UK : Time to get off the floor, Prime Minister.

www.bamabyedwardlane.com

by barnabyla

July 25, 2008

Labour’s defeat in the Glasgow by-election represents – must represent – the low point of Gordon Brown’s Premiership, if we are to have any hope of retaining office at the next general election.

If our poll ratings continue to sink, though, it will not be the fault of public ignorance; of an assumption that change will bring better times. Rather, it will be our own fault.

Since the Crewe and Nantwich by-election, the party has been engulfed by a cloud of pessimism. ‘Gordon is finished’, they said. ‘The election is lost’, they wailed. Yet now is the time for vision, for a newly invigorated Labour party to brush aside the failures of the past. In order to regain our position in the polls, the only possible course of action is to once again provide people with hope.

It is time to unveil a raft of policies that truly benefit the working man and woman, that truly reward hard-working families, and which truly tackle the issues that people care about: climate change, child poverty, education reform, the NHS. Our mood must be radical, our resolve unwavering, and our leadership strong.

In Gordon Brown we have one of the finest fiscal minds of the past century, a true Labour politician with the ability and desire to make our party great again; because greatness is achieved by actions.

It is time to cast off the shackles of the post-Blair slump, and silence the panicking voices of regime change at the top of the party. Only if we begin to listen, and act swiftly and decisively to win back our core voters, can we turn the tide against David Cameron.

Sheffield : I was surprised and disappointed….

The star / UK

29/07/08

I WAS surprised and disappointed to see the Sheffield Central Labour Candidate attack on our local police force (July 24). In his attack he conveniently forgot to mention a key fact, that the only reason why police are having to reduce their spending and reduce numbers is because of instructions from his own Government. As South Yorkshire Police themselves point out, the Labour Government are forcing police to reduce spending by 9.3 per cent over three years.

This equates to roughly a £21m Labour cut. So rather than launching a hypocritical attack on the local police, he should talk to his own leader, Gordon brown, who is the cuts in sheffield

The Lib Dem Sheffield Council recognise that local people want to see more uniformed people on the street keeping them safe. But unlike Labour, we are putting our money where our mouths are and have invested nearly half a million pounds in employing an extra 15 Police Community Support Officers across the city.

I would urge the Labour candidate to be honest. The next thing you know he will be campaigning to save local post offices set to close because of his Labour Governmen

US : time bomb….

America’s house price time bomb

By Michael Robinson
BBC World Service

28/07/08

With the American housing market in its worst crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s, President Bush is expected to sign into law a massive new government intervention designed to slow the slide.

Banks in the US could end up owning ever more houses

The intervention would come as a little known quirk of US law threatens to drive down house prices even faster.

Faced with seemingly never-ending falls in the value of their properties, some American home-owners are taking radical action; they are choosing to walk away from homes and their mortgages.

In May 2006, at the height of the housing boom, Karen Trainer bought a $500,000 apartment in California – with money borrowed from her bank.

By this year, Karen still owed $500,000 on her mortgage, but her apartment was worth $200,000 less.

So she was deep in negative equity and, to make matters worse, the interest rate on her loan was about to increase.

“I thought ‘this is crazy’,” Ms Trainer says. “It just does not make financial sense.”

Take the hit

Is the bank going to pay for my retirement because I was a good girl and paid my mortgage Karen Trainer City of debt shows US housing woe

As a successful professional, Karen could comfortably have managed the higher mortgage payments her bank demanded.

Instead, she decided to stop her mortgage payments altogether and let her bank repossess her apartment.

Her credit record will be badly damaged by the decision, but Ms Trainer expects this to recover soon.

“Generally speaking, within 5 years you are about back where you were, so my husband and I decided we’ll take the hit and live with it.”

Over to the bank

In California and much of the rest of America, there is a powerful incentive for homeowners such as Ms Trainer to walk away from their mortgage obligations.

The dangers are extraordinary Professor Susan Wachter, Wharton School of Business US home foreclosures on the rise

Though banks can repossess and sell the homes of borrowers who stop paying their mortgages, under a legal quirk originating in the Great Depression of the 1930s, banks cannot easily pursue borrowers for any balance outstanding on the main mortgage on their homes.

Consequently, by walking away from her apartment, Ms Trainer has also walked away from the $200,000 loss on her property.

Her bank gets stuck with that.

Unthinkable option

Traditionally in America there is a social stigma attached to those who default on their debts, which should be a deterrent to walking away from your home.

