end a number of essential changes were made to the recruitment policy of an Garda Síochána. Firstly, the Irish language requirements, which had prevented most from applying were removed, with the Irish language now being covered during Garda training. Secondly, citizenship requirements were reduced to a total residency of 4 of the 8 previous years.

The result has not been entirely sucessful. The Garda Annual Reports for 2007 and 2008 show that 39 trainees from non-Irish backgrounds were recruited and 34 more to the Garda reserve. In 2008 the Garda had set out in their Strategic Goals an aim of 5% of new recruits being from an ethnic minority background but achieved just 2.2%. While the necessary structural changes to the admissions policy have been made, the Sikh case referred to in Mairead’s post, points to a lack of flexibility within the force which is likely to discourage others from joining. Writing in March 2008, then Deputy Commissioner Fitzgerald, who had been in charge of the reform process, wrote ‘the rushed recruitment of newly arrived immigrants was unlikely to deliver a body of professionals that understand the nuances of policing Irish society and culture.’ To my mind, this statement does not appreciate the need for integration. The requirement of 4 years residency in the country had ensured that would not occur. No overt recognition that there may be problems of acceptance of ethnic minorities within the force is present.
Efforts to address this have focused on increasing diversity awareness throughout the force. Ethnic Liaison Officers have been trained and ethnic and cultural diversity is included as a strategic goal in the Corporate Strategy. Conferences on the topic were held in 2006 and 2007. The force has produced a Diversity Strategy document for the years 2009-2012, establishing the framework under which diversity is to be tackled and outlines that the approach is predicated on the concept of ‘diversity beyond legalism.’ The CAO of the Gardaí is to be appointed Diversity Champion, a Diversity Strategy Board is to be created, a Diversity Management Unity will have responsibility for internal issues arising and the (now) Garda Racial, Intercultural and Diversity Office will have responsibility for external diversity issues. The training to be provided to all Gardaí is outlined, as well as the evaluation of that training and a positive focus on issues of retention as well as recruitment. Of concern, perhaps, within this document is the presentation of work in this area as ‘above all, focused on following a business case for Diversity.’ As with so many other documents relating to reform within an Garda Síochána, what is entirely lacking is an ethical commitment to the work, only through which, it is argued, sustainable change can be implemented. The training of all staff is presented as a minimal requirement yet the report states that just 250 members of an Garda Síochána have, to date, undergone Diversity Training. Out of an organisation with 14,000 members this is a small proportion.

Concerns that the force is not adequately addressing problems with respect to diversity are, it appears, justified.

Migrant d’origine serbe, le photographe Arsa présente son exposition “Flashs d’exils” au bar “Lou Pascalou”, dans le quartier de Ménilmontant à Paris. Il a photographié près de deux cents réfugiés politiques de toutes nationalités, hébergés par la Cimade au foyer de Massy. Il nous livre ici un échantillon d’une quinzaine de photographies. Point commun de tous ces clichés : le regard expressif des migrants, un regard qui en dit long sur leur histoire.

I’ve noticed this year that The Uniter (the newspaper at my old university which no longer has a sports section, but let’s not get into that) has been running more editorials from policy wonks, free marketeers, and even a defense hawk or two – my kind of people. Of course, I wasn’t a big fan of the one that basically said “It’s not torture if you aren’t maimed.” But we’ve dealt with the torture debate here already.

But the peaceniks and the public arts lobby still run rampant in the pages of The Uniter, and here’s an editorial that both will love. (The comment below the article is indeed from me; note the absence of responses.) It was written by a second-year student named Rob Holt, who has previously written a very astute attack on the annual Day of Action, among other editorials whose topics I don’t really care about. The one we’re focusing on today is quite a bit less astute.

It seems that the newest edition of the study guide for Canada’s citizenship exam has beefed up its lessons on Canadian military history. It may surprise some of you Americans that Canada has a military history, but we do, and the highlights take up 50 pages of this book. Holt does not like the new emphasis on “the bloodier side of Canada’s heritage” and would prefer to see the arts and culture section, now 2.5 pages, expanded first.

Just to clarify, “arts and culture” is a bit of a misnomer in this situation, as one page of it is devoted to Canadian innovation and another to our sports. Couldn’t they have just called it “Fun Stuff?” Holt says the last half-page “makes no reference to specific Canadian television shows, radio programs, musicians, singers, poets, novelists or films.” But he doesn’t say what that last half-page does have, or why specific Canadian artists deserve that space more.

The rest of Holt’s argument can be summed up as follows: 1. Too little knowledge of the arts is bad, very bad. 2. The federal government doesn’t care about finding a good way to “present our nation” to immigrants. 3. They just want to recruit new soldiers into the Canadian Forces, hence the ad for it on page 9.

Now here are my arguments: 1. Why shouldn’t the government bother instructing immigrants about our military history, for which we have more occasion to be proud than Anne Murray? 2. Especially considering that any immigrant who knows how to use the Internet can learn about our arts on their own time? Vote now!

“ILS” vont TOUT essayer en ce qui concerne l’invasion. Maintenant, ils jouent la carte finance. Et dire qu’il y a des cons qui vont y croire et y adhèrer…

FDF

La circulaire indiquant aux préfets les critères à prendre en compte pour l’admission exceptionnelle au séjour des salariés étrangers pourrait déboucher, selon Éric Besson, sur la régularisation de 1.000 étrangers.

Le Ministre de la Citoyenneté, de l’Immigration et du Multiculturalisme, Mr Jason Kenney a déposé début novembre, le Rapport annuel au Parlement sur l’immigration.

