Recent Posts

Most Used Categories

Category: Political

You are Here :
Current Events, Perspective, Political,

We are them

Rod Watson, a columnist for the Buffalo News gets it. From his column: Never happen here? Guess what — it has

As one of its many shifting rationales for starting a war, the Bush administration constantly reminded Americans about the freedoms we take for granted.

That argument will be much less compelling next time for one simple reason: We won’t have nearly as many freedoms left once this bunch leaves office.

The outrageous new policy of seizing electronic devices at the Peace Bridge and other crossings purely on the whim of a border agent is just the latest example of our government doing to us what we’d fight to the death to prevent a foreign power from doing.

Think about it: No warrant. No probable cause. No judge.

Just a vague suspicion —” real or fabricated —” is pretext enough to seize your laptop, cell phone or iPod and all of the personal or business-related information in it. A local entrepreneur’s trade secrets, a journalist’s confidential information from a whistle-blower, your private medical records —” all fair game for any snooping government agent.

No appeal. No ability to challenge it. And no idea when, or if, you’ll ever get it back.

If you walked into a room in the midst of a discussion of this abuse, the reaction would be, —Wow, I’m sure glad I live in America, where nothing like that could happen.— It’s the kind of story that, when it occurs in other countries, prompts U.S. leaders to wag their fingers.

In the last few years, slowly, silently, we’ve become those other countries.

While there have been protests as the administration’s oil buddies rob consumers to rake in record profits, we’ve been robbed of something much more precious with hardly a whimper…

Read the rest. It’s worth time in reflection because look at the next step. From today’s Washington Post: U.S. May Ease Police Spy Rules. More Federal Intelligence Changes Planned

The Justice Department has proposed a new domestic spying measure that would make it easier for state and local police to collect intelligence about Americans, share the sensitive data with federal agencies and retain it for at least 10 years.

The proposed changes would revise the federal government’s rules for police intelligence-gathering for the first time since 1993 and would apply to any of the nation’s 18,000 state and local police agencies that receive roughly $1.6 billion each year in federal grants.

Quietly unveiled late last month, the proposal is part of a flurry of domestic intelligence changes issued and planned by the Bush administration in its waning months. They include a recent executive order that guides the reorganization of federal spy agencies and a pending Justice Department overhaul of FBI procedures for gathering intelligence and investigating terrorism cases within U.S. borders.

Taken together, critics in Congress and elsewhere say, the moves are intended to lock in policies for Bush’s successor and to enshrine controversial post-Sept. 11 approaches that some say have fed the greatest expansion of executive authority since the Watergate era…

Funny they should mention Watergate. Of course that’s scarry to a lot of folks because it stood their trust of government on its head. At the time of Watergate Congress and the Press stood against an abusive Executive. They stood to defend core principals. That doesn’t happen so much anymore. In fact, it is non-existent. This is far scarier and, in comparison, Watergate was limited to a proverbial “Keystone Kop” affair through checks-and-balances.

These measures are not just an abuse of “Executive” authority, but a steady movement toward the authority of dictators. It is simply a license to do whatever the person in charge pleases without accountability.

Poland - Polish - Polonia, Political

88th Anniversary of the Miracle on the Vistula

From Wikipedia: Battle of Warsaw (1920)

The Battle of Warsaw (Russian: Варшáвское сражéние, Polish: Bitwa Warszawska; sometimes referred to as the Miracle at the Vistula, Polish: Cud nad Wisłą) was the decisive battle of the Polish-Soviet War, which began soon after the end of World War I in 1918 and lasting until the Treaty of Riga (1921).

Before the Polish victory at the Vistula, both the Bolsheviks and the majority of foreign experts considered Poland to be on the verge of defeat. The stunning, unexpected Polish victory crippled the Bolshevik forces. In the following months, several more Polish victories secured Poland’s independence and eastern borders.

Pod Twoją obronę uciekamy się" - 1920
Pod Twoją obronę uciekamy się - 1920 (Under Your Protection we find shelter - 1920)

August 15th was the turning point. Polish forces at Warsaw routed the Russian army. It is said that an apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary above the Wisła was the inspiration for the victory by the Polish forces.

