immigration

a few days ago i had a conversation with a friend about immigration.
i think there should be no immigration....

because...
i think there should be no border control.
lets take this idea of a global village a little further.

political borders are a good idea
-to define a sovereignty,
-to define a jurisdiction for the law,
-to define a place of identity,
-to define an area of service.
but that's it....

people should be allowed to come and go as they please.
people should be able to apply for citizenship.
and if they are granted citizenship then they get to participate in democratic control,

but regardless of them being citizens or not, if they choose to work within these borders then they have to pay taxes. employers can give them a pay check and if they don't have a social security number then instead of the usual payrol taxes that are cut for us citizens they would have their own tax which is cut from their paycheck. lets call this tax, a guest worker tax or something. maybe like 2.5 percent or so. half of which will go for us to maintain and protect this political entity and into a defence department fund to maintain military bases on US soil for self defence. and the other half would go into a trust fund that provides services to sick and poor guest workers who choose to live here but are unable to support themselves. like a network of government run shelters with clinics and soup kitchens and social workers.

if they choose to buy property in a city, they would still have to pay property taxes like everyone, to support the local government services. and utility bills like everyone, to pay for the infrastructure. and sales taxes like everyone, to support all sorts of things.

but until they apply for citizenship they don't get to vote for changes to the system.
but if they choose to enter our economic and our social environment they should be free to do so, we will be nothing but better for it.

what about those who want to harm us? what about security? I ask you, can we ever really be secure from those who want to harm us? if they want to do it badly enough they will ALWAYS find a way. This does not mean that we don't have a well funded and able military to defend us from an invading army, or that we don't fund an able military that can take another territory and make it a part of our nation if our elected representatives vote on it. But it does mean that we must control our behavior and be responsible for the actions we take around the world that make more enemies who will want to do us harm.

i wish we would deal with this situation realistically. we need immigrants. and security is an illusion. the only real way to be secure is to not feul hatred against us by wielding our power arrogantly.

only loneliness

at this moment i am alone in my room...

In the past I was in the company of many friends,
and i enjoyed it.
but occasionally...
the stress of a social life
and its responsibilities took its toll,

and there was a longing for solitude.
a break to be alone and contemplate,
a time of rest so that i can find that peaceful center within,
before returning to a social environment.

at this moment i am alone in my room.
For the past year i have been in the company of my wife,
and i enjoyed it.
but occasionally...
the stress of married life
and its responsibilities takes its toll,

and one would expect a longing for solitude.
i get a moment to be alone in my room...
...but there is no rest.
...and there is no peace.
...only loneliness.

i long for the company of my wife.
i have fallen in love with her.
i guess solitude is not for lovers.
she is my peaceful center within.

useless rebellion

there is news today of a renewed cycle of violence in palestine. israel bombed gaza in what it claims is retaliation to attacks and now hamas says that it will resume suicide bombings in israel. i don't understand the strategy of suicide bombings against civilians. i understand suicide missions against a military target, like a check post or guard tower or patrol or a base. that seems reasonable to me for a fight between unequals. but why civilians?

let me think this through out loud:

one national military vs. another national military
one offensive vs. one defensive
one winner and one loser
and after the peace talks
there is a new border

what should the losing national military do?
1-organize and fight a second round.
a chance for Egypt and Jordan to regain their territory

2-sign a peace deal and move on to other issues.
they have understood that they were the losers
and they are not strong enough to go head to head and win.
so they have sighed peace agreements.

what should the inhabitants of the defeated territory do?
how do you go from being powerless to having some power?

1-realize that they are residents of another country now.
they are lucky this is not the middle ages where they would have been sold into slavery, they have to realize that things will not be the same, there is a new master of the land now, a new king who has taken their land by force and they were not able to stop in war. they would have been begging for mercy and if granted would have tried to adapt to and take advantage of the new situation. but lucky for them, in our time, humanity has determined that there is something called human rights, and they can organize and try to establish some rights for themselves and try to become equal citizens of this new country that they belong to, become citizens of israel since they longer live in jordan(west bank) or egypt(gaza).

2-organize a rebellion against the new country and gain independence.
to force the new power out of the land that it conquered.
this is difficult if the new power's desire to retain the land is as strong as the inhabitants desire to expel them. israel's imperial agenda has a strong historical and religious component. making it quite monster to defeat.

How do you force an invader out?
1-organize, strategize, recruit fighters, train.
its not difficult if the new power is unjust, the people will find the rebellion and join it. but if it gives them rights, security, and opportunity for success, then a strong recruitment effort is needed, maybe even brainwashing to convince the recruits that things are not as good as they seem. but israel has not been a just conqueror, its every action in the conquered land breed new rebels.

2-take out its physical methods of control.
from within the conquered land and outside. maybe attack occupation forces, maybe attack check points, maybe attack supply chains. We have violent examples from the american revolution that show how to drive out an imperial power. We also have non-violent examples from the Indian revolution that demonstrate that we can disrupt control by not cooperating.

3-demoralize the enemy.
i think this is what the palestinians think suicide bombings will achieve. but its not the occupation military they wish to demoralize, its the citizens of the conquering nation. maybe it comes from a belief that the citizens are the source of strength for the enemy.

4-create an alternate government before Independence.
gain the support of the inhabitants and legitamacy to rule
its natural that there will be competing forces internally, and its natural that they will want to fight for control of the alternate government amongst themselves. but its a shame that they don't realized that their struggle for independence is not yet over.

so anyways i think they have a bad strategy to demoralize the enemy, it keeps making the enemy angry and fuels a desire for them to not only NOT give them independence, but to obliterate them in anger. imagine if the world wasn't watching.