In this issue:
Illegals: Beyond Law And Politics
DDT In Africa: Boon Or Bane?
Child Marriages In India: Hope For Young Brides
Housing Codes: Can They Define a Family?
Illegals:
Beyond Law And Politics
The social, philosophical and spiritual issues of illegal immigration are dwarfed by the politics of it. Regardless of what laws the U.S. Congress passes-or does not pass-these issues remain and ought to inform our thinking. One way to frame the problem is, do we or do we not want to include among our midst as future citizens, or even as second-class citizens, people who break the law to come to the United States? And if we do, what concessions should we make, and what price should they pay? How can we do justice to the question if we don't take a longer look at those at the center of the discussion?
Consider the person who is an illegal. He or she has left family behind, braved the uncertainties of the journey, confronted desert conditions, or smugglers, possible kidnapping, saved to pay the fee of a coyote, and probably risked death. Once across the border, they are in a foreign culture, where language is a barrier. They have no papers and must live in the shadows of those who may or may not help them, or may or may not take advantage of them. They take the jobs where employers will hire them, necessarily menial, and low paying or not, they send money home. To do that, they live in squalid and crowded conditions.
What does all that say about them? It says that they are courageous, brave, resourceful, hard working, self-sacrificing... And even if only half of this were true, are these not the kind of people who built the United States, who came west in wagon trains braving their own kind of odds and difficult conditions? Is this not the right stuff for citizenship?
Ah, you say, but they broke the law, they are here illegally. Yes they did, and a country has the right to control its own borders. Jean Valjean, the hero of Les Miserables stole bread. Some illegal acts must be placed in context of the culture and conditions. Illegal immigrants do not come to steal or to cheat. They come here to work and support their families. Are we to make no difference between their motives and the motives of common thieves and criminals? Were we living in a country with no job prospects or opportunities, what would we do?
Finding ways to cross borders illegally in order to find work is a scenario not confined to the U.S. It's played out in a number of countries, and it may be that as long as there are poor countries, illegal immigration will continue to challenge us. And if that's so, then instead of blaming those trying to survive, perhaps we ought to undertake a greater share in the responsibility to eradicate world poverty.
DDT In Africa:
Boon or Bane?
Some problems have no clear-cut answers, and sometimes the best thing to do is to choose the lesser of two wrongs. That's what's going on in East Africa where Malaria kills a million Africans a year, and where in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania they've taken to using DDT to spray crops in order to kill the mosquitoes that carry the disease. DDT was banned in 1972 in the U.S. and shortly after in Europe and even in Africa. Now, the European Union is complaining, albeit informally, about the use of the banned pesticide and has even warned Kenya. Since Kenyan flower growers provide most of the cut flowers for Western Europe, it is a threat that could hurt were it to be implemented. Given that it was DDT that eradicated the Malaria mosquito in Europe, Kenyans feels that the EU's position is hypocritical. Yoweri Museveni, President of Uganda, explains the use of DDT, "why should we look on and watch our people die, when it is within our means to make a difference?" Despite the ravages of AIDS malaria kills more children, about one every 30 seconds.
South Africa began spraying DDT in 2003 and has seen its Malaria rate fall by 80%. Other African nations are experimenting with its use including Eritrea, Zambia and Madagascar.
While the use of Mosquito nets can prevent Malaria, and even though the nets are not that expensive, the use of DDT is cheaper, more accessible and easier to use.
The U.S, despite its ban said that as part of its anti Malaria program, it would provide the Agency for International Development with money for spraying DDT in Africa. Still there are some who are concerned about the long-term effect of reintroducing DDT. One problem they cite is that of regulation. If the use of the pesticide could be regulated and used sporadically and judiciously the damage could be controlled, but Ahmed Hassnali, a department head at Kenya's International Center of Insect Physiology and Ecology who is concerned about the use of DDT says, "It's an issue of control, we don't have the infrastructure in Africa to handle this."
Octopi Getting Their Due:
Sharing The Planet
Every pet owner already knows that a dog isn't just a dog, anymore than a cat is. Each has its own personality. Scientists are now delving into the notion that animals, even insects, do not have some homogeneous herd-like behavior, but have differentiations which they describe as personality. The idea has long been accepted with primates, but now it is extended to other species. One of the studies involved octopi and characterized them as timid, or sexually aggressive or destructive. The idea that like people animals could fall into "personality types" has also been observed with other fish species and even with fruit flies. Of course the whole field is so new, the questions are not yet fully formulated and neither are the implications for Darwinian theories. On the surface it would seem that survival of the fittest would have done away with the timid, for example. But it is also possible, some theorize, that those who were timid survived more easily by hiding or not being noticed by an aggressor.
