e Samedi 14 juin de nombreuses organisations de défense des droits de l’homme organisent une manifestation pour protester contre un projet de directive européenne dite « retour » visant la rétention et l’expulsion des étrangers en situation irrégulière traditionnellement qualifiés de « sans papiers ». 

Alors que l’immigration vers les pays européens est loin d’être une nouveauté, elle semble être devenue un problème que l’Union européenne a décidé de régler par voie de directive afin, nous dit-on, d’harmoniser les différentes législations européennes. Mais il s’agit bien ici d’une véritable harmonisation par le bas visant à institutionnaliser un système répressif, stigmatisant toujours un peu plus les sans-papiers.

Initié par la Commission européenne en 2005, le projet a fait l’objet, le 5 juin dernier, d’un compromis entre les vingt sept ministres de l’intérieur et de l’immigration. Bien plus restrictif que le texte initial, il prévoit désormais un allongement de la durée de rétention des étrangers de six à dix-huit mois en cas d'absence de coopération de la part de l'intéressé ou de retard dans la transmission des documents nécessaires à son expulsion, applicable aux adultes comme aux mineurs. Plus encore c’est la double peine que subiront ces étrangers puisque les décisions d’expulsion seront automatiquement assorties d’une interdiction de réadmission pour une durée de cinq ans. 

Si chaque Etat peut définir sa politique migratoire, qu’en est-il du respect du droit de circuler librement et de choisir sa résidence, garantie par la Déclaration Universelle des droits de l’Homme ? Nous ne pouvons que nous indigner de ce texte honteux et irrespectueux à l’égard d’étrangers qui, quoi que l’on dise, participent au dynamisme économique et démographique de l’Europe.

Ce compromis des ministres des Etats membres ne clos pour autant pas le débat. En effet, et pour la première fois en matière d’immigration, ce texte fait l’objet d’une procédure de co-décision soumettant son adoption à l’accord du Parlement européen.

Alors que ce dernier sera sollicité mercredi 18 juin pour discuter du texte, la manifestation de Samedi est l’occasion de réaffirmer notre opposition à cette « directive de la honte ». Face à cette opportunité donnée aux Etats européens de durcir leur législation, nous devons réaffirmer la nécessité d’élaborer un projet ambitieux et courageux d’accueil des étrangers. Il faut cesser l’amalgame entre immigration, clandestinité et délinquance. L’immigration doit être considérée comme une richesse par les pays européens qui feraient mieux de permettre l’intégration des étrangers plutôt que de toujours envisager le tout répressif !

L'initiative intervient cinq mois avant le premier Conseil européen, organisé sous présidence française, sur ces questions. Le texte ambitionne d'abord de donner un nouvel élan à une politique aujourd'hui balbutiante. La période est propice : plusieurs projets de directive ad hoc atterriront au second semestre sur la table des ministres européens. Et l'entrée en vigueur, attendue le 1er janvier 2009, du traité de Lisbonne, permettra de renforcer les mécanismes de coopération communautaire.

«Le flux migratoire doit impérativement s'adapter aux capacités d'accueil de l'Europe, sur le plan du marché du travail, du logement, des services sanitaires, scolaires et sociaux», est-il écrit dans ce document, dont Le Figaro s'est procuré une copie. Deux chapitres illustrent le volet sécuritaire du projet. Ils sont contrebalancés par le souhait ambitieux exprimé par la France, de «bâtir une Europe de l'asile», aujourd'hui dans les limbes et de promouvoir l'immigration professionnelle légale. Un cinquième chapitre, moins étayé, insiste sur la nécessité de promouvoir la coopération économique avec les pays d'origine.

Paris aimerait que l'UE «s'accorde à renoncer» aux «régularisations massives et collectives». Une pierre jetée dans le jardin des précédents gouvernements italien et espagnol, revenus depuis de l'aventure. Regrettant, à l'inverse, le fait que seule une mesure d'éloignement sur trois soit exécutée, Brice Hortefeux veut amener «l'Europe à faire respecter sur l'ensemble de son espace, la règle selon laquelle un migrant en situation irrégulière a vocation, soit à partir volontairement, soit à être reconduit dans son pays».