Le  gouvernement va maintenir ses niveaux d’immigration et mettre l’accent sur l’immigration économique afin de soutenir l’économie du Canada. Le Canada compte accueillir entre 240 000 et 265 000 nouveaux résidents permanents en 2010, soit le même nombre d’immigrants que les  années antérieures.

L’augmentation du nombre total d’immigrants admis dans la catégorie des immigrants économiques permettra aussi à CIC de continuer de réduire l’arriéré des demandes présentées par des travailleurs qualifiés du fédéral dans le cadre du Plan d’action pour accélérer l’immigration.

Les gens qui présentent aujourd’hui une demande pour le Programme fédéral des travailleurs qualifiés peuvent s’attendre à recevoir une décision dans un délai de six à douze mois, alors que le délai pouvait être plus long. Le gouvernement a réduit l’arriéré des demandes des travailleurs qualifiés du volet fédéral, qui est passé de 630 000 à 425 000 demandes, ce qui représente une réduction de plus de 30 %”.

Le Plan des niveaux d’immigration du Canada pour 2010 traduit une vision à long terme en matière d’immigration et reconnaît l’importance que joue l’immigration en matière de croissance économique et de prospérité du Canada.

La présentation du Plan des niveaux d’immigration est légèrement différente de celle des dernières années. Dans le respect de l’importance croissante du rôle des provinces et des territoires en ce qui a trait à la sélection des immigrants et à la planification des niveaux, ainsi que dans le but de garantir une meilleure souplesse de fonctionnement, tant au Canada qu’à l’étranger, les différentes cohortes faisant partie de la catégorie économique ont été regroupées et les fourchettes d’admission sont présentées en fonction de l’entité qui sélectionne ou qui choisit l’immigrant : le gouvernement du Canada, le gouvernement du Québec, les provinces ou les territoires. Cela permettra au réseau de traitement des demandes de CIC de faire passer rapidement des ressources d’une catégorie à une autre durant l’année civile selon les conditions changeantes, sans pour autant se préoccuper des fourchettes respectives ciblées pour les cohortes relevant de la catégorie économique.

Les fourchettes d’admission dans la catégorie du regroupement familial sont inférieures à celles de 2009. Ce phénomène est du aux récentes tendances, à savoir un nombre moindre de demandes de parrainage dans la catégorie des conjoints et des personnes à charge.

Manifeste du Collectif « La journée sans immigrés : 24h sans nous ! ».

http://www.lajourneesansimmigres.org/fr/index.php

Faisons du 1er mars une journée historique.

Nous, femmes et hommes, de toutes croyances, de tous bords politiques, et de toutes couleurs de peaux, immigrés, descendants d’immigrés, citoyens conscients de l’apport essentiel de l’immigration à notre pays, en avons assez des propos indignes tenus par certains responsables politiques visant à stigmatiser ou criminaliser les immigrés et leurs descendants. Rappelons qu’un immigré est celui qui est perçu comme tel par les autres au-delà même de ses origines. Nous voulons nous réapproprier et réhabiliter ce terme devenu péjoratif par la force de l’instrumentalisation politique.

Nous refusons les stéréotypes véhiculés qui menacent notre cohésion sociale. Nous refusons que les bienfaits passés, présents et futurs des immigrés qui ont toujours construit la France soient ainsi niés d’un trait. Et entendons par ailleurs qu’il nous appartient de les mettre en valeur.

Les immigrés et descendants d’immigrés ont manifesté à maintes reprises pour défendre leurs droits. Et en retour, ils n’ont reçu que mépris ! Aujourd’hui, puisqu’il est convenu que « la consommation est le moteur de la croissance », nous voulons agir sur ce levier pour marquer notre indignation.

Le 1er mars 2005 est entré en vigueur le « code de l’entrée et du séjour des étrangers et du droit d’asile » (CESEDA), plus communément appelé le code des étrangers. Cette loi symbolise une conception utilitariste de l’immigration, en d’autres termes, une immigration choisie sur critères économiques. Nous ne pouvions trouver de meilleur jour pour appeler à « une journée sans immigrés ». Nous, immigrés, descendants d’immigrés, citoyens conscients de l’apport de l’immigration à notre pays, sommes tous des consommateurs et nous participons quotidiennement à la croissance de notre pays.

Notre action citoyenne a pour objectif la mise en valeur de l’apport de chacun d’entre nous à la prospérité générale. Nous avons tous le pouvoir d’agir sur notre avenir alors, prenons-le !

Le 1er mars 2010 : Agissons en cessant de consommer et/ou de travailler.

Durant 24 heures, participons à la non-activité économique dans les entreprises, dans les associations, dans la fonction publique, dans les écoles et les lycées, dans les universités, dans les hôpitaux, dans les associations, dans les commerces, dans l’industrie, dans le bâtiment, dans l’agriculture, dans les services, dans les médias, dans la politique…

Pour la première fois en France, nous décidons de ne pas participer à la vie de la Cité. Par cette absence, nous voulons marquer la nécessité de notre présence.

