Foreign Owned Ports Not The Problem
Early this week the Washington Post reported that the UAE (United Arab Emirates), a seven nation conglomerate, if you will, purchased six US ports for a hefty $6.8 billion price tag from the United Kingdom. The reports made it sound as though the UAE government explicitly paid money to the UK government for US ports. The real story is much more deceptive than that.
What happens is this: the era of globalization in which we are presently in invited foreign investment. This is a foreign investment by Dubai Ports World, a ports management corporation owned by the UAE, acquiring a British multinational port management corporation, which just happened to own the US ports. Sound complicated? It is.
The British corporation, Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Co., operated the US ports for at least the last 30 years (as far as I found). Our ports have and will continue to be operated by foreign multinational corporations because they are able to afford the price tags on them. What is different about this new transaction is really quite simple, the UAE is not the UK. The UK is the longest established democracy and an extremely transparent nation. Quite contrary to the UAE.
I find it fascinating that the Middle East, the supposed center of all the conflict in the world today and the sphere of terror, or whatever term coined by Bush to describe bad guys these days, can have good guys in it too. The hypocrisy is so thick the administration could build a house out of it. Say, a white house perhaps.
So get it straight everyone. Iraq, no terrorists linked to 2001, bad. Saudi Arabia, 15 terrorists connected to 9/11, good. And the UAE, the seven nation army with two terrorists attached to the airplanes, good.
The real problem is US security at ports in general. Whether the UK owns the ports or the UAE, the Department of Homeland Security still, supposedly, has the final say of what gets in and out of the country. They check about a quarter of the shipments thoroughly, according to reports. US borders are just not protected, they’re basically open to anyone. Although it is becoming increasingly harder to become a citizen, which doesn’t affect immigration whatsoever as there are currently an estimated 8 million illegal immigrants in the country.
Here’s the real story. In 2008 there’s this thing called an open election. Open because there will be no incumbent coming back, so both parties will be having primary elections to choose candidates to represent their respected parties. The general public hears that the UAE buys US ports and assumes it is a terrible thing and that terrorists are taking over. News flash, much of America is already foreign owned anyway. But it doesn’t matter, we here UAE buys ports and we want our congress to stop it. And who’s speaking out against the most adamantly? The same people we’ll see in the Primaries in 2008.
The purchase of Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Co. by Dubai Ports World is globalization at its finest and people need to accept that. The world is smaller now and what’s most important is that lawmakers, congress, and the administration need to do is step up our port regulations and accept the fact that multinationals are here to stay. Besides ask the UAE if they want terrorists to come through their government owned ports into the largest market the world will ever know, and see what they say. MY guess is, that wouldn’t be very good for business, and that’s what it’s all about.
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