La France juge insuffisants les accords de réadmission conclus par l'UE avec les pays tiers, à l'instar du «partenariat de mobilité» qui sera signé en juin avec la Moldavie et le Cap-Vert. D'ici à cinq ans, explique Paris, les Vingt-Sept et la Commission devraient parvenir à «conclure des accords avec les principaux pays d'origine», recourant, au besoin, à «tous les instruments diplomatiques et commerciaux» possibles.

En contrepartie, l'immigration légale choisie, et organisée sur une base professionnelle, devrait être renforcée. Chaque État membre conserve néanmoins la liberté de définir ses besoins. Outre la délivrance de cours de langues, les Vingt-Sept devraient s'attacher à définir un contrat d'intégration, à caractère obligatoire, qui comporterait «l'apprentissage des identités nationales et des valeurs européennes», relatives par exemple à l'obligation scolaire et d'éducation des enfants.

Dans cet esprit, la présidence française espère boucler au second semestre les négociations sur le projet de directive visant à instaurer une «carte bleue» l'équivalent de la carte verte américaine destinée à des immigrés hautement qualifiés. S'il n'est pas exclu qu'un relatif consensus européen puisse être trouvé autour de ces propositions, la volonté française de bâtir une politique d'asile communautaire devrait susciter, en revanche, de profondes réticences.

Le calendrier affiché est très ambitieux. D'ici à 2010, les Vingt-Sept devraient «instaurer des garanties communes en matière d'asile et un statut de réfugié uniforme». D'ici à cinq ans, les critères d'examen des demandes d'asile devraient eux-mêmes être communautarisés. Innovation importante, les réfugiés sollicitant une protection internationale pourraient déposer leur demande hors du territoire de l'UE, via le Haut Commissariat aux réfugiés (HCR). La Commission européenne devrait présenter des propositions en ce sens, le 17 juin. Mais les eurocrates ne se font guère d'illusions. Si, à Bruxelles, le sort des réfugiés tchétchènes et des chrétiens d'Irak suscite une communauté de vues - au moins sur le plan intellectuel - les États membres entendent garder la haute main sur l'octroi de ce fameux statut. Le document français devrait être discuté lors d'un conseil informel des ministres de l'Immigration, organisé à Cannes le 7 juillet.

source : Le Figaro

By Robert J. Caldwell

Recent events leave no doubt about just how desperate a battle Mexico is fighting to take down it's rapacious drug-trafficking cartels and stop the escalation of drug-war violence. No American should imagine that this battle being waged on our doorstep doesn't involve vital U.S. national interests inextricably entwined with those of our neighbor Mexico.

Mexican President Felipe Calderón has made the fight against the drug cartels and organized crime his top national priority, as well he should. Losing to the narco-traffickers' violent syndicates would risk making Mexico a failed state, with disastrous consequences for Mexico's economic development and political reforms. Simply put, Mexico's modernization cannot succeed without the rule of law against which the cartels wage unrelenting war.

For the United States, a failed Mexico unable to control the escalating drug-war mayhem on its territory would have the most dire results: Tidal waves of illegal immigration, wholesale disruption of tens of billions of dollars of mutually beneficial trade, and a vastly greater threat to U.S. national security along the 1,800-mile U.S.-Mexico border.

All the more reason, then, to view recent events in Mexico with genuine alarm. Despite the 17-month-old Calderón administration's efforts, including the dispatch of more than 24,000 Mexican army troops and federal police to locations (including Tijuana) most threatened by the narco-cartels, violence continues unabated.

Among the most recent outrages:

A running gun battle between rival narco-traffickers in Tijuana on April 26 that left a dozen dead and eight or more wounded.

Four days later, two assassins shot and killed the director of Mexico's Organized Crime Department of the Federal Secretariat of Public Security. A day after that, the secretariat's general staff director was assassinated as he left his home in Mexico City.

