There’s always more than one way to skin the proverbial cat. One of the challenges that the coalition troops face in Afghanistan and Iraq is how to marry traditional cultural views on females and effectively police the villages.  For example, there is case cited  by Dexter Filkins in ‘The Forever War‘ from Iraq where US troops wanting to search a village for arms, placed a blond female soldier, hair flowing freely, up on the front of a tank and told the locals she was up for auction. While the Iraqi men were so engaged, other troops searched the village entering their homes where women and children were unsupervised by their menfolk.

The Americans kept the Iraqi males busy bidding for the blond outside. The troops seized arms caches, then told the Iraqi men that the bids were not good enough, drove away, and deemed the operation a success. The US patrol leader deemed it efficient as no life was lost. However, when the event was reported the troop commander was later censured. However, the cultural impact on the village was long-lasting. The men were abased in their eyes of their wives.  The women were suspect having been in the presence of Western men unsupervised.

There are other ways to approach the problem and the Yemenis are trying them. They have created an elite squad of armed and trained female anti-terrorist personnel that trail active units. They move in to search the women and family homes avoiding the need for any cultural offence. Yemen may well be a troubled state, but in some areas at least it has some good ideas.

Kneeling on the ground, a row of women in black face masks squint their eyes, taking aim with their AK-47s before releasing rounds into stationary targets at a shooting range eight miles outside the capital, Sanaa. The female contingent of Yemen’s elite Counter Terrorism Unit (CTU) trains here five days a week alongside the men, running drills and target practice.

In the conservative Muslim country, the 42 women of the CTU do jobs only women can. They conduct house, family, and female body searches as the Yemeni government battles the increasing threat of Al Qaeda in the Arab Peninsula.

“The men are in the first line. If the mission needs us to shoot, we do,” says Lt. Qobol al-Saadi, one of the two first female officers of the CTU, who graduated from the Royal Military Academy in Britain in 2009. Now, Yemen’s CTU women complete basic training on a Yemeni-base alongside the men. The first class of 17 finished the training in January 2010.

Sgt. Takia al-Zahri has been with the CTU for almost two years. Standing at attention, she is still no higher than 5 feet tall and knows she is breaking the mold. “For society it’s something strange, for me, that’s what I want to be doing,” she says of her service, “First, because I want to be part of the soldiers and officers who secure this country; second, for women; and lastly, because I love this country.”

Yemen’s elite female counter-terrorism force takes on Al Qaeda – CSMonitor.com

It is hard to know whether to laugh or cry when you read the rhetoric about immigration in the US media. It is of course natural for a country to exhibit some symptoms of xenophobia at a time of economic stress; that’s the normal blame game. The populist mantra of ‘they are taking our jobs and using our service for free’ plays well to some sectors of the populace such as the unemployed and working poor. It also has a resonance with the more extreme inward-looking crowd who confuse nationalism with racism.

Not only has Arizona decided to get tough with immigrants, now there is an attempt to change the 14th amendment to the US Constitution that grants anyone who is born on US soil the right of American citizenship. That really is an attempt to roll back the clock and make America what it used to be…but in actuality can’t be any longer.

In the US, those opposed to this form of granting citizenship would like to revise the 14th amendment, which says, in part:

All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside ….

The14th amendment was passed after the Civil War with the intent of clarifying that former slaves were citizens and entitled to Constitutional rights. Since then, the Supreme Court has consistently upheld that birthright of children born to foreigners in the US, including a 1898 challenge concerning children of non-citizen Chinese immigrants.

How many children of illegal immigrants are born in the US each year?

No one really knows.

Will US revoke the right of American citizenship to foreigners born here? – CSMonitor.com

The sad thing is that this immigration debate is playing against US medium term economic interests. America, like most high GDP countries, is facing the potential of an aging population sans immigrants. Wealthy advanced societies tend to have smaller family sizes, and over a few decades this sees the aging of a community. This adversely impacts the society as it results in fewer workers having to fund required taxes and social programs at a time that an aging population needs more and more services. Examples of these phenomena can be seen in Japan and parts of Europe who face major economic challenges as a result.

Hispanic immigration rends to have a primarily positive economic effect for the US. For example, Hispanics are estimated to make up 40% of first home buyers spurring the construction trade. The first few generations of Hispanics have more children on average who add to the diminishing worker pool and they start more small businesses than Americans creating job growth. They also enlist and serve in the US military as a means of gaining citizenship status. It is an ironic fact that economists project that Arizona will need to start attracting more immigrants by 2015 in order to serve its rapidly aging American population. Without immigration the US won’t grow and the economy will contract, all in a matter of a few decades. Short term xenophobic panic is a dangerous way to plan a future strategy for the country.