Perspective, Political,

Information access overload

From the how much is too much category, the “conservative” Manhattan Institute for Policy Research (see their Wikipedia entry) under the guise of the “Empire Center For New York State PolicyAs the Young Fogey might say – not really conservative at all and just as interventionist as their “liberal” equals. These people are almost wholly interventionists of the neo-con G.W. Bush advising variety which makes things even worse” has published SeeThroughNY.

You can go there and faithfully study every public employee’s pay. You can search by name or by agency. This is a trend among people posing as open government/good government types. Ohio went so far as to publish every public employee’s pay and home address until they were stopped.

You probably should avoid the site for awhile since their servers are getting bombarded. When I checked their site earlier today I found that their web programmers left a few of the pages, including the one for searching public payrolls, completely unsecured. Anyone could have deleted large chunks of the site through a simple to use interface at the top of the page. It is one of those really stupid things people do when they are in a hurry.

Of course most of the State’s citizenry could care less. They’re worried about larger more personal matters. This stuff generally appeals to government workers (especially those with a grudge against the boss), political hacks, folks with a ax to grind, and those wanting to track down people who have seized their assets because of tax evasion, who have arrested them, who have audited them, or who have evaded them only by obtaining a restraining order (the ex-spouses and stalkers).

Now, all this information is public and a state’s citizens have a right to that information. Prior to publishing this site any citizen could get the very same data by making a FOIL request. For those with bad intent that at least left a paper trail and was self policing. Now those folks can do it from the comfort of their home computer.

By the way, the Manhattan Institute (see the People for the American Way report on these folks) publishes the salaries of their highest paid employees and directors via their IRS filings. Here’s a copy of their 2006 Form 990. You will note that their Chairman, Lawrence J. Mone pulled down a little over $400,000 in salary and deferred compensation in 2006. Since 1998 he’s received approximately $200,000 per year! Of course they don’t publish their entire payroll. I wonder what their lowest paid secretary, receptionist, or bathroom cleaner makes?

Perspective, Poland - Polish - Polonia, Political,

A candid look at Poles attitudes toward the United States

From the article Bye-Bye, America! as published in Transitions Online, originally from Polityka:

Not so long ago, Poland was said to be America’s Trojan horse in Europe and its 51st state. Indeed, America was our shield and our unattainable ideal. Did we suddenly stop liking it? Did the American dream recede in the minds of the Poles?

Studies of the Polish public’s favorable attitudes toward foreign countries show that America has lost 20 percentage points over the last four years. It is not fully clear when this happened, but let us recall two warning bells. In October 2006, [Foreign Minister] Radoslaw Sikorski, who was then defense minister in the Law and Justice [PiS] cabinet, wrote two surprising comments on a confidential memo about a U.S. diplomat’s visit to the prime minister’s chancellery. One —“ “we can do without it” —“ referred to a proposal related to the missile defense shield. The other —“ “traditionally cheeky” —“ referred to a person who represented Washington. These notes, even if they were made in self-defense as an alibi for the opinion of “the biggest American” in our [ruling] establishment, signaled that Warsaw’s love of Washington was no longer passionate.

Shortly after that, during an international seminar in Warsaw, Sikorski made the audience realize the shocking proportion between U.S. assistance and European support for Poland: $30 million from the United States and 90 billion (not million) euros (not dollars) from the EU. This comparison may have been stretched a little because it does not refer to the same things, but it does put the previous irritating question of whether Poland is more attached to America or to Europe in a different light. (Do you remember it? It was said to be as problematic as the question of who we love more, mom or dad.)

…Today, Prime Minister Donald Tusk is better at sensing the Polish likes. His compatriots understood and supported him when he announced on 4 July (which was not very clever, since this was a U.S. national holiday) that the missile defense shield served only the purpose of U.S. security and, in a word, hinted that the Bush administration had not cared about Poland’s security in the talks so far.