(…) Imaginez. Un lundi comme un autre, mais quelque chose dans l’air qui ne tourne pas rond. Plus grand-chose ne tourne, en fait : les premiers métros sont vides, les hôpitaux désertés par les soignants, les amphis en mal de profs, les chantiers à l’arrêt, les bistros sans cuisiniers, les réunions dépeuplées, les garages fermés… La France en berne. Ce jour-là a une date, le 1er mars 2010. Vingt-quatre heures « sans immigrés » à l’appel d’un nouveau collectif, « 24h sans nous ». « Nous » valant pour les étrangers vivant en France, les Français nés à l’étranger, ou de parents étrangers, mais aussi « tous ceux qui veulent protester contre la politique d’immigration ».
(…)« Tous les secteurs sont concernés »

Faire prendre conscience de la présence des immigrés en organisant leur absence. Montrer, s’il le fallait, que l’immigration fait tourner le pays. L’idée, inspirée par une journée sans Latinos il y a deux ans aux Etats-Unis contre un projet de loi sur l’immigration, a germé dans les têtes du petit groupe en septembre, au lendemain de la malheureuse blague arabo-auvergnate d’Hortefeux – pour mémoire : « Quand il y en a un, ça va. C’est quand il y a en a beaucoup qu’il y a des problèmes. »
Le collectif, constitué en association, ne s’attendait pas à être si bien servi par l’actualité depuis : débat sur l’identité nationale, deuxième vague de grève de travailleurs sans-papiers, projet de loi ad hoc… Rejoint par des associations, il compte, pour l’heure, près de 5000 anonymes qui pour beaucoup ont adhéré via Facebook.

« Notre ambition est de porter un changement de regard sur l’immigration. Montrer que les immigrés sont une richesse, que nous participons à la vie du pays et que le pays fonctionne avec nous », exposait ce matin Nadia Lamarkbi, la présidente du collectif, une journaliste franco-marocaine. « Nous nous plaçons sur le terrain économique parce que tous les secteurs sont concernés. En France, un logement sur deux a été construit par des immigrés. 10% des chefs d’entreprise sont immigrés ».

http://www.liberation.fr/societe/0101604832-24-heures-pour-montrer-que-le-pays-fonctionne-avec-les-immigres.

Et que l’on aille pas me dire qu’il n’y a aucune relation entre racaille et islam…

FDF

jeudi 26 novembre 2009

DR

TENSIONS : De nombreux acteurs du quartier se mobilisent pour rétablir le dialogue entre tous

« Mais je ne suis pas le shérif de Saint-Martin ! » tempête Annie Bénézech, l’élue des Prés-d’Arènes, campée derrière son bureau et prête à dégainer ses arguments face à une assistance – un groupe d’habitants versant 3 e âge – remontée à bloc.
Depuis quelque temps, le climat de Saint-Martin tourne à l’orage : des voitures y partent en fumée à l’abri de la nuit – notamment celle du curé et celle de son aide-soignante -, tandis que les dégradations et autres incivilités y fleurissent comme un champ au printemps et que les noms d’oiseaux y volent en piqué. De quoi cristalliser bien des rancoeurs : « On n’ose plus sortir le soir », « on se fait agresser devant l’ascenseur », « on veut dormir la nuit », mêlant aussi saleté, stationnement ou police municipale qui n’assure pas la sortie des écoles. De quoi nourrir aussi des rumeurs stériles : « Après les voitures, ce sera le tour de l’église, pour faire leur mosquée », « il paraît que certains veulent organiser des rondes la nuit… » Pendant ce temps, les âmes vaillantes et piliers du quartier, eux, multiplient les rencontres – une réunion avait lieu hier soir – et veulent souffler l’apaisement « plutôt que de jeter de l’huile sur le feu, relate Yan Poccard-Chapuis, le président de l’association l’Îlot parents. L’idée étant plutôt d’éviter la répression. Et ce qui est positif, c’est que, dimanche matin, sur le marché, tout le monde s’est retrouvé spontanément et pour la première fois ensemble. » Soit les représentants du comité de quartier de Saint-Martin bien sûr, mais aussi de Tournezy et des Aiguerelles-La Rauze, les bénévoles associatifs et les responsables de la paroisse et de la mosquée-salle de prières.
« Il y a une vraie carence de policiers dans le quartier – et dans toute la ville d’ailleurs. On ne peut pas se substituer à la police nationale, poursuit Annie Bénézech, alors qu’il faudrait une présence régulière, revenir au principe de l’îlotage. Mais ce n’est pas de notre ressort, pas plus que l’absence d’entretien ou de travaux dans les copropriétés privées ! En revanche, on peut essayer de faire un vrai travail sur le fond, de jouer la carte de la prévention. » En allant vers les jeunes, « pour leur parler, ce ne sont pas des bêtes à part », dit encore l’élue, mais en interpellant aussi les parents et les familles. Un vaste chantier, comme toute prévention, mais qui mériterait d’être bouclé, soigné et pas bâclé.

Vu sur: http://tinyurl.com/ygmn5j6

Et l’on ira pleurer quand ce seront les voitures des imams qui vont brûler, ou des mosquées; parce-que, au rythme où ça va, les “rondes de nuit” cités plus haut ne sont pas loin. Mais au moindre “accrochage”, ce sera à nouveau la “STIGMATISATION” de l’islam… La voiture du curé, on dira que c’est un “accident”…

FDF

Une femme portant le voile intégral, à Vénissieux près de Lyon.

La mission d’information sur le voile intégral, qui rendra ses conclusions en janvier, auditionnera Tariq Ramadan, le prédicateur le plus virulent de l’islam radical en terres occidentales.

