So Mr. Herb, are you saying that no foreign countries should not own U.S. subsidiaries of their own companies within U.S borders? Or U.S workers shouldn't be supporting foreign businesses? It's called insourcing, by the way.

I'm assuming that you and Hillary are expecting all of the rest of us to foot the unemployment bill when 5.3 million of your fellow Americans that work for or support foreign companies right here in the good ole U.S. of A lose their jobs??? Typical Hillary 'let everybody else support my constituents' attitude.

http://journalnow.com/servlet/Satell...75&c=MGArticle

So where was her outrage when the UK company was running the ports?

 

Gee Mexstan, thanks so much for your insight.

And you can read whatever you want into that comment.

The U.S. cannot afford to be isolationists. The world, of which the U.S. is a part, operates in a global economy. How many of your compatriots down there in Mexico would be out of a job if the U.S. decided to close down all contact with the outside world? Yourself included?

I would like nothing better than for the U.S. to be able to better stand on it's own. BUT, until everyone gets out of the stock market, and stops demanding a better return on investment from the companies they invest in, which in turn have to do EVERYTHING possible to turn in the best bottom line every quarter, this is going to be a global economy.

You've stated several times that this country is under attack, but I'm not sure if there's enough of us to actually defend it. Any other non-socialist or non-facist suggestions/solutions you have on how to defend this country would be greatly appreciated. I eagerly await your profound wisdom.

Please solve all of the U.S.' - and the rest of the world's problems for that matter - in 1,000 words or less.

 

So Hillary's on this anti-UAE rant, is she? She's talking about the same UAE where Dubai is located, correct? The same Dubai that her husband - good old Slick Willie - just praised to the hilt a while back - same one, right???

The following article can be found here:
http://www.itp.net/business/news/det...rabianbusiness

Clinton Leads Dubai Praise
by Anil Bhoyrul

FORMER US president Bill Clinton praised Dubai’s leaders last week, telling them the way Islamic and Western values and cultures are being merged is “wonderful”.

Speaking via telecast at the Leaders in Dubai conference on Monday, Clinton was quick to highlight the work done by the emirate’s rulers, in particular Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Minister of Defence of the United Arab Emirates.

Clinton said: “Dubai is a role model of what could be achieved despite the other negative developments in the region. When I went to Dubai for the first time, I was taken to a technology facility where I hooked up to a bank kiosk and found that one can use a conventional banking service, while at the same time opt for an Islamic Sharia compliant service, which I thought was wonderful. This is a very good example of how cultures and values could be merged and offered to the rest. I was amazed and I have a lot of admiration for Sheikh Mohammed for what he’s doing in Dubai.”

Clinton also urged members of the YAL (Young Arab Leaders) to spread their message across the region. He explained: “I think much can be done by just telling others about your own achievements. They can share their experience and ideas with others and help them develop their economies as Dubai has done. YAL can leverage their experience to enlighten others.”

He added: “Look at Dubai, which has achieved enormous growth in such a short period of time. Less than 6% of Dubai’s income comes from oil. It’s no longer an oil economy."

Clinton’s speech came just a week after he appeared in person at Dubai’s American University. During his visit to the emirate, he spoke directly on the chances of peace in the region.

The former US president was not the only speaker to praise the emirate in his Leaders in Dubai address. Best-selling author, Dan Pink, said: “Global economies will now be driven by right-brain attitudes where designers, creators and empathisers will be leaders, because their talents cannot be recreated offshore or made redundant by technology.”

He told delegates: “Big-picture thinking is difficult to outsource offshore and difficult to automate. This is where Dubai has a strong advantage because it is a crossroads kind of a place — a multilingual, multicultural place that creates empathies and that’s where great ideas come from. When we empathise towards everyone the world’s a better place, period! But empathy also has a business advantage, because it cannot be outsourced or automated.”

Pink continued: “This is an age of novelty and nuance where design has become a fundamental business literacy — an age when everyone is in the arts and entertainment business. Dubai is in the arts and entertainment business with just 8% of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) coming from oil and now 17% coming from tourism — and that’s the arts and entertainment business.”