There is widespread conviction that we make bad deals out of business with the United States. Tusk reiterated that the Poles had so far never said “no” to their most important ally, but America had to try harder to win the Poles’ favor. And this assessment overlaps with a new street wisdom. Apparently, the Poles think that the Americans, who are indeed “traditionally cheeky,” took what they wanted from us, sold what they had, and gave us nothing in exchange…

Absolutely true. For all the promises to Poland none of its aspirations have have come to fruition. For all of Poland’s assistance in pursing the United States cause in Iraq and Afghanistan, and perhaps even in housing black sites, the only thanks has been an over-the-shoulder nod, ‘Nice going kid, now get lost.’ Case in point – U.S. aid to Poland is far less than U.S. aid to Turkey and dozens of other less than helpful countries.

In addition, the Iraqi intervention and the manner of managing Iraq have undermined the Poles’ unwavering belief that America —“ the world’s most powerful country, supported by the wisdom of the world’s best universities and renowned government analytical centers —“ plans all its steps perfectly and knows what it is doing. Meanwhile, it is visible to the naked eye that it was instead France and the West’s Arab allies that were right when they insisted, although to no avail, on pushing and isolating Saddam Hussein, but without opening up the Iraqi Pandora’s box.

[In] an important survey carried out by CBOS [publicly-funded opinion research center] in March 2007 [t]he Poles were asked which among the most powerful international organizations and countries had in their opinion a “mainly positive” or a “mainly negative” influence over changes in the world. The findings revealed a revolution that had taken place in the public’s opinions. In the case of the EU, 70 percent pointed to a positive influence and 3 percent to a negative impact. For the United States, only 38 percent replied in the positive, with as much as 24 percent of answers on the negative side. To put this into perspective, 10 percent pointed to a positive influence on the part of Russia, 49 percent to a negative one. When these results are compared with the findings of surveys taken in 2006, they show what can even be called a breakdown in favorable opinions about America, because in the preceding year the United States was 24 percentage points higher in terms of positive influence.

Dr. Elzbieta Skotnicka-Illasiewicz from the Polish Academy of Sciences has been studying the Poles’ attitudes towards European integration on a regular basis for 17 years… She points out the reasons for a decline in favorable attitudes toward America. These are not the only reasons, but they are important from the perspective of commonly held opinions. Almost all countries lifted visa requirements imposed on the Poles. However, the Americans did not. In this way, they showed lack of interest and sympathy. To put it simply, this can be summarized in a complaint that is repeatedly made in Poland: they could accept the support of Polish soldiers in Iraq, but they could not accept the same soldier as a tourist or even as a candidate for illegal work. Moreover, the very stories about visa procedures, about standing in lines, paying in advance regardless of the result of efforts, and questioning applicants in an aggressive manner reinforced the unfavorable image of the United States. …

Beyond the Iraq debacle, and Poles illusory love for Amerika, these are the sorts of bread and butter issues felt by the “man on the street.” In a way it is reminiscent of the communist era: ‘I work hard, and do what you ask, and I am treated worse?’

Likewise, the 9-million-strong Polish community in the United States, an important part of the American myth in Poland, has also shrunk or dwindled somehow. Wealthier Poles suddenly noticed that the Polish community in the United States is composed not of hordes of American millionaires, but —“ with all due respect —“ of descendants of the plebeian masses from Podhale and Podlasie, who failed to pursue the kinds of financial or political careers that the descendants of the Irish, Italian, German, or Jewish diasporas did. Apart from this, what power do they have?

If the Polish government had any influence with the Poles in the United States and their votes in America and if these votes formed a package, then everything really could be agreed with Washington.

But these are just pipe dreams. The old Polish community in the United States suddenly paled in comparison not with the old Polish independence-minded soldiers in London or the Parisian “culture,” but with the masses of young people who set off for England.

We suddenly saw that these are different worlds. The Poles in the United States voted for the PiS under the Kaczynski brothers, while those in Britain stood in lines to cast their votes in favor of Civic Platform. In Chicago, orchestras composed of the inhabitants of the Polish mountains played for we know who. Guided by his instinct, [Civic Platform leader] Donald Tusk promised tax breaks to emigrants at a rally in London, encouraging them to come back to Poland.