On May 8, the acting chief of Mexico's federal police was shot nine times and killed at the door of his apartment in Mexico City.

On May 9, four gunmen killed a former commander of Mexico City's anti-kidnapping unit, a man who was working for the Mexico City police department's internal affairs unit, which investigates police corruption.

The next day, the deputy commander of Ciudad Juarez's police force was ambushed and killed near his home, shot more than 50 times. The Ciudad Juarez police chief resigned that same day.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security reports that three Mexican police chiefs, clearly in fear for their lives, have requested political asylum in the United States. This is unprecedented.

Drug-war violence killed 2,500 people last year in Mexico. The toll of dead so far this year runs to 1,100, according to Mexican press reports. Most of the dead were feuding narco-traffickers and their murderous enforcers, but the victims also include Mexican government officials, police and prosecutors, soldiers, journalists and innocent civilians caught in crossfires.

Of Mexico's fight against the cartels, John Walters, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, minced no words in an interview in San Diego last week.

"They're fighting for their lives and their futures," Walters said.

As the violence in border areas, notably including the Mexican states of Baja California and Chihuahua, grows, Americans are increasingly put at risk. Dozens of U.S. citizens have been kidnapped, and some murdered, by Mexican criminals in the Tijuana region who are believed linked to drug traffickers.

The U.S. State Department's current travel advisory on Mexico says this about the growing risk to Americans in the border region:

"Violent criminal activity fueled by a war between criminal organizations struggling for control of the lucrative narcotics trade continues along the U.S.-Mexico border ... Foreign visitors and residents, including Americans, have been among the victims of homicides and kidnappings in the border region. Recent Mexican army and police force conflicts with heavily armed narcotics cartels have escalated to levels equivalent to military small-unit combat and have included use of machine guns and fragmentation grenades ... Public shootouts have occurred during daylight hours near shopping areas."

The Department of Homeland Security reports that escalating border violence increasingly threatens U.S. Border Patrol agents. Assaults against Border Patrol officers have nearly tripled since 2001 - from 335 that year to 987 during fiscal year 2007. Four Border Patrol agents and three other border security officers were killed last year. Two Border Patrol agents have been killed to date in 2008.

The Bush administration's response to the growing threat of Mexican drug cartels is the Merida Initiative now pending in Congress, a $1.4 billion, multi-year security-assistance plan to help Mexico and the Central American countries fight drug trafficking and organized crime. President Bush is proposing $500 million in security assistance to Mexico this year, including badly needed drug-detection technology, communications equipment, helicopters and surveillance aircraft, technical advice and training, case-management software for Mexico's creaky criminal justice system and help in establishing witness protection programs.

Critics, among them the usual chorus of Mexico bashers, deride the Merida Initiative as an unwarranted giveaway to a corrupt country not worthy of U.S. assistance. They couldn't be more wrong, more misinformed or uninformed.

Whatever Mexico's problems with drug-money corruption, and they are undeniably immense, the transnational drug cartels can only be defeated by a transnational strategy built around U.S.-Mexico cooperation. Ditto for helping Central America's small states cope with growing drug trafficking through their territory, nearly all of it intended for the lucrative U.S. market, plus such vicious street-gang networks as the El Salvador-based MS-13 organization now lethally present in Los Angeles and other American cities.

A model for dismantling Mexico's drug cartels could well be the law enforcement successes scored in recent years against the Tijuana-based Arellano Félix Organization. Hammered by U.S. and Mexican law enforcement, the AFO is now a shell of the feared, ultra-violent narco cartel it once was. Many of these successes, including the apprehension of numerous AFO kingpins, have been the result of painstakingly patient cooperation between U.S. and Mexican law enforcement.

Only effective cooperation between the United States and Mexico offers any reasonable hope of defeating the drug cartels that threaten both countries. The Merida Initiative, blueprint for a closer, more effective U.S.-Mexico alliance against the sources of 80 percent of all illicit narcotics entering the United States, is a key to victory.

