News Story Reality Check
Feb. 23rd, 2006 12:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sarahmichelefHad a good conversation with my friend John last night... among other things, we talked about the Dubai Ports World issue. And here's my take.
First off, the company would, as I understand it, be taking over the business end of things. Not the entire operation, just the business end. The day-to-day operations, while overseen by the new company, would still be in the hands of American employees, etc.
Second off, the managing company is only one link in a huge security process around imports & exports. This NPR story goes into the details a little bit. Basically, security for the ports is provided by employees of the port (who would, if the deal goes through, be employees of DPW) AS WELL AS the US Marshals and the Coast Guard. In a story yesterday NPR interviewed the security guys and the guy in charge of operations at the Port of Newark, and they described the whole security process, a good portion of which is in the hands of the U.S. government.
Third off, a huge number of U.S. ports are actually managed by non-American companies.
Why is there a huge uproar now, then? To my mind, the answer is simple xenophobia. The arguments being made by the legistlators who are drafting legislation to block the deal are that "some of the 9/11 hijackers came from the UAE." Yeah, and Timothy McVeigh came from the United States. We can't hold an entire nation, and entire ETHNICITY responsible for the actions of some extremists. What the response to the deal says to me is that we (as a nation) are afraid of Arabs.
And that does NOT sit well with me.
So help me, I agree with the President.
First off, the company would, as I understand it, be taking over the business end of things. Not the entire operation, just the business end. The day-to-day operations, while overseen by the new company, would still be in the hands of American employees, etc.
Second off, the managing company is only one link in a huge security process around imports & exports. This NPR story goes into the details a little bit. Basically, security for the ports is provided by employees of the port (who would, if the deal goes through, be employees of DPW) AS WELL AS the US Marshals and the Coast Guard. In a story yesterday NPR interviewed the security guys and the guy in charge of operations at the Port of Newark, and they described the whole security process, a good portion of which is in the hands of the U.S. government.
Third off, a huge number of U.S. ports are actually managed by non-American companies.
Why is there a huge uproar now, then? To my mind, the answer is simple xenophobia. The arguments being made by the legistlators who are drafting legislation to block the deal are that "some of the 9/11 hijackers came from the UAE." Yeah, and Timothy McVeigh came from the United States. We can't hold an entire nation, and entire ETHNICITY responsible for the actions of some extremists. What the response to the deal says to me is that we (as a nation) are afraid of Arabs.
And that does NOT sit well with me.
So help me, I agree with the President.