In other words what remains of American Polonia is disconnected from day-to-day life in Poland and Poland’s leadership has caught onto that. Most of what remains of activist Polonia is comprised of the Solidarity diaspora. The remainder is three or more generations removed from their Polonian ancestors. As the Young Fogey frequently points out, these ethnics (and by instance mostly Catholics) rarely if ever vote as a block. The last person ever widely supported by Polonia, as a block, was Edmund Muskie.

A relative decline in America’s significance is not merely a game of what are, after all, changing moods, but an obvious outcome of Poland’s historic accession to the EU. Europe is closer, and there are no borders. According to a recent poll, asked about their willingness and ability to take on work abroad, 48 percent of the Poles responded that they would go to Germany while —“ pay attention —“ 6.2 percent indicated the United States. Today, the inhabitants of the Polish mountains more frequently go to Israel as construction workers than to the United States, while Lomza and Mlawa have Brussels addresses.

Any data you care to name show that America is not competitive for the Poles in comparison with Europe. The map of the Poles’ (tourist) visits abroad in 2007 is as follows: Germany, 1.55 million people; Great Britain, 850,000; France and Slovakia, 450,000 each; the Netherlands, 400,000; Italy and Austria, 300,000 each, while fewer than 100,000 visited the United States. In 2007, remittances from Poles earning money abroad were as follows (according to National Bank of Poland estimates): Great Britain and Ireland, 4 billion zlotys [$2 billion] each; Germany, 1.5 billion and the United States, 450 million. Transfers from the United States, which accounted for as much as 13 percent of all financial transfers to Poland in 2004, fell to 4 percent last year. Among the students who went on scholarships abroad (for a period of no longer than one year) and somehow made it into the official statistics, 1,590 went to Europe and 61 to the United States. According to data from 2006, the Americans invested relatively little in Poland. The top spot was occupied by Luxembourg with 3.6 billion euros (probably pure capital), followed by Germany with 2.7 billion euros. Italy and the Netherlands ranked third at about 1.3 billion euros each. For the United States, the amount was 407 million euros…

Immigration is an economic engine. Attracting talent and labor are just as important as importing raw materials. The United States misses the mark here and Europe gains for our loss. Interestingly Poland is one of Europe’s economic engines while the U.S. engine is running out of gas.

Unfortunately, this [—divergence protocol—] has been extended considerably under the Bush administration: the Europeans are more critical about the president himself than about the United States, with the war in Iraq and the president considered the main reasons behind the worsening relations between the United States and Europe. Surveys demonstrate that if the Europeans had the right to vote in the upcoming U.S. elections, they would vote for Barack Obama. In any case, they expect better relations with the United States after Bush leaves office.

These divergence protocols have long demonstrated that the two sides of the Atlantic are inhabited by somewhat different races. “The Americans are more from Mars, the Europeans from Venus.” The Americans rely more on military power, the Europeans on democracy. They believe in individualism and liberal competition; we are more likely to talk about the quality of life and the need for social solidarity. In essence, the threats are the same, but the Americans are more afraid than the Europeans of excessive reliance on foreign energy resources, a serious economic crisis, and international terrorism, a situation in which Iran obtains nuclear weapons, and immigrants from Europe. The only thing that the Europeans fear more than the Americans do is the effects of global warming. With their opinions, the Poles are now closer to Western Europe than they were before. In this sense, we have joined the mainstream.

For a long time, America has been reopening wounds in relations with foreigners, sometimes complaining loudly that “they love us” or “they hate us.” Unfortunately, this country is not in the habit of making special efforts to win allies (especially under Bush’s tenure as president). If it reckons with anyone, this must be someone big. The Americans themselves know that they have wasted a large portion of the sympathy they have enjoyed since the 9/11 attacks, when Le Monde expressed the European mood by saying, “We are all Americans.”

