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Archive for March 14th, 2010

D.C. march on March 21 to press legalization in face of rise in deportations

Posted by jambonewspot on March 14, 2010

BY SETH GALINSKY  
As the administration of Barack Obama continues its attacks on undocumented workers, thousands of people from around the country are preparing to demonstrate in Washington, D.C., March 21 to demand legalization of immigrants and an end to deportations.

In a March 5 press release, the Fair Immigration Reform Movement, one of the coalitions backing the march, points out that “the Obama Administration’s shift in emphasis from ‘worker raids’ to ‘paper/desk raids’ has provided a veneer of civility to immigration enforcement.”

“Deportations have increased by more than 60 percent since the Obama Administration took office,” the coalition adds. In 2009 U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) deported the highest number of immigrant workers in U.S. history.

While reducing the number of high-profile factory raids, in 2009 ICE tripled the number of immigration audits, which often lead to the firing of workers who can’t present proof of legal residency in the United States.

By claiming they are focusing on deporting criminals, U.S. officials seek to scapegoat immigrants and foster divisions among immigrant workers. In a three-day operation at the end of February, ICE agents arrested 284 immigrants in Texas. ICE said more than half have “violent criminal histories.”

Washington is expanding the “Secure Communities” program, which aims by 2012 to check the fingerprints of every person held in federal, state, and local jails against a Department of Homeland Security database.

ICE has continued the rapid expansion of E-verify, which allows bosses to check the immigration and work status of current and potential employees through the Internet, making it more difficult for workers without papers to obtain jobs.

The U.S. government has also deepened militarization of the U.S.-Mexico border. There are now more than 20,000 armed agents stationed there.

The purpose of these measures, promoted by both the Democratic and Republican parties, is not to stop the flow of immigrant labor, which U.S. employers need to bolster their profits and compete against businesses from other countries, but to control it. Their anti-immigrant policies are used to divide working people and drive down the value of their labor power.

The March 21 demonstration provides an opportunity for working people, union activists, and students to oppose these anti-immigrant and anti-worker measures.

Among groups sponsoring the demonstration are several immigration reform coalitions, the AFL-CIO union federation, Service Employees International Union (SEIU), United Food and Commercial Workers union, UNITE HERE, U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, and the National Council of Churches.

Eugenio Villasante, a spokesperson for SEIU Local 32BJ, told the Militant the union members are “very motivated” to join the march. “Many of our members are immigrants and everyone knows someone who has been deported,” he said. “It’s a wrong policy.”

Laborers locals 10, 78, and 79, which organize construction workers in the New York City region, will be participating in the march. The Workplace Project, an immigrant rights group that works with day laborers on Long Island, is organizing a bus to Washington along with a contingent that will walk to the demonstration from Hempstead, New York, starting March 12.

In Salinas, California, the United Farm Workers will also hold an immigration rights action March 21.

Luis Gutiérrez, U.S. congressman from Illinois, will be the featured speaker at a Houston rally March 13 that is part of promoting the March 21 actions.

Gutiérrez has introduced a “comprehensive immigration reform” in the House of Representatives that is similar to proposals that Obama has raised. The bill is presented by some Democratic Party politicians and union officials as a “road to citizenship” and a way to “fix the broken immigration system.”

The bill does not guarantee legalizing undocumented workers or an end to deportations. It calls for stepped-up enforcement of immigration laws and the creation of a “Southern Border Security Task Force.” It would create a nationwide “employment verification system” to aid bosses in weeding out undocumented workers.

Under the section “Earned legalization program for the undocumented,” the bill proposes granting a six-year “conditional nonimmigrant status” to undocumented immigrants.

Any immigrant applying for legal status has to undergo “complete criminal and security background checks” and pay a $500 fine. Immigrants who qualify must wait for six years after the law takes effect to receive a green card showing they are permanent residents.  