What's exciting about the new research is not the studies themselves, which to the uninitiated may seem a bit tedious, but the whole idea that animals are getting their due. For centuries, we have assumed that all of creation was there at our disposal, to be used as we saw fit. We are increasingly challenging our dominion and becoming conscious that the planet is filled with living creatures who have as much rights as we do.
Child Marriages In India:
Hope For Young Brides
A conservative estimate puts the number of brides in India below the age of 18 as one third of all marriages. It's hard to be precise because marriages, particularly in the countryside are rarely registered. A 1929 law sets the legal age for marriage as 18 for girls and 21 for boys. Despite this, child marriages do occur and sometimes under the nose of police who do nothing to stop them. Such child marriages are part of the accepted social norms, particularly in rural parts of India where the industrial revolution and the information age are remote concepts. There, marrying a girl young means a cheaper dowry, something of a guarantee toward social and financial security. In some areas, still feudal in outlook, the very presence of a young unmarried girl can pose problems. In a society where virginity is a base for family honor, early marriages protect daughters from rape or premarital sex, all the while ensuring that very family honor.
But all this means that 13-year olds who have no comprehension of what marriage really entails are asked to leave school, marry men twice their age, and end up being mothers while they themselves are still children.
A Supreme Court decision issued a few months ago makes it compulsory for all marriages to be registered. But enforcing it is not so simple and child welfare advocates and activists are pushing for tougher legislation and enforcement. It is an uphill battle. It is hoped that better education opportunities will help in changing ingrained social norms. Often girls from poor areas are forced to quit school for reasons as small as the lack of separate bathrooms. Still, progress comes in small steps and resistance to child marriages is coming from what may be the best source: the young girls themselves.
Housing Codes:
Can They Define a Family?
Can housing codes define what is a family? People in Black Jack, Missouri, a middle class suburb of St Louis, think so. A law prohibits more than 3 people living together in the same house if they are not related by blood, marriage or adoption. And what's more, to make sure the law is adhered to, owners and renters are required to go to city hall to register, show identification and get an occupancy permit. The city feels so strongly about this law, a few weeks ago the City Council rejected a measure to alter it. While some see discrimination in it, the Mayor says it was designed to prevent overcrowding. Missouri is a state, which not only does not recognize common-law marriage, it also is one where no law bars housing discrimination based on marital status.
The ACLU indicates they know of at least 5 instances where unmarried couples were denied an occupancy permit. Missouri's higher courts have upheld similar laws, and the couples who have tried to challenge such laws have lost. The U.S. Department of housing has launched an investigation into whether the city ordinance violates federal fair housing laws.
Although advocates say they are defending local standards, how far can such standards go before they infringe upon personal freedom? Shouldn't people have the right to decide to not marry? Must couples with children be forced to marry whether or not they choose to? Can legalizing a union trump the role of love? Which might benefit a child more, being part of a loving relationship, or of a legal one? What is the role of government in regulating who can live where?
While the issue of gay marriage and several proposed state laws banning it have and are prompting the debate over what constitutes a family, other changes in societal norms have thrust us into a time when the meaning of family clamors to be redefined, and these are questions that deserve more than glib answers.
Website of Interest: www.wackyuses.com
Beyond Conventional Uses
This web site is as much fun as it is practical. Even if only half of its entries hold true, it is still worth a look. It gives a list of products, such as vinegar, oil, flour, petroleum jelly, peanut butter, and then indicates alternative uses for them. Waxed floss, for example, can be used to truss poultry, to neatly cut a cake, to lift cookies from a baking sheet, to sew buttons. Vinegar can be used to grow azaleas, dissolve warts, remove stubborn stains. Olive oil can clean pearls and soothe earaches. The products are listed by brand names, ostensibly to add to the commercial value of the site and perhaps the owner's income, but no matter, the information is not compromised and remains useful whether one uses one brand of oil or another. As one browses, it's difficult not to be tempted to try at least one wacky use of an otherwise mundane product.
To Ponder On
More To Us Than Meets The Eye
While talking about being happy, actor Tom Cruise, defined happiness this way:
The seed that is to grow
must lose itself as seed;
And they that creep
may graduate through
chrysalis to wings.
Wilt thou then, O mortal,
cling to husks which
falsely seem to you
the self?
Wu Ming Fu, Chinese poet and philosopher, from Patterns in Jade
A Larger View is published by the Inner\Outer Partnership, a tax-exempt educational organization probing how trans-religious spiritual principles can be agents of individual and societal change. We are funded through donations. Please send any - as well as any comments - to P.O.Box 1293, Pac. Pal. CA 90272-1293. Also contact us by email at alargerview@earthlink.net or call 310-836-7710 or visit our web site at www.innerouterpartnership.org
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