For the United States and Mexico alike, this is a war we cannot afford to lose.

San Diego Union-Tribune
May 25, 2008

This part from the article is what really kicks me in the teeth:

"The risk taken by interpreters in Iraq is considerable and widely documented. Those who work for the Americans are often accused of being apostates and traitors. Their homes are bombed. Death threats are wrapped around blood-soaked bullets and left outside their homes. Their relatives are abducted and killed because of their work. And of the interpreters themselves, hundreds have been killed.

But many work in spite of the repercussions, and that dedication resonates clearly for many American soldiers and marines.

While there is no detailed tracking of the total number of Iraqis who have worked as interpreters, their advocates estimate that more than 20,000 people have filled such roles since 2003. In the last quarter of 2007 alone, 5,490 Iraqis were employed by the multinational force as interpreters, according to the Department of Defense.

Nearly 2,000 interpreters in Iraq and Afghanistan have applied to the State Department for a special immigrant visa, which was begun in 2006 as a last resort for those fearing for their lives. So far 1,735 cases have been approved, though it is unclear how many interpreters have come to the United States.

In its first year the visa program for interpreters was limited to only 50 spots. Since then it has expanded to 500 spots a year.

But the numbers tell only part of the difficulty. The program does little to minimize the visa bureaucracy. The process, complicated for anyone, is especially hard for interpreters.

They are considered refugees, and refugees cannot apply from their native countries, in this case Iraq. But Jordan and Syria have closed their borders to the flood of Iraqi refugees Passports issued by the government of Saddam Hussein are not valid, often making it impossible to cross borders legally.

Among service members who have served in Iraq, there is no dispute that the number of interpreters in danger is far greater than the number of those who have won visas. Many veterans are angry about the bureaucratic hurdles faced by the Iraqis who often came to work with a price on their heads. Many others have for years expressed frustration with the Bush administration for not doing more to help Iraqis who aid American forces, even as other advocates criticize the overall low numbers of Iraqis generally granted visas to the United States.

Gordon D. Johndroe, a White House spokesman, said the government’s hands were initially tied by the lack of federal legislation allowing special visas for interpreters. Now that more visas have been made available, he said, President Bush has directed Secretary of State Condoleeeza Rice and the homeland security secretary, Michael Chertoff, to “make sure the visa process for translators and others moves as quickly as possible.”

What the hell does an immigrant need to do to get a visa to the States? Unbeliveable kids, simply unbeliveable.

Das passt mal wieder ales wie die Faust aufs Auge in dieser Woche: Montag eine Dokumentation im Fernsehen gesehen: "Deutschland vergreist". Darin ging es, wie der Titel schon sagt, über die immer älter werdende Bevölkerung Deutschlands, und um mögliche Gegenmaßnahmen gegen Rentenabstürze etc... Eine Maßnahme, die darin vorgeschlagen wurde, war, mehr Einwanderer "anzulocken", und ihnen das Leben hier noch schöner zu gestalten. Zum BEispiel mit höheren Fördergeldern, oder noch billigeren Mieten.

Als ob es ihnen nicht schon gut genug gehen würde, bekommen alle möglichen Zuschüsse, von denen der Otto-Normalbürger nur träumen kann.

Heute kam dann aber doch noch irgendwie was besseres als dieser Vorschlag: Wir durften uns in einem Seminar über innenpolitische Vorgänge der EU von einem aus Russland eingewandertem Mann, der seit 7 Jahren in Deutschland lebt, anhören, dass er gegen die Europäische Union sei, weil ihm dadurch von billiglohnbeziehenden Polen "sein Arbeitsplatz in diesem Lande" weggenommen werden würde. Auf die Idee, dass er mit seiner Imigration einem Staatsbürger den Job kostet kam er irgendwie nicht, bis es mir dann zufällig rausgerutscht ist, und er kein Gegenargument mehr wusste...