Absolutely right. A wasted seven years, wasted good will, wasted relationships, wasted opportunities, and a wasting away of the U.S. social contract which was a key point of admiration especially in Poland. Sure we can delude ourselves in proclamations of self-love but eventually I hope we wake up and do our level best to reclaim what we were not too many years ago — in our own eyes and the eyes of the world.

Current Events, Perspective, Political,

Dissent: Voices of Conscience

From Albany Catholic: Col. (ret.) Ann Wright, author of Dissent: Voices of Conscience

Tuesday, August 12, 7:00 – 9:00 pm
Albany Public Library
161 Washington Avenue, Albany

Ann Wright will speak at the Albany Public Library while she is in the Capital Region for the Kateri Tekakwitha Peace Conference. Ann Wright’s new book, Dissent: Voices of Conscience, profiles of those in government and active-duty military who have spoken out, leaked documents, resigned, or refused to deploy to protest the war in Iraq. The American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression named Dissent their book of the month for February 2008.

Daniel Ellsberg wrote the foreword. “This … illuminating and remarkably impressive … book should be leaked into the government. … This book could awaken … officials to withdraw their complicity and … tell the truth to [the public]. This country will not escape further human, legal, and moral catastrophes, or preserve itself as a democratic, constitutional republic, if that does not happen. If you’re at all like me, you will have a whole set of new heroes when you finish reading this. …Dissent: Voices of Conscience could change your life.“

Which in my opinion is the correct course. Those who protest should not do so by running away but by standing up. Of course you have to be prepared to suffer the consequences of standing up. Not something unfamiliar to those who understand the Christian way of life.

Poland - Polish - Polonia, Political

Sad news from Poland – Bronislaw Geremek killed in a car crash

From the BBC: Polish ex-minister Geremek dies

Bronislaw Geremek, a key anti-communist dissident and former Polish foreign minister, has been killed in a car crash, police have announced.

Mr Geremek, 76, died when the car he was in hit an oncoming vehicle in western Poland on Sunday afternoon.

He was one of the key advisers to Lech Walesa, the Solidarity union leader which helped topple communist rule.

Mr Geremek was foreign minister from 1997-2000 and European Parliament member since 2004.
Mr Geremek died when his Mercedes car collided with a van near the western town of Lubien, police spokeswoman Hanna Wachowiak said.

It was not immediately clear on whether he was driving at the time.

The former foreign minister – a historian by training – oversaw his country’s accession to Nato.

Also reference Wikipedia’s article and Robert Strybel’s article on Dr. Geremek for additional background.

Christian Witness, Perspective, PNCC, Political,

Union busting in Scranton

From the The Wall Street Journal via The Pew Forum: Crisis of Faith Between Church, Union? (also ref. the Scranton Times Tribune and information available at the Scranton Diocese Association of Catholic Teachers website).

Many parishes in Scranton, Pa., display a picture of the Most Rev. Michael Hoban, the Scranton bishop who backed coal miners during a bitter six-month strike in 1902.

But the church and organized labor don’t see eye-to-eye in Scranton these days. Diocesan officials have withdrawn recognition of the local parochial-teachers’ union and laid off its president, angering many local residents and Pennsylvania lawmakers. It was only the latest blow-up between financially struggling dioceses and teachers seeking job security and raises. Their salaries can lag behind those of public schools by $20,000 to $40,000 a year…

While Bishop Hoban may have been friendly towards Coal Miners and the UMWA that was simply the result of two things: The majority of Catholics in Scranton were coal miners and families of coal miners and the fact that Bishop Hodur and the PNCC, who Bishop Hoban fought tooth and nail, were particular and staunch friends of Labor; he couldn’t be seen as acquiescing to the PNCC claim of support for Labor.