The housing market has become a headache for President Bush

But according to Susan Wachter, professor of real estate and finance at Wharton School of Business, in the depth of this crisis the social attitudes to such actions are changing.

“This is the kind of conversation that’s going on at cocktail parties, at swimming pools,” Professor Wachter says. “And suddenly this option which was truly unthinkable in the past becomes thinkable.”

Worrying development

Ms Trainer says she feels no moral obligation to go on paying a loan on a property that is going to go on losing her money. She says her friends support her decision.

It’s a business decision for their family that the smartest thing they can do is walk away from their home Kevin Morgan, estate agent

“I think people are taking a more cold-hearted look at it,” she says.

“Is the bank going to pay for my retirement because I was a good girl and paid my mortgage, even though legally I didn’t have to?”

Professor Wachter believes that, to date, most people have had their homes repossessed because they could not manage the repayments.

The trend of people now positively choosing to walk away because it makes financial sense to do so is a worrying new development.

“The dangers are extraordinary,” Professor Wachter says.

“If all that is needed is that the house value is less than the mortgage value, there is a large number of homeowners in the United States who are in that situation”.

No renegotiation

In the city of Stockton – the foreclosure, or repossession, capital of the US for 2007 – estate agent Kevin Morgan sells repossessed houses on behalf of the banks that now own them.

This is becoming a tsunami of voluntary defaults Professor Nouriel Roubini, New York University

According to him, walking away has become commonplace.

“I would say it’s probably 70% of the volume of our foreclosures right now,” he says.

“It’s a business decision for their family that the smartest thing they can do is walk away from their home.”

As a sign of the changing times, some 60% of borrowers do not even bother to contact their banks to attempt a renegotiation of their loan, Mr Moran explains.

“They stop paying and they stop talking,” he says. “They just plain walk away.”

Total disaster

It is impossible to know for sure how many of the people who are now walking away from their homes could have gone on paying their mortgages.

But Professor Nouriel Roubini of New York University, one of the first economists to warn of the dangers of the American house price boom, believes the number of people positively choosing to walk away is growing rapidly.

“This is becoming a tsunami of voluntary defaults,” Professor Roubini says.

“The losses for the financial system from people walking away could be of the order of one trillion dollars when the entire capital of the US banking system is only $1.3 trillion.

“You could have most of the US banking system wiped out, so this is a total disaster.”

Which is why it is not just US policymakers who are hoping America’s new, multi-billion dollar initiative to stabilise the housing market will succeed in its aims and thus make walking away less attractive.

Because if it fails, the economic fallout could be felt far beyond America’s shores.

Michael Robinson’s two-part series “The Trouble with Money” is broadcast on 30 July and 6 August on BBC World Service. You can hear the programmes online by going to:

the BBC World Service documentaries page

Eritreans look very similar to Somalis….

Somalia

Eritrea

Mistaken Identity?

By Citizen Tito

29/07/08

”Haaw meeeny Miinuuts remayning maay friend”,asked Feliks. I knew it was a Sunday and we were working the whole of Saturday night plus some few hours over time but Feliks was never bothered about time before.I looked at the Meter and boy,we were not even near our mark.

”Why are u so worked out,relax,we only got 45 minutes left and after that we’ll go to Oslo City and the rest,i don’t care,heck u can even go back to Poland if u want to”,I replied.

”I kaam with no kaar today.It is Sunday and train is two hours one train.I go call maay galfriend.Maybe she kaam take me”,He replied.

Aha,i thought.So the guy is in for it today but he was not alone.I was in for it with him too since that would mean i’ll have to walk for 15 minutes to reach the subway and then perhaps take a buss from the city center to my apartment and i didn’t like that.It was insanely raining and i was wearing a shirt and that was it.It wasn’t fair and every time i kinda plan for the bad that is to come,nothing wicked happens and now here i was being in a wicked moment.

Forty five minutes ended more quickly than i have initially thought.I wanted 15 minutes of it to chit chat around and drink 2 cups of Choco milk and 2 Cups of Cappuccino. Oy me and that machine are good pals but that was not to be.Not today at least!

I hit the shower ,slid my card in to that darn peeping machine and off i was,walking through the rain.

”when was the last time i had a rainy walk”?,I asked myself.

”Gee,it must have been a while”,I answered myself and i stopped,looked around and then looked ahead,put my hands in my pockets and slowly started walking towards the Underground.