Nicht dass ihr jetzt falsch von mir denkt, ich habe gar nichts gegen Einwanderer, sind auch nur Menschen wie ich und ihr, aber mal ganz ehrlich, wenn ich in die Türkei oder nach Russland gehen würde, dort staatliche Zuschüsse für Wohnung, Heizung, Zeit bis zum Arbeitsbeginn, falls das mal kommt, Essen, etc... fordern würde, und dann noch solche Sätze reißen würde, dann würde man mich warscheinlich ne Woche später tot in irgendeinem Hinterhof finden, oder gar nicht mehr.

You Can't Fool All of the People All of the Time!  ~ Abraham Lincoln

Oh, yeah.....?!

Listen carefully to the last half of this interview with Governor Jesse Ventura...

...at...

http://prisonplanet.com/audio/020408ventura.mp3

...and weep for your country.

MAD-ly yours,
Al Feldstein

Depuis 2002, avec pas moins de 5 lois qui se sont attaquées à la condition des étrangers installés en France, le gouvernement impose une vision utilitariste de l'immigration : quota, liste restrictive des métiers discriminant les travailleurs étrangers,... Il est même question actuellement de créer une juridiction spéciale pour juger les étrangers sans-papier !

Nous dénonçons bien entendu cette politique de répression indigne du pays des Droits de l'Homme.

Ainsi, nous nous joignons

à l'appel du Réseau Education Sans Frontière (RESF-54), de la Ligue des Droits de l'Homme (LDH-Nancy) et de la MJC Pichon à un

Rassemblement devant la préfecture

Mercredi 2 Avril à 14h

Pour une remise de la pétition de soutien à une famille sans papier.

 They also immigrate to white countries as a result of globalzation.

 Here is the article at WSWS about this issue and the problems the British are having.  Clearly Socialists have a different opinion of all of this than the British white people or people such as myself.  Nevertheless the facts of this article speak for themselves.

I have rewritten my article about these issues and have submitted it to Helium and am now waiting to hear if it will be accepted for publication.  My article is about white America and ironically we are having the same problems as the Brits.  I'll publish my article here later and I hope it gets accepted by Helium.

The Guardian has recently begun to follow a special report on environmental issues surrounding recent news. The report sees two of the EU's senior foreign policy officers stating that Europe will be expecting a rise in a new type of immigrants.

It was said that within a decade "there will be millions of environmental migrants with climate change as one of the major drivers of this phenomenon".

In retrospect England has come a long way with regards to sustainability over the last 5 years. It is evident to anyone that global warming awareness has increased hugely within our nation, particularly with regards to reducing our 'Carbon footprint'. The question is however, is is this making a difference?

The report within the guardian states that the countries that have become badly hit by the effects of global warming are demanding that the 'new phenomenon' be recognised as a valid reason for migration.

(It is interesting that the Guardian have branded the phenomenon as new when it clearly is not. However, accepting that climate change exists is new)

The report is a very interesting read however it does seem as though the the British media wrongly referring to global warming as a 'future problem'. If migration is already growing at a rapid rate and the number of natural disasters are swelling, It could be argued that the future has arrived.

The effects of global warming are evidently being ignored more so in the countries that are contributing the most carbon emissions to the atmosphere. Countries such as the United states, Japan, China and Great Britain as these countries have not been affected has harshly as some others and it seems the realisation will not set in until more disasters take place.

Excessive imigration is one of the seven 'threats' caused by climate change that the officials have focused on whilst particularly highlighting the security issues that could arise. The report was presented to the EU sumit on 13 March 2008 with an aim to provide a wake up call to the governments of europe. Officials are aiming to make the european governments realise that initially the effects of global warming will hit countries far from europe, however, eventually europe will begin to feel the impact of the disasters.

[Picture takem from The Guardian - in pictures.]

