Diego Giol Internet and many other things

George Bush has committed many mistakes during his presidency, probably the worst one has been to invade Iraq. It didn’t only put that country close to a civil war but it also created a huge deficit that the American economy is starting to feel and it is one of the reasons why Mr. Bush’s popularity is so low.

Now the president is about to commit another mistake with his immigration policy. Some time ago I wrote an article where I said that integration and not isolation was the answer. Yesterday, I read an excellent article called A Marshall Plan for Mexico. I really recommend it.

For me, it looks that Mr. Bush is trying to re-gain some popularity among the republicans sending troops to the border with Mexico and building a wall.

I wonder if Americans are aware that there is no way that “solutions” like this could work if no real development is achieve by the America’s neighbors.
Related link

• A Marshall plan for Mexico (they ask you to click on their ad before you can read it)
  

Out of all the possible outcomes for the recent elections in Italy, I think that the worse option was the actual one.

In the results, both candidates obtained almost half of the votes and the tight difference in both chambers might make governability difficult.

How the new government evolves will depend on how Romano Prodi negotiates with Forza Italia, Berlusconi’s party. He will also have to gain more support from the part of the population that didn’t vote him in order to pass any difficult reform.

A priori, this will not be an easy task. Mr Silvio Berlusconi did not accept his defeat until almost two weeks after the elections. He said that he would not call Prodi to congratulate him, and that he would use all his means (let’s remember that he own almost all the private media in the country) in order to generate a strong opposition to the new government.

Some related links:

• FT: Italian elections ($)
• Court confirms Italian elections results
• When you’re done you’re done

Have you ever asked yourself how it might be to live in Iraq? Probably not.

In my case, many times I read in the news about Iraq but I generally feel like I am poorly informed by the media about what is going on there. I always want to know more, to have access to what the people living there think.

A friend of mind just sent me a link to an interesting blog written by a girl from Baghdad. I have only read a couple of posts but I find it interesting.

Here is the link to her blog: Baghdad Burning

In general, war makes no sense to me but it is even worse when I see how people suffer.

There were big demonstrations in the United States last week. Millions of immigrants are worried because they will be treated as criminals, even if they are not.

Actually, I think that immigrants are not the only ones to be worried about big walls being built in the border with Mexico and the criminalization of immigration in a country that was created by and for immigrants.

Let’s assume it, there is a problem there, there are an estimated of 12 millions people living with no documentation in the country. But the question is if these measures are going to solve the problem or to worsen it. I think that they will worsen it.

This is why I think that the US should look at the European for a solution. But why? Well, did anyone imagine 60 years ago that some decades later, the same countries that were destroying one another would have a common currency, the same educational system, a common parliament and freedom to live and move within the EU borders?

Would have they imagine only 20 years ago that Polish, Czech or Slovak nationals could move freely and work in financial centre in London if they wanted to?

The European Union has opened its borders to workers from “poorer countries” many times already. It was for the central European countries recently but it was for poor new democracies some twenty years ago (Portugal, Spain and Greece).

Did the Spaniards hoarded in the border with France to move there? Not at all, but the “rich” countries gave money to the new ones so that they could build infrastructure, generate employment, improve education, etc.

Now back to the US, the problem I see is that the current administration doesn’t realize that the country has more to win if they really integrate with the south, financing the same way Germany and France did rather than wasting billions in walls that as we know, lead to nowhere and will not solve the problem. Integration is the answer, not separation .

Only when this is understood by the government, will the country find a real solution. Additionally it will pave the way that will lead to real development in the region.