-The Militant

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The Startup Visa: Create Jobs, Get A Green Card

Posted by jambonewspot on March 14, 2010

A bill introduced  in the Senate by Democrat John Kerry and Republican Richard Lugar proposes a new type of visa for immigrants who create startups and jobs in the U.S. A similar proposal is part of an immigration reform bill in the House. The Startup Visa has been controversial and will no doubt draw fire from anti-immigrant forces and xenophobes. But if we are going to be giving away visas, giving them to people who will help build the U.S. economy and create jobs is hard to argue against.The Startup Visa Act of 2010 would create a two year visa for immigrant entrepreneurs who are able to raise a minimum of $250,000, with $100,000 coming from a qualified U.S. angel or venture investor. After two years, if the immigrant entrepreneur is able to create five or more jobs (not including their children or spouse), attract an additional $1 million in investment, or produce $1 million in revenues, he or she will become a legal resident.The bill would carve out a new “EB-6¿ class of visas from the existing “EB-5¿ class of visas which has a higher threshold for becoming a legal resident. So it’s not really that radical. The EB-5 requires immigrants to invest at least $1 million in the U.S. and employ ten people.The Startup Visa sends the right message to prospective immigrants: create jobs, get a green card. A group of 160 venture capitalists and angel investors support the bill, including Paul Graham, Brad Feld, Fred Wilson, Dave McClure, Ron Conway, Mike Maples, Reid Hoffman, Chris Sacca, Jeff Clavier, Bijan Sabet, Josh Kopelman, and Chris Dixon. If you agree that the Startup Visa is a good idea, you can find ways to support it here and here.

-Washington Post

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For how long shall we keep women down?

Posted by jambonewspot on March 14, 2010

By NG’ANG’A MBUGUA
Posted Sunday, March 14 2010 at 17:09

It might interest you to know that not every man in Central Province is happy with the scores posted by girls in the region in the recently released Form Four examination results.

According to the Education minister, Prof Sam Ongeri, Central was the only province that achieved gender parity in the exams, with 51 per cent of the candidates being girls.

But according to two men with whom I had a chat recently, when girls become more educated, they are unlikely to marry men from the province, many of who, according to recent reports, have been rendered impotent by dubious liquors sold on the cheap in what we like to call “brew dens”.

Their view is disconcerting especially because — if it is widespread — it could be sending a signal to regions which have not achieved gender parity that this is not a goal worth pursuing if it is going to upset social and cultural order.

It is sad enough that no girl featured in the top 10 performers in the national examinations this year. But it is encouraging that a girls’ school had the best Maths score even though the teacher was a rookie who left university two years ago.

If this nation is to prosper, especially in key fields like science, education, business and other sectors that make tangible contributions to job-creation and improvement of life, it is imperative for the population to salute — and encourage — outstanding achievements of all its members, especially its women.

This may sound like a platitude, coming barely days after International Women’s Day which passed without as much as a mention of the role that women have played in shaping this nation.

Although America is not always the best place to turn to when looking for role models, it must be said that though there were attempts to deny many of its pioneering women a chance to achieve their potential in professional fields, the national culture made it possible for them to persist and eventually triumph.

The case of Phillis Wheatley easily comes to mind. Shipped to America as a young slave, Phillis lost her identity at sea. She acquired her first name from the name of the vessel that transported her to captivity and her surname from the family that bought her at the auctioning block.

Yet, within months of arriving in America, she could read English and Latin and soon after, became a poet of repute. She became the first African-American to publish a book and only the second woman to be published in America. If she had not made this huge achievement in the 1700s, the history of African-Americans would not be what it is today.

Another woman whose achievement is worth recalling is Elizabeth Blackwell, who was the first in the world to receive a medical degree.

After trying unsuccessfully to join numerous universities, she eventually received an admission letter from Geneva College though it was meant as a practical joke. But when she showed up, they could not turn her away, opting instead to teach her away from her male colleagues.

This, however, did not stop her from graduating at the top of her class and going on to make significant contributions to the training of women doctors and entrenching preventive medicine worldwide.

Today, as America celebrates these and other pioneers, what happens in Kenya besides holding workshops and demonstrations and mouthing platitudes about “giving” women more seats in Parliament? What will this nation celebrate about its women 50 years from today if men of reasonable learning and social standing still believe that the best that can happen to a woman is to man a reception desk?