La mission parlementaire sur le port du voile intégral, qui rendra son rapport en janvier, recevra le 2 décembre le très controversé Tariq Ramadan, prédicateur musulman. Les députés membres de la mission sont de plus en plus divisés sur la nécessité de légiférer pour interdire le port de la burqa en France. «Si on débouche sur une loi, on sera intraitable sur tout ce qui concerne les services publics. Ce sera une loi symbolique pour protéger les femmes contre cette idéologie barbare», indique au ­Figaro André Gerin, le président communiste de la mission parlemen­taire, qui est manifestement favorable à ce que le Parlement légifère. Le député maire de Vénissieux (Rhône) met toutefois un bémol à son propos en ajoutant que tout dispositif législatif «devra être accepté par les responsables du culte musulman, qui prônent un islam apaisé».

Nicolas Perruchot (Nouveau Centre), qui avait voté contre la loi du 15 mars 2004 sur l’interdiction du foulard islamique à l’école, est, lui aussi, «favo­rable à une loi» si elle se situe dans un cadre général pour «rappeler les droits fondamentaux des femmes, dont le port de la burqa pourrait faire partie».

Le rapporteur UMP de la mission d’information, Éric Raoult, est d’une prudence de Sioux : «On va vers des préconisations, dont la loi peut faire partie. Encore faut-il qu’elle soit applicable et constitutionnelle.» Pierre Cardo (UMP, Yvelines), qui n’avait pas non plus voté la loi de 2004, qu’il qualifie d’«erreur psychologique», met en ­garde : «Il faut faire attention aux dispositions que nous allons prendre. Il est clair que le voile intégral n’est pas religieux, mais les cas de figure sont extrêmement différents.»

L’affaire du voile a resurgi à l’occasion de la venue, le 12 novembre, à l’Assemblée, d’une jeune fille portant le voile islamique dans les tribunes réservées au public. Très en pointe sur la question, Jean-François Copé est un chaud partisan d’une loi interdisant la burqa. «Une loi, pas une circulaire, car il s’agit de rappeler les principes de la République, que des extrémistes voudraient tester», a précisé mardi le patron des députés UMP. Dans la majorité, de nombreux députés sont sur la même ligne. «Il faudra une loi pour éviter que le port de la burqa ne se répande», juge le député UMP du Vaucluse Thierry ­Mariani. «Trois mille ans d’histoire de France sont stigmatisés. Nous sommes les victimes», renchérit son collègue des Yvelines Jacques Myard. François Sauvadet, président du groupe Nouveau Centre, pense qu’«on n’échappera pas à une loi tenant compte du respect de chacun à vivre sa diffé­rence». Le centriste Maurice Leroy réclame aussi une loi pour «faire respecter le modèle républicain». Quant au député maire centriste de Drancy, Jean-Christophe Lagarde, il rappelle que «la burqa n’a rien à voir avec la laïcité ni avec l’islam. C’est une tradition afghane qui est une insulte à la dignité des femmes».

D’autres UMP sont en revanche perplexes sur la nécessité d’une loi. «Si on légifère, cela va entraîner des provocations. On prend un risque pour un phénomène très peu répandu», estime Marc Laffineur. Le député maire de Rueil, ­Patrick Ollier, juge préférable «d’étendre la loi sur l’interdiction du voile à l’école à la burqa». Le villepiniste Hervé ­Mariton avoue qu’il «ne sait pas» s’il faut légiférer. François Goulard propose de «préciser la loi sous l’angle du contrôle d’identité», mais le député breton estime qu’«interdire la burqa serait contre-productif».

Au sein du gouvernement, Nadine Morano, secrétaire d’État à la Famille, propose d’«agir par la voie législative ou réglementaire» et souligne que «cette prison de tissus pour les femmes n’est pas une question cultuelle mais culturelle». À l’inverse, le ministre de la Défense, Hervé Morin, président du Nouveau Centre, préconise «d’abord un long dialogue, qui ne conduise pas à stigmatiser la communauté musulmane».

Vu sur: lefigaro.fr

So I figure it’s important to talk about one of the most universally celebrated holidays in America. If you’re Christian, you celebrate Christmas. If you’re Irish you celebrate Saint Patrick’s Day. If you’re a patriot you celebrate Veteran’s Day; and if you’re a liberal, Labor Day and Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.

But if you’re American you celebrate Thanksgiving. That includes immigrants to our country, legal and illegal both. What else were the original settlers, besides immigrants?

Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure that in this great panoply of ideas and opinions, this mixing bowl of faith and politics, some people don’t celebrate – if for no other reason than a lack of family to celebrate with.

But the vast majority, across lines of faith, politics, and personal philosophy, can come together over only one holiday in America, Thanksgiving. And that is why Thanksgiving is the best holiday of the lot.

But, my god, I can hear you say, how can you poor Americans spend an entire holiday on something so boring? I mean, what, people sat down and ate? That’s the reason for the holiday?

Yup.

And that’s also why it is made of win. Basically, Thanksgiving is so great precisely because it’s so bland. There’s nothing there, no message to interfere with gathering your friends and family around you,enjoying a big, happy meal, and giving out hugs/handshakes between dinner and dessert. It’s the last excuse extant for an extended family get-together that doesn’t have an aura of unpleasantness, either because Aunt Bob’s an atheist now and won’t come to Christma-Hanu-Kwanza-ka, or because Joe and Lenny can’t stop fighting whenever the political holidays come along.

(with any luck this is gonna post when it should, on Thanksgiving day. If it doesn’t, … well… there’s nothing I can do about it, sooo… ^^ )

HAPPY THANSKGIVING!!!

Published in Crikey

Kevin Rudd yesterday was asked about the number of illegal boat people arrivals in Australia since his pre-election commitment to “turn back the boats”.