I particularly like grand strategist Tom Barnett’s observation that the US is already creating policy behind the curve as Mexico’s birthrate is dropping as its GDP grows. The very source of population growth that the US is reliant on is running out of steam. Mexico itself will need to look to immigration to fund its growth in the not too distant future. Populist positions are often to the detriment to the strategic interests of a nation; it just generally requires a generation or so before the issue becomes apparent to the masses.

The call-out text tells you everything you need to know: “The fertility rate in Mexico has undergone one of the steepest declines in history.”

Leveraging Michael Barone, I made this point in “Blueprint for Action”: There is a combination of decreasing birthrate and increasing per capita income that usually turns off the emigrant flow out of any developing economy.

With Mexico, these developments are tied to the progressive economic integration of the northern Mexican states with the US economy.

No, that doesn’t mean the flow of illegals from the South goes away completely just because Mexico is leveling off. Over time, I think it simply means people are both traveling farther to get to the US and, in some measure, stopping when they hit the improving conditions in Mexico.

Thomas P.M. Barnett’s Globlogization – Thomas P.M. Barnett’s Globlogization – As usual, the radical solutions arise just as the underlying problems begin to abate

The forces of globalization and international commerce are unstoppable. Whether you are a fan or a naysayer matters little; the genie of globalization is out of the bottle and won’t be put back in. What is amusing is that some great powers thing they can control who gets to benefit from this trend, as if it is a club that one power selects members for.  It has gone far beyond that, and if you try to deny the burgeoning and aspiring economies from joining the fold they will just do it anyway.

Inhibiting factors to growing international trade are any unrealistic tariffs, restrictions on employment mobility and inequitable tax treatments. This is why you see so many trade zones established to ease flow of goods and services, in essence making trade transnational.  If you don’t encourage integration as the US doesn’t among some countries, then they will just band together and create their own. This week Turkey, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan announced they are creating a free trade zone with visa free travel for their nationals. That is how you create security and growth by economically engaging with powers for common benefit. Imagine.  The US State Department needs a new playbook understanding integration is a more powerful diplomatic tool than isolationist policies. They may have a problem explaining that to the Tea Party and the GOP core crowd though.

Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria agreed on Thursday to set up a free-trade zone, complete with a visa-free travel regime for their nationals, a joint declaration issued here said.

The four countries will establish a cooperation council “to develop a long-term strategic partnership” and “create a zone of free movement of goods and persons among our countries,” it said.

The deal was agreed by the foreign ministers of the four countries who met on the sidelines of a Turkey-Arab cooperation forum in Istanbul.

The free-trade zone will be based on “existing bilateral agreements and practices on free trade and visa exemption” between the parties, the statement said, adding that Turkey and Lebanon were required to complete a bilateral arrangement before the four-way process could go ahead.

“The quadripartite mechanism… will be open to the participation of all the other brotherly and friendly countries in the region,” it said.

News | Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Syria OK a free zone

Iran announced it is sending an aid flotilla to the Gaza, and our media spins as to how this is s direct challenge to the West and a threat to Israel. While that might be a side product, the West has an inflated opinion of how much its actions shape Iran’s agendas. Iran is indeed sending a message in dispatching the aid flotilla, but the message is intended for Turkey and the Muslim world.

Iran is vying for supremacy of influence among the regional Muslim powers, and it won’t let Turkey have any aspirations otherwise. That’s often the problem with Western commentators, they tend to look in rather than out and so miss the key stratagems of Middle Eastern poetical theater which is why we are where we are with Iran and Syria both. If you don’t understand the motivations or the intent then one tends to  end up with a flawed diplomatic strategy.

Two Iranian vessels carrying aid supplies are due to set sail for Gaza in the coming week, in a move likely to further heighten tensions in the region.

Iranian news media reported on Tuesday that four tonnes of humanitarian aid, including food, medicine and clothing would be sent to Gaza within coming days.

“This ship will pass through territorial waters of Oman, Yemen and Egypt before it reaches Gaza. It is said that the ship contains only humanitarian aid and there are no peace activists on board,” Iran’s semi-official Mehr news agency reported.

