Nicaragua, probably the poorest country after Haiti and Cuba in Latin America has established a Space Ministry, a grandiose piece of nonsense you can be sure will produce no rockets.
One would think its left wing dictator Daniel Ortega, the darling of the Western left when he first emerged back in the 1970s, might better serve his people by establishing a Ministry of Baking to provide his dirt-poor subjects their daily bread.
Currently Nicaragua’s main export is its people, they fleeing in their thousands from the country’s pervading Police brutality for neighbouring Costa Rica.
In the late 1990s I had an amusing encounter with their thuggish police when there with Paul Holmes. We were lost in Managua, surely the most boring capital city in the world, trying to find our hotel, when we were stopped by a Police road block.
They tried to shake us down and copped an earful from me. A shouting standoff ensued then over swaggered their dark-glassed chief who spoke English.
I launched into him about the extraordinary ugliness of his personnel who were loitering sullenly watching. He broke into a grin, slapped me on the back and said we were free to go. When I said we were lost he ordered the most aggressive of our earlier antagonists into the back seat to show us the way, which proved to be some distance.
“How will he get back?” I asked. The boss shrugged and said, “Who cares?”.
Currently our refugee intake, confined to a miserable 1500 annually, is mainly drawn from the Middle East.
I’d like to see us double this number to include Nicaraguans, Guatemalans and Hondurans whose plight for a multitude of reasons is currently pretty desperate. Apart from heading to the haven of Costa Rica, organised by people smugglers, they’re also marching in their thousands to Mexico, then on to America.
America, the great melting pot nation, under Biden intends taking a softer and long term smarter approach than his ignorant oafish predecessor and step-up acceptance of them.
I have no doubt that will prove a great investment, just as the mainly Asian migration of recent years to New Zealand has been for us.
11 Comments
Sorry Sir Bob, you missed the memo from our frowning, lying Head Mistress.
She only desires refugees who crave for a socialist / communist regime.
Your worthy Central American candidates have seen first hand the success of such regimes in both Cuba and Venezuela, therefore would not be remotely interested in settling in Jacindaland.
Not if the standard is like El Woko Loco aka The Little Green Turd
Well said Sir Bob,
I have employed central American’s, they are good value in most regards though I was suprised at how poor their language skills were – unlike most Spanish speakers who have ongoing exposure to English through their schools and the media. Perhaps it’s another representation of their countrys’ failure in every regard including education.
The silent immigration wave of the last decade has been from the Phillipines. These are uniformly hard working, Christian, family oriented, law abiding and thrifty. Some intend just short stays but many seek citizenship and they are beoming outstsanding Kiwis. Incidently they are also very sports minded – boxing is a passion. Look out for a light-weight Philokiwi making a run at a title in the next few years. (Yes, I’ve just invented the term “Philokiwi”. and I like it!)
Agree entirely abut Philipino/as…they fit right in & get on with it & like many from lands where competition is intense and regimes perhaps brutal, they appreciate old Enzed for its many charms. More Americans would too I’m sure.
Recently seeking support from an international website supplier I found myself talking to a young man in Guatemala City. His advice and communication skills were top-notch. I make a point of asking offshore help where they are domiciled. That’s all I ask but sometimes the respondent offers more than a singular answer and it can be quite fascinating.
I do too Lindsay and have had some nice chats with pleasant folk with great manners & expertise. Sure beats the charms of the offhand female I struck on the phone yesterday at one of our resthomes.
Correction to your statement inferring that the “oafish predecessor” to Biden was anti immigrants from South of the USA border: not so. Trump was anti ILLEGAL immigrants, and embraced immigration via legal means. Personally I see nothing wrong with this. Bidens lot, on the other hand, are simply increasing their extreme left-wing support base as quickly as possible before 2022, by opening the floodgates to all and sundry. What a cluster!
Ortega was trying to model himself on Castro but it didn’t work. Like all dictators he fleeced the people and became captured by the gangs and manipulators. . The people suffered under his socialist ideology. It is little wonder they take their lives in their hands to get to the US. They would make better refugees than most of Cinderella’s chosen ones.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvyFhvtUTCk&ab_channel=LenM
Pretty much sums up Haiti…
I agree about changing the focus of immigration to other places. If its gonna be a melting pot, then we need to look beyond the narrow focus on Asian immigration.
In the current world dominated by economies of scale, population increase may be part of the solution.
I do wonder whether the scandinavan countries have a better solution in this overcrowded world. Winner take all has no long term future. It is merely a short term redistribution of wealth, where allot of capital gets wasted along the way.
It doesn’t appear to be a great investment if you look at California and their significant decline in education standards with Ortiz and Telles research showing a lack of assimilation for those coming from Mexioc in terms of education and income levels are four generations. David Frum has written about this in the Atlantic. If you look further afield, Sweden has taken a very generous approach. However, Swedish/Kurdish economist has documented the challenges with unemployment and a growing underclass in places like Malmo.
https://www.amazon.com/Mass-Challenge-Socioeconomic-Migration-Scandinavian/dp/3030468070