True, those who design education policies must not assume that the success of girls can only be achieved at the expense of boys.

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As thieves fall out, wheels come off Kenya’s embedded corruption networks

Posted by jambonewspot on March 14, 2010

Kenya’s corruption networks are in unprecedented flux under the coalition government.

It appears the dragon of corruption is so engorged by the feeding frenzy of the past couple of years that it has started to throw up.

So many deals by so many politically opposed players have finally given the beast indigestion.

Last week, public attention was riveted by the scandal involving the purchase of land for a cemetery in a place called Movoko in Athi River outside Nairobi.

Essentially, the government paid 10 times the market price of the land, with the excess fat shared out among a range of individuals in prominent positions.

As Deputy Prime Minister cum Minister of Local Government Musalia Mudavadi — whose Permanent Secretary Sammy Kirui was among a range of individuals suspended — strenuously denied involvement, the politically polarised atmosphere gave credence to suspicions that the fight against graft is being used to settle political scores and fight political battles.

It was perhaps not coincidental that President Kibaki’s newfound resolve to take action against corruption followed a visit by the head of the IMF to Kenya accompanied by the international music celebrity Bob Geldof.

The list of individuals sent packing compares in range only to those sent home during the Valentine’s Day massacre around the Free Primary Education and maize scandals as the Offices of the Prime Minister and the President competed for the moral high ground in the fight against corruption.

When thieves fall out, wise men profit.

The politicisation of the fight against corruption that victims of the latest purges are complaining about, could finally lead to the dismantling of the corruption networks that have been “fighting back” for a decade. It is worth remembering that in the 1990s, across Latin America, corruption scandals truncated a series of administrations.

In the big picture of corruption in Kenya, two important things have happened over the past three months:

First, with the regard to the maize and graves scandals and to an extent the FPE one too (which is yet to roll out in all its glory) the time line of grand corruption has changed.

While the scams were grimly titillating in their primitivity, the key thing was the speed of things — from the execution of the deals, to their exposure and thence to punitive action, no matter how cynical or externally derived. The time it takes for all these things to happen has shortened dramatically.

The graves saga would seem to have kicked off properly in 2007 and has reached where it has today in a breathtaking three years.

This is unprecedented in Kenyan history where the high and mighty are concerned. And it will have implications.

Generally speaking, grand economic crimes have a life expectancy of between 20 and 25 years.

If you can steal from the public and steal in huge amounts and avoid real accountability for this period you are home free.

The key is for the amounts to be large, so large you become like one of those Western banks that are “too big to fail.”

Your lawyers make a pile of money, your kids finish courses at Princeton, your wife can get a facelift and tummy tuck and you will have gone through a respectable series of high end cars.

In other words, you will have lived a life; your sons and daughters can even go into the anti-corruption business.

Is this changing? If so, these are worthwhile developments even though driven by the incompetence and cynical spirit that infects the current government.

Second, the crisis is shaking up the primary component of systemic grand corruption in a country like Kenya — the embedded network.

This is something that should have happened in 2003 but a lack of presidential will and the fact that the civil service was led by elements of the same network meant it was not to be at the time.

Today, when you look through the list of officials who have been asked step aside or suspended due to the latest three scandals, you will see it includes civil servants who have served for prolonged periods of time in their departments, sometimes even refusing promotions and transfers.

These are the nuts and bolts that hold together an embedded network.

Such a network typically comprises middle to high-level officials in the civil and security services, briefcase business types and politicians.

The politicians are the most recyclable element of the whole structure.

The businessmen hold fast, though as a network unravels they have a tendency to get bumped off by unhappy co-conspirators in the security sector and bureaucracy.

As noted, the civil service players in these networks are interesting for the length of time they hold onto particular offices regardless of changes in administration.

These are not always top officials but mid-level rankers who are nevertheless often so powerful ministers call them for advice before penning letters to their own permanent secretaries.

New permanent secretaries can be tied up in knots by these old guard types with their creased suits, frayed collars and extensive landholdings in the east of Nairobi and their home districts.