Meanwhile, the official Irna news agency cited Mohammad Ali Nouraee, an Iranian aid official, as saying one cargo will be sent to Turkey, and then shipped to Gaza from Istanbul while the other will leave from the port of Khorramshah

Iran to send aid ships to Gaza – Middle East – Al Jazeera English

The headline’s a cheap shot (no pun intended) but as a naturalized Australian I think I can get away with it. Australians have something of a reputation as a hard-drinking crowd, but now it seems the wildlife are getting in the act. Darwin’s red-collared lorikeets are literally falling out of the trees exhibiting the classic symptoms of inebriation stumbling around on the ground and crash-landing when they attempt to fly. Subsequently, they then also exhibit hangover-like characteristic such as light aversion, grumpiness, a desire to sleep it off and a penchant for comfort food. Scientists are unsure if it is a certain ripened fruit that is causing the issue or a virus of some description, but in Darwin its raining lorikeets.

The staggering gait, the mood swings and the headaches will be familiar to anyone who has indulged in a big night out. But in Australia’s northernmost city it is not the people who are behaving like drunks, but the native parrots, which are falling out of the sky.

Darwin’s red-collared lorrikeets are suffering from a puzzling condition, with symptoms strikingly similar to those that accompany inebriation. Hundreds have been treated in animal hospitals, where they are fed sweetened porridge and fresh fruit – the avian equivalent of a hangover cure.

In recent weeks the brightly coloured birds have been observed falling out of trees, stumbling around the streets and crash-landing when they attempt to fly. Those recovering in hospital are said to be dishevelled, disoriented and grumpy. Above all, they seem to shun bright lights and to experience an overwhelming desire for a good lie-down.

“They sit on the floor of the cage and rest their heads on the side,” said Lisa Hansen, a veterinary surgeon at the Ark Animal Hospital in Palmerston, near Darwin. “Or they curl up in the corner and hide under the paper and block the rest of the world out.”

Out of their tree: virus blamed as drunken parrots fall from sky – Nature, Environment – The Independent

There is no way that you can read about the latest edict of French President Sarkozy and not have the phrase Napoleonic Complex spring to mind. If you need context, in 1908 psychologist Alfred Adler cited Napoleon to describe an inferiority complex in which short people adopt an over-aggressive behavior to compensate for lack of height. This is the origin of the term Napoleon complex.

Sarkozy is rumored to have some issues about his own diminutive stature.  He supposedly wears specially-designed stacked shoes, has been caught standing on tiptoes in global leader group shots and stood on a box to remain shoulder to shoulder in a joint appearance with US President Obama. Now apparently Sarkozy has made a new rule for the security detachment that protects him that they cannot recruit tall agents that will tower over him.

The vertically challenged French president is said to have banned statuesque bodyguards despite their added value of being able to spot potential attackers in a crowd.

A police source told Le Parisien that “there’s no point recruiting supermen” as “large-sized” candidates stood little chance of being taken on.

The presidential guard, known by its acronym GSPR, has been beefed up from 50 to 80 men since 2002, when a mentally disturbed man managed to take a potshot at Jacques Chirac, Mr Sarkozy’s predecessor, with his hunting rifle before being overpowered.

President Sarkozy is notoriously sensitive and secretive about his diminutive height of around 5ft 5 ins – making him shorter than Napoleon.

He has gone out of his way not to stand small on the world stage or when next to his 5ft 10 ins former model wife, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, who mostly wears flat pumps.

Nicolas Sarkozy bans tall bodyguards – Telegraph

A while back we wrote a piece about how the Lebanese economy was rebounding based in part on the fact that Lebanese entrepreneurs and workers send home to Lebanon a staggering $7.5 billion a year from overseas. Now it seems that Syria’s less centralized economy, integration of women into business, and infrastructure investment is encouraging long-time Syrian ex-pats to make the move home. With 15 million ex-pats (as compared to 22 million in country) attracting them home could mean a fiscal, skill and labor bonanza for Syria. Syria has ambitious goals. Syria is looking to develop a $77billion dollar private investment fund, and it thinks by luring ex-pats home and allowing them to buy their way of military service requirements, it may reach that goal.

The Syrian government reckons that up to 15m of its citizens reside abroad, leaving 22m at home. They have gone to Canada, Germany, Russia, Sweden and the United States as well as South America. But since 2005, when the government formally declared it was switching from a centrally planned economy to a market one, expatriates have been coming back seemingly in droves—for good.