Book:            The Joy Luck Club
Genre:            Fiction
Author:        Amy Tan
Published:        1989

Review by Bipolarbear

Using witty dialogue like the quote above, Amy Tan created a story mainly about relationships and therapy. The Joy Luck Club tells the story of four women, June Woo, Rose Jordan, Waverly Jong, and Lena St. Clair as they struggle being the daughters of Chinese immigrants. Although their mothers, Suyuan Woo, Anmei Hsu, Lindo Jong and Ying-ying St. Clair, also have stories of their own.
The daughter's stories were boring, to me, because they are the (new) "typical American stories" of divorce, single parents, "identity searching", and doing everything you mother doesn't want you to. For example, June, a daughter, was trying to find "who she is" by resisting and avoiding everything that came her way.  She dropped out of college and got a therapist; and not until her mother dies does she finally, really, ask herself who she is and sees her mother really sacrificed for her. Still, I need to remember The Joy Luck Club was published in 1989.
One thing the book has that the movie doesn't is true emotions, because a lot of the story is narration. In making a movie it is hard to allow an actor to show emotion when narrating. Especially when the movie isn't fantastic, and sometimes even when it is.
Since the movie focused so much on the daughters, the movie viewer doesn't get the experience of really understanding the mother's struggles, or even who the mothers really are. The book, for example, shows how the mothers really react and not just how the daughters think their parents reacted; you don't get a biased opinion of the mothers. Getting ready to read the book I prepared myself for the mothers to be these people who don't get anything in American culture and I was definitely proven wrong many times.

    The Joy Luck Club deserves to be an A-list book because Amy Tan successfully achieved writing a story about immigrants and how they're not just "aliens", but also people who have a story. Ms. Tan presented the characters in such a way that it seemed as if you were having a conversation with the character. For example, as soon as you get confused, whatever question you had, it is answered. It was as if Ms. Tan guided you down the exact path she wanted you to go down, and had you ask the questions she wanted to answer.
Ms. Tan also surprised me, at times, with some "out of character" actions the characters make. For example, one of the daughters, Lena St. Clair, is unhappily married to Harold, who is not interested in sharing but "balancing" everything. When she finally, surprisingly, tells her mom, her mother, to the reader's and Lena's surprise, says, "Then why don't you stop it". These out of character actions really made the book what it was because when you finally think you have a character figured out, they surprise you.
Maybe I dove into The Joy Luck Club and their characters knowing too much, since I had recently seen the movie version. Whatever the reason it all boils down to the simple fact that I could read The Joy Luck Club and toss it aside in just a few minutes after picking it up. It wasn't a "page turner" and deserves, in my opinion, the grade of 8/10.

Es una realidad, los hispanos seamos legales, ciudadanos o ilegales nos hemos visto afectados por la política antimigratoria que existe actualmente en los Estados Unidos. 

Todos estamos siendo afectados por este ambiente de intolerancia; los dueños de taquerías y  mercados ya no tienen clientes y las compañías propiedad de hispanos tienen que probar que no son indocumentados o que no tienen contratados a indocumentados.

En algunas ciudades los hispanos estamos desapareciendo y los que no no se han ido, pero  si ¨parecen hispanos¨ viven preocupados si van a ser detenidos por la polícia local que ahora tiene autoridad del ICE para detener a "indocumentados".

Yo soy ciudadana de los Estados Unidos y hace poco una amiga me preguntó que si yo cargaba siempre mi pasaporte americano en caso que me detuviera la policía, yo le respondí que estaba orgullosa de parecer hispana, pero que siempre llevaba conmigo las palabras que dije cuando hice mi juramento ante la bandera y que estoy segura que vivo en una nación "with liberty and justice for all¨ . 

Me gustaría compartir  un artículo en AOL Latino que habla de este títulado Leyes contra indocumentados afectan a todos los hispanos en los Estados Unidos 

El Sheriff Jones del Condado de Butler - perteneciente al área metropolitana de Cincinnati - recientemente envió a ocho de sus agentes para ser entrenados por ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) y ahora dichos agentes tienen autoridad para detener indocumentados.

Esto ha traído bastante inquietud a los hispanos que residen en ciudades pertenecientes al Condado de Butler, como Fairfield, West Chester y Hamilton, porque se ha sabido de hispanos que han sido detenidos injustificadamente y la comunidad vive atemorizada por rumores que los agentes del Sheriff Jones empiecen a tocar las puertas de sus hogares buscando indocumentados.  