He answered the question with statistics that I have graphed for your viewing pleasure.  They seem at odds with the graph I published last week until you realise that Rudd has been somewhat selective with the statistics he cited.

Source: Hansard Proof 25 November 2009

For ease of reference, here’s my graph from last week:

The first, and most resounding lesson taught to us by GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra, is that a black man can (literally) rise to whatever heights he so chooses. Be it conquering beautiful white women, or an impromptu flight in an experimental aircraft…they can do it all! One wonders why this theme is constantly taught to us by America’s new pastor: Hollywood? Perhaps the process of miscegenation and the deterioration of European Americans isn’t taking place fast enough? Get those pesky white folk out of the way (or at least reduced to a harmless minority) and society will be free for Satan to do with as he chooses. Don’t believe me o self-righteous one? Miscegenation and immigration are certainly used as tools to conquer the world for Satan. (See here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XK1pnCld … r_embedded And here: http://www.deseretnews.com/article/7053 … seats.html And here: http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/geral … -pandemic/ )

Lesson two? GI Joe is no longer a “real American Hero,” but rather, a real “multi-national” hero! GO JOE! I’ve heard it said that the movies of today are reality ten years from now. What does this say about Hollywood’s opinion of world affairs? What meme is being implanted into the minds of the impressionable young children?

Lesson three? Scottish men who stick to family traditions are bad guys. I know that Destro’s heritage wasn’t explicitly linked with evil…but we’re talking about Americans here. Throw a few twos in a bucket, and they’ll get four without even being asked to calculate. How long will it be before the Scottish accent is stereotyped as evil? Already the upper-middle-class white male is painted as the villain in most movies…how much longer before all fond remembrances of old-Europe are re-vamped into bad-guy status?

Lesson four? Join the military! Support the military industrial complex! Forget all those lame notions about peace or Christian Just War theories…who needs them when you can be strong, fast, smart…have cool weapons, and hang out with some of the most beautiful women Hollywood has to offer?

Lesson five is probably the most important…it has to do with being well informed; something I hope my observations have helped you with. At least you know how a conservative white man viewed this film…

and hey, knowing is half the battle…

kind of the central theme here, i ain't no professional journalist, they're sissies

I was reading into Lou Dobbs departure from CNN on Wikipedia earlier, and reading his largely anti-immigration standing and what lengths he went to push it on a network known for reporting farther to the left, made me laugh quite a bit, coming from the troll inside. I almost want to give his book, titled roughly as the title of this post is, a read simply to see what he thinks as a former republican turned independent.

The thing is, I am in the opinion that many immigration policies today hurt us more than they help us. I’m not saying this country should put up walls and not allow anyone to enter the country, but when you look at many other countries today, they aren’t the massive amount of foreigner-fail like we are. I know I’ve mentioned this in many past posts on the issue, but people from other countries treat this country like garbage. They take up space and populate it with a bunch of kids so that they’re all US citizens by birth, they take up jobs and not just one job, their whole family will take up jobs in the same place, they eat up social services and public welfare, often illegally, and take up legal social services that we;’re still paying for. This would be fine except many barely give back to their local communities or pay any taxes since they’re either too poor as the result of sending all the money back to their home country, or find loopholes in the tax code to get off having to pay much. The biggest insult to me, is that they don’t bother to become US citizens, learn our language, or treat anyone who is a citizen of this country with any respect, half the time they insult our culture and promote their own as some superior way of life. But when you say you’ll go to their country, they scoff at you and don’t want you there because you are a “pig disgusting American” who will ruin their country and rape their women.

See, that’s the thing about America. We are a nice caring melting pot of races and people, our government, our especially liberal government, won’t stop giving money to these people to promote some sort of “ethnic diversity” which is used by just about every organization and company to make money off of minorities anyway because they’re oblivious to economic profiling. So of course more and more people keep piling in, because they all want essentially free money, and no one has the balls to step up and control this shit because of every goddamn minority interest group that refuses help because they hate white people, bottom line.

tl;dr: Racism is the new equality. Seriously. If everyone is racist towards everybody, than everybody is equal. No complaints, right?

edit: I may come back and edit/expand/contract/mangle this tomorrow or Friday, it’s 135am and I kinda hastily wrote this out, didn’t save draft, didn’t care, blahblahblah. Actually I’ll probably forget. You can fill in the blanks I’m sure.

Melting pot: Ce terme provient de la pièce de théâtre d’Israel Zangwill (1864-1926) The Melting Pot, dont le message était que tous les immigrants arrivés aux États-Unis pouvaient devenir américains, un peuple formé dans un creuset de démocratie, de liberté et de responsabilité civique. Wikipedia

Understand that America is God’s Crucible, the great Melting-Pot where all the races of Europe are melting and re-forming! Here you stand, good folk, think I, when I see them at Ellis Island, here you stand in your fifty groups, your fifty languages, and histories, and your fifty blood hatreds and rivalries. But you won’t be long like that, brothers, for these are the fires of God you’ve come to – these are fires of God. A fig for your feuds and vendettas! Germans and Frenchmen, Irishmen and Englishmen, Jews and Russians—into the Crucible with you all! God is making the American.” The Melting pot (Israel Zangwill, 1908)

Shlomo Sand has written a remarkable book. In cool, scholarly prose he has, quite simply, normalized Jewish history. In place of the implausible myth of a unique nation with a special destiny – expelled, isolated, wandering and finally restored to its rightful home – he has reconstructed the history of the Jews and convincingly reintegrated that history into the general story of humankind. The self-serving and mostly imaginary Jewish past that has done so much to provoke conflict in the present is revealed, like the past of so many other nations, to be largely an invention. Tony Judt

Every nation cherishes its own myths and legends. Most Americans believe themselves to be anti-imperialists, though their ancestors colonised a continent, almost annihilating its native inhabitants. The French fancy themselves descended from ancient Gauls, though like the rest of us they are mongrels. Max Hastings

Sand confuses ethnicity – which, in the case of the Jews, is indeed impure, heterogeneous and much travelled – with an identity that evolves as the product of common historical experience. Rabbinical arguments may rest on an imaginary definition of ethnicity, but the legitimacy of a Jewish homeland does not. Ultimately, Israel’s case is the remedy for atrocity, about which Sand has nothing to say.