Damascus, the capital, is their city of choice, then Aleppo. Many of those returning are professionals. In their wake, service firms have multiplied, property prices have burgeoned and investment is up. “Abroad you are just a small part of the country, while in Syria you can be a big fish in a small pond,” says a businessman who spent 20 years in America.

A Ministry for Expatriates was set up in 2002, payments to avoid military service (which returning Syrians dislike) have fallen and conferences are luring people back from the diaspora. The official aim is to attract $77 billion in private investment by 2015. Returning Syrian expatriates may help.

Syria’s returning diaspora: Do come back | The Economist

Refugees deserve our best efforts as humans. Great events well beyond them control make them flotsam within their home nation. Extreme stresses of poverty, disease, war and oppression see fellow humans undertake epic journeys in a search for peace and prosperity. They arrive sometimes on our shores and we turn them back. They flow on trying to find a place to call home for them and their family. For this global community of the dispossessed this was another sad week.

Many people fleeing troubled areas like Palestine, Afghanistan, Sudan and Somalia end up in Libya trying to desperately make their way to a sanctuary in Europe.  Many fail on their first attempt to reach Europe and are send back to Libya to marshal their meager resources and try again. This places a load on Libya that until recently has been aided by the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNCHR). Now for reasons that are unclear, Libya is ejecting the UNCHR and the fate of the refugees there will be lost to history, No reasons have been given for the summary ejection. While many criticize the political antics of the UN, they also do good work at the sharp, tragic, bloody and dangerous regions of the world.

Libya has ordered the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR to close its operations there, putting the future of more than 12,000 refugees and asylum seekers at risk, a UNHCR spokeswoman said on Tuesday. The expulsion has taken on added gravity because of the Italian policy of pushing back refugees who are fleeing North Africa and the Middle East out of Italian waters into Libya, UNHCR spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said.

Libya has not signed the 1951 convention on refugees and does not have a domestic asylum system so the UNHCR has been helping the authorities determine whether people arriving are refugees or other migrants, she told a briefing.

“This will leave a huge vacuum for the thousands of refugees and asylum seekers who are there already and of course those who continue to arrive steadily on boats every week,” Fleming told a news briefing.

Fleming said Libya had informed the UNHCR last week that it must go, but gave no deadline or reason for the decision.

Middle East News | UN refugee agency says Libya orders it out

How we treat refugees, particularly when we are in part responsible for the human displacement, says a lot about us as a society. In another tragic little tale this week, the UK Border Agency announced its intentions to open a “reintegration” centre in Kabul, Afghanistan, to allow child asylum seekers arriving without parents or a guardian to be sent home. Who would be there willing or able to reabsorb these children into Afghan society is unclear. If the child arrives seeking asylum unaccompanied one can probably assume there is no family back at home ready to greet the child with open arms. Refugees returned are just a refugee problem relocated not resolved.

Under the terms of the proposal, the centre would provide reintegration assistance in Afghanistan for around 12 boys aged 16 and 17, and 120 adults, per month.

A number of other European countries, including Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands, are planning to return children to care centres in Afghanistan while Norway says it will build a similar facility in Kabul.

The moves are supported by an EU policy that says child asylum seekers can only be deported if reception centres are created to care for minors when the family cannot be found.

But Donna Covey, chief executive of the Refugee Council, said the plans did not say how children would be kept safe once back in Afghanistan.

“It really begs the question: if they have no family to whom they can be returned safely, should they be returned at all?”

“There are serious questions to be raised about the quality of decision-making on the cases of unaccompanied children.

“The money would be better spent improving the way that children’s claims are assessed, so that we can be sure we never put them in danger,” she said.

Caroline Slocock, chief executive of Refugee and Migrant Justice, said that children had often endured long and dangerous journeys to Britain, and sending them back to Kabul would only put “their safety and welfare further at risk”.

UK plans to deport Afghan children – Europe – Al Jazeera English

As a long-time critic of Israeli foreign policy, I always wondered how far Israel would have to go before it brought down the wrath of the moderate international community. It seems the flotilla debacle was one blockade too far. The Lebanon Wars weren’t apparently enough to anger Israel’s allies.  Operation Cast Lead in the Gaza that saw weapons of mass destruction directed at a blockaded densely populated area and resulted in 1400 or so deaths didn’t do it. It took the rather cynical storming of a flotilla ship during morning prayers that ended up with 9 Turkish citizens dead, some apparently shot in the head at point blank range to finally anger observers. The ideal that was Israel admired and supported by so many may well have also taken a fatal wound that day as the Iron Wall philosophy ensnares Israel more deeply.