En vez de tener una comunidad atemorizada e informada a través de rumores, tal vez sería mejor que las autoridades locales informaran mejor sobre sus planes para combatir la imigración ilegal y así la comunidad hispana podría conocer sus derechos y saber que hacer en caso de ser detenidos injustificadamente o si les tocan sus puertas.

La realidad es que esta mano dura se ha extendido a todos los Estados Unidos y es por eso que los invito a leer un artículo de La Opinion Digital títulado Proyectos migratorios proliferan por todo EU


Legislaturas de diversos estados impulsan agendas anti-inmigrantes

Legisladores estatales en todo el país están presentando cientos de proyectos de ley este año que tienen como objetivo frenar la inmigración indocumentada. Sin embargo, los expertos dicen que el costo y la oposición pública impedirán que muchos de esos planes se conviertan en leyes.


En al menos ocho estados, los legisladores están patrocinando leyes similares a la de Oklahoma, que en mayo pasado aprobó la ley antiinmigrante más integral del país.

Dicha ley limita el acceso de los inmigrantes indocumentados a las licencias de conducir y otros documentos de identificación; restringe los beneficios públicos; impone castigos a los empleadores que los contratan, además de aumentar los vínculos entre la policía local y las autoridades federales de inmigración.

Los proyectos de ley forman parte de las más de 350 propuestas relacionadas con la inmigración, presentadas en los cuerpos legislativos estatales en los primeros dos meses de este año, según un conteo de The Associated Press. leer más

 There are such movements in almost every country in the world.  What will happen to the United States when minorities become large and can challenge the White Anglo Saxon Protestants in our own country?  We should be thinking about this.

In Great Britian the Muslims are saying it is a matter of WHEN not IF they make Great Britian Islamic.  This was reported on CNN by Christine Amanpour.

The United Nations perdicts that by 2050 the United States will be overwhelmed with immigrants from Africa, Asia and the Middle East.  We must do something to change globalization and our immigration policies.

AKA: Leaps and Bounds - Runtime: 88 Minutes - Country: Sweden / Norway / Germany

This film is about a refugee family, being terrorized in their home country Iraq; somewhere the war never comes to an end. And that is certainly an up-to-date and realistic topic, which could offer a certain variety concerning a cinematic realization. The main focus is laid on the two brothers Azad (Ali Abdulsalam) and Tigrit (Ronas Gemici), who survived a bomb attack while playing on some countryside hills. Their parents can only consider one resolution: they have to bring their kids out of the country, that they finally get the chance to live a more fortunate life.

Azad and Tigris are practising their ability of high jumping...

And that is just where the whole story begins; seeming to be a very promising, interesting and serious one. The destination of the two brothers is set up to be germany, but they finally get stuck up in Stockholm after they had been betrayed and loosed their tickets. But gladly they can find shelter, there is a compatriot family which takes care. But for how long... since this cannot be the final solution - the boys want to be reunited with their family - anywhere, but certainly not home, where the war is still going on.

A good intention - that is the only thing I can accredit this film. It just looses itself within the whole developing of the story; introducing many different (and difficult) topics like: war-technical traumatas, migration, integration, asylum policy, a difficult sports career - and so on. What maybe was intended as a authentic and moving drama; finally turned out to be a rather unrealistic and unsubstantial fairytale. With a lot of annoying cliches, of course. The images we get from the Kurds and Swedes are way too reduced, they simply do not correspond to reality; just to give you one example here. The director just wanted way to much, which results in the fact that he looses himself between the topics, only slightly dealing with the interesting and serious aspects.

Can philosophy really help here... ?

The only thing which I really liked about this film: the characterization of the two brothers, which was certainly moving at least. Azad has to take care of his older brother after he got speechless - one result of the bomb attack. So they are sticking up together even more, trying to figure out a reasonable solution to all of their problems, always looking out for each other. Mainly focusing on Azad's ability of high jumping, which should lead to the desired success, or let us call it a "legitimation" to have a chance for a better life in the future...

