I think my twenty four hour ban from blogging is up. If it's not, it will just have to be a sofa night for the kid.
So anyway I was thinking; what does Waterloo, Iowa, and Johannesburg, South Africa, have in common? I will tell you what. In both places anti- immigration hysteria has raised its ugly xenophobic head. In both these places anti- immigrant sentiments that is counterproductive, uncivilized, and unwise has taken the place of reason, common sense, and just plain human decency.
In South Africa, native South Africans have been searching out and savagely beating and killing immigrants (mostly Mzambicans looking for work) who they believe are taking jobs and houses away from them. If you are a foreigner South Africa would not be a good place for you to be right about now. Poor President Mbeki, he had to call on his countries' army for the first time since the end of apartheid in 1994. That's some troubling shit, and it really makes me wonder about my people sometimes.

Here in A-merry-ca, spurred on by anti- immigration sentiments, and an administration that is concerned with scoring political points with the A-merry-ca first crowd, had three hundred hard working immigrants (mostly South Americans from Guatemala, and no Arabs the last time I checked) arrested in a meat packing plant. The U.S. attorney for Northern Iowa called the operation an "Astonishing success". I bet it was. Nothing like arresting a bunch of illegals and rounding them up and sending them back to their own country. Yeah those meat packing jobs are going to be taken really soon. And this is no ordinary immigration prosecution. usually these cases fall under civil statutes, but not this time. No, these criminals were dragged into federal court with both their hands and feet shackled (hey at least they weren't being beaten my mobs on the street. Here in A-merry-ca we are more civilized than that), and most entered guilty please admitting to using fake social security numbers. You would have to be a lawyer, or have some knowledge of the law to understand how outrageous this prosecution was, but take my word for it on this one. Due process? We don't need no "stinkin" due process. Prosecutors drove a hard bargain, and through their Spanish interpreters, most of the defendants pleaded guilty. Of course hardly any of them had criminal records, and I am pretty sure that none of them had been to an al Queda training camp anywhere.
Of course none of the Managers, or the company which they worked for, Agriprocessors, were charged with any crimes. This is the same plant that had workers working fourteen hours a day and overnight shifts without any pay a few years ago. But we always have to protect our corporate interests here in A-merry-ca now don't we.
Now I know some of my African A-merry-can brothers and sisters will disagree with me on this one. Like their brothers in South Africa, some of them have some real issues with these immigrants coming and taking our jobs. (Yeah I feel you, and I see all those brothers running to Northern Iowa to work in those meat plants.....)
Back in South Africa, Cape Town police spokesman, Andre Traut, said that about 200 people have been arrested, and about 1,200 people mostly foreigners have been displaced. We also know that there has been over fifty deaths as well. Over sixteen thousand Mozambicans have already fled the anti- foreigner violence in South Africa, and neighboring African countries are making plans to get their citizens out of there.
Of course here in A-merry-ca we are way too civilized for the type of stuff that we have been seeing in Africa. We have our government to do such things for us. By the people and for the people right?