The reactions have been swift and from many places around the world. There has been condemnation from European powers, distress from the UN, palpable anger from Turkey, and the usual, insipid noncommittal words from the US. However, in region there have been more serious rifts. The ever-moderate Queen Rania from Jordan took to the press to pen a sharply worded piece condemning Israel’s actions.

The attack stunned the world because of its blatant and absurd disregard for anything resembling international law, human rights, and diplomatic norms. Its glaring outrageousness stunned, but didn’t surprise, me. It cannot be viewed in isolation. It is another upshot of a dogma long fermenting on Israel’s political landscape.

It is a doctrine that lives for itself and off others. It survives by tapping into the subliminal and cognisant levels. It implants into public consciousness a set of tenets that see Israeli’s very existence as eternally under threat, to be defended through any means (preferably through use of force to show the enemy who’s boss). It is best served through the adoption of an “us against the world” mentality. By its very nature, hardline ideology is self-serving and self-perpetuating. Its primary goal is to survive – and that precludes everything. If to exist it must redefine what is acceptable, redraw the lines of international law, and re-imagine what weapons are appropriate – so be it. Assigning themselves authority and immunity, Israel’s leaders feel licensed to do whatever they like and not expect an international outcry.

But this hardened path is fraught with dangers for all of us. These radical policies debar Palestinian value and, by extension, human value. Harsh measures then become more palatable. Inflicting violence upon an innocent majority to punish the guilty few now seems necessary. Every day the blockade continues is another day our humanity remains under siege.

The effect is a people trapped between a rock and a hardline policy. The product is desperation; the reaction, more hardline policies, attempting to defend previous hardline policies. After all, did this outrageous attack take place to preserve Israel's security, or to sustain the blockade itself?

What is most frustrating is Israel's defence of its actions. By attacking criticism as part of an anti-Israel, anti-Semitic propaganda war, Israel, yet again, fails to understand that the problem is policy, not PR. Now and always, hardline policy and those who embrace it are vessels for darker forces that are at once self-cannibalising and combustible.

Queen Rania of Jordan: Hardliners are now the face of Israel – Commentators, Opinion – The Independent

Even Egypt responded, opening the Rafah border apparently for an “undefined” period. This despite the fact that $2 billion of US aid is awarded based on Egypt maintaining friendship and cooperation with Israel. It is no coincidence that sees US Vice President Biden in Egypt for talks this week. Egyptian President Mubarak despite his tight clutch on power is concerned about populist anger about Israel’s action and even the $2 billion in aid and the lucrative weapons deals with the US will not keep the Rafah border crossing closed this week.

President Hosni Mubarak’s decision to open the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip for an indefinite period was described by American and British press accounts yesterday as an attempt to ease widespread fury over Israel’s siege of the Gaza Strip in the wake of Israel’s raid of the Gaza aid flotilla Hurriyya.

The Christian Science Monitor reported that Mubarak’s decision was prompted by heightened public anger following the raid throughout the world and in Egypt in particular, where a peace accord with Israel was signed three decades ago, as well as resentment over the Egyptian government’s role in the suffering of Gazans.

The newspaper attributed Egypt’s position towards Gaza to Hamas’ control of the Gaza Strip, and to the group’s strong ties with the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt’s largest opposition movement. According to the paper, the Mubarak regime feared that the Muslim Brotherhood could take power due to its popularity among Egyptians, and thus the economic isolation of the Gaza Strip is beneficial to the regime.

World newspapers: Egypt opens Rafah to calm Egyptian anger | Al-Masry Al-Youm: Today’s News from Egypt.

How angry is the region? It is enough to even see the most petty of issues become political stone lobbing towards Israel, Even enough to se families divided. The Egyptian courts have upheld the ruling that will see Egyptian husbands married to Israelis stripped of their citizenship together with any children of the marriage. This is a brutal move for the families involved, and you have to deplore the court’s decision. It does also go to show that Israel may have just taken one step too far with its blockade strategy, and finds itself increasingly friendless as well as rudderless.

A court has upheld a ruling that strips Egyptian men married to Israeli women, and their children, of their citizenship.