But that is just about it. For example, the character of the philosophical hot-dog selling salesman (Peter Stormare) who gives Azad some whise words of advice, seemed to be misplaced somehow. At least I could not take this role for serious. Such as the rest of the film, which seemed way to belittled and badly reduced, mainly focusing on Azad's abilities as a high-jumper; while totally fading out all serious problems. But that is maybe justified by the overall title Hoppet - which basically means "jump". Being very cautiously: concerning this film I sometimes felt that the term "jumping" (over all barriers in life) could simply be equaled with "running away" - which is obviously not a solution.

Azad has to the care for his older brother who remains silent...

Warning, serious spoilers !

Just take a look at the end of the film. Azad finally made it to germany, taking part in a major sports competition. After they convinced a local customs officer not to look into a certain box where his brother was hidden, by the way... please. Everything works, if you are only believing in it ? I would certainly agree, but not concerning this difficult and serious topic. Then we see Azad going for his final jump... which can not be fulfilled without his parents showing up, somehow out of the blue - just to underline the already artificially appearing happy end ? There is even more: the manuscript of the book the father wrote to finally get a legitimation to leave his country; formerly entrusted to his sons - is now flattering in the wind. He now is actually there (we do not know how they made it), so who cares ?

At least I did. Not all things are to be handled so flippant, especially in a children's film which tries to present something of importance. In my opinion: the story of a torn apart family who becomes reunited, mainly because of their constant bravery and courage. But this realization just can not be taken seriously. Good intentions, yes... maybe even a certain relation concerning school demonstrations, since it can initiate some important discussions. But the film considered as what is is... unrealistic, exaggerated, rather whitewashing - I did not really like it. 3.4/10.

The Trailer - The DVD

"percentage wise they actually commit less crimes than people in America legally".

Will someone please let Geraldo know that the percentage of ILLEGAL aliens that are committing crimes is and will always be 100%.

It's title is fallacious all together. I don't fear Hispanics. It's that whole total disregard for our laws and the burdens that come with ILLEGALS that bothers me. Another hollow attempt to classify people that are against ILLEGALS as racists.

I'm writing my own, it's a real page turner.

And for the record if you want to read a great book published last year, about the biggest problem with people crossing our borders illegally click here.

My first proposal is to institute involuntary organ donation. When we catch you the first time we will take DNA and tissue samples. Then you go back across the border. The next time, we DNA test you again, and then you give up a part. It may be a lung lobe, it could be a kidney. It could even be your heart. It all depends on what the needs of the citizens of this country are. If we have a vet that needs a new leg, you just ran your ass here so yours must be in good shape, you are going to make a donation to the cause.

Then you go back. If you come across again, back to the lab and out comes another part. If you make it thru that surgery and back across the border, we get one more piece and you are a citizen. You have now given enough of yourself to be a US Citizen.

My second plan is when you come across, if you are of age, you get drafted into the military. After a 6 year enlistment in a combat zone you and your immediate family (who have been working in the migrant farms under the watchful eye of new US Citizens fresh from Iraq) are all now citizens. If you get killed, they all go to Mexico City where she can find a new daddy for the kids and give it another try. It boosts the numbers in the military and will give your family a real appreciation of what it means to give in order to be an American.

Finally, we need to close the border immediately and open classes on how to be border guards. Then we go down to the home depot grab up all the able bodied men and train them as border guards. They get paid $4 an hour and a bounty on every illegal they catch trying to come across. If they get caught helping illegals come across, they get sent home and that new illegal gets trained to take his place. Any illegal that makes it across is encouraged to report to the nearest border patrol station and dime out the guard he got past. If he can show management where he came across, that guard is back home and the new guy takes his place. After a two year stint on the border, they become citizens and their immediate family can come over.

Maybe a plan that somehow incorporates a bit of all three plans would provide the most flexibility and prove to be more effective.