With these key middle-level components of the network being sent home, the most confused lot in this town are those left in “acting capacities’ who don’t know where the real files are.

Brokers, briefcase businessmen, the relatives of the high and mighty and representatives of senior politicians are harassing them with calls to conclude deals in a highly unstable atmosphere.

John Githongo is CEO of Inuka Kenya and head of Twaweza Kenya

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Why are politicians scrambling for Maina Njenga?

Posted by jambonewspot on March 14, 2010

I am increasingly curious about the high number of friends and attention former Mungiki leader Maina Njenga is suddenly attracting from the high and mighty.

First it was his affiliation with Starehe Member of Parliament and Bishop of Jesus Is Alive Ministries Margret Wanjiru.  The other person he is regularly in the company of these days is one Daniel Toroitich arap Moi, who ruled Kenya for 24 years.

Before Njenga was acquitted in a murder and weapons case, no one was ready to be associated with him.

In recent weeks, he has been seen at rallies with Moi in Eldoret and Nyahururu and talk is they are next headed to Central Kenya.

What I know for a fact that is Njenga wields the support of millions of youth.  The number has been touted at five million.  Whether it is five, three or two, politicians cannot ignore this man.

But what is this man Moi up to?

Is he trying to win the support of the five-million plus members for political gain?

Whether Njenga is a true convert or not is yet to be tested.  Aren’t the Mungiki still collecting levies from matatus and residents from various estates?

It’s not in doubt that anyone seeking political mileage would want to tap into this well of followers.  I am told that anyone facing a by-election or the 2012 polls would benefit immensely from these numbers, since every constituency must conduct a fresh voter registration.

The ban on the Mungiki as far as I know has never been lifted and it remains an outlawed sect.

As such, it remains an illegal grouping, which is why the police have upheld a sustained crackdown on its members and even detained its leader – Maina on several occasions.

After listening to the speech delivered by Moi and Njenga last Saturday, it did not come out clearly what they intend to do together apart from just pulling tobacco-sniffing crowds in their tens of thousands, because I hear the latest rally was attended by close to 20,000 youth.

I urge Moi and Njenga to stop taking us around in circles and declare their interests in their intended management of our peace and stability.

If it is political, let them go public.

-Capital FM

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Women are trying too hard to be like men

Posted by jambonewspot on March 14, 2010

By Laura Walubengo

Let me start by affirming that a lot of struggle and sleepless nights have gone towards ensuring that women are empowered.

Human rights activists who fought for legislation that facilitated an end to FGM and saw the introduction of the domestic violence bill can attest to that struggle and because injustices continue, they cannot afford to stop fighting.

The lengthy abortion debate and growing number of women MPs and ministers are also testament to the fact that a lot is being done to promote women’s rights.

I mean, even in Turkana, it is no longer an oddity to see girls in school uniform! But while all this is very encouraging, women need to be very careful that their actions do not negate this good work.

There was a poll carried out recently and the outcome showed that fewer women would vote in a female presidential candidate, or female leader for that matter.

Apparently, the study revealed that women had less faith in women leaders. If you look closely, you will remember that this is a very different sentiment to the time when Charity Ngilu was vying for president.

In those days, many Kenyans had faith that a woman leader would make a difference because the men were too greedy, insensitive and had no need for anything other than power play.

Unfortunately, as it stands now, females are not too far behind.

Women are trying too hard to be like men. The empowerment that started with the phrase “anything that he can do I can do better” seems to be taking an odd turn.

The same kind of ‘oppression’ that we (as women) were running away from in the days of ago, is the exact same kind of oppression we mete out, as women, to the men who now serve under us. Have we lost the plot?

Little boys are getting abused by older women, men are being beaten by their wives, female MPs are party to pointless political rhetoric and the fight for women’s rights begins to lose direction.

Let us remember as women, to emulate only the good qualities we see in men and work to correct the negative. It is similar to the role we have in our homes.

Today, on International Women’s Day, I would like to challenge all women who hold any position of power to make good use of it and not forget why they worked twice as hard for it in the first place.

Capital FM

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