Many of the R.C. prelates of that day fought bitterly against Organized Labor and its friends. They branded organizations, such as the Polish National Alliance (which at the time included both Roman, Polish National, Protestant, and even atheist Poles, and was non-sectarian) as subversive elements or even communist/”Masonic”/”Jewish” frontsHistory of the Polish National Catholic Church and Its Background – Lecture I and the History of the Polish National Alliance in particular: In 1886 the Alliance became the first Polish fraternal to set up its own burial insurance plan. This move was important to its success in building its membership, despite early criticisms the Alliance received from some clergymen who charged that its recruitment of non-[Roman] Catholics made it an “anti-Catholic” organization. These charges were aggressively refuted by member activists, some of them priests, who appealed for a fair review of their program.. In fact it has been alluded to that the FBI kept watch over the PNCC right through the 1960’s because of its ties to Labor and to Poland. In the more recent past (1990’s through the present) various Diocese have fought against efforts at organizing for collective bargaining, especially among teachers ref. here, here, here and a very interesting legal perspective in Some Reflections on Labor and Employment Ramifications of Diocesan Bankruptcy Filings, wherein the author states:

Although the Catholic labor encyclicals and the Bishops’ Pastoral Letters eloquently proclaim the rights of workers to unionize, most teachers in Catholic schools are not unionized. This notorious paradox flows from NLRB v. Catholic Bishop of Chicago, wherein the United States Supreme Court held that the First Amendment of the Constitution prohibited the excessive entanglement of secular government and of secular law, such as the National Labor Relations Act and the National Labor Relations Board, in the internal governance and theology of the Church. Consequently, as a matter of federal law, teachers in Catholic primary and secondary schools do not have the right to form labor unions and to bargain collectively with their employer. Neither do faculty at Catholic colleges have any such rights.

The relationship between Roman Catholic prelates in the United States and Organized Labor is hit and miss and as stated above internally disparate from stated Church teachings. An excellent analysis of the situation can be found in Keeping Faith With Labor: Can Unions and Churches Maintain Their Longtime Friendship? from the Catholic Education Resource Center.

The PNCC remains a consistent supporter and friend of Labor among Catholic Churches. It is my sincere hope the Organized Labor rediscovers the roots of that support and in turn sees the strength to be derived from that relationship.

Christian Witness, Political

Rally in Support of Coptic Christians in Egypt

From ChristianNewsWire:

American Egyptian Coptic Christians to organize a peaceful demonstration, on July 16, 2008, in front of the White House, to protest violent attacks against Coptic Christians in Egypt.

Coptic CrossCoptic Organizations in America along with activists from Egypt, the Middle East, Europe and the United states, will conduct a peaceful demonstration in front of the White House on Wednesday July 16, 2008, from 12:00 noon to 4:00 pm. The purpose is to convey, to world’s opinion and international human rights organizations, recent incidents of persecution, discrimination and marginalization inflicted on Coptic Christians of Egypt by the Egyptian government and Muslim extremists.

The Copts of Egypt are the largest Christian minority in the Middle East. They number about 15% of Egypt’s population of 80 million. Not a month passes by without their churches, homes and businesses being attacked. According to a study made by Ibn Khaldoun Research Center in Cairo, over 240 major attacks against the Copts took place during the period from 1972- 2003. Magdy Khalil, a writer and researcher, estimates that as a result of these attacks more than 4000 Copts were killed or injured. This, in addition to damages to Coptic properties that could exceed hundreds of millions of dollars, during the last three decades alone. Hundreds of Coptic girls are abducted and forced to embrace Islam while security forces act as accomplices and helpers of the criminals.

During the last few weeks, the extremists attacked a jewelry store owned by Copts killing four Copts. The extremists also attacked Abu Fana Coptic monastery injuring many monks and kidnapping three. The abducted monks were tortured, while they were ordered to announce abandoning their Christian faith and embracing Islam. In Fayoum, Muslim extremists attacked homes and businesses owned by Coptic Christians. A Coptic Christian man was killed by Muslims in the town of Dafash, governorate of Minia, in the southern part of Egypt.

We call on the American and International Media, human rights organizations and all freedom loving people to join our demonstration in an effort to send a message to the Egyptian government to stop persecuting the Copts and take responsibility in providing adequate protection for them.