Pink said that his vision of the future was one “where youth would be better advised studying fine arts than striving for traditional MBAs”.

“Kids should now be encouraged not to follow the traditional MBA programmes of the left-brain era — which are now being outsourced offshore — but to follow master of fine arts (MFA) degrees. The MFA has now become the new MBA because the abilities required to obtain it cannot be outsourced and are harder to automate,” he added.

Another speaker, Abdullah Al Zamil — CEO of Zamil Industries — said, in his own presentation, that world leaders need to “keep pace with the changing world”.

He told delegates: “We must take care to prevent a loss of cultural identity. In many places, the traditional way of life is getting lost and the public feel that their way of life has to be protected against foreign influence.”

The Leaders in Dubai summit was held at the Madinat Jumeirah complex last Monday and Tuesday. The conference was held in front of audiences estimated at around 1500 each day.

 

Mexstan - I'll even help you out on your response a little bit - and it won't count toward your 1,000 word solution. Here's what I think is wrong with America:
-------------------------------
As I stated before I would love nothing better than for America to stand more firmly on it's own two feet. But I don't think that's going to happen any time soon.

I think that we in America have created an entitlement society. What I mean by that is, in the back of everyone's mind, there's this big safety net called the Government that will bail us out if we get in over our heads. We've created that over the last 60 or so years, to the point now where some people even expect this entitlement not only out of their government, but out of their employers as well.

To this end, a large percentage of Americans have become fat and lazy, only doing what they absolutely have to do to get by, not taking any risks, not working any harder than they have to to put food on their table and a pack of smokes in their pockets. They don't worry about saving any money, working harder to get ahead, etc.; they'd rather ***** about how much better other people have it, why they don't have a better job, and wonder why they just can't get ahead.

So, when America, is 'attacked' by these foreign companies that are a) hungrier and b) more motivated than most Americans, how do you propose we counter that attack?
--------------------------------------

Please tell this 'fool' how you're going to fix that. I really love how everyone is really willing to complain about all of the things that are wrong, and then state that 'we can do better'. BUT THAT'S AS FAR AS IT GOES. They have no plan.

Here's a plan - work harder, take pride in yourself and your country, stop taking handouts, stand up for yourself and your country, and do more than you did the day before.

 

Speaking of a countries too dependent on other countries...I read somewhere once that Mexican illegals in the US sent home over $16 billion in 2004, which is somewhere between 15-20% of Mexico's GDP. So, to put that in a US perspective, if we had Americans working illegally in a foreign country sending home that percentage it would be about $200 billion. This just illustrates how Mexican leaders have long used the US as a means to prop up their government avoiding real economic or governmental reforms, which their country sorely needs.

Mexstan, it always amazes me how you can point out the shortcomings of the US and always seem to have the answers. Many people on here looked to you as some sort of sage. But, yet, you live in a country whose list of shortcomings dwarfs the US'. Not just in areas as complex as the global economy or foreign relations, but the UN has pointed to severe problems in areas as basic as human rights, such as torture, extrajudicial killings, "disappearances," arbitrary arrest, labor-rights violations. The US State Department made sad commentary relating to the Mexican court system as a whole, stating "corruption, inefficiency and disregard of the law are major problems. The wealthy and the powerful generally benefit from impunity."

Herb and the other bashers & conspiracy theorists will get on here and make their claims about these problems running rampant in the US too, but it is simply not fact. We may not have a perfect system here, but it’s one of the best around and keeps our politicians “relatively” honest. Believe me, we have had our fair share of “bad apples” here in Ohio and nationally in recent years and they are currently “paying the piper.” In other countries, this is the way government business is conducted so it goes on without any repercussions.

 

Boy am I sorry I started this thread.
OK fellows, lets keep it civil or I will lock it away.

 

Please do, they are all picking on me and being mean to me too.