Sand (…) argues there actually was no mass forced “exile” so there can be no legitimate “return”. (…) It is undoubtedly right to say that a popular version of this idea of the exile survives in most fundamentalist accounts of Jewish history. It may well be the image that many Jewish children still have. But it is a long time since any serious historian argued that following the destruction of the Second Temple, the Romans emptied Judea. But what the Romans did do, following the Jewish revolt of AD66-70 and even more exhaustively after a second rebellion in AD135, was every bit as traumatic: an act of cultural and social annihilation – mass slaughter and widespread enslavement. But there was also the mass extirpation of everything that constituted Jewish religion and culture; the renaming of Jerusalem as Aelia Capitolina, the obliteration of the Temple, the prohibition on rituals and prayers. Sand asserts, correctly, that an unknowable number of Jews remained in what the Romans called Palestina. The multitudes of Jews in Rome had already gone there, not as a response to disaster but because they wanted to and were busy proselytising.

(…)

But Sand appears not to notice that it undercuts his argument about the non-connection of Jews with the land of Palestine rather than supporting it. Put together, the possibility of leading a Jewish religious life outside Palestine, with the continued endurance of Jews in the country itself and you have the makings of that group yearning – the Israel-fixation, which Sand dismisses as imaginary. What the Romans did to the defeated Jews was dispossession, the severity of which was enough to account for the homeland-longing by both the population still there and those abroad. That yearning first appears, not in Zionist history, but in the writings of medieval Jewish teachers, and never goes away. Simon Schama

What is going on? Lynch and Haney explain the findings by arguing that white male jurors tend to exhibit less empathy toward black defendants. This echoes the argument by Costelloe et al, according to which economic anxiety and lack of empathy are related.

What are we to do, though? Exclude white males from voting on initiatives and serving on juries? Of course, not all white males lack empathy and are punitive. But the next time the propositions come around, or the next time we serve on a jury, we should ask ourselves how our demographics, experiences, and biases, impact our opinions about crime.

It seems as though one of the complaints regarding access to information today is that there’s plenty of it but it’s of low quality. In an era of Wal-Marts, this concept may not be too unfamiliar—content for the masses without any cultural significance or specificity.

Let’s consider a good that doesn’t cross borders as fluidly as a pair of Wal-Mart flip-flops on a NAFTA-sanctioned tractor-trailer: undocumented immigrants.

A scholar at the National University of Mexico may be able to access information on the latest U.S. affairs or the history of Japanese armor at the Metropolitan Museum of Art over the Internet, but an undocumented immigrant crossing the Rio Grande into Texas may not know where her next meal will come from.

The attempted point here is this: If archives are traditionally established and maintained by societies in order to preserve and document cultural memory, what kind of archive could/should exist for a “nation” of people whose only national identity is to make it to a corn farm in Colorado? What does their collective memory consist of? Who could/should define it?

A significant group of nomadic individuals who have become the focus of archival interest are Romanian Gypsies of the Holocaust. What will it take to begin chronicling the undocumented immigrant’s saga? Can we create a living archive that, through understanding and preservation of a group’s culture and experience, can in fact incite change on a political and individual level?

The Hispanic College Fund has opened up its student applications for the 2010-11 scholarship season.

More than $2 million will be awarded in scholarships to about 500 Latino students from the United States and Puerto Rico.

Entries will be open until Feb. 16.

This is the 17th year the Hispanic College Fund has supported Latino students through its scholarship program. The organization has awarded more than $15 million in scholarships to about 5,000 undergraduate and graduate students.

Last year, the fund received 38,000 applications for about 600 available scholarships.

To qualify for the scholarships, undergraduate and graduate students must:

Maintain a 3.0 out of 4.0 grade-point average.

Be a U.S. citizen or permanent resident residing in the United States or Puerto Rico.

Be enrolled full time at an accredited university for the 2010-2011 school year.

Must demonstrate financial needs.

Certain scholarships are restricted by major.

Scholarships range in amount from $500 to $10,000. The money can be used to cover tuition and academic fees and expenses.

For more information, visit www.hispanicfund.org.

San Francisco Gray Panther Earl Gilman has been in Mexico for several weeks reporting on the massive strike of Mexico City workers in the municipal electrical power system which was recently privatized, leading to firing of the workers, who were in one of Mexico’s most militant unions.  The workers took over a power plant, and a massive police action was necessary to dislodge the, leading to nation-wide sympathy strikes.

Earl wrote:

In response to the Mexican government´s firing of 44,000 electric workers strikes and stoppages took place throughout Mexico n November 11th.  In the central square in Mexico City 200,000 electric workers, students, teachers gathered to denounce the government action, which appears to be geared to privitizing the industry and destroying an oposition union. (The government claims that there were 60,000 at the demonstration.)

