open borders – praag.org

Uhuru calls for open borders

Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta has urged African governments to open their borders.

Speaking at the Pan African Parliament in Midrand, Kenyatta told members of the house that the continent’s potential could be realised only if African governments worked together and made it easier to trade with each other.

“There cannot be a good reason why it is easier for us to trade with Asia, Europe and the Americas rather than our own fellow Africans.

“Africa must significantly open her markets to African products to promote this ideal. That process can only be achieved if we start by opening up our borders to each other,” Kenyatta said.

He called for governments to significantly reduce the cost of inter-Africa trade and to forge partnerships which would take the continent into a new industrial development.

Partnerships in East Africa only began in July 2000 with Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi. This community undertook to establish a customs union, common market, monitoring union and a political federation. The customs union is already in place and the common market goal is gradually being achieved.

SADC is much older.

“Despite our individually small economies, the integration has placed the entire region on a trajectory of growth that will fundamentally transform Africa,” Kenyatta said.

Kenyatta also announced that Kenya would be the second country after Mali to sign a protocol that will see the Pan African Parliament becoming a legislative body.

Mobile app to keep borders open

Science and Technology Minister Naledi Pandor recently launched the “We are Africa mobile app” which is an online platform in which the public can pledge their support against xenophobia.

The application’s creators embody the very message of the anti-xenophobia campaign that is unity amongst Africans, as the application was a collaborative effort between three South Africans along with Angolan and Congolese team members.

The application allows people to pledge their support against xenophobia as well as alert officials on any looming cases of xenophobia.

Pandor believes that this is an innovative way to fight a challenge which is facing South Africa.

She has praised the inventiveness and committed support of young people to fight this challenge and believes that the application is an accessible way for everyone to join the fight against xenophobia.

The first version of the application can be accessed through any device capable of Internet connection – such as. PCs, laptops, tablets, cellphones – by visiting www.weareafrica.mobi.

The app will be available through Android, Apple and Windows stores within the next five days.

Billionaires manufacturing consent on open borders

The Soros-funded National Immigration Forum (NIF) organized today’s “fly-in” of some 600 people to lobby the American House Republicans to pass the Schumer-Rubio amnesty bill (which Senator Rubio himself has now disavowed). It started with a two-hour teach-in at the U.S Chamber of Commerce, with the usual suspects saying the usual things.

I couldn’t stomach the whole thing, but there were some amusing bits: Al Cardenas, head of the American Conservative Union, said that we need immigration because our population is declining (in fact, even with zero immigration — zero — our population would continue to increase for generations, beyond which projections are meaningless). Also, Tony Massif, lobbyist for California agribusiness, said that if we we don’t import more stoop labor from abroad, then we’ll have to import more food, meaning our enemies would “control our food supply.” (You know, because all that corn and wheat in the Midwest is being hand-harvested by Guatemalan peasants.) Speakers were also pretending that amnesty and increased immigration were conservative initiatives by claiming that environmentalists and labor unions are responsible for the opposition to the Schumer-Rubio bill when, obviously, they’re among the bill’s chief backers.

Anyway, that’s all boilerplate and hardly worth commenting on, as much as it might irk me. But I got to thinking about the groups hosting this thing and thought it’d be interesting to match up their principals and supporters with the Forbes 400 list. Turns out that “Billionaires for Open Borders” isn’t just a catchy name — it’s the reality. Joining Soros (#19 on the Forbes 400) in backing today’s lobbying effort are a broad collection of his fellow billionaires. One of the co-hosts was Partnership for a New American Economy. Among the group’s co-chairmen: Michael Bloomberg (#10 on the Forbes 400), Steve Ballmer (#21), Rupert Murdoch (#30), Douglas M. Baker Jr. (#161), and Bill Marriott (#296).

Another co-host was Fwd.us, founded by Mark Zuckerberg (#20) and including among its supporters Bill Gates (#1), Eric Schmidt (#49), Reid Hoffman (#103), John Doerr (#184), Stanley Druckenmiller (#184), John Fisher (#193), Barry Diller (#260), Sean Parker (#273), Jim Bryer (#352), Mark Pincus (was #212 in 2011, but fallen off since), Matt Cohler (worth a measly $400 million, but on the Forbes Future 400 list), Fred Wilson (#16 on Forbes Midas List of top tech investors), Ron Conway (#41 on the Midas List), and Richard Kramlich (#73 on the Midas List). That’s not to mention a whole list of mere multi-millionaires and even billionaires who didn’t make the cut.

To adapt WFB’s famous quip, I’d rather be governed by the first 400 names in the Boston phone directory than the Forbes 400 List. – nationalreview.com

Survey shows support for Malema’s policies among black youth

The EFF’s policies of land reform and elimination of national borders within southern Africa will boost youth support for the party, according to a survey released on Tuesday.

Thirty-eight percent of respondents believed Economic Freedom Fighters’ leader Julius Malema would gain support because of its policies, according to research conducted by Pondering Panda.

Twenty-nine percent believed he would lose support and 18 percent believed his support base would not change. Fifteen percent did not have an opinion on the matter.

The cellphone survey was conducted among 2339 people aged between 18 and 34. However, 49 percent of respondents did not support the EFF’s land reform policy, while 37 percent did.

According to the survey, 42 percent of young blacks approved of land reform. Support for the policy was also strongest in the Free State, with 56 percent of respondents approving it.

On the elimination of borders, 32 percent approved, while 54 percent disapproved.

“Although opposition to the EFF’s land and border reform policies still significantly outweighs support for them, what this survey shows us is that they are far from marginal ideas,” Pondering Panda spokeswoman Shirley Wakefield said.

“Young South Africans want change, and other parties should look carefully at the alternatives they will be offering them.”