 

I am a union member (IBEW Local 873) but I do not consider myself a democrat nor do I feel that they represent me. I can't understand why anyone would call a group americans standing up for themselves terrorists. Go do there work for a day and then tell me that they don't deserve every penny they earn. I would think that they have a very important job if they can cripple the whole country, but I bet if the brain surgeons went on strike forever the country would roll right on along. So why place all the extra worth on a group of people that have such a small effect on the health of our country?

 

I understand what you are trying to say, and I don't think striking workers are terrorists. I also don't usually fault striking workers; I place the fault where it belongs, with union leaders.

I must disagree with your other point, as our country would not roll along without doctors and specialists. Ask the many thousands of women in Ohio that are forced to try to find OB GYN's in their area because theirs retired or moved to states with lower malpractice premiums. Also, maybe you wouldn't feel this way if you or one of your family members needed brain surgery and they were on strike.

I agree; union workers striking can easily cripple our nation's business (remember the transit strike just a little while ago), that does not make it right and doesn't mean that there aren't plenty of capable bodies willing to do that work if those guys don't want it. Like it or not, the fact is a laborer is replaceable, a doctor requires a bit more work to find a suitable replacement. Do we even need to debate why a doctor should make more than I do? First of all, I don't have 7 or 8 years of college education (5 1/2, but that's my own fault ), and I didn't have to go over $100,000 in debt to get my education. I also don't make life altering or life saving decisions for other people on a daily basis. My sister is a family practice doctor, and I see the hours she puts in and the Holidays and birthday parties she has to give up sometimes because she's on call and has to go to the hospital. It always seems much greener on the other side...

 

thats right,,do away with the unions,they are evil......pay everybody with no college education 3$ per hour,with an education,5$ per hour.then all the business you so worry about can profit all they want.after all,,everybody is replaceable.if you are willing to strike to force a company into actually seeing your worth,then just replace that person.....utterly rediculous,thats what this thinking is.a company is only as good as its workers.take away the workers,you have no company.pay everyone low scale pay,you have no sales base...like it or not,modern day blue collar pay scales are where they are at due to the unions.you dont have to be union now,your pay is still being based against union scale.if the unions never stood up and got the pay and benefits they deserved years ago,modern pay wouldnt be where its at today..........back to topic now,,,how come nobody here has mentioned the part about the emirates giving bush 1 million dollars in 1995?donating to his"library fund".....?......how come nobody has mentioned anything about the bush family being closely tied with the arab emirates for years?..and you wonder why he so boldly stands up in their defense?hes been bought and paid for for years,just like the rest of capitol hill........until the american public stops all this split line follow a party off a cliff politics,,nothing will ever change...................on another note for the emirates,they also donated 100 million out of the 120 million bucks donated globally to the hurricane relief fund...im sure in the end,they will have there ports,after all,their pockets are deeper than most...............as a good man once said recently,everyone has their own perspective.........................bama

 

I don't nessicarily disagree with you about doctors making more, but I do think that the idea that they are just laborers and therefore through-away automatons (and by extension of the context of your post)is wrong. These are people with families that are expected to do the same job for less wages and benefits while the cost of living spirals out of control. The workers are expected to take longterm cuts so that companies can make short time profits. The new corporate culture encourages this get in and rape a company of it's assets and walk away from the rubble.Seems like there is no such thing as ethics or responsibility to the communities that put their lives into producing the product and services they hawk.

 

yeah tell em bama!!!!!!

 

better watch it now though, talking about Bush and millions coming from arabs will get you labled as a consiracy theory nut.

 

Have any of you seen the latest news re this thread?;

ARABIANS AT THE GATE
22 ports in Arab deal, not just 6 as reported
Scope of Dubai firm to stretch from Maine to Gulf of Mexico
Posted: February 24, 2006
3:00 p.m. Eastern

By Jerome R. Corsi, Ph.D.


Port of Miami Bridge

Dubai Ports World is scheduled to take over operations at 22 U.S. ports, not six as previously reported by most major media.

According to the website of P&O Ports, the port-operations subsidiary of the London-based Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Co. (P&O), DPW will pick up stevedore services at 12 East Coast ports including Portland, Maine; Boston; Davisville, R.I.; New York; Newark; Philadelphia; Camden, N.J.; Wilmington, Del.; Baltimore, Md.; and Virginia locations at Newport News, Norfolk, and Portsmouth.

