The two sides of immigration

by | Mar 22, 2011 | Cooperation and coherence, Europe and Central Asia

The Dark Side:

I have recently moved to Spain. In order to buy anything official like insurance, a flat, a car or a bank account – you have to pay for your bank accounts here – the foreign resident needs what is known as a NIE (a “foreigner’s identification number”). A month ago my wife and I made our first attempt to obtain one. Getting up early, we drove the forty-five minutes to the nearest NIE office in Marbella and arrived at 8.45, fifteen minutes before the office opened. When I asked the policeman who was guarding the queue of supplicants about the procedure, he told me we had arrived too late, that we should have acquired a ticket before 8.30, and that to be sure of a ticket it was advisable to arrive no later than 6.30. Needless to say, none of this was on the relevant website, which merely told the reader the opening hours and the forms he needed to fill out.

Today we tried again, this time in Málaga. We rose at 6.45 and arrived at the office at 7.30. The queue was short, and the duty policeman told us to wait until 9, when the office opened, before asking any questions. We stood with the others, outside, buffeted by a cold wind. By the gate was a poster, advising all those waiting that they needed photocopies of every page of their passports. Even the empty pages. This is apparently a new policy, as it does not yet appear on any of the relevant websites. Perhaps it is a job creation strategy, although even in as dire a recession as Spain finds itself in I find it hard to imagine how desperate you would have to be to apply for a position as a reader of empty passport pages. The Venezuelan behind us in the queue had not seen this poster by the time we started chatting to him at 8.45 – panicked that he would lose his place in the line, thereby condemning himself to returning another day (and taking another morning off work in a job market where employers call all the shots), he sprinted off to find the photocopy shop that I had located when the queue was in its infancy, and arrived back just in time to avoid ejection.

Gradually the queue filled up with North and West Africans, South Americans and a few Eastern Europeans. At around nine the doors opened, and those of us at the front were promoted to a wooden bench in the office yard. Half an hour later we were inside. There was one official dealing with the entire queue of around a hundred applicants – his colleagues were apparently all still at breakfast (my Venezuelan friend told me that the last time he had done this, five years ago, anyone not inside the building by twelve had had no chance of being seen that day: the office closed at two sharp and those still outside at midday were told to leave). (more…)

Is there a Plan?

by | Mar 21, 2011 | Conflict and security, Middle East and North Africa, North America

Foreign Policy scooped the US broadsheet press by a day over the weekend with its breakdown of what persuaded President Obama to undertake his volte face on Libyan intervention. Here’s their line-up of those in favour of and opposed to intervention at an “extremely contentious” meeting at the White House on Tuesday night:

Inside the administration, senior officials were lined up on both sides. Pushing for military intervention was a group of NSC staffers including Samantha Power, NSC senior director for multilateral engagement; Gayle Smith, NSC senior director for global development; and Mike McFaul, NSC senior director for Russia. [Hillary Clinton, also in favour of action, joined by phone from North Africa.] 

On the other side of the ledger were some Obama administration officials who were reportedly wary of the second- and third-degree effects of committing to a lengthy military mission in Libya. These officials included National Security Advisor Tom Donilon and Deputy National Security AdvisorDenis McDonough. Defense Secretary Robert Gates was also opposed to attacking Libya andhad said as much in several public statements.

But I think it’s this that’s the standout quote from the article:

“In the case of Libya, they just threw out their playbook,” said Steve Clemons, the foreign policy chief at the New America Foundation. “The fact that Obama pivoted on a dime shows that the White House is flying without a strategy and that we have a reactive presidency right now and not a strategic one.”

Clemons raises a pretty key question here: is there a plan? By all means let’s undertake UN-mandated military interventions to observe the Responsibility to Protect. But you have to wonder whether anyone’s thought this deployment through, or whether it’s yet another case of ‘Something must be done. This is something. Therefore, we must do it’. I agree with James Fallows in The Atlantic:

The most predictable failure in modern American military policy has been the reluctance to ask, And what happens then? We invade Iraq to push Saddam Hussein from power. Good. What happens then? Obama increases our commitment in Afghanistan and says that “success” depends on the formation of a legitimate, honest Afghan government on a certain timetable. The deadline passes. What happens then? One reason why Pentagon officials, as opposed to many politicians, have generally been cool to the idea of “preventive” strikes against Iran’s nuclear facilities is that many have gone through the exercise of asking, What happens then? 

Launching air strikes is the easiest, most exciting, and most dependably successful stage of a modern war, from the US / Western perspective. TV coverage is wall-to-wall and awestruck. The tech advantages are all on our side. Few Americans, or none at all, are hurt. It takes a while to see who is hurt on the ground.

But after this spectacular first stage of air war, what happens then? If the airstrikes persuade Qaddafi and his forces just to quit, great! But what if they don’t? What happens when a bomb lands in the “wrong” place? As one inevitably will. When Arab League supporters of the effort see emerging “flaws” and “abuses” in its execution? As they will. When the fighting goes on and the casualties mount up and a commitment meant to be “days, not weeks” cannot “decently” be abandoned, after mere days, with so many lives newly at stake? When the French, the Brits, and other allies reach the end of their military resources — or their domestic support — and more of the work naturally shifts to the country with more weapons than the rest of the world combined?  

Physician, heal thyself

by | Mar 18, 2011 | Economics and development

 

Not much austerity in evidence at the IMF:

The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank have pushed ahead with pay raises above the rate of inflation for thousands of workers — despite opposition from major funders in the United States and Europe.

U.S. representatives on the IMF and World Bank boards abstained in the recent votes that approved raises of 4.9 percent and 3.7 percent, respectively. They were joined by European nations that felt the increases set the wrong tone when governments are being pushed to retrench.

Trebles all round!

Battle-proof wind farms

by | Mar 18, 2011 | Climate and resource scarcity

So with simultaneous crises underway on both nuclear (meltdown risk at six reactors) and oil (spiking at $115), you may be wondering what other options are left. Over to Kelly Rigg at the Huffington Post:

Colleagues and I have been directly corresponding with Yoshinori Ueda leader of the International Committee of the Japan Wind Power Association & Japan Wind Energy Association, and according to Ueda there has been no wind facility damage reported by any association members, from either the earthquake or the tsunami. Even the Kamisu semi-offshore wind farm, located about 300km from the epicenter of the quake, survived. Its anti-earthquake “battle proof design” came through with flying colors.

Mr. Ueda confirms that most Japanese wind turbines are fully operational. Indeed, he says that electric companies have asked wind farm owners to step up operations as much as possible in order to make up for shortages in the eastern part of the country.