NYTimes.com: The Billion-Dollar Brushoff

A couple of weeks ago I argued that there is no relation between the salary top executives receive and their 'value'. The New York Times argues that there is no relation between severance pay and 'value' or 'merit' either.

Asylum reform

In every country in the world, it seems that refugees are the lowest priority for any government. They don't vote, are powerless and a general nuisance which is best ignored it seems. The Dutch are no exception to this. In 2000 a new law was adopted that assured that asylum seekers would be "processed" quickly. That is, aspiring asylym seekers would know within at most a few months whether or not they would be admitted to the Netherlands with a refugee status.

In spite of all good intentions, completely predictably, this has turned out to be an illusion. Even under the new law, people can wait for a definite decision for years.

Citizens of nowhere

How nationality is the weapon of oppression...

Hidden in the back corners of the world is a scattered population of millions, forgotten or neglected by governments.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/04/01/asia/stateless.php

Justice prevails? - part II

It seems that I was not completely clear with my rant... (well, that is why it is a rant).

Chris Morris, whom I hold in high regard (he is easily 6'6"!) told me that I should not forget that some of the detainees held in Guantanamo were released and rejoined Al-Quaida and/or the Taliban:


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A52670-2004Oct21.html

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/09/24/terror/main645493.shtml

I was not arguing that the coalition should just let these guys walk off after they have been captured. I am not suggesting that the inmates of Gitmo are all displaced falafel vendors or poor shepherds in the wrong place at the wrong time. (...)

I was complaining (and arguing) that -- again -- the US seemed to have a golden opportunity to show to the world what we are dealing with and promoting their cause in the eyes of the Arab world when they'd see that there was swift, public and real justice done to Hicks, Khalif Sheikh Muhammed and another bunch of these guys. And -- again -- that opportunity was wasted.

I am sure that in any process, including the intelligence gathering done in Gitmo, mistakes are being made (like the ones Chris reports). The same holds for criminal process: sometimes the guilty walk. But is that a reason to lock up people behind bars in a strange country, make it hard for kin and council to visit them, interrogating them and then after many, many years and only because of all kinds of pressure, bringing them before a military court whose jurisdiction and legitimacy is not undisputed?

Imagine that if I get worked-up about this, what would Hicks' mates back in the pub in Melbourne say? What would Muhammed's friends in Pakistan think (and worse, do!). Would they think that justice was done? Would they think of the USA who took their friends captive and put them through such a process as a shining beacon of liberty and reason? Or at least that there is justifiable cause for this? Would they see that the USA is fighting a righteous was against people bent on its complete and utter annihiliation?

In other words: not only is justice not served here, it is lousy PR!