Additionally, DPW will take over P&O stevedoring operations at nine ports along the Gulf of Mexico including the Texas ports of Lake Charles, Beaumont, Port Arthur, Galveston, Houston, Freeport, and Corpus Christi, plus the Louisana ports of Lake Charles and New Orleans.

Previously reported have only been P&O Ports' container operations at New York, New Jersey, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Miami, and New Orleans. Stevedore services also typically involve the loading and unloading of containers on and off cargo ships, as well as moving and storing containers, though often in separate facilities from where containers are initially loaded and unloaded from the cargo ships. Thus, while DPW will be operating the container terminal operations of only the six ports initially disclosed, DPW will be managing stevedore services, handling containers at a total of 21 ports, located along the Eastern seaboard from Maine to Virginia, and across the Gulf of Mexico from Texas to Louisiana.

Additionally, the website of P&O Ports North America lists that P&O provides container services at the Port of Miami, through a subsidiary identified as P&O Ports Florida, Inc. This brings to 22 the total number of American ports where DPW will be acquiring P&O operations. On Jan. 24, P&O Ports North America and the Tampa Port authority announced they reached an agreement to enter into a long-term contract permitting P&O to operate terminals at the Port of Tampa for general and refrigerated cargo. By acquiring P&O internationally, DPW will pick up all P&O operating agreements, including this one just concluded in Tampa. (.pdf file)

The website of P&O Ports North America brags that "P&O Ports North America is now the largest independent stevedore and terminal operator on the U.S. East and Gulf coasts with operations in most ports from Maine to Texas."

In reality, DPW is a front-company 100 percent owned by the government of Dubai. The nearly $7 billion in debt financing put together by international bankers to finance the DPW acquisition of P&O was predicated on the A1 Moody's rating of the government of Dubai, plus the assurance that the "full faith and credit" of the government of Dubai would guarantee 100 percent repayment of all loans and interest payments required to debt finance this leveraged acquisition.

New polling information reveals only 17 percent of Americans favor the deal to turn over control of U.S. ports to a state-sponsored company in the United Arab Emirates, and shows a major blow to President Bush's perceived leadership in the war on terror.

 

Unfortunately I do have a life other than DTR so was not able to answer until now..
Gee truckjunkie, you sound a little bit miffed.

Nobody can afford to be isolationists in today's world. Every now and then on DTR and other places I read of Texans wanting to break away from the rest of the states. Quebec has been wanting to break away from the rest of Canada for years. It sounds nice, but I don't think that it is very practical, but am not going to get into that here as it is way too complicated. I am not sure what made you bring this up. Did you see the movie that was out recently about California waking up one morning and all the Mexicans were gone? Sorry, can't remember the name of it right now. To turn your comment around, how many Americans would even apply for the work the Mexican's are doing in your country. No, I am not going to go down the road of them working for low wages, bad conditions etc. That is NOT part of this thread, but I will answer in part your comments and questions.

Yes, your country IS under attack as never before in history and unfortunately it is going to get a lot worse. Yes, there are more than enough of you to defend it. However, to do so, all of you MUST change your traditional way of thinking. Many of you are looking for something to go "BOOM", such what happened on 9-11 and then go out with blazing guns. Things are probably going to go "BOOM" in various places in America very soon, but then who are you going to attack? Maybe more to the point, HOW and WHERE are you going to attack these nebulous attackers? What if one EMT is dropped a few hundred miles above the center of the states?. Now you have no electrical power or radio. Now what?

No, I can't solve your countries problems nor do I have profound wisdom, but thanks for the compliment. As stated above, there are enough of you to defend your country. You start by each and every one of you getting off your pampered butt and actually doing something about the problems facing your country. What a unique concept! A citizen doing something for his country instead of letting the useless, self serving politicians lead you by your nose to destruction. In a world that couldn't care less, you should all be a people who couldn't care more. Where does this start? With YOU, and YOU and YOU.