Germany’s Immigration Dilemma

Germany has been skeptical of its immigration policy recently as per the statement of the Chancellor Angela Merkel. She said, “Germany’s attempts to create multicultural society have failed.” One of her party colleagues said, “Multikulti is dead.” A board member of the German central bank Thilo Sarrazin went too far by saying, “Muslims have become burden to the German society.” He alleged that no immigrant group other than Muslims was so strongly connected with claims on the welfare state and crime. Interestingly, he received widespread support after his statement, and his book on the same subject received good readership.

Germany Chancellor said that her government needed skilled people to keep the German economy’s growth pace faster. At the same time, she cautioned against unskilled people as they come to Germany for social benefits. While Angela’s invitation to skilled people was economically oriented, her rejection of unskilled people was socially oriented. Maybe the Chancellor has to understand that the economic prizes are always associated with social costs in unequally developed societies. Inviting economic fruits but denying social costs is something equal to rejecting that a coin has two sides.

Urgent Need

A leading German demographer Reiner Klinghoiz, director of the Berlin Institute for Population and Development, said Germany desperately needed immigrants and it should ease restrictions on immigration to provide the skilled workers, from engineers to computer experts to ensure the future economic success, as per Reuters. He informed that immigration to German had come to a virtual halt in the last two years.

Though Germany has three million unemployed, Mr Klinghoiz said Germany could not wait ten years for those on unemployment to become trained engineers. Klinghoiz said further that Germany had an annual influx of 200,000 immigrants but in the last two years had seen a net exodus of 15,000. Restrictions like language tests had stopped migrations from Turkey almost completely, he added. German Chamber of Industry and Commerce was quoted as saying Germany lacked about 400,000 skilled workers and it sought more immigration. (Here is a useful link)

Kudos to Arundhati, You are a Ray of Hope!

Article first published as Kudos to Arundhati, You are a Ray of Hope! on Technorati

Arundhati Roy deserves Kudos. She deserves accolades for her brave statement defying Indian state’s warning that she would face criminal charges, for her support to the national aspirations of the Kashmiri people. Arundhati Roy, a booker prizewinner, had been actively supporting social movements of the poor, ever since she came to limelight after winning booker prize in 1997.

Arundhati Roy and a leader of the Kashmir movement Syed Ali Shah Geelani were threatened with facing a case of sedition by the Delhi Police with support from Union Home Ministry. The legal opinion sought by the Union Home Minister favored registering a case against them under Section 124-A of Indian Penal Code that states, “whoever by words, either spoken or written, or by signs, or by visible representation, or otherwise, brings or attempts to bring into hatred or contempt, or excites or attempts to excite disaffection towards the State” can be sentenced to five year rigorous imprisonment.

Arundhati Roy spoke at a seminar on “Azadi (independence) – The Only Way” along with S A S Geelani and pro-Maoist writer Varavara Rao held on October 21 in Delhi. She said in her speech, “Kashmir has never been part of India.” She was true when her statement was taken in terms of the wishes of the people in Kashmir.

If not, why Shaik Abdullah was kept in jail for 17 years for asking the Nehru Government to implement its promise of ‘plebiscite’? Why the people of Kashmir had continuously been on warpath against Indian Government? Why the police, para-military and military forces had continuously been stationed in Kashmir? Why hundreds of thousands of Kashmiri youth had been killed by the Army since the eruption of freedom struggle in 1989? Why even women including housewives, students and employees are coming to streets to shout “Go India, go back”?

India Malaria Deaths Underreported –The Lancet

Article first published as India Malaria Deaths Underreported on Blogcritics.

British medical journal The Lancet published a report on Thursday, October 21, 2010, that concluded WHO estimates of malaria deaths in India are hugely underestimated. It said WHO numbers are misleadingly low. According to the World Health Organization, about 15,000 die of malaria (5,000 early child hood and 10,000 thereafter) die each year in India. Whereas the survey funded by the US National Institutes of Health, Canadian Institute of Health Research and Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute put the figure at as high as 205,000 each higher, nearly 13 times more estimates than that of ‘WHO.‘

Deaths at Home

The Lancet said most deaths in rural India take place at home rather than at health centers. So, it argues, most cases are undiagnosed due to absence of health personnel. The cases of malarial deaths reported by Indian government are centered primarily in a few states, called high-malaria states; Orissa, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and the states in the northeast India.

Malaria deaths in India are prevalent in tribal areas due to unavailability of health care facilities. With no lab test facilities and meager if not nil transport facilities force the tribal people remain at home leaving them untested for malaria fever. They get treatment from uncertified rural medical practitioners who offer general treatment for every fever case.

Andhra Pradesh Case

Andhra Pradesh, one of the four southern states is considered one of the wealth states in India. Five years back, the opposition leader and the leader of regional political party TDP, Mr. Chandrababu Naidu, toured tribal areas in North and Central Andhra regions and brought to light how the tribal people villages were reeling under the wave of malaria fever that left unattended until then. A local vernacular daily “Andhra Jyothi” also published several reports of malaria deaths in interior regions that were left unreported.

Australian Envoy Tries to Downplay Racial Email Scandal

Article first published as Australian Envoy Tries to Downplay Racial Email Scandal on Blogcritics.
 

     It is another manifestation of racism, rampant in Australia. Racial attacks on Indian students have been recorded high in number in Melbourne, Victoria of Australia for last two to three years. Indian students studying in Melbourne are also high in number as compared with other cities in Australia. So, Victoria police are expected to be more sensitive towards racial issue that has been haunting the state. But, the Victorian police have proved otherwise.

Email Scandal

     Top Victorian Police officials are caught in a sting operation conducted by an Australian newspaper “the Herald Sun,” joking about a video that showed an Indian passenger travelling on the roof a train being electrocuted when he was contacted with high-tension wire. The video was circulated by Victorian police officers joking, “It could be a way to fix Melbourne’s Indian student problem.”

     The NDTV news web site reported on October 9, 2010 that some of the highest rankings officers had been implicated in the scandal that also involved pornographic material. At least fifteen officers will be dealt with disciplinary hearing in the coming weeks, Herald Sun report was quoted as saying by the NDTV news. The emails probed by Ethical Standards Department’s Operation Barrot contain pornographic, homophobic, racist and violent material.

Downplaying

     After the Australian High Commissioner to India, Peter Varghese, was handed a demarche by the Indian foreign ministry on Saturday, he condemned the incident as “offensive and unacceptable.” But, he went on to say that the incident involved two police officers, neither of them were senior police officers. He added that he did not think we should tar the entire Victorian police with the action of two police officers.

No Berlusconi Day in Italy

No Berlusconi day was observed in Italy on 2nd October 2010. The people were angry over the corruption scandals erupted recently. Thousands of protestors marched across Italy to express their denial of the leadership of their Prime Minister Berlusconi.

Italian Prime Minister was accused of subverting justice system in his favor. No-B day was observed once last year on December 5, 2009 protesting against sexual scandals unleashed to an extent that his wife Veronica declared she was giving divorce to her husband.

[tweetmeme only_single="false"]