For more information, contact:
Mounir Bishay, Los Angeles (310) 641-3387
Jacob Keryacos, New Jersey (732) 414-9451
Fayez Khella, New Jersey (201) 424-0278
Selim Naguib, Montreal (514) 485-4550
Atef Makar, Chicago (630) 878-1333

Perspective, Poland - Polish - Polonia, Political,

Opening doors, breaking down stereotypes

From EUBusiness: Sarkozy opens French job market to mythical Polish plumber

(WARSAW) – President Nicolas Sarkozy said Wednesday France’s job market would soon be opened to workers from Poland and seven other EU states, quashing fears of “Polish plumbers” stealing French jobs.

“The time has come today for France to remove the last restrictions on the free movement of Polish workers and the other states that joined the EU in 2004,” Sarkozy said, addressing a joint session of the upper and lower houses of the Polish parliament.

“The spectacular development of the Polish economy is the best response to the myth we referred to as the ‘Polish plumber’ … I’ve come to tell you ‘you are our friends and you are welcome’,” he said.

France’s move to open wide its doors to eastern workers will come July 1, on the first day of its six-month presidency of the European Union and covers workers from the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia and Slovenia, as well as Poland.

…

“The decision is based on the reality of the job market: Polish plumbers never went to France.”

Having opted for a five-year transition period, France originally planned to open its labour market to the eight 2004 EU entrants in May 2009, unlike Britain, Ireland and Sweden which opted for complete access upon expansion in May 2004…

Of course the Polish plumber was a myth just like the mythical Hispanic worker that is stealing all the jobs in the U.S. This mythological figure was used in France’s political fight over the E.U. Constitution:

The —Polish plumber——”a symbol of cheap labor—”became a catchphrase in France’s —No— camp during its referendum on the E.U. constitution.See the reference in Fear of the Polish Plumber.

Of course Poland’s tourist industry squeezed a lot of lemonade from the lemons France threw at it. In the famous Polish Plumber ad, Poland invited the French to come and see. From MSNBC: France’s new media star? The Polish plumber

PARIS – Live in France? Got leaky pipes? The Polish plumber —” muscled, square jawed and downright handsome —” won’t be there to help.

But with his wrench at the ready, the man who came to symbolize cheap labor in France traveled to Paris on Tuesday to prove he is harmless —” and to welcome the French to Poland.

It’s all part of an ad campaign that aims to lure tourists to Poland by spoofing French fears about a mythical Polish plumber who would move to France and steal jobs…

As the EUBusiness story states – which is the more correct version of reality – Polish plumbers never went to France. In other words our fear of immigrant labor is nothing more than a politically expedient “hot button” issue with little if any basis in reality. We should learn a lesson from the French government. When we come to our senses about the reality of immigration we will see that we all benefit, and that immigrants add value to our country.

Beyond the issue of immigration, members of the E.U. are quickly finding out that you need to sustain your economy if you want that off-price immigrant labor working for you. Poles who had immigrated are now returning to Poland. The economy in Poland is booming. See this from the TimesOnline: Tide turns as Poles end great migration

A wave of immigration that helped to fuel Britain’s early 21st century boom is over, as the Polish plumber and thousands like him go home.

The Times has established that, for the first time since they began arriving en masse four years ago, more UK-based Poles are returning to their homeland than are entering Britain.

Statistics show that only 38,680 Poles signed up to the Government’s register of migrant workers in the third quarter of 2007, a slump of 18 per cent from the previous year. Polish officials say that Poles leaving the country outnumber thoses coming in.

Hard statistics on the number of Poles leaving Britain do not exist. There are no embarkation controls on EU members so they are are not counted out. But Polish officials, British employment agencies and the Polish media all believe that the tide of immigration has turned. Since Poland joined the EU in 2004, 274,065 Poles have signed up for work permits. They make up 66 per cent of all applications from Eastern European countries.

But a combination of tightening economic conditions in this country, a comparatively weak pound and an unprecendented surge in the Polish economy has made it unattractive for Poles to remain…

Fair warning – the immigration wave addeth to the economy, the reversal of such taketh away from the economy.

All Right Reserved © 2005 - 2023