Ten minutes later,i was at the underground.I entered,took the stairs and down i went. I headed for the timetable and just next to it stood an old Somali man who was in his late Sixties,a middle aged woman who was wearing a colorful hijab and a young woman who was decently covered but was wearing shades whilst standing there.This was strange for there was no sun,it is raining outside and we were in a subway.So i started having ideas but i never paid any attention to my lousy ideas.I just looked at the time table while enjoying the Catar that was coming off from the middle aged woman.I was standing there for like 7 minutes and by this time,my senses should have adjusted to it.But i wasn’t getting adjusted and if any, just when i thought that my senses finally registered and that i was adjusted, a new scent different from the previous one came along.”Gosh what did she use”,i silently murmured and she wasn’t even standing that much near to me.She was at least Four steps away from me.I think she mixed at least Five bottles of catar and this had to be a classic Catar coz it was wonderful.She just was a woman who knew her way around her catars and thats awesome,i thought.

Standing there for ten minutes was like standing there for some good two hours.The boredom was getting to me so i glanced at their direction and the Middle aged woman was staring at me. Maybe she was staring at my beard,i wasn’t bothered but i noticed a bench that was on their other side which was unoccupied,so i started walking towards them.I didn’t greet them though i was politely smiling while just looking down.

I sat and i took out my old and tired Cell phone and i started playing.I couldn’t understand and wondered why three adults who were probably bored couldn’t have a conversation.Everything was dead silent but little did i know of what was to come!

”Cabdiyow yarka ma soomali baa”,asked the Middle aged woman while she was almost patting the old man’s shoulder.

I didn’t look up and i didn’t need to look.I had a good left view from my left eye’s right corner.I stopped playing so as to pay more attention but i went on pretending to be playing.

”Maya ma aha Somali.Dhiig Eritrean ayuu leeyahay.Maweeydiya”,he replied.I could see the woman looking at my direction from my left eyes corner.

”Midhaa waa Eritrean Muslim ah,garkiisa dheer fiiri”,she said.

I almost laughed.The way she said it was funny but to further spice it up for her,i called a Sijui friend for a minute and i spoke in Swahili but with a very low voice.I thought that this would in a way help the woman to finely settle with the thought.

”Maryaney adigaa afka wadanka yaqaan ee bal weeydi”,murmured the old man again and this time he was Curious.

”Cabdiyoow adigaa yaqaan af ingiris ee adiga lahadal’’she persuasively replied.

The old man took a step ,stood over me and said;

”Greetings my brother”.

”Ow Greetings to u too”,i replied.I stood up and shook his hand.

”I and my family were just talking so forgive us,its boowring therefore that is what boowred pple do.

”Oh no problemo,i was also bored and hence why i am playing with cell phone”,i replied.

”Are u from Rwanda”?,I asked him.I wanted to help him with the setting and  see his reaction.When the woman heard that,she and the girl joined us.I liked their curiosity.

”Noo we are from Somalia but Rwanda pple look very much like us too.some of them Oof koors”,he replied.

How strange i thought. I always knew Somalis claimed Tutsis to be originally from Somalia and i also knew that i got asked if i was a Tutsi before.Even an Eritrean woman once asked me if i was an Eritrean.She just spoke Tigrinya and by the time she realized i wasn’t one of their own ,it was too late.I even remember her name,Timnid but the old man and his Family had something the previous pple didn’t have. They were just extremely funny.His accent,the women’s responses and the whole setting was just hilariously funny and even more,i was enjoying myself

”Maxuu yiri”,exclaimed the woman.

”Sug wax yar Maryaney.Wiilka inaanu Rawandiis nahay ayuu na weeydiyey”.

”Yaah”?,she replied.

”Maxuu isla Indho tiraya inaa Soomaali nahay wuuba noo jeedaye”,she asked and the old man wanting to interrogate me further,shushed her.

”Rawandiiska hooyo weey noo egyihin”,replied the girl to her mother.

”Where are u from”? Asked me the old man.

”I am from Kigali”,I replied.

The old man was in a state of disbelief and he looked at the woman and the girl and they both had that curiosity look.

”Maryaney ninka asagaaba Rawandiis ah”,he told them.

”Alla Rawandiiska waa dad qurxoon ileen”.At this point,i really couldn’t hold myself,i bursted in to a laughter.

Before i could really tell them anything,while still laughing and they laughing too,my Train came and i got in.It was hilariously funny but what still puzzles me is,i know why i was laughing but why were they laughing?All the same,i really did enjoy it,it was just crazily funny.