Judge Mohammed al-Husseini, sitting in the Supreme Administrative Court, said the Interior Ministry must ask the cabinet to take the necessary steps to strip Egyptian men married to Jewish Israeli women, and their children, of their citizenship.

The judge cited concerns over Egyptian national security as the reason for the judgment.

The ruling reflects Egyptian sentiment towards Israel, more than 30 years after Cairo signed an unpopular peace deal with the Jewish state.

Before reading the verdict, the judge said it would not apply to Egyptian men married to Arab Israelis, thought to be 10 per cent of the 30,000 men married to Israelis.

“The case for [Egyptian] men married to Israeli Arab women is different to those married to Israeli women of Jewish origin because [Israeli Arabs] have lived under Israeli occupation”  he told the court.

A lawyer, Nabil al-Wahsh, said he had brought the case to court to prevent the creation of a generation “disloyal to Egypt and the Arab world”;. Children of such marriages “should not be allowed to perform their military service” he said.

“The decision comes as Israel continues its assault on those who love peace”  Mr Wahsh said. &”The latest example is the aggression against the aid boat which was heading towards the blockaded Gaza Strip”

Egyptians who wed Israelis to lose rights

It fascinates me that some cling to securing the borders as a panacea to return the US to peace and prosperity. It is actually an inversion of the reality. The US becomes richer due to internationalization, and globalization is not a trend that can be reversed by a state or Federal legislature. There are many examples of this that remain hidden while the headlines clamor for a fortress mentality.

A tire tariff that the Obama Administration introduced t supposedly protect American tire manufacturers from Chinese imports, in actuality, had the opposite effect. It hurt the American economy more than it helped. The bulk of the Chinese tire imports were manufactured there by companies receiving American investments in China aimed at  allowing these self-same American manufacturers to produce low price product there for US domestic consumption. Capital follows where the profits are, and the US companies long decided that they couldn’t compete on manufacturing prices but could still derive product from investing is Chinese “competitors”

The same can be seen in the much-trumpeted trade deficit with China. Again, hidden from the eye of the casual observer contained in that deficit is the money being made by US companies that have investments, interests and personnel working for them in China and delivering products and services back to the US. American businessmen are not stupid, and realize that profit can be made through co-operation as well as competition.

Security also resides in integration, not separation. A national cannot, and never has been, able to totally seal its borders leading to resentment and suspicion from outside and xenophobic paranoia from inside. Countries learn and grow by allowing labor to flow where it can enjoy best opportunities and advancement, and no attempt to police against such a human instinct a la Arizona will stop that. I have been a permanent resident of 3 countries in pursuit of self-actualization, and my exposure to each has made me more of a friend to each. We learn best from each other. We remain vibrant through introducing new blood. We stay wealthy and safer by remaining engaged in the globalization process, not by rejecting it.

Take the rather ludicrous US policy toward Cuba. By denying integration, it means that Cubans look elsewhere for freedom and advancement and so create wealth in other nations. The US loses through its own intransigence, and seemingly humans locked out from a chance for prosperity will always find another way of finding it.

But in a sense, Ecuador has become the new Florida for many Cubans. Since mid-2008, no foreigner has needed a visa to enter this country. Cubans have responded enthusiastically, driven by business dreams, hopes for prosperity, and perhaps a goal of eventually moving to the US.

According to the National Directorate of Migration, 4,783 Cubans entered the country in 2007, a number that grew to 10,948 in 2008 and 27,114 in 2009. Of those Cubans who entered the country in 2009 on tourist visas, some 4,000 stayed on. Most managed to become naturalized and receive an Ecuadorean passport through arranged marriages.

For Cubans, Ecuador is the new Florida – CSMonitor.com

In addition as technology and industrial processes advance, more business becomes transnational. The Internet respects no national border and nor does the collaboration of advanced workforces. A simple example from today’s world:

CA start-up Coda Automotive is set to build factory in Ohio with 1,000 jobs, using Chinese technology to make lithium-ion batteries for an all-electric vehicle.

Batteries are too heavy to ship, so Coda wanted a US-based factory. Until it’s up and running, a previous JV set up in Tianjin will make the initial batteries.

Thomas P.M. Barnett’s Globlogization – Your globalization $ at work: CA start-up, PRC tech, OH factory, US jobs

The fortress mentality would shut the US off from the rapidly advancing internationalization of labor, capital and industry.  The US chooses that route at its own peril. You can’t stop globalization so you have to make sure you stay engaged and work the opportunities it produces for best advantage.