The head of the union, Nartin Esparza, stated: “Power comes from the people and when this is affected, a peaceful social movement needs to rise up.”¨

In Oaxaca the local teachers union closed down classes in 13 thousand schols. Also in Oaxaca the Peoples Assembly (APPO) closed down access to all offices and substations of the power system.

The federal highways between Mexico City and Tuxpan as well the highway between Mexico City and Pachuca the toll booths were taken over and motorists were allowed to pass without paying,. On the highway between Mexico City and Queretaro the police shot at the demonstratos who were blocking the highway.

At the National University there was a 12 hour strike of professors and students.

Thousands of demonstrators rallied in front of the two major television stations that support the government.  The TV stations have accused demonstators of attacking their reporters, but this seems the action of provocateurs.

The government has offered compensation equivalent to 2 and half years wages to electrical workers who accept by this weekend. The governmment is also offering re-training courses for work in sewing factories and gardening.  But it appears at least  half the workers have refused the government offer and want their jobs back. The movement that defends the electric workers faces the problem that the families of at least 22,000 workers will have no income.

The following story is from Upside Down World, which reports on Latin American activism and politics.

Upside Down World – A New United Movement Stops Mexico for a Day

A New United Movement Stops Mexico for a Day Print E-mail
Written by Tamara Pearson
Tuesday, 17 November 2009

In the many metro stations of giant Mexico city, amidst the ugly smell of Pizza Hut and the newspapers vendors yelling out, “Gráfico! 3 pesos!”, youth crowd around the hand written posters recruiting for the national police daily. At 12,000 pesos (US$1000) per month, and with increasing unemployment and harder prospects for the country’s youth, the offer is very tempting.Since the US-Mexico trade agreement, NAFTA, the number of Mexicans illegally crossing the border into the US seeking employment has risen to 500,000 a year. Add to this the financial crisis (Mexicans repeat to me “When the U.S sneezes Mexico gets pneumonia”) and Mexican president Calderon’s measures to handle the crisis, which consist in a “fiscal package” of an increased consumption tax including food and medicine, new communication taxes and decreased government spending. Then add the fact that the minium wage in Mexico today buys a third of what it bought twenty years ago, and you can see how the government’s firing of 44,000 electricity workers, members of the county’s most combative and independent union, SME (Mexican Electrical Union), became catalyst for a movement of people deeply angry at both an unfair economic system, and towards a president who, most studies admit, used fraud to win the elections in 2006.

The electricity workers were fired on October 10th. On October 16th, around 500,000 people marched in the capital in protest. One month after the firing the people’s anger still had not cooled, and on November 11th there were again massive marches, road blocks, full strikes and partial strikes all across the country.

The Assembly

The decision to strike was taken on November 5th, in a massive meeting of the newly formed National Assembly of Popular Resistance. This is a convergence made up of around 400 unions, student, rural workers, and indigenous movements, women and gay rights organizations and left and revolutionary political parties from across the country.

The meeting was meant to start at 5, but at quarter to, the hall was already full and the streets outside where loud speakers were setup were also starting to fill up and block traffic. The chair was already welcoming each group, “Comrades from the teachers union, welcome. Compañeros of the Socialist Front, welcome,” and so on. It took about 25 minutes to welcome everyone.

There was an atmosphere of excitement, support and solidarity. In fact “support” (“This support really is seen!”) was the chant of the day as speaker after speaker from various unions declared that their union would also march and strike on November 11th, and, for four hours running, each organization declared that they would contribute to the campaign, hold their own assemblies, print leaflets, rally and march in the lead up to the strike. After and during each speaker, the audience stood tirelessly, waving their fists in the air and chanting.

On the few occasions when unions declared their support in the march, but said they would but not strike, everyone stood up and demanded, “Strike! Strike! Strike!”

The speaker from the telephone union detailed the union’s donations of food to the fired workers, while the left parliamentary party, Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) spokeswoman, a legislator, said the PRD had agreed to support all the SME’s decisions and to promote any marches, and handed over a cheque for 154,000 pesos (US $11,700).

University students promised to organize a range of political-cultural events and an “information week” to counter all the misinformation in the mainstream media, while a rural worker said the SME demands were their demands, but that they would also add the demand for food sovereignty. Even the association of retired people had a detailed and ambitious schedule of action to prepare for the national strike.

Martin Esparza, general secretary of the SME, was the last speaker. He told the meeting, “With this movement we’re going to define what kind of country we want… we have to advance and organise the people of Mexico…We create the wealth, and they socialise the losses… we pay to import what the Gringos (U.S) don’t want.”

“They’re after our collective contracts and our unions,” he concluded, talking of inequality, the need for dignity and for organization.

With more chants of “It’s a struggle of all workers of this country”, “Here the workers’ movement is forming”, “Give me an S, M, E…what does it spell…SME! SME! SME!” and “Unions united will never be defeated!”, the meeting concluded with a vote to strike on November 11th and to allow the SME to form a temporary organizing committee of movement representatives to coordinate the strike plans and campaign.

The Campaign

It was an intense week of campaigning. The next morning, the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) students had already put large stickers for the strike all over the insides of the trains, and there were hand painted banners in most faculties of the university, calling for assemblies and covering the walls with virtual articles on what had really happened to the SME workers.

Many workplaces held their own assemblies and even high school and primary school students marched 10 kilometres on 8 November, placards such as ‘Don’t steal my future”. SME workers marched in the thousands in the centre of the capital on 9 and 10 November.

The March

The long anticipated November 11th march was due to leave at 4 PM, but when I arrived at 2.30, and already there were thousands of people. Many were taking a snooze on their banners, while others were sitting on curbs reading the news. One group was spray painting a huge SME logo on the road, joking about needing Whiteout to fix their mistakes, and chanting when they finished it.

The street vendors, which really make up an ever growing army of their own in Mexico as the unemployed look for alternative ways to stay alive, sold corn, chips, and nuts from carts with posters for the strike taped all over them. When the march left they pushed their carts along with it. One woman with an SME bandana and placard alternated between joining the chanting of the march and calling out, “Two gum packets for 5 pesos!”

one street vendor, Octavio Manzera, wasn’t working that day. “I’m supporting the movement; I think it’s a just struggle. The government is acting in an unconstitutional way, violating the laws and constitution of Mexico, for commercial reasons and in order to privatise,” Manzera said.

Bernando Mejia, a young worker, said “I’m here to support the Mexican people, I’m one of those who doesn’t support the government we have here.”

“I’m here to support the union,” said Ana Laura Flores, a self-described “wife of a worker.”

“I’m supporting the SME. I’m here for the solidarity more than anything,” said university student Omar Vazquez.

“I’m an SME worker, I’m an electrical engineer and I was unjustly fired. This government is a sham, it’s a government of thieves, they took our jobs unconstitutionally, violating our rights as workers and as humans,” said Omar Ruiz. Ruiz was eager to say much more, but the march had already started to leave.

Marchers chanted “If there’s no solution there’ll be revolution!” and “From north to south, east to west, we’ll take on this struggle, no matter what it costs!”, while others sang, and some stuck flags in the arms of the various metal statues that line the wide main avenue.

An hour later, we arrived at Mexico City’s huge Zócalo plaza, filling it, squashed together to the point where an interesting system of lines of humans with hands on shoulders formed in order for people to move through the crowd. Members of this march kept arriving for another two hours, while marches from six other locations also continued to arrive.

One of Many

Organizers estimated that 200,000 people participated in the march, while the newspaper La Jornada reported that police estimated 60,000. However, the march in Mexico City was just one of many, with large marches taking place across the country and in outer suburbs, and workers and movement members blocking roads from 6 in the morning.

University students closed off the roads leading to TV Azteca, one of the most right wing TV stations in the country, and there was also a protest by “the Other Campaign” in front of the US embassy. Universities went on strike, and students and teachers joined the march after their own protest on campus. The telephone and judicial power unions also went on strike, and some shops had signs saying they were turning off their lights or electricity in solidarity, while many shops were simply closed. Miners sent a contingent to the main march and held other marches in seven of the main mining cities and towns, and the National Organisation of Administrative, Manual and Technical Workers of National Anthropology and History Institute organized partial blockades of museums and archaeological zones of the country.

La Jornada reports that 14 toll booth points were also taken over. At one road block, on a main road to Puebla, one of the closest cities to the capital, national police dispersed the blockade with tear gas. La Jornada reported four injured protestors and three police. Eleven protestors were arrested and, on Thursday, Esparza told the press that they had been detained incommunicado and some had been beaten.

The Zócalo

Standing, listening to the speakers in the Zócalo, with my feet at unnatural angles in the little ground space available, a man in a mask shared his mandarin with me, and everyone around me listened with good humour and concentration to the speakers. A group wedged their way in front of us with a large plastic SME banner tied to ladders.

“Lower the banner! We can’t see!” yelled out the crowd around and behind me. The banner holders did, and the crowd called out, “Thanks compañeros!”

Meanwhile, the students to my left were having a ball chanting vehemently, laughing and smiling and jumping up and down and sharing bags of apples.

By 7:30, it was dark and freezing, and I watched the end of the march arrive. In it came a group with drums, a dancer and a violinist. Someone in the plaza set off fireworks and the palace was lit up. The smell of roasted corn rose above the milling people as they drummed and sang, some with large paper mache masks of politicians. A group of chanters defied their audibly sore voices, and a truck with music arrived, then more drums.

Covered and Uncovered

The next day, Mexican mainstream media chose to highlight an incident involving tear gas, with headlines of “Violence” and “Chaos.” The Excelsior headlined with “Patience tested,” and its biggest photo was of the tear gas. It bemoaned “children left without classes” and naively stated: “We can’t see what Chiapas is protesting about; SME has nothing to do with them.”
What the media did not want to talk about was a new solidarity that has formed, and how the movement has gone well beyond a labour conflict, with much more youth participating than during the protests against the electoral fraud of 2006.

An SME leader (who prefers to be described as a member), Jose Hernandez, told me the mobilization was much bigger than any previous ones, but that it was less apparent as it was spread out in various places and times.

“Up until now,” Hernandez said, “we’ve heard of 16 marches in other states, and just in the state of Michoacan for example, 11,000 schools went on strike, as well all the higher education institutions.”

“It’s also necessary to consider the amount of disorganization and domination which the large part of the Mexican working class has found itself in. What happened today signifies, without any doubt, a ‘leap’ in the consciousness of the Mexican working class. We need to be patient, but it seems to me that we’re on the threshold of qualitative change.”

 

Earlier articles on the Electrical Workers’ strike in Upside Down World

Mexico’s Utility Union Bust Reveals Flaws in NAFTA

Electrical Workers of Mexico Take on Calderon Government

Thanks a lot and I have reached UK this 2nd of Novemeber and got a job aswell.. Please keep in touch..Thanks a lot for all your support.