Opinion Page
Intel steps away from knucklehead-turned-terrorist Maher "Mike" Hawash in a big way. I have been critical of American companies hiring a see of foreigners as a way to save money. Very critical. It turns out that one of the reasons that people like myself have been having trouble finding work is that there has been a flood (200,000+ per year) of people coming into this country and taking jobs away from citizens.
Now, I am not the xenophobe that the preceding paragraph makes me appear to be. But I have to question the ethics of Clinton changing the quota from countries like India from 65,000 to 195,000 per year. Certainly the job market wasn't that great that there was a 130,000 job a year shortfall for IT managers. Nor were there a shortage of recruiters for those positions. But now, suddenly, company after company is either hiring foreigners as a pure cash-saving maneuver, or else they're sending the jobs to foreign countries altogether. And at a time when unemployment is high, you have to question these moves. These are not companies that are struggling to stay in business - these are companies like Microsoft (which has $46,000,000,000.00 in the bank) which closed a support center outside of Dallas to send those jobs to India.
Now, I have known some high-quality individuals from India, who were very competent in their jobs. Sanjay, you know who you are. :-)
But I have also seen and heard many stories about people who are not able to respond well due to their comprehension of the English language, people who you cannot understand when you call for support, and severe quality issues with work coming from other countries. With all of the money that these companies are saving, they are forgetting that quality is suffering.
Now, am I saying that we should send all of the foreigners away and make laws mandating that work can't be sent overseas? No. I am a Libertarian. That means that I makes notes on which companies do this, and I vote with my checkbook. I will remember when I purchase which companies hire in this country, and which go overseas.
I bring this whole mess up because I have been following the Maher "Mike" Hawash saga as it unfolded. A Palestinian (whatever that means, since it's a made-up word during the 20th Century to name a bunch of Arabs whose sole desire seems to be the destruction of Israel) by birth, he had come to this country and was living the American dream. He became a citizen, married a sturdy-looking woman, popped out a couple of kids, and was making $300,000/yr (from what I've read) working at Intel. He also flew to China to try to sneak into Afghanistan and fight against our troops there. To its credit, Intel has responded to my inquiry about his position there. They confirmed that Hawash was a contractor (as in he worked at Intel but was getting paid by someone else) there, and no longer is working there. I can't in any way hold Intel responsible for Hawash's actions, but I wonder why no one (family/neighbors/co-workers/etc.) picked up on his anti-American slant. A man just can't hide the fact that he's trying to go to Afghanistan and not even tell his wife.
I should be fair - we have plenty of anti-American nuts in this Country who were born here too. I think that the weak-minded among them can even be used as pawns by greater evil to work against us from within. I have read reports that McVeigh and Nichols went to the same island as a "senior" al Qaeda member at the same time, and McVeigh, an army reject, somehow had enough money to build his bomb and survive without really showing the means that he had. I'm no conspiracy advocate, but I think it plausible that al Qaeda could tap into the neo-Nazi mind to evoke hatred for our Country and fuel the mental illness of a McVeigh and fund him and drive him to do what he did. From al Qaeda's perspective, this would be icing on the cake - get an American to do their dirty work for them. The perfect agent - one on the inside. And it doesn't stop with the neo-Nazis either. The Christian fundamentalists are just as wacko as the neo-Nazis. Eric Rudolph represents that last category. These people live in the same society as you and I, and yet they see bombs and murder as acceptable responses to resolving their disputes with society as a whole. When the laws don't agree with them, they just kill someone on the other side.
Well, I've ranted enough about foreigners, wackos, and Intel. I want to thank Intel for having the courtesy for responding to my inquiry. I hope that they will be more careful in who they hire in the future. It's not limited to Palestinians - we must now be more careful in who is around us, thanks to al Qaeda. If we don't want more WTC bombings, we must change our tactics to fight fire with fire. Immigrants should be understanding and bend over backwards to distance themselves from the actions of a few radicals. And we as a Country should watch more closely when money and jobs leave this Country. We owe it to our children to leave them a Country to grow up in.
If you have ideas, comments, or criticisms, please let me know.