What puzzles me again is,how do Eritreans look and how can Somalis and Eritreans be differentiated? I never thought about it before but now i guess i’ll have to closely observe.When i came home,i told my friends about the story and one of them said ”Awalba Xabash baad eheed”.

Is there any of u who had a similar funny experience too?

Day of action : refugees and asylum seekers are suffering in British…

British government implicated in abuse of refugees and

asylum seekers

World Socialist Web Site

By Marcus Morgan
29 July 2008

The British government has been implicated in the abuse of refugees and asylum seekers, according to a report published this month by a group of human rights campaigners and medical legal experts.

The report, Outsourcing Abuse: the use and misuse of state-sanctioned force during the detention and removal of asylum seekers, contains a detailed dossier outlining cases of systematic physical and verbal abuse against refugees and immigrants who face deportation to their country of origin. Most of the alleged assaults took place at the hands of security guards during transit between detention centres, during deportations to airports, or removal from places of residence.

Outsourcing Abuse was a response to a demand by the Home Office to corroborate an earlier dossier, which hit the headlines after the Independent published details in October 2007. Home Office ministers and officials dismissed the claims of abuse as unfounded, saying that many of the alleged victims had not come forward with further information to prove their mistreatment.

The new report contains nearly 300 cases of alleged assault, which took place between January 2004 and June 2008, and draws on a wide range of sources including solicitors, journalists, airline passengers, hospital staff and doctors. Many refugees and asylum seekers were also prepared to recount their ordeals, despite fears of retribution from the Home Office or the private security companies it employs to detain and deport them.

The report states that “Many additional allegations of assault have been reported to us that we simply have not had the resources to consider and therefore have not been included in the dossier. Because of this, coupled with the fact that other victims are fearful of coming forward, we feel our dossier is just the tip of the iceberg.”

Outsourcing Abuse paints a picture where appalling physical and verbal abuse is condoned and accepted, if not actively encouraged. People are routinely kicked and punched, or otherwise injured by excessive use of force, and many are subjected to racist verbal abuse.

Some victims allege they were given injections to sedate them or forced to take pills. Others tell how they were denied access to emergency hospital facilities after sustaining injuries.

Typical of the 48 case studies contained in the dossier are:

* A 19-year-old Congolese man who claims that in 2007 he was thrown to the ground and kicked in the face, whilst being transferred to a segregation unit. An independent doctor advised care for head injury and noted abrasions to the forehead, bruising and swelling around the face.

* A Malawian man in the same year who alleges that he was pinned to the floor by Detention Custody Officers (DCOs) and “kicked all over his body, including his head”, at Dungavel detention centre.

* A Sudanese woman whose escorts repeatedly jabbed her in the eye and assaulted her after the pilot refused to fly.

* An Armenian man was left with a punctured lung after escorts stamped on him in the back of a van and then left in an immigration holding bay without medical support for hours.

* A Cameroonian man who claims he was detained without sufficient food or water and denied medication for treatment of hepatitis C. When, because of his illness, he refused to co-operate with efforts to move him on board a Kenya Airways flight for deportation he said, “They started beating me, kicking me all over. They put me on the floor and continued to kick me everywhere. I was agonising of pain. I thought that they will kill me.”

The report comments that “Usually removals are stopped when the pilot refuses to proceed, which may be because the detainee is screaming and / or because there is a physical struggle with escort staff occurring and the pilot considers it will be unsafe to fly.”

A total of 78 charter flights were arranged between February 2006 and March 2007, 60 of which were flights to Eastern Europe and 14 to Afghanistan. It is not known how many airlines are contracted out by the government for deportees, or what the budget is for this policy, though it is likely to be in the millions.

Many of those affected by this process are small children and babies, who may be separated from their parents for days or weeks. John Wilkes, chief executive of the Scottish Refugee Council, said, “The UK government has signed up to protect the rights of children under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, but shamefully except for children in the asylum and immigration system.”

Many refugees and asylum seekers are suffering mental health problems as a result of the abuse they are subjected to. The report reveals that 85 percent have chronic depressive symptoms and 65 percent contemplate suicide. In 2007 there were 1,517 immigration detainees on “suicide-watch”.

Many of the abused immigrants were of uncertain legal status when they were detained or deported. In some cases the state “pre-empted” the legal process altogether by intervening before they had access to legal representation—clearly breaching the Geneva Conventions and International law.

The situation is so bad that the former Chief Inspector of Prisons, David Ramsbotham was forced to caution the government in the introduction to Outsourcing Abuse.

He states, “Of course there will always be cases that are less than genuine, and they must be dealt with accordingly. But every case must be investigated and, in line with the law of the land, individuals regarded as innocent until proved guilty. That applies to those whose cases are outlined in this dossier. If the Home Office, Ministers and officials alike, is sensible it will pay due attention to the dossier, which is not written in an emotive way, but contains constructive advice that should not simply be rejected.”

Ramsbotham’s exceedingly modest appeal is likely to fall on deaf ears.

Requests for further information under the Freedom of Information Act regarding forced removals on charter flights, as well as the government’s contract with the private security firms, have been rejected by the Home Office on the grounds of “commercial secrecy”. The same secrecy surrounds the detention centres used to hold asylum-seekers pending the outcome of their application. Seven out of 10 in the UK are managed by private companies on behalf of the Home Office.

Labour’s immigration minister, Liam Byrne, boasted in May, “We now remove an immigration offender every eight minutes—but my target is to remove more, and remove them faster.”

The government announced in August 2007 that it intended to “fast-track” the deportation procedure and in May this year announced a 60 percent increase in the number of detentions. Despite a 72 percent fall in asylum applications between 2002 and 2007, there has been a 106 percent increase in the number of applicants detained.

In Europe, in the name of combating “illegal immigration”, a Return Directive is being set up across the continent to send undocumented workers to neighbouring countries without any administrative formalities. This legislation will allow states to hold immigrants for up to 18-months and impose a five-year ban on their return to the EU. According to a representative of the European Association for the Defence of Human Rights, the Directive will establish detention as a “norm”.

The website Inter-Movement Committee for Evacuees commented on the new directive, “Retention has been slipping little by little into the logic of internment, transforming these centres into camps.”

See Also:
Britain: Demonstrators oppose deportation of refugee activist Amdani Juma
[4 June 2008]
Britain: Labour whips up anti-immigrant prejudice
[26 April 2007]

Eritrean Community Life in Canada..

From: The Encyclopedia of Canada’s Peoples

28/07/08

Eritrean immigrants to Canada generally experience economic insecurity. Their education and job skills are seldom recognized by Canadian institutions and employers, and they do not have the Canadian experience that most employers require. Thus, even those with high levels of education and professional skills generally have to accept work in lower-level jobs, for example, as parking-lot attendants and taxi drivers. Since the early 1990s, however, a few Eritreans have managed to improve their economic status by starting their own businesses, such as small corner stores, printing offices, dry-cleaning establishments, and restaurants. Unemployment is higher among Eritrean women.

Eritrean immigrants turn to members of their own community for support and social contact. They have established community centres across Canada, and through them they share information on issues such as resettlement, housing, employment, and education. The centres also provide a convenient place to meet newcomers, read newspapers written in Eritrean languages, and engage in political discussions; they offer classes in English and heritage-language programs; and they present seminars, conferences, and workshops of interest to the Eritrean community. Some of the topics discussed include employment issues, education, and women’s and refugee issues.

The strong tie of Eritreans to their liberation movements has increased their desire to return to the homeland, and, perhaps, explains why Eritreans have tended to remain an isolated group in Canada. However, it is interesting to note that, within the last ten years, Eritreans in Canada have established a number of well-organized community groups, such as the Eritrean Women’s Association in Canada, the Eritrean Relief and Rehabilitation Centre, the Eritrean Students Association, the Eritrean Workers Union, and the Eritrean Professional Association. The existence of these and other, similar organizations located in Toronto, Ottawa, Winnipeg, and other major Canadian cities suggests that Eritreans are attempting to improve their position in Canada and compete more effectively in the broader Canadian community.

Performances of traditional Eritrean music, dance, and poetry are presented in Canada, generally at the Eritrean community centres. A number of young Eritrean musicians have become financially self-sufficient by playing traditional music in various Eritrean and Ethiopian restaurants, cafés, and nightclubs in Toronto. They also perform during weddings, holidays, and fund-raising events. The other important area that unites Eritreans in Canada is athletics and team sports. The single most popular sport among Eritreans is soccer (or football, as they call it). A large number of teams compete in local tournaments, and many Eritrean Canadians enjoy this outdoor sport as